Warez is not cool

Are you a developer on a tight budget? Perhaps you are just a kid with a computer and no money, or a system manager who is out of budget. Or maybe you just like having a copy of every program all to yourself.

You really want that software package as it looks really cool. But you don't have the money. You're friend told you about this site that has this stuff called Warez on it. Warez? That's a strange name, isn't it? What he heck is that? Your friend was vague, something about "free software".

Well, most software is copy protected in some way or another. Especially the package produced by the larger companies, although even the $10 shareware programs tend to have something nowadays.

Warez is software that has had the copy protection in one way or another disabled. Sometimes it's just a simple matter of posting a copy to a web site which has had the serial number entered, and other times complicated patches are created to circumvent the protection code.

There are several problems with Warez. First off, software acquired in this way is illegal. for example, you had Warez copies of a Microsoft product installed at your company and the company was audited, it could be faced with severe fines. I've heard of fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars being levied against big companies who got caught.

Second, you need to consider that many people worked very hard to create that product.  Products are the result of the efforts of people who have sweated and agonized for weeks, months or even years. By stealing software from them, you are indirectly putting their jobs at risk, because you are taking revenue away from the company where they work.

And there are ethical problems to think about. Is stealing morally right? Are here conditions under which it's okay to steal a product? Think about it.

What I always try and remember is that products are not created by faceless corporations. A company is just a fictitious entity created for the good of a number of individuals. No, products are the hard work of one or more people, a team, who, sometimes, have put their love and soul into an idea. And these people deserve to be compensated, even if it's indirectly by compensating the company, thus allowing them to continue to remain employed.

And that's my two cents on the subject.