Software Piracy Is Theft

During my morning State Of the Union Review I came across a blog post in which the author addressed the issue of Software Piracy, particularly in relation to individuals who use the software to produce a product for sale. It was an interesting read and I must say that overall I am in agreement, but being me I saw a different side to the issue as a whole.

The author was certain he would receive many comments seeking justification because of perceptions regarding Adobe being greedy. Like I said, I look at things from different perspectives, in this case I pitched in an opinion branched from a different departure point.

ORIGINAL POST LINK:
http://www.cswatzell.com/blog/2013/6/theft-of-photoshop


Here is my comment in its entirety:

Yes, many of the software firms are greedy, charging much more than needed, etc.. They claim they need to fund research and development in order to give us consumer junkies our next rush. Well, they don’t quite word it like that, but it is synonymous to the way it works; the marketers tell us we have these massive needs that they can fulfill and we soon believe we can’t do without the newest, most improved, cram-packed-with-everything-we-need-but-likely-will-never-use gadget or version of software. I don’t buy it! I shoot Nikon digital because I still shoot film and I can still exchange lenses. I develop and print with real silver based materials and the results can be stunning, classic even. Just because it is experienced doesn’t make it dead.

I purchased PS Elements in ver. 3. I took college hours on version 6 and I used PS CS5 extensively during a two year full-time professional photographer program. While in school I purchased Lightroom 3, which has become the triage desk of my workflow, everything enters through LR3, then nearly all my post and printing is handled from there. If I must needs heavily manipulate or work with layers I will perform surgery in Elements 3. I have yet to miss anything the newer versions offer. So why should I give Adobe, or any other for that matter, more of my coins for their coffers when what I have works quite well already. And since I don’t need to purchase these upgrades, I needn’t steal them either!