I realize that Morpheus and other peer to peer programs are a taboo subject but I think this warrants some kind of response from Curious Labs. What kind of message does this send out to their customers--"lets treat you like mushrooms and keep you in the dark, feed you st and let the warez people get the first peek at Poser 5." Whats next! Is this fair? No fking way but when the warez people start getting first crack at something that the honest people ready and waiting to plunk down their dollars have to wait for with no information on the upcoming product well then this world just got turned upside down.

What the heck is Morpheus? Sounds like someone has been watching "The Matrix" one too many times. sigh

I guess I'm outta the loop. Isn't Napster for music? I didn't think you could upload programs to Napster. Definite abuse potential if you can.

If locking it means blocking add'l posts then let them do what they think they have to do but when we have to go to warez people to find out details and new features on Poser 5 that they got for free to determine if we should buy it or not well Curious Labs better start doing some replying here and fast or they've just lost a customer.

Yes, thats right. In addition to being able to get free copies of poser items that we pay for these same people will be firing up Poser 5 and will not have paid one red cent to do so. Then after another 6 monthes or so we can all happily plunk down our $300 bucks or so for the same priviledge.

Chances are it's nonsense. I've seen warez sites that claim to have Duke Nukem Forever already, and others that said they had Photoshop 6 before Adobe had even announced a upgrade to 5. Of course, both links led nowhere. It's just a way to get people to check their sites and click on their endless array of Top 20 voting banners. I know we all want more news on Poser 5, but try not to freak out. ;) SnowS Hoping his pictures are worth 1001 words.

I won't touch anything on the warez sites/napster/morpheus/etc. From everything I read it's a great way to get a virus or a trojan that wipes your hard drive. No thanks... I'll wait until it comes out and then buy it virus free... I don't feel like playing russian roulette with all my files and hard work.

downloading sound like nonsense to you.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit that a beta copy of 5 is wandering the warez sites like Morpheus. As someone pointed out once before, you can find virtually anything sold here or at Daz, so a beta copy of 5? No sweat. Would I trust it? Not a bit.

Yeah it does actually, I've seen "Michael's Changing Fantasy Suit 2" on warez sites which was actually just a free texture pack for the first (and only) one. It could be a patched Poser 4 someone's passing off as 5 too. Whatever though, believe what you want. SnowS

Is Poser 5 even in beta? Somehow I doubt it.

5? Yeah right! Think about it. If that were true, it could only come from ONE place.

I agree with Snow. I highly doubt poser 5 is hanging around out there while Curious Labs hasn't announced anything yet. And if it is, like Pablo said... one place, they better be checking their employees.

I'd be shocked if it was actually 5, but it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. Betas have a way of getting out whether the developer likes it or not. Sometimes they come from the press, so don't think it's necessarily an employee if this is indeed true and not some poor excuse for a joke (virus is what I'm thinking).

Please farang, download it and let me know what it is, because I haven't the faintest clue. I'd actually really be interested in seeing what is being called P5. Steve Cooper

lol what an amusing thread. its interesting to see just how many people here are entering 'poser' into their online filesharing program's search field. now i wonder why youd be doing that... cheers, -gabriel

Poser 5 has not been released to beta yet. Anthony Hernandez Curious Labs

ROFL Kupa, I woulndt touch this version of P5 with a 5 foot pole :) Anyone with a shred of common sense knows that warez idiots lie like my kids change diapers. About once every two minutes or so... But thnaks for your concern anyway!

damn, you mean i can't download poser 5 yet? so, where can i get morpheus? ;) seriously, i've heard about morpheus a few times here (in the copyrights forum mainly) and last word on it was people are loading viruses in there to infect each other! um... okay.

Welllllllll........ So what. I gotta beta eta theata copy of Poser 6.1.789!! Send me your credit card number... hahahahaha

Why do everyone believe that it really is a Poser 5 beta just because someone using Morpheus says so (= names a downloadable file "Poser 5"). You can claim anything on Morpheus, it doesn't necessarily have to be true... If someone wants to take the risk and download an executable file with that name and run it in your system, be my guest... I rather believe Steve and Anthony than somebody on Morpheus.

you should be very careful guys, once I downloaded an EXE file, and I was told its the incredible machine game. I opened the file and I realized that it was a program that uninstall all software from the computer. luckily, I turn off the computer right away. don't mess up with morpheus or kazaa!

In the old day virgins were used to betatest vulcans. I rather doubt that this is a real beta. I wouldn't install a beta of Poser 5 even if I could download it from CL. ;P

@zoozI2000 There is a joke program out there that does this. It dosen't really unistall software, it only looks that way. From the category scare your colleagues. ;) On the other hand you don't know what you download, there can be anything inside from a joke up to a trojan which installs a root kit.

From reading this thread one has to wonder just how many people here got everything they own from the big 'M' I for one can't really see the point of someone downloading a 3d program from the web. For one thing if you are prepared to take the risk that what you're downloading IS what it says it is, to say that none of these things come with a manual or any form of support (even poser's help file only explains the very basics and is, well--crap) and given the fantastic learning curve of most (all) of the 3d apps such as the ones discused on this site, surely only the most dedicated 3d hopeful would even attempt to learn in this way. I have a few friends who download alsorts of stuff from Morpheus (and yes thier PC often get fraged over by a virus) but mostly, for them, it's the thrill of getting something for free--they tinker arround with the progs for a few weeks, get fed up trying to work them only to end up deleting it all in a fraction of the time it took them to download it. As such, and to get the last of my two cents in, I don't think everyone who downloads Progs/music should be labeled a Pirate (a pirate is a complete git! Someone who makes a buisines out of selling other peoples work). but I also don't think it should be panic stations for the rest of the fine artists here who have bought the stuff fair as most people who download these our precious 3d programs, will probably get rid of them the second they load them up and can't "play" them like a video game. Well I've waffeled for long enough, anyone else? and why hasn't this thread (advertisement for Morpheus) been locked yet?

I have a couple of theories on "morpheus" type programs (only theories because I don't use any of them theft condoning type programs). I would venture to say that the folks who download commercial stuff using "moopheus" don't care if they get a virus...it aint like they're gonna lose alot of hard work if their files get trashed by a trojan...they didn't pay for any of it anyhow. What I find rather humorous...is that ppl actually write on this site (which forbids the activity of "moopheus") that they "saw such and such" on "moopheus", thus alerting to everyone (including admins) that they have no conscience that prevents them from undertaking illegal activity. If ppl are sharing viruses with each other on "moopheus", then I say "good...maybe the little thieves will get what's coming to them" and "moopheus" can die a slow death.

they "saw such and such" on "moopheus", thus alerting to everyone (including admins) that they have no conscience that prevents them from undertaking illegal activity. Actually, admins here check out morpheus. It's been mentioned in the copyrights forum. They keep watch, I guess... part of their job? There's a whole underground world out there... too much trouble for people with places to go, business to see, people to do. :P

Would be interesting to go and take a look at what's causing all this fuss... but un(?)fortunately my university firewall prevents us from connecting to things like Morpheus, Audiogalaxy etc. I seriously doubt it's a real Poser5 beta though. Someone is just a) joking or b) ignorant. :)

I use a program similar to Morpheus to exchange files occasionally, but never to steal. Peer-to-peer file exchange is a huge research topic, and holds great potential both for abuse and for legitimate collaborative work. What I use my "theft condoning type programs" for is to share out models I made for others to help me analyze what is wrong with them, and vice versa, and to get large AVI tutorials from fellow modelers demonstrating their modeling technique. With the limitations on disk space (my web host limits me to 20MB and GB/month throughput) at most web hosting sites, along with file size limits on e-mail attachments by many ISPs, it is sometimes the only alternative. I agree the risks are high for anyone who would be foolish enough to use these types of applications to get Warez products, and you would deserve any virus you obtained by such action, but just wanted to point out that there are legitimate reasons to use peer-to-peer software especially in a collaborative work situation. Only share what you make, only exchange with people you trust. jon

I first found out about Morpheus because Renderosity was advertising its twin program, Grokster. After finding out what they were, I posted a complaint in the C&D forum. The Grokster ad has since disappeared. Anyway, that Poser 5 file could be anything. What was the file size? That's a good way to tell if it's really a full blown program. I've also seen the Pro Pack called Poser 5 before. Not everyone who uses Morpheus or a like program is a thief, there are legitimate uses. Also (I've said this before), software companies are inviting piracy when they don't print a hard manual. Zbrush is a good example. Why spend $270 when you can download the program, manual and tuts for nothing? Poser 4 has a great manual and that's good. But they also put the whole thing in a pdf file on the CD! So the pirates have the same exact text & pics that a legitimate customer has.

My housemate here uses That Site to check out music before buying it (He works as a country/western DJ and can spend as much as three grand on CDs a month), and, for a laugh I tok a gander to see what would happen if I checked keywords Daz, Zygote, Poser, and Renderosity. Well, folks, as I'm sure it's not a surprise, it's a pretty amazing world out there: the entire Daz/Zygote catalogue, just for starters. Now, the question: who in their right mind is willing to trust an .exe file that comes from someone they don't know and can't trace back? We're not looking at the illegality of it, just the sheer stupidity. Thanks to a virus that was wreaking havoc on Macs a few years ago, I lost almost five gigs of work on a game I was building, and since then, I refuse to allow my machine anywhere near the possibility. Others, of course, think otherwise -- at any given moment, from what my roomie tells me, you'll find close to a half million users on line sharing away. Not a chance am I gonna risk another infection like that, not with numbers that high.

One of my students downloaded a copy of Poser 4 from Morpheus on his home computer a couple weeks ago. After he installed the program, it came up with the startup screen for Poser 3.5 (did it ever exist?) and locked up his computer. He restarted the machine only to read a message that his operating system could not be found. I think he learned his lesson.

Guys used to use a hex editor to do stuff like search on the text string in the EXE that has the version information "Poser 4.0.3.117" (or whatever) and change it to a higher number, and crow "I've got a newer version of (whtever) on my site than anybody else". They also were changing the address in shareware stuff where you send the money to their address. Got so bad that some of the guys stared putting checksum stuff in the programs so if any of the text strings were altered it wouldn't run. I wonder if Poser does any checksums of the bits and bytes?

LOL, so when ARE they going to lock this thread??

Gee, why lock it? If the "can't find operating system message" doesn't scare off people from downloading illegal stuff, what will? Anybody with 2 neurons and a ganglion knows better than to enter into unprotected sex or downloads from virus-infected sites. Carolly

Attached Link: http://www.customedia.net/

I think that if I wanted to create a virus and spread it to as much computers as possible, I'd get a copy of a program that lets you create a virus by clicking certain boxes (I think it is called viral box builder or something) so none of the antivirus programs will recognize it, make the virus become active after a month after downoading and make the virus disable the antivitus updates, copy my Windows swapfile and rename it Photoshop 7_5.exe Poser5beta.exe, etc, take a hex editor and attach the virus to it, start an ftp server and announce it to as may warez sites as possible, install all the peer to peer programs I could get my mutts on and laugh my head off. The motto is: garbage in, garbage out!

The funny thing is sometimes you cannot trust Commercially released software either. I tried loading NSW2002 on a W98SE system along with another new application and, between the two of them, they trashed my system. I had similar issues with NAV in the past. Regardless of the source, it is a question of ethics and economics.