Neil writes: What I mean is, if he didn't have a cracked copy, he'd have no copy at all and wouldn't be able to afford to do what he loves. So is it right for him to do this as it doesn't affect Steinbergs profits one little bit?
No it is not right Neil, and believe it or not it does affect Steinbergs profits....quite a bit in the big picture. It makes me sad that this is the moral state that the world is in, where people can't even identify right from wrong anymore.
Some have probably heard me spout this before:
Neil, if you really believe that illegal copies of Cubase don't affect Steinbergs profits ONE BIT , you would also have to say that illegal copies of music CD's don't affect record companies one bit. It is the exact same thing. Do you really think that statement is true? Why don't you call up the record companies and find out. Not only are they losing billions of dollars a year from theft (yes, your friend is a thief), but the distributors are losing billions (because they profit even more than the record companies off the sales of CD's) and more importantly the artists suffer. Not only that, law abiding citizens with a moral backbone like myself pay more to make up for that theft. It's the same thing with Cubase. Steiny loses, the distributor loses, the programmers lose (if they have a point system of pay for total sales goals worked out in addition to their regular pay), and people like Chris and I lose because we pay more because of your friend and others like him.
Furthermore, since your friend has a working copy of Cubase, he is not going to purchase the software and support the company who has given him the tools to work on "what he loves so much". What about the programmers for Steiny who are "doing what they love"? Don't they deserve to get paid? If he truely loved making music so much, like I do and I assume Chris and the others here who have legal copies, he would do as we did and scrimp and save (and put on credit

) so that he would not be a thief, and buy the program when he could afford it, or start with Cubasis and upgrade as he could afford to do so.
Think I'm an A-hole yet?

Let me continue....
I think that the reason that people don't feel bad about stealing music and software is that there virtually no chance of being caught and prosecuted. If there was they wouldn't do it. Let's say your friend plays guitar like Joe Satriani but he can't afford the $1200 American made
Fender...all he can afford is the $150 on sale Mexi model. Do you think he would even consider for one second walking into his local music store, and walking out with that $1200 guitar without paying for it? What if he explained to the owner that he was doing it because "it was his true love in life and he has a family and so he deserves the guitar", how far do you think that would get him? He wouldn't do it because he would get caught. He feels comfortable stealing Cubase because he is a ball-less coward who hides behind anonymity and feels that he is owed something for free because he is so special and can't be bothered to do the right thing and be a good person.
I will make sure I say a prayer tonight that his cracked copy crashes and he loses everything. We all pay more because of people like him.
Well...I hope I was clear enough about where I stand
