WaxfordSqueers
December 7th, 2004, 18:05
I found the vote question interesting, but found none of the responses spoke for me. I do crossword puzzles as well, the hardest I can find, like the New York Times weekend puzzles. I stopped reading newspapers, and I buy a paper on the weekend just to get the NYTimes puzzles. I would regard that as a hobby and a means of exercising my brain. That's much the same way I regard reversing. Like Mallory said when asked why he wanted to climb Everest..."because it's there".
That's much the way I look at reversing. Let's face it, with a little bit of patience and judicious search skills, anyone can find many programs already cracked, somewhere on the net. If not, there are countless serials, keygens and patches for most programs. I personally don't have the motivation to reverse just for the sake of learning. If I wanted to do that, I'd get serious and study computer programming and become a systems analyst.
There's a little bit of anarchy in it too. One definition of anarchy is an absence of order. Whereas I don't advocate wholesale disobedience of the law, for our mutual good and respect of others, I don't prescribe to what the software manufacturers are doing. If I'm right, the internet was first set up by the military, then became a public domain educational enterprise. It was a creation of the human spirit and a testament to the human ability to share. Then along came the businesses, like they usually do, and try to claim it as their own private domain.
The internet is not for private enterprise alone, it's for everybody (even Bill Gates), much like a public park. Private enterprise has already taken it's pound of flesh by charging us to get on a system that rightfully belongs to the public. One could argue that it was the universities to whom it rightfully belongs, but it's usually the public who pay for them. And it's the public who support the military. So, the internet was created with taxpayer's money.
I say to software companies, "if you want to use 'my' internet, then behave yourselves". The software companies have offered trials on the net to lure people into buying their products. I prescribe to the theory that we should support the development of these products by buying the products. But some of these companies are so damned greedy and arrogant that it becomes repugnant to support them. They gleefully come out with contrived protection schemes, and you can just sense the attitude of "shove it up yours, John Q. Public". When someone reverses their products, they run to the courts screaming, "foul!!". I have to admit to a certain contentment in showing myself I can reverse these kinds of protections. It's a childish pleasure, but fun all the same. It's a challenge.
I'm opposed to someone stealing a software product and selling it for profit. And I'm not sure how I feel about reversing a product and releasing it onto the net. I don't do it myself, although I'm being hypocritical, if you get my drift. There's something a little Robin Hoodish about it. I feel for legitimate software companies who are simply trying to make a living, but I tend to smirk at the larger corporations who are socking it to the consumer through inflated prices and poor customer support.
I'd like to know how others feel about it. Am I alone in my thinking?
That's much the way I look at reversing. Let's face it, with a little bit of patience and judicious search skills, anyone can find many programs already cracked, somewhere on the net. If not, there are countless serials, keygens and patches for most programs. I personally don't have the motivation to reverse just for the sake of learning. If I wanted to do that, I'd get serious and study computer programming and become a systems analyst.
There's a little bit of anarchy in it too. One definition of anarchy is an absence of order. Whereas I don't advocate wholesale disobedience of the law, for our mutual good and respect of others, I don't prescribe to what the software manufacturers are doing. If I'm right, the internet was first set up by the military, then became a public domain educational enterprise. It was a creation of the human spirit and a testament to the human ability to share. Then along came the businesses, like they usually do, and try to claim it as their own private domain.
The internet is not for private enterprise alone, it's for everybody (even Bill Gates), much like a public park. Private enterprise has already taken it's pound of flesh by charging us to get on a system that rightfully belongs to the public. One could argue that it was the universities to whom it rightfully belongs, but it's usually the public who pay for them. And it's the public who support the military. So, the internet was created with taxpayer's money.
I say to software companies, "if you want to use 'my' internet, then behave yourselves". The software companies have offered trials on the net to lure people into buying their products. I prescribe to the theory that we should support the development of these products by buying the products. But some of these companies are so damned greedy and arrogant that it becomes repugnant to support them. They gleefully come out with contrived protection schemes, and you can just sense the attitude of "shove it up yours, John Q. Public". When someone reverses their products, they run to the courts screaming, "foul!!". I have to admit to a certain contentment in showing myself I can reverse these kinds of protections. It's a childish pleasure, but fun all the same. It's a challenge.
I'm opposed to someone stealing a software product and selling it for profit. And I'm not sure how I feel about reversing a product and releasing it onto the net. I don't do it myself, although I'm being hypocritical, if you get my drift. There's something a little Robin Hoodish about it. I feel for legitimate software companies who are simply trying to make a living, but I tend to smirk at the larger corporations who are socking it to the consumer through inflated prices and poor customer support.
I'd like to know how others feel about it. Am I alone in my thinking?
