Think of buying software as like buying a book from a bookshop. You may freely give, or lend your copy of that book to anyone you choose. This is not a problem to the publisher because: 1> You are not profiting from it and depriving the publisher of his/her fair share 2> While the other person has that book, YOU DO NOT You may not COPY that book and either give, lend or sell that copy to anyone while your original still exists. That would be depriving the publisher of a legitimate sale and if you sold it, that would be the theft (you would have stolen their property, sold it, and kept the money for yourself) If legal software exists on one computer, any number of people can use that computer and all the software on it perfectly legally, because there is only one copy, an only one person can use it at a time, like the book. If you have some kind of network so that more than one person at a time is using the software, then you need to buy another copy or a multi-user license. If you copy the software for use on another computer so that both copies may be used at the same time, that too is forbidden. Best way to figure it out is to imagine that you are the vendor ok? How would you feel about it if people took your hard work, sold it as their own and took the money, or just gave it away without asking you? So you cannot get into trouble for playng with your boyfriend's software on your boyfriend's computer, er unless of course he doesn't want you too.... regards peejay