Vista, Office 2007 cracked. Kind of.

[Rohdekill]

This is why there needs to be stiffer penalties in place for piracy.

If I can't afford a chocolate bar, I don't steal it. If I can't afford a piece of software, I don't steal that either.

It is just common sense.

People always bitch and moan about the cost of software, yet they don't realize the cost of _making_ said software. Software authors are real people with real daily lives. Just as you value your money, so do they.

When you pirate a program that even costs as little as $25, you could be stealing $25 from someone's family. I don't care how big or how small the company is. They work hard to create the software we use, and they deserve to be paid for it.

Just as you deserve to be paid for the work you do.

There's only one thing wrong with your post....

Let's look at pc games. They come out on the market selling for $50. A year (or two) later, the same game costs $19. If the company can sell it at $19 and still maintain a profit, what was the need for selling it at $50, except to make a larger profit?? Profit means income after all the expenses (labor, elestric bills, etc).

I'm sure Vista and Office could sell for $125 each and MS would still make a profit. They'd actually get better results by taking in a smaller profit per item and selling more than by making a huge profit per and selling less.

Personally, I find no reason to buy or obtain either. Both OS and Office 2003 work fine for me. I think vista might make it due to marketing to the general public, but businesses will avoid it as well as Office 2007 - there's no need for either.

[Raven]

because the can get it for free and the software cost to much but if they bought the software the price would go down

LOL, if everyone bought the software then the price would still stay high. You have to understand the idea of the free market. Microsoft charges a ton of money because they can and will. What are you going to do? Not have the 'latest and greatest'? No. It' like all these people lining up and paying $600 for a game console that cost Sony $100 to make.

When consumers ban together and don't purchase a product then greedy companies will reduce the price.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

You must be completely obtuse.

Piracy is the resulting action (also known as robbery, copyright infringement) in that you are obtaining something through illegal means by which you have no legal entitlement. This constitutes theft, and is a criminal offense.

Copyright Infringement is a crime which carries up to a $250,000 fine and up to 5 yrs in prison. In fact there have already been precedents set where people have received sentences of up to 9 yrs in prison in some states.

Look up piracy in the dictionary and you will see the term robbery. Robbery is theft. How much clearer do you need that to be?

pi‧ra‧cy  /ˈpaɪrəsi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pahy-ruh-see] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

?noun, plural -cies.

1. practice of a pirate; robbery or illegal violence at sea.

2. the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.: The record industry is beset with piracy.

3. Also called stream capture. Geology. diversion of the upper part of one stream by the headward growth of another.

Well since most software piracy happens on dry land... definition 1 is not valid.

3 is also not applicable as we're not talking about geology... so the 'unauthorized reproduction or use' it is...

[technord]

I'm going with option 1. Do I need a parrot?

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Elagizy:

6) I doubt you buy ANY software legally

If yu wish to make this claim - please back it up. You have just used an open forum to randomly accuse me of piracy - so where is your basis for this? What prompts you to make sout a ridiculous claim when previously I have stated that I now tend to run legit software.

I could come back and just as abstractly accuse you of blowing goats. But there is no need for such accusations.

Grow the hell up!

[bubbl3]

Send me money please. I have my pc and also wife's pc to upgrade!

As I always said, if Microsoft put prices a lil bit lower, then many users would upgrade with legit copy.

as for myself, I will not upgrade xp since I have that money asked anymore

I fully agree, i have a legit x64 copy of xp, but i can't afford to upgrade to vista. The problem is that MS will make some apps only for vista and you will have to upgrade to use them :(

[Lee G. Veteran]

Ah well, it was inevitable :/

[Jolo]

Why can't people just buy the damn software? :no:

In Santiago, Chile (South America, Argentina, Brazil, etc.), an OEM Windows XP Pro licence cost the same that an 15" LCD Samsung monitor: US $ 190 (yep, $ 190)

Don't believe me? Check it out (prices in Chilean pesos)

http://www.pcfactory.cl/ficha_producto.php?id_producto=3387

http://www.pcfactory.cl/ficha_producto.php?id_producto=920

An Office 2003 Small Business Edition, also OEM, cost the same that an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400: US $ 320.

So, if the Hardware is already expensive here, you can't imagine how the Software is. And this is only because taxes and overprice. We can't have retail versions of XP Pro and Office, because they simple costs more even that a full computer (incluiding monitor).

And, of course: Here we're not indians or something like that, I have an AM2 X2 4600+ on a M2N32-SLI Deluxe, we have excelents stores with wonderful Hardware (check www.sym.cl, www.bymcomputer.cl and www.rigam.cl), and we have Hardware enthusiasts sites like www.chilehardware.com and www.madboxpc.com.

And, the XP Starter Edition is an insult for us and everybody knows it. Microsoft is treating like BS. Very few low-entry PCs are sold by this OS, and the people is ending installing a XP Pro pirated version.

So, the UK and USA prices reality is very different from other countries of the world.

Cheers and sorry my english.

[Elagizy]

Elagizy:

If yu wish to make this claim - please back it up. You have just used an open forum to randomly accuse me of piracy - so where is your basis for this? What prompts you to make sout a ridiculous claim when previously I have stated that I now tend to run legit software.

I could come back and just as abstractly accuse you of blowing goats. But there is no need for such accusations.

Grow the hell up!

You may got me wrong when i focused on "ANY", you may bought some soft but not all the application installed on your PC are legit. I guess most users download 10s of programs every month and look for cracks.

Honestly, 30% of my installed programs are free, 50% are not free and pirated and 20% are registered.

So if you stick with the concept of DON'T PIRATE AND BUY IT. Then stick with it ALL THE TIME and not for some products and so don't download movies and songs.... etc

You grow up, we are not in a court to accuse each other! That is a fact for major users. I'm not responsible if you take it as an offense. If you didn't ever download a pirated copy in your life, then you are 1 of the luckiest 5% of people who use the internet legally!

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

You may got me wrong when i focused on "ANY", you may bought some soft but not all the application installed on your PC are legit. I guess most users download 10s of programs every month and look for cracks.

Honestly, 30% of my installed programs is free, 50% is not free and pirated and 20% is registered.

So if you stick with concept of DON'T PIRATE AND BUY IT. Then stick with it ALL THE TIME and not for some products and so don't download movies and songs.... etc

You grow up, we are not in a court to accuse each other! That is a fact for major users. I'm not responsible if you take it as an offense. If you didn't ever download a pirated copy in your life, then you are 1 of the luckiest 5% of people who use the internet legally!

Have a cookie for pulling numbers out of your arse!

[SBeaver]

2) For Office At some point, people are in school, even those people with higher eduction that you spoke of. Thats all you need to get Office Student Edition free of charge.

So would you mind if I just help myself to a copy while waiting for msdnaa to get off their asses?

[Elagizy]

Have a cookie for pulling numbers out of your arse!

LOL, It's just for better understanding :laugh:

It refers to "most", "few" ..... that's it :p

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

You may got me wrong when i focused on "ANY", you may bought some soft but not all the application installed on your PC are legit. I guess most users download 10s of programs every month and look for cracks.

Honestly, 30% of my installed programs is free, 50% is not free and pirated and 20% is registered.

So if you stick with concept of DON'T PIRATE AND BUY IT. Then stick with it ALL THE TIME and not for some products and so don't download movies and songs.... etc

You grow up, we are not in a court to accuse each other! That is a fact for major users. I'm not responsible if you take it as an offense. If you didn't ever download a pirated copy in your life, then you are 1 of the luckiest 5% of people who use the internet legally!

I'm not responsible if you take it as an offense: Yes you are - you accused me of something in an open forum.

You grow up, we are not in a court to accuse each other: Then don't dare come on here and accuse me of pirating software. Your post clearly said that you believed I never paid for any software. That was not open to interpretation.

If you didn't ever download a pirated copy in your life: I never claimed to not have downloaded anything. To the contrary, I stated that I have (and am still) using pirated software. But am slowly moving to legit software. In all honesty, I can think of 3 pirated apps over two machines (including an OS).

I don't know where you get this impression that I am some anti-piracy evangelist. I merely made a post about how I feel MS are making it harder to illegally use their software on a daily basis. You seem to be taking that to heart. So again, I say GROW UP!

[ThePitt]

use a product key that worked with Beta 1, Beta 2, RC1, or RC2, with the Gold

And everyone of them will have a 'nice' surprise in May :p (or when the 1st (drivers? (yea, a lot)) update comes :woot:

EDIT

ah... And I dont want vista, even if is for free :p

Edited November 13, 2006 by ThePitt

[Elagizy]

What are you talking about?

1) I doubt you can still buy it legally.

2) So what if it is out of support?

3) Find me one legitimate source (a valid Microsoft reseller) selling it for $1

Dude, this is your first quote on my reply! Who accused who?!

Never mind :huh:

I don't know where you get this impression that I am some anti-piracy evangelist. I merely made a post about how I feel MS are making it harder to illegally use their software on a daily basis. You seem to be taking that to heart. So again, I say GROW UP!

I didn't say or think of that and I don't "accuse" you!, Relax! :sleep:

[remix17]

I am getting sick and tired of hearing that stealing a car is equivalent to stealing a copy of windows. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING! A car is a real world physical object that takes money and resources to manufacture. A copy of windows is a piece of software made of bytes; it can be copied for FREE. When you steal a car, you are preventing someone else from buying it, thus the company looses profits no matter what. When you pirate Windows you are NOT necessarily lowering Microsoft's profits.

Lets as an example consider Joe, average windows user who wants to upgrade to windows vista but unfortunately for him the price is too high and while he has the money, he can't afford to spend that much money on piece of software. So he downloads it for free. Did Microsoft loose money? NO. Why? Because Joe wasn't gonna pay for it in the first place. So while Joe benefits from pirating Windows, no one is hurt by it. This is perfectly legitimate logic.

Obviously not everyone is like Joe. Some people pirate software simply because they can do it. But don't assume that everyone is like them.

Companies like Microsoft dominate the industry. There are NO alternatives to Windows. If you buy a new computer, you are forced to get Windows. You have no choice. That allows Microsoft to set prices as high as they wish, making it very difficult for some people to resist the option of pirating. It is not true that everyone who downloads software will do so no matter what the price is. It is NOT true. I know this from personal experience. Because let's be honest piracy is a hassle. And at reasonable enough prices most people would not bother with it. Again some will in fact pirate no matter what. Nothing can be done about it. Some looses are in fact inevitable, but not nearly substantial. All those figures and statistics that are suppose to tell us how much piracy hurts profits are made under the assumption that everyone who pirates would buy otherwise which is not true to a slightest bit.

[Opialus]

^^^ Well said. :)

I 100% agree with you.

[Vice]

I think that Home (Premium) should be ?89 and the Ultimate ?130. At the Maximum. The prices today are just way to high for people that build systems themselves. For the price of Ultimate you could get a whole other low-cost computer. It's quite ridiculous. No one I know will ever pay ?200+ for an operating system.

I would say out of the people I know 40% will Pirate it, 10% will switch to linux and the remaining 50% will simply stay with Windows XP. Vista costs to much when compared to the competition (OS X & Linux) which can offer equal out-of-the-box experiences to the user.

[hagjohn]

this story is sad on multiple levels.

[hagjohn]

I am getting sick and tired of hearing that stealing a car is equivalent to stealing a copy of windows. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING! A car is a real world physical object that takes money and resources to manufacture.

Software is a real world physical object. Companies pay billions a year to hire people to create software.

[Chanser]

Cracked already?

Didn't take long did it.

I bet MS delibrately leaked it onto the web. :ninja:

[Eric Veteran]

Chocolate bar takes money and resources to make. It's a physical object. A piece of software can be replicated for free. That's how it's different. I do agree however that companies deserve to get paid for fine products they make but NOT if they charge so damn much. A lot of people simply can't afford to spend $230 on the new OS and piracy offers a good alternative. And since we can agree that any computer is useless without operating system, one is forced to either buy one of pirate one.

Excuse me? You don't think over the last 5 years that Microsoft has consumed money and resources to develop Vista? What about paying all the employees? And maintaining their servers and network? If you can't pay for an OS for your computer and you don't want to use a free one, DON'T BUY A COMPUTER. It's that simple.

[techbeck]

Why can't people just buy the damn software? :no:

Why? Thats kind of a dumb question. Most software costs a LOT of $$$ to get. Microsoft is an example of a company who has cornered the market area and are still charging tons of $$$ for their software. Every year the prices goes up. I still see people using Win 9x because they cannot afford an upgrade for their software.

because the can get it for free and the software cost to much but if they bought the software the price would go down

No, the price would not go down. MS always has charged tons of money for their products. A lot of software is pirated besides MS. Nortan, McAfee, Photoshop..and tons more. Some may have gone up a little, but most I have seen has remained around the same price. The only reason MS can charge so much is because Windows/OFfice is pretty much the industry standard for most companies. So, it is cheaper for companies to pay for the upgrades software instead of changing their whole infrastructer. Meaning replacing their server and desktop software to something other than Windows.

Excuse me? You don't think over the last 5 years that Microsoft has consumed money and resources to develop Vista? What about paying all the employees? And maintaining their servers and network? If you can't pay for an OS for your computer and you don't want to use a free one, DON'T BUY A COMPUTER. It's that simple.

Bill Gates could pay all the employees from what he makes in a year or two. And this is money he got from ripping off other software/computer companies. He is still getting sued over this.

This is why there needs to be stiffer penalties in place for piracy.

If I can't afford a chocolate bar, I don't steal it. If I can't afford a piece of software, I don't steal that either.

It is just common sense.

People always bitch and moan about the cost of software, yet they don't realize the cost of _making_ said software. Software authors are real people with real daily lives. Just as you value your money, so do they.

When you pirate a program that even costs as little as $25, you could be stealing $25 from someone's family. I don't care how big or how small the company is. They work hard to create the software we use, and they deserve to be paid for it.

Just as you deserve to be paid for the work you do.

Laff, I doubt Bill Gates will miss the money...he and his family are living large....LARGE

[Aero Ultimate]

Dave Penny,

Micosoft Software Advisor

PS, if your wallet is that tight, get Student XP, its free and legal

It's news for me that the student (ssl) versions are *free* - last time I checked, they were *not*. Has MS changed their policy on this for Office 2007 and Vista? That would be certainly greatly appreciated :woot:

[mircleman]

Exactly I don't feel sorry for them at all and the cracks have been out there for months. just on quiet side now with the gold release more are using it. I agree with the post above me bill ripped off xerox,apple, basic few others. However I don't agree that just because a company makes software they own it. its like me saying if I build a house and sell it its still mine. I believe in 100% free software,open source that knowledge and code should be free but thats me. And don't give me that crap well if all software was free all the company's would go out of business. I could give you dozens of company's that do and they don't go out of business. there are many ways to make money. just my take on it.