Interesting message. I did a paper on ethical issues recently. For item (1), anything involving hacking a code would be considered unethical, but if you had already purchased a license for the program and are using it only on one machine (the new computer), and the company will not allow activation again, then you really have no alternative but to resort to "unethical" means to use a program you have already paid for. However, my personal feelings are that a hacker program may cause more grief than its worth (viruses, corrupt code). If the company were to go out of business, I would think they would provide a patch to remove the activation program. (2) If a company knew they were filing bankruptcy in coming months and still released an activation scheme in their program, I would consider this more than unethical, but devious on behalf of the company. (3) I have qualms about Eovia myself. I purchased the original Carrara from MetaCreations then shortly afterward they dropped their entire line of software (including Poser). Eovia provided a patch to version 1.1. Then they came out with Carrara Studio, which I upgraded to thinking this was a completely new program. I found the program still had the same version number (1.1) and was the same program with their company name on the package. I wasted money purchasing the same program again. And version 2.1 doesn't look much different. I still prefer Ray Dream 5.5. So I think what they did with their Carrara Studio 1.1 was borderline unethical. (4) I believe this one to be unethical since you're not a student and you are not entitled to the student discount. I've recently returned back to college and have found more unethical things like students swapping bootleg copies of 3D software (like 3D Studio Max). One of my fellow classmates found out I just purchased Photoshop at student discount and asked for a copy of it. Since I knew her to be big on software swapping, I told her that I didn't share software especially since I purchased it with no help from her; I planned to use it to upgrade (I'm told that student versions can be upgraded to commercial versions); and I don't like the idea of something with my serial number being passed from one person to another especially since I was getting nothing in return. I told her I had a demo version I could give to her on CD instead. Some of the student discounts are not big discounts themselves. Like my Photoshop discount was only about $200 less than the commercial version. The 3D Studio Max discount is much greater ($475 compared to the full price of about $4,000 or whatever it is now). 5) Since I think #4 is unethical, I cannot really respond to this. 6) Once I graduated, and as I stated above, I would plan to either upgrade to the commercial version or purchase it at full price (if the student version was not complete). Since I'd be making big bucks by then, I could afford it. Maybe you'll get more interesting responses from others.

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