Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do you pirate?

I do pirate some stuff, mostly movies and music but very rarely software.
Software seems much more likely to be corrupted/virus infected and software companies seem very keen these days when it comes to tracking you down.
I was looking at CS5 on a well known torrent site and most people were commenting that Adobe were monitoring the torrent, it`s very tricky to torrent completely anonymously so I won`t take the risk on big high-profile stuff.
Shame, fancied upgrading from Gimp but I can`t afford to give Adobe £500 :(
 
I pirate all my music. & films... and lots of US TV shows as the UK is ages behind & I do not have Sky TV.

Expensive & iPad software... I pirate too! :( Aperture, CS5...

I'm pretty much scum! :(

I buy my iOS phone apps tho... and some cheap Mac OS apps, Divvy and Airlock etc....
 
DannyBres said:
I pirate all my music. & films... and lots of US TV shows as the UK is ages behind & I do not have Sky TV.

Expensive & iPad software... I pirate too! :( Aperture, CS5...

I'm pretty much scum! :(

I buy my iOS phone apps tho... and some cheap Mac OS apps, Divvy and Airlock etc....
Click to expand...

So you can afford a top of the range iMac, top of the range ipad and top of the range iPhone but you cant afford to spend £7.99 on an album :rolleyes:
 
I don't call what I do pirating really, but whatever…

I download TV shows and movies that I own. Basically I buy a Bluray disk or DVD, I then find the same thing online so I don't have to rip it myself (because the transcoding is tedious). For TV shows, I already pay for cable, I just don't have time to go around scheduling recordings all the time and plus then I'd have to trancode. If I like the TV show a lot, I will buy the disc set and still download them, so I don't have encode them. I think that's fair use. I do care about quality, so if I can't find a good encoding, I do have my Bluray disks to watch or if I must I will rip and encode them for archival.

Music: I buy CDs now (used to be iTunes); a lot of music can be found for very cheap on Amazon and eBay. Music I rip in lossless, and yes I can tell the difference.

For subscription services, I pay for Pandora One, Hulu Plus, and Netflix. I used to have Rhapsody as well, but that stopped because I still didn't know what music to buy which is why I love Pandora so much.

Software and such I pay for. I can afford it, so I pay for it. If I can't afford it or I don't know why I need it, I look for an alternative. So I wanted to try Final Cut, I bought the Express version before buying the full suite. Photoshop, I tried a demo before buying their Creative Suite. I support independent developers if I can, and I do donate (for donation-ware) if the apps are good and have helped me.

I beta a lot of software when I can and I also play in game betas. It's a free way to find what I like.

Sure I want to play around with Maya or whatever expensive apps out there, so I don't even try.
 
DannyBres said:
I pirate all my music. & films... and lots of US TV shows as the UK is ages behind & I do not have Sky TV.

Expensive & iPad software... I pirate too! :( Aperture, CS5...

I'm pretty much scum! :(

I buy my iOS phone apps tho... and some cheap Mac OS apps, Divvy and Airlock etc....
Click to expand...

I agree!

I buy so much music and DVDs that storing them is a pain so I have no issues downloading films too because I'll probably buy them eventually anyway. I'm into a lot of US shows that are either miles behind the UK or they've being snapped up by cable networks.

Supernatural - on ITV2 for 4 entire seasons, suddenly it's on a cable only channel, months after it's being on in the US and the first 4 seasons on DVD cost less than 3 months subscription anyway.

Smallville - After 9 years of Dawson's Crack style procrastination and female brow beating, I'd like to see Clark fly as soon as I possibly can at this point.

As far as software is concerned, I think some companies are complete rip off merchants and deserve the piracy because of the way they screw loyal customers just so they can keep using their software with more recent Mac OS X versions.

I bought a Pro Tools LE system based on a PCI card years ago, Avid only offered a cross grade to about £900 worth of Firewire interface so I did the only thing I could do when I moved up from Mac OS 9, spend £100s on the Mbox 2 Factory and get yet another licensed copy of Pro Tools LE, this time 7.4.

When Protools LE 8 came out, just over a year later (just my luck), it included all the plug-ins that made finding the factory bundle at a local music shop for barely more than the standard Mbox2 a wasted expense to start with.

To add insult to injury, they expected another £100 for a "licence" to download the upgrade when they've already left me with £100s worth of useless PCI card in a drawer and I don't even get a physical DVD with the software on.

I don't even accept the reasoning, "They're a business, they have to make money". They don't have to screw their customers, I'm not a company who can write it off as an expense, it's simply a hobby and and it's these unfair money grabbing tactics that give so called "pirates" a clear conscience.

I've already got 2 Pro Tools LE licences already and the hardware to prove it.

If the Mbox2 Micro had a combo headphone/optical output, I'd consider buying that at a later date so I at least have licensed copy of Pro Tools LE number 3 but it doesn't so I can't justify the expense when it's 1 quarter the cost of a used Mac Mini I could get more use out of.
 
Bernard SG said:
You don't really "have to", you can use a bicycle and solar panels to produce your electricity :p . j/k
Click to expand...

:p

My point was that there are lots of ways around accessing media if you cant afford to buy it. Spotify in the uk works great, Americans have Pandora, last fm. Cant afford to buy a movie? You can rent it. Or save up. :D
 
I do pirate, but only if I can't get it here in Canada. I mainly pirate Japanese anime, straight from Japan, and the British car shows Top Gear and Fifth Gear. Other than that, I buy stuff from stores or online... or watch from Youtube or other online streaming sites. :eek:
 
I wouldn't say that I pirate...but..."share".. See I have been a auto technician for 25 plus years. Since we all have laptops or PC's at our toolbox's we have a tool to rip music. Since most people keep their music collections in their cars this has become a very easy way to "borrow" their music. I've built quite a collection this way...LOL
 
alphaod said:
Music I rip in lossless, and yes I can tell the difference.
Click to expand...

Wow really, do a test then and show us. If you listen to a 256k song and a lossless song I don't think anyone could tell the difference, especially if you use AAC encoder.

I used to pirate a lot of music, basically to discover new music as well. But as I was getting older my conscious was getting in the way and started to feel terrible about it. I still bought music but not as much as I used to when I was an early teen. Over the years I collected around 600 silver discs. I don't even like borrowing CD's from friends and ripping them because I'd feel bad about it. I remember someone saying in here or another thread if I miss out on cool music oh well, I got plenty of it already. I finally gave up my pirating ways earlier in the year and couldn't be happier. I even bought the rest of my pirated music so I wouldn't feel bad.
 
Many people at my Uni have to pirate programs... which is sad and we wish we didnt have too.... but when companies charge £700 for a license for 1 program who the hell can afford that? especially if your a student and you are already being landed with massive living costs and tuition fees (which are only gonna get higher!)

Even the lecturers just kind of hint towards doing it because its just ludicrous the amount of cash companies want for software..

These are the programs I need...

3DS MAX (new one every year.. its expensive)
Mudbox
Zbrush
Photoshop
Illustrator

All of these cost a ridiculous amount.... (Atleast Autodesk have started reducing prices for student editions I supose... but again they are limited in features and sometimes they are only 1 year licenses...)
 
I get my TV shows in the most simple way possible.

1: Record over the air
2: Buy Cable Shows from iTunes
3: If I miss or have an error in a recording I torrent the episode
4: If the show isn't available on iTunes I torrent the episode.
 
I have only ever downloaded one album, and after I had listened to it once, I deleted it from my HD, my backup external HD and my backup of my backup "away" external HD and I bought it, from HMV.

Now, I use iTunes to download my music, with Spotify to help me choose what album to buy. I also download my apps and books from iTunes; however, sometimes a book is cheaper in the Amazon book store, then I buy it from there. I get all my games for my PS3 from HMV and blu ray disks from blockbusters.
 
ozzyman500 said:
Wow really, do a test then and show us. If you listen to a 256k song and a lossless song I don't think anyone could tell the difference, especially if you use AAC encoder.
Click to expand...

How does one SHOW you that they can hear the difference between lossless and compressed audio? Everyone's ears and hearing ability are different. Not to mention it depends on what you're listening with. You probably use iPod headphones or an equivalent. I use $500+ Shure earphones to listen to my music. Put a good set of cans on or a set of high end earphones and I can tell differentiate between 256kbps and lossless. Maybe YOU can't tell the difference. Those of us who work in music, movies, and TV can.
 
MovieCutter said:
How does one SHOW you that they can hear the difference between lossless and compressed audio? Everyone's ears and hearing ability are different. Not to mention it depends on what you're listening with. You probably use iPod headphones or an equivalent. I use $500+ Shure earphones to listen to my music. Put a good set of cans on or a set of high end earphones and I can tell differentiate between 256kbps and lossless. Maybe YOU can't tell the difference. Those of us who work in music, movies, and TV can.
Click to expand...

You can do blind ABX tests in Foobar I believe. I gave it a try a few times and always failed between even 128 and lossless. I have a pretty decent set of headphones too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back