@Grazie I faced the same frustration and disillusionment a year ago when I discovered that three of the neophytes with whom I had worked for hours, unconditionally, were indeed using cracked software -- one by admission, two by slipups in their stories. I felt used, unappreciated, and demoralized, and yet I stuck with other new users because I realized as well that many of the people were telling the truth and eager to learn, besides their neediness during an unprecedented time of societal challenges. You have to go through a ton of chaff to get a bag of wheat, and the outcome is rarely ideal, but still better than having made no sacrifice at all.
I think, at that time, had it not been for my public education tenure, I would have bolted. Our hearts, as kindred veterans, are in the same place
Theft is Theft. You can rationalize it and forget about the folks it hurts - like the programers for Vegas and their families. What you did was support their actions. Tough times as an excuse, ask someone who lives in the third world or some one who has spent a year in a combat zone what tough times are. If you don't subscribe to the social contract then society dies (no different than using violence to try and overturn the rule of law). I am not saying they deserve jail time but they certainly don't deserve your help.
I am not saying they deserve jail time but they certainly don't deserve your help.
+1
As I recall back in the SCS days, one had to have registered software to create a forum accurate and post. Now anyone can post.
@rraud that is what I remember as well.
Maybe we can make a sticky to the effect "If you are using a cracked version, please support Magix and purchase before requesting assistance with the software".
Rather than require ownership of VP to join the forum, how about optionally displaying ownership under our avatars on the left. For example, show the latest licenced version a user owns. And perhaps the year or date joined, a la doom9. That would be quicker for screening new posts than opening the user's profile. A forum user with many months or years on the forum, without a license, would look suspicious. A user of an earlier Sony version could be allowed to mark that on his/her profile, and that would also help those answering questions, to know the user was on an old (hopefully legit) version.
It's a difficult issue. I believe Vegas unlicensed use now is less than in previous years since a major competitor of Vegas now is legally basically free. The essential issue for Vegas to continue is to increase the user base. No-one knows how many illegal/free users switched to become paid users but initially free may be a reasonable strategy. My view despite the understandable resentment or moral outrage that some people are getting something free that I paid for or doing the wrong thing it's best to allow anyone on the forum and where it's suspected that they are having problems as a result of illicit copies gently encourage them to do the right thing.
@Rainer - Whilst I may agree with the sentiments of your post, what would be your approach to, using your words, “gently encourage them to do the right thing”? What would that look like? And this after assisting them on a potentially hacked or corrupted piece of...... Software? I’ve witnessed great colleagues of ours help, bend-over backwards and often offer, me too, their time on a potentially moving target? This isn’t, what did you say “understandable resentment or moral outrage”? No, it’s pure scientific evidenced-based good housekeeping, forget the manners.
So no, I disagree, it’s not a “difficult issue“. The difficulty is what we do about it. I was once taught by a Professor of Logic that once accepting the Premise of an argument the conclusion has to be agreed, to not do this is illogical. So, we need a How not a Why.
My pirate days go all the way back to the Commodore 64. So much so, that the SysOp group I was a member of in NYC (I ran one of the most popular BBS in NYC), we held "swap meets" where scores of people would show up with all the computers and blanks. We made good money doing it back in the day. Then the reality of what I was really a part of smacked me in the face. Stealing from someone(s) affecting their life. How would I, or anyone would like to have our work and time "pirated" at the end of the week, when we are expecting to get paid for the work done, so we can take care of ourselves and family responsibility? I wouldn't like that at all.
So I resigned from the group telling them as a Christian how could I condone stealing.
I'll at times do a Google search for Vegas 18, and when I saw one youtube video for the crack for VP18 with almost 300k views, my eyes turned red with fury. That's not a few hundred, but thousands have viewed the video, commented about success, etc.. I usually leave a comment like "I hope someone pirates your work too".
Theft is theft and wrong, period. I agree with @douglas_clark, a little "Registered User" under their avatar would be nice. Like Amazon's "Verified" buyer of the article they are reviewing.
I'd love to have a C8 Corvette or Hellcat Charger, but I am not going to steal one because I can't afford it. That's no excuse when there is free open source software. Forget Resolve (I own the Studio version), they are not looking to invest in the time it takes to learn it, nor do they have the hardware to run the software. Vegas is quick to learn and easy to use, yet very powerful.
I like the comments recommending the suspected person to contact support and give your serial number to get help. If they insist on continued posting about the problem, to me, it points to a possible pirated version, which doesn't deserve any help.
Theft is theft and wrong, period. I agree with @douglas_clark, a little "Registered User" under their avatar would be nice. Like Amazon's "Verified" buyer of the article they are reviewing.
I like the comments recommending the suspected person to contact support and give your serial number to get help. If they insist on continued posting about the problem, to me, it points to a possible pirated version, which doesn't desire any help.
@Reyfox
A +1 for each of these two points"
What would be your approach to, using your words, “gently encourage them to do the right thing”? What would that look like? And this after assisting them on a potentially hacked or corrupted piece of...... Software?
Gently, like "your problems may be due to using an illegal copy. If so, you can get the genuine article here, and it's currently on sale". No way am I condoning theft or suggesting we do more than that to assist people who have done the wrong thing.
looks like im late for party!
No MrBean you’re never late for the Party 🎉
If you have a cracked version of VEGAS Pro, just glue or sticky-tape the disc back together and you should be good to go. Works every time 😉.
Okay, I’m sorry for treating a serious thing with a joke. But sometimes that’s the Aussie way. In all seriousness though, all you have to do is type in Vegas Pro into a search engine and you get links to Sony Vegas Pro 14-18. It’s very dodgy and I actually really don’t like it myself. It gets me quite annoyed when you pay for something and people just advertise pirated copies of the software that you genuinely bought with your hard earned cash. ☹️
Not cool dude! 😔
It’s very dodgy and I actually really don’t like it myself. It gets me quite annoyed when you pay for something and people just advertise pirated copies of the software that you genuinely bought with your hard earned cash. ☹️
@MH7
I'm afraid you missed the point - please read the first post of the thread again.
I do hope that when I ask stupid simple questions - which mine usually are as my video work is pretty basic stuff and though important is 2nd fiddle (hey see how I worked that in!) to photography - that the members do not assume I am a recipient of cracked software. I bought Vegas as version 9 Pro in July 2009. Have updated it ever since.
Interestingly I bought it by disc from Amazon UK and it was on special offer at £310.97 inc. vat tax; I assumed it was a one-off special offer - how naive. It has been on offer on and off for most of its life including today at just £329.00 But it was the best choice for me anyway particularly because it handled nesting and Pluraleyes very well, often with four high def cams running simultaneously and even more standalone audio recorders.
Many years before then a high-end IT security consultant gave me a copy of numerous expensive software including Photoshop and Dreamweaver together with cracks all on a disc. He just took it for granted.
I had a look but bought all my own including the various Adobe apps. The question of whether to buy or whether to steal didn't arise, possibly because I was earning a ton and it was just as easy to buy as to crack. If I'd been in financial straights maybe I might have been tempted and done the crack - I'll never know. With the big software houses it can feel somewhat of a victimless crime or even a fight against the ripoff big man. Completely different for one man band developers.
I have found in my two decades as a pro photographer that the debate regarding securing your images has always been a major argument. Password protecting, watermarking, making images small and low-resolution etc certainly discourage the genuine clients purchasing. And the thieves were never going to buy anyway. So it goes with software with the possible exception that the latter may later buy the product having found it much more usable than they had thought.
I used to supply images for newspapers etc but no more. OK via legit agencies, all be it at a pittance, but some journalist with a time deadline asking me for a file and promising they will get it settled up - forget it. Foxtrot Oscar. I'm talking about you The Sun! The only images I supplied recently were for an article on gay marriage with the Sunday Mirror and I didn't bother requesting a fee. The online version of that article was blasted with nasty comments from small-minded anonymous readers as is so often the case. Why bother?
One aspect of cracking which continues to puzzle me is the genuinely free or very low cost of software that has developed from mainstream software. For example I use the free Open Office all the time and never use MS Excel or Word etc. It is not a crack but it is a direct competitor to MS at no cost. Is that OK or is that immoral. Likewise I now use Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher at a fraction of the cost of Photoshop CC etc (I do run Capture One Pro rather than Photoshop anyway and C1 is expensive). I replaced Dreamweaver with Squarespace at around £220pa.
I am anti-cracker for sure. It feels wrong. It is wrong. But I wonder to what extent it actually damages the original developers. Do some developers pay lip service to security thinking that in the long run they will have a greater presence, sell more products and earn more income. Not Adobe's attitude - the only Adobe product that I still use is Bridge and that is free but Adobe requires an account plus a password plus a 2nd stage verification by text message just for Bridge!
One needs to be careful as not all "crackers" are pirates. We tend to forget that not all forum members are physically and mentally able as most of us are.
Recently a young gentleman came here seeking help. It was quickly established he was using a cracked version. He didn't realise. His carer had obtained it for him off the net, and his carer probably didn't know what "cracked" meant even if they were aware it was cracked. Anyway an experienced forum member assisted and helped with the problem and the first accepted suggestion was for a legitimate version to be purchased. So Magix got a sale which they wouldn't have if the "pirate" had been simply told to go away.
@EricLNZ 👍 Hi, yep education is always the better answer, maybe when they sign up & have to put in their activation code as been suggested, but rather than denying access it shows when they comment, either a marker of some kind in their signature, a lot don't show or bother with that so maybe their dodgy activation makes their name go red, you can then choose who you help & will have chance to encourage purchase of the legit program,
OK, lads and lassies, are we getting towards an agreed way to deal with individuals that come here with “dubious”, non-authentic, unauthorised copies of VP that are asking for our assistance? I humbly suggest the need to agree that without spending too much time firefighting their “issues”, we can politely direct them to MAGIX.COM. Something along the lines of:
“Before we can offer help this Official Forum requires you to prove what level of ownership you have.”
How does that sit with y’ll?
I'm of the "Verified" tag on the avatar. Then it's up to the forum members to decide if to help or not. If someone is seeking information before purchasing (as anyone should), answering generalized "does it do this?" should be not problem.
And while there are those who don't know they have a cracked version, that, I would think is in an extreme example. Most people with cracks, search them out and deserve no help. Not only will they have cracked Vegas, but just about every plugin out there.