The Atari Music Network's Policy on Warez & Cracks

[Atari Music Network]

The Atari Music Network does not support the sharing of software cracks if it infringes on a person's or company's copyright and/or ability to earn money devloping for Atari. AMN only provides download links to software deemed as abandonware (i.e. software that is no longer sold or supported, or whose copyright ownership may be unclear or no longer in existence). If any download on this site infringes on your copyright, please notify the webmaster and it will be removed according to this site's Terms of Use and Privacy Statement.

[Guest]

I have a rather large confession with regards to piracy, however one that I personally feel is wholly justified.

I will tell you why

First off, I used a Commodore 64 when I first started to get into music. A friend of mine later got an ST with Quartet. Now, Im sure you all remember quartet, but it was in many ways a kind of hybrid sequencer / Tracker.

Anyway, I had to get it and I got a copy of Quartet with my ST

Some time later I was using Trackers, Esion, TCB, Pro and I even splashed out on Audio Sculpture, but I soon moved back to Sequencers and I got hold of SeqOne on a CoverDisk, a mate then gave me a copy of Breakthru, now had he not given me a copy of Breakthru, I would never have gone out and bought Breakthru 2 Plus

Similarly, some time later I got hold of a cracked v2 and then v3 of CuBase and again, Iwas more than happy with breakthru2+ but I moved to a cracked CuBase. Som time later, I bought myself the full version of CuBase 3.1 and then CuBase Score. Buying a Falcon then allowed me to buy CuBase Audio.

But had I not had hold of the illegal copy of CuBase, I might very well have still been using Breakthru2+ or if not then I would possibly have bought a second hand copy of CuBase from ebay.

Either way, its one up for piracy.

Its the very same story with my PC Software today.

I get hold of almost everythign I can in some torrent or other... If its good and I like it, then I buy it, if not then its gone.

Almost everything I own was done in this way.

UnReal Tournament was given to me way back. I have now extended my house and I run a LAN for my kids and their mates and guess what? - Each PC has its own copy of UT, UT2004, and UT3 and that is only down to me getting the illegal copy in the first place.

Its the same with Dawn Of War. I got hold of it and never liked it, but a year or so later, I got hold of a hookie copy of Company Of Heroes... I liked this and of course I bought the full disk, again, to play with my kids I bought a further 4 copies. I then asked about the game on a forum and was promptly pointed toward Dawn of War again, now they are essentially the same game so I took up DOW instantly, again I purchased a further 4 copies of this for my kids PCs so we could play these too, now only that but I have also bought 5 copies of Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, SoulStorm, DOW2, and now Chaos Rising, plus the other expansion packs for Company of Heroes... With these games alone, we are talking several hundred quid that I have spent and only because I was originally given a pirated cop[y of one of them?

Windows is the very same thing... I get hold of illegal copy and if I like it I will buy it, if not then I dont.

As for cracking software, this is also somehtign that I have doen with every copy of every game I have... I have at least used some form of NOCD crack or patch if the game demands it. and every game that I cannot get a crack for gets binned.

S, I for one am more than happy to openly boast about piracy.

In the same breath though, you iwll not find a single bit of software on any of my 12 PCs, 2 Ataris, 1 AMiga or 1 Mac that I do not also have the original for. That would be wrong.

[Guest]

Hi FR,
you make a pretty convincing case for 'try before you buy' hacks.
However, I would suggest that you're very much in the minority regarding this whole question. If your approach was S.O.P. amongst consumers then software producers would be throwing 'lite' 'demo' and 'official bootlegs' at all of us.
The main point being that all too many folks out there regard software as fair game for getting free. It's the same with music downloads (we've all done it, natch) and the common consensus of 'Music should be free, why should I pay for it?' The obvious answer to which is 'I'm a musician, I made that music, so give me a free house, car, food and money to live on and we have a deal'.

Which is, of course, impossible
So while I fully support the fact that you've been honest and faithful to software producers in getting legit copies, all too many producers see hacked ones out in the market place (sometimes the hackers are even CHARGING for the hacks! ) and eventually go out of business unless they develop hardware dongles (viz the Notator dongle which no-one has yet successfully hacked) or Microsoft paranoia style passwords, serial numbers and all the other stuff that makes you tear your hair out.

With Atari software it's all rather different. Because the commercial Atari market is basically moribund and developers have either given up/ gone bust/ or more to another platform, then we're not taking money out of their pockets or the food out of their mouths. Indeed, thanks to the tireless efforts of the late Tim Conrardy and others, we have a unique range of previously commercial software that's been made free officially.

So while we can openly 'boast' (if that's the correct term) about official cracks or cracks of software from companies that haven't existed for years, I think it's the very nature of the Atari world that make this situation tenable.
The PC world is another matter entirely where anarchy rules from Microsoft's R&D depts down to the bedroom hacker; hence the endless security upgrades and unfriendliness in general of MS stuff and OS.
Me -I'm a Mac user of many years standing. Yes, I have a PC as well, but I notice that the latest version of Windows that MS are trumpeting looks suspiciously similar to Mac OS X.
I wonder why?

Best wishes,
Dave.

[Guest]

I should'nt be making a convincing case though should I?

I sometimes wish that people were more honest sure I do, but at the same time, the software companies also need to find a balance too! - sure, they need to protect their investment, but what these companies do to some of their software is beyond a joke... Serials, on line validation, CD present and all this, but on a PC you need to do it all.

Its stopping the real users who have actually bought the software from using it because they have to run a gauntlet of anti-piracy protection just to use the software they legally paid for, meanwhile the users of the pirated software have it all cracked ready for them and therefore, these users never see serial numbers, or have the need for the CD to be present, or the need for a dongle... Although the Dongle idea for me is fine as I never use the cart for anything othert han teh dongle it stays there and I use Audio in the Falcon and Score in the TT so they are fine and I dont have an issue, but on the PC...

Oh and be careful on saying that Windows looks a lot like OSX

OSX is linux everything on OSX has been copied from Linux on the PC

Windows, like OSX has taken some good bits from Linux.

So, while you are saying that Windows looks like OSX, you have in fact got it completely wrong because OSX and Window have both stolen ideas from Linux, its just that apple went the whoel hog and not only stole ideas from Linux, but OSX actually IS linux. They stole the whole O/S.

Apple also stole the hardware too if you think about it... Intel CPU... Windows can now run on a Mac and Mac software can be made to run on a PC with fairly little effort.

Macs aint mac anymore!

But I am digressing...

The facts remain. Piracy is wrong, of that, there cannot be any doubt, but does it do as much dammage as the companies say it does, or are they just out to wrong every penny they can from us?

In both Canada and Sweeden, file sharing was perfectly legal, and in fact many File Sharing servers were moved to sweeden because they would be perfectly safe there.
And what happened? Both canada and sweeden not only because the illegal download capitals of the world, but music sales also shot up too!

Now, because of peer pressure from other countries, they have had to back down on this and what has happened to music sales?

They have plummetted.

Its been proven time and time again taht piracy does not cost the companies anywhere near as much as they say it does and yet they have stronger and stronger grips on us.

[Metrophage]

One reason why piracy helped me is that when I started with computer music, people told me about certain software, and then I wanted it. But when I "tried" it, I realized that these programs were not what I wanted! So my first hard-earned $500-$1000 would have been wasted on the wrong software, and I would need to either sell at a loss, or give up and use it anyway. It is generally a good thing to try software in a real working environment to know if it what you need.

Another thing the lawyers do which is wrong is count every downloaded copy as a lost sale, but this is not the case. Those who do offer a demo version will attest that only a small percentage of those who download a demo, will buy the software afterward. And then there are poor people, who need a tool even though they have no income to spend on it. So what do we do, sue them for money they don't have in the first place? There are certain difficult issues with piracy, but the scale and economic problem is not so bad as the hype indicates.

Personally, I grabbed "free" versions of useful software when I was a poor artist on the street, with no income for many years. And once I had a job with decent pay, I have been buying real licenses to these tools I value. The only difference is that I got to use them for a few years before I paid. So what!?

And when it comes to abandonware, I am completely in favor. This is history which would otherwise be lost.