Software Piracy: CAD/CAM/CNC/ETC.

Just my two cents:
Before to many of you get on your pulpits and preach about the unholynest
of software piracy. Maybe you should all go through your own computers at
Work, and Home and see that you have paid all of your Sharewhare Fees, etc.
Also check for that program that your wife, brother, sister, friend, kid,
etc. brought over and gave you a copy of the lastest XYZ program they just
got. Now, I know some of you are programers and think your of high morel
standards, but clean your own house first before you start casting stones at
others. One of the big reasons commerical software was/is pirated, is because
you can't try it, before you buy it. How many times have you read about this
or that program only to buy it and find out it's a piece of junk. No, and you
can't take it back to the store and get your money back either. How many
Billions of dollars has the software companies/programmers ripped off the
consumer with? Today more and more companies are coming out with demo
programs of their products. Some are good demo's, but most are Junk. You
don't even learn a program like SurfCam, AutoCad, etc. in a day or even a
week or month. And how many programs are released onto the market early to
keep profits up, full of known bugs, so they can charge you the consumer for
an upgrade six months down the road to fix their program. It's a proven fact
that most people only use about 60% of most programs anyway. The rest is only
add on bells and whistles you don't use.
Now don't get me wrong, if your in the business of CAD/CAM/CNC. Yes, I
think you should buy the software that you use to make products for sale to
the consumer. You pass on that cost of the software, your time , machines,
etc to the consumer. But for that college kid trying to learn CAD/CAM/CNC
shouldn't have to pay $500-$15,000 for the lastest version of SurfCam,
AutoCad, etc. Now there are some companies that parcipitate in the school
programs and sell to the student at a reduced cost, but most don't. Heck,
most of the schools I visited years ago couldn't even afford the lastest
versions of most software let alone new CNC equipement. They upgrade software
every three to five years.
One last thought. Yes, I have pirated some software programs and so have
most of you over the years, but which I and others, have turned around and
purchased later on, after we learned them, because we liked them and wanted
the manuels and future updates like most software pirates do. But most
programs either get trashed or sit on the Hard drive collecting dust account
their junk programs we don't use anyway. Who is losing, the software
companies/programmers, my pocketbook. I don't think so. And No, I'm not in
the Business of CAD/CAM/CNC, I'm just a home amateur machinist who has read
everything I can get my hands on about the subject of CAD/CAM/CNC.
Also, I don't think this list is where you should be trading software,
serial numbers, cracks, warez, etc. There are plenty of newsgroups, web
pages, that cover that stuff. I'm sure some of you, if not most, have never
even heard of this stuff yourself. Your just as uninformed as the guy that
asked about the crack for surfcam. Some of you could have showed some manners
and politly said this is a discussion group on
CAD/CAM/CNC/STEPPERS/SERVOS/EMC/ETC. NOT trading software, serial numbers,
cracks, warez, etc.
Rich Gillen

Public Domain (free software)
Shareware (try for xx amount of Days, then send in shareware fee or delete
from HD) Avg. $5-$50
Commerical (Big dollars for a fancy box, $10-$100,000 for mostly a lot of
junk software)
Trading Software (Hotline(Mac/IBM), <A
HREF="http://www.hotlinecentral.com/links.shtml">Hotline Links Page</A>)
Serial Numbers (Makes a crippled program complete or registered for full use)
Crack (Program that uncripples or registers a program)
Warez, Apz, Filez, Programz (Pirated Software on web pages)