AmbientShade posted at 7:41PM Fri, 27 November 2015 - #4241259

That theory places physical resources in higher value than human labor. It doesn't matter if it's a car or a piece of software, it still takes human effort to produce it and that human effort requires compensation of some form in order for it to still be viable for the human to continue producing it. Assuming that people who pirate only do so because they can't afford to buy is the strawman. If I'm offered two products of equal value, one free and the other with a price tag, I'm going to take the free one first even if I can afford the price tag on the other because then I have that money to spend elsewhere on items that do not have a free or cheaper alternative. If I find the same item at target for $10 less than it is at wal-mart then I'm going to buy it at target. It's the same principle. People take things for free in order to save money, not just because they don't have money. The excuses for why the do it come in after. And they're all just excuses. So claiming people who can't afford it are never customers anyway is false. Just because you can't afford it now, doesn't mean you aren't going to save up for when you can afford it if the incentive is there. But if you can get it for free now, the incentive is removed, there's no reason to save up for it. And there are several people who have stopped producing things due to them losing money to piracy, right here in this very community.

I'm not saying that the only reason people pirate is because they can't afford a thing. I am saying that in that narrow instance, it doesn't cause the seller of that thing to lose money. It's still morally wrong imo. It just doesn't hurt the seller, in that narrowly defined instance.

Not trying to derail, just making the point. As for Poser and it's activation, it's about the most lenient activation method found in software at present. Sure it could be more efficient and less of a hassle, but if you're using game engines or zbrush or most other software, you're still using the same activation method. Eventually it will all be subscription and/or web based.

Don't even get me started on how terrible the zbrush activation is. You have to release your license from one machine to move it to another. That's just a complete pain in the butt. You do get two machines it can be activated on, but not concurrently (as far as I know; it wasn't concurrent when I bought mine). So if something happens to your machine and you can't log into their website with it to release your license, you're down to one more activation before they force you to buy it again if you want to keep using it. On top of that, they recently ended the ability to transfer licenses to different owners for individuals.

When all paid software is subscription only or web based, I will finish transitioning to FOSS only software. I agree with you that it's going that way, and quickly. Adobe and Autodesk are both there already.