Comments on: Are You a Photoshop Pirate?

By: Alessandro Baffa weblog - "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes"

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:57:59 +0000

[...] Edits Weblog ha fatto un sondaggio e in 10 giorni ha raccimolato 500 risposte di utilizzatori di software vari, tra cui Photoshop. [...]

By: Olivier

Olivier — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:53:33 +0000

If you are expert enough to use photoshop then you certainly earn enough money to buy it

By: Il 60% degli utilizzatori di Photoshop sono pirati

Il 60% degli utilizzatori di Photoshop sono pirati — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:46:26 +0000

[...] si, questo è il risultato di un sondaggio a cui hanno partecipato 500 utenti in una settimana. Il sondaggio dimostra quanto i prodotti top di [...]

By: Shanghai

Shanghai — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:30:17 +0000

Here in China it’s compulsory to run pirated software and I’m not to happy about it!
Unfortunately in the west they don’t give a shit!

By: Reason Being

Reason Being — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:27:57 +0000

I believe the reason Photoshop is advanced and popular as it is, is b/c it’s pirated like mad! When Joe Developer goes to work, he has his company pony up the dough for the latest CS version so he can be the most productive. I used a pirated copy of CS3 for a while, tested it extensively and then had my company purchase two copies. The end result is that popularity from piracy makes them more money in the long run since 800 bucks isn’t shit for a company to pay, besides, it’s a tax write off.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:52:22 +0000

Without the availability of pirated copies I would not have the opportunity to use Photoshop or other programs such as Visual Studio. I can’t afford them. I thoroughly believe that without pirated copies we wouldn’t have as rich of an internet as we do today. Many of the developers and designers wouldn’t have had a chance to get started, as I have, for free.

Pirated copies actually make the American dream more of a possibility in that someone like me, who can’t afford to spend 800-1000 dollars on software, can still use it, learn it, and develop job skills that will allow them to be able to afford it.

By: If only you could pirate hardware.

If only you could pirate hardware. — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:18:01 +0000

I believe that the manufacturers themselves actually create the cracks/patches/keygens required to use software illegally.
Think about it: Adobe don’t want you to use freeware, learning it and finding out that it’s actually good enough for what you want to do, they’d rather help you use Photoshop for free so that you learn their software. Technically they haven’t lost out, as you wouldn’t have bought it anyway! One day, when you go into business and have to actually buy your software for the first time, are you going to consider Paint Shop Pro, or are you just going to buy the piece of software that you already know inside-out? it makes good business sense to ignore piracy for personal use, and concentrate on ensuring that business users always use legal software.
This doesn’t apply to Adobe alone, I think that it is in the interests of all large software developers, (including Microsoft!) to help people who can’t afford their software to use it for free. (Microsoft would rather you’re using a pirated copy of Vista, than a free version of Linux.) No manufacturer can offer a fully operational free version, as this would undermine the bloated price of the legal version, so they just release the aforementioned tools to help you get around the legalities.

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:52:25 +0000

Well, your poll is certainly accurate for the piracy but 83% is largely biased due to the theme of this site.
I use Picasa and The Gimp and that’s more than enough if you aren’t an artist. No need for Photoshop if you aren’t a pro.
Most of the Photoshop pirates use it to resize photo anyway ! No one would pay for it to do that. Maybe that’s why a free edition “Express” is coming out right now.

By: 60% of Photoshop Users are PIRATES!

60% of Photoshop Users are PIRATES! — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:19:56 +0000

[...] here it is… the one week results from our previous poll on software piracy. In that short time, we’ve had nearly 500 photographers cast their votes and the outcome is [...]

By: Mandy

Mandy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:38:32 +0000

I have used a pirate copy of Photoshop in the past just because of the price, but since Photoshop Elements came out I use that, legally.