Thanks, musicvid. The logical part of me sees it that way too, but due to my cyclical anxiety condition, I can at times obsess over things like this. Hence why I wanted to run it by others here. Farss/Bob has more than once said that I can overthink things and he's right. But ethics is important to me, and so I can get a bit uber-tangled up in such issues.

If even one out of ten people had your sense of ethics, the world economy wouldn't be teetering on the edge of complete meltdown.

So the only question is can you use a trail on a new system if you've previously used the trial?

The only time I've seen it not allowed is when it's tied to an e-mail.

I can only agree with musicvid on your ethics. Very well done.

I wish more people were as concerned as you.

Of course you can re-try a trial on a new system, otherwise how would you know whether the product works on the new system? That's one of the reasons for making a trial available. But the ethics is more complicated - a trial is just a trial, if it works and you like it, you're probably ethically obligated to buy it, not just use the trial.

Thanks for all responses.
Rainer, you wrote:



Well, that's just it... it's dead, unavailable since Sony bought it and is now woven into v.10. I contacted Velvet Matter on all of this before I scribbled the above to Sony, no reply. My guess that it's probably an un-manned support email address, that is, once sold to Sony, why bother.

In other words, I agree with your by-the-book interpretation and view hence why I'm waffling. That said, I have made every effort to contact both. Doing a pay-by-incident thing with Sony for that one simple question is just throwing money out the window -- and besides, they don't want to talk about v.8.

So it's really up to me to allow myself to do this or not.

I'm hooked to Vegas and will upgrade eventually and thus will get Radiance eventually anyway.
But that won't be for a year or two.

______________________

As an other example of making the ethical effort:

Due to my new system, I can no longer use my Adobe Illustrator version 8 -- yeah, really, really old. Windows 95/98 days. Worked fine with XP Home 32-bit, but since it's in part a 16-bit app, it simply won't work on Win7 64 bit. And since I built my last computer with an OEM version of XP, I can't use it anymore at all, not even as a dual boot.

Could I maybe make it work anyway? Maybe, but there I just can't violate EULA. So XP is dead, so is Adobe Illustator 8 - and hence years of files created in it (not a professional humongous batch of files, but many just the same. Including my personal business card layout).

So I downloaded the latest Adobe CS5 so as to be able to convert my dead AI files to at least be able to open them in Corel Draw: I have X5 Suite -- mainly for my pauper version but still very respectable alternative to Photoshop -- PhotoPaint. I've been using it since late 1997 or early 1998, so I'm pretty proficient with it.

Adobe is just way out of my financial league (the only reason I was able to get AI was that I was a student at a community college back then and since I don't get paid for anything I made or make in it, I can still use it).

But there again, I didn't feel to good about this since a $2000 app is no go for me--or even $500 for AI alone. So I called Adobe with my ethical issue incl. not being able to afford either and that without conversion, all my AI files are dead, finished, kaput.

Unless... I use the trial version of CS5 to save them as EPS as explained above.
And yes, I was totally upfront about that I had Corel Draw X5 and would have to use that.

I was told that it was fine, no worries.

Hello Sonic:

I don't consider myself one of the Wise Ones, but I have some thoughts on your situation.

The trial period is a way for vendors to let users try before they buy. This is great for people like us because we cannot always tell if a partiuclar effect will work the way we envision until we try it. Over time our skills and creativity evolve -- not to mention our hardware -- so it seems okay to me to try a trial more than once.

A well designed trial locks you out after the trial period. SCS, NewBlue and VASST have trials for their products. I assume they will lock you out when the trial period expires, but I cannot say for sure because I have always A) purchased, or B) uninstalled because I didn't like it.

If I understand your post correctly, your trial does not lock you out completely. Hence you can use certain presets and saved FX? So you are wondering if it is ethical to continue using the trial in the limited fashion? Tough question. The vendor did not lock you out. But does that make it okay to continue using it? Maybe?

Consider your intended use of the trial. Are you making videos for fun, family, and friends? Are you making videos for profit? If for fun, go for it! If it's for profit . . . well, you might want to reconsider.

Along the same lines, a lot of people use popular (copyrighted) music in their videos. This is a violation of copyright law. But if it's for family and friends, who cares? But once you start selling your product, that's a whole 'nother matter.

That's my two cents, for what it's worth.

Regards,

Kimberly

The ethical thing to do would be to forget about the plugin: you didn't buy it when it was out (so you don't get a free upgrade/redownload), you can't afford an upgrade to V10, forget about it. Unless someone wants to sell you a copy of V10 (remember, it's not the same plugin exactly so, odds are, your presets/etc. won't work & the plugin will still be missing when you load an old project file) or you find a cheap upgrade,no reason to fret.

For your Adobe thing: I own an OEM of XP. I've installed it many times on two completely different systems & I've registered (or whatever it is you do) every time, no issues. It's Vista & 7 OEM that, as far as I know, you can't do that with.

You can also use MS's virtual PC (or whatever it's called) to run older Windows & thus, older Windows apps. I don't bother though. I've only owned Win98, 2k & XP (besides DOS & OS2): I got 2k in ~2003 & got XP in 2007-ish. I only updated when the need for newer software outweighed the need for the older stuff.

Also, there's a GPL vector art program called Inkscape that may open your .ai files. Give it a go, I like the program & have used it a lot. Adobe lost me as an Acrobat customer (used to make PDF's from images & text with that) & Photoshop customer because of their PITA upgrade costs & requirements. Sonic Foundry/Sony gained a customer because of theirs. Several, in fact, I've gotten several people in to Vegas because I use it so much. It's not 1998 & there's pretty much a GPL program out there that will do anything you want. Might not be as user friendly or as feature filled as the offerings by the big guys, but it's pretty good.

sonic,

not sure about your radiance problem, but agree with thf;

inkscape and gimp do everything ps and illus do, but for free....

you can even get gimp to 'look-like' ps. (not sure about inkscape).

Thanks for further input to all.

Illustrator

I've already tried Inkscape to open the older AI files, no go. I never saved in EPS because I didn't need it. Anyway, moot point on this one since Adobe gave me permission.

XP 32-bit

Just as an experiment, I tried to make a virgin install of that OEM XP on a drive in my new system, no go.

Something locks out the installation after entering the serial number by a blue screen with some error about not being able to access some device. My guess is that part of the CD is actually a mini-RAM that records the original hardware used and then when it can't find it, tanks the installation. But from story shared above, maybe I'm just being X-Files paranoid - lol.

I have also read that Microsoft can on occasion grant transfer when a mobo dies, but one has to call and try to sweet talk them into it. I may have saved $20 buying the OEM for that now dead system. Live and learn: I bought Win7 full retail this time.

Radiance

The .veg files that have the now-locked settings as well as saved ones in chains from the trial period on XP still work -- I just can't change the Radiance settings.

In terms of the dilemma of the next six days with my Win7 situation, none of my work is for profit. I'm a very serious amateur, that's all. I don't use other people's music either: I use my own when I create anything that can be seen online in any public way, i.e. YouTube, Facebook, etc. Same goes for images and clips: if I can't get permission, I don't use.

But I digress...

All I'd like to do is make some generic settings with this "second wind" Radiance and save them for use later until I upgrade to the next Vegas whatever-version. This 3rd party version of Radiance is a discontinued (read: dead) product and I'm not violating even fair use clauses in terms of harming its market since its market no longer exists. It's now a Sony Vegas plugin.

All that said, in the end, I have to make the final ethical decision here.

If you can say what the error is on the XP install I'm betting someone here can tell you what's wrong. The install writes nothing to the disc & it gets registered after you install the OS (not after entering the SN). There's something else going on there. since you enter the SN after the data is on the drive it could be you need a driver that's not built in to WinXP.