Hell I have to admit, even I tried to pirate Cubase SX before throwin down the money for it. And you know what I got? A damn virus that killed my labtop and no cubase. However after that, I decided to just do some good old fashioned research instead before purchasing the software. I was able to find an online academic book store for some college that was selling Cubase SX3 at a discounted price for like 400 bucks!!! Since I wasn't a member of that school, I couldn't purchase it from that store, however I was able to use that price against Guitar Center. All I had to do was call several times in advance requesting their rules for "price matching." They'll summarize them for you, and keep reminding them that you're going to come in soon to purchase Cubase SX3. After I did that a few times, I was able to show up with a print out from the Acedemic Store, proving it could be sold cheaper, and they were stuck. They argued a little bit, but because I had called several times in advance, they were stuck eating their own words. They weren't prepared to have to match such a low price. We compramised at $450. So in the end, legitimate research paid off, trying to steal the software didn't.