I am not a developer and have no love or support for users of hacked or cracked software. But a kid at my church is a DJ and his mixes and some original songs are selling in the thousands in the region, which is impressive to me. I asked his father what plugins he was using with his reaper DAW (I talked them out of pro tools). He said he had all the best ones that sound like the great vintage gear. I see the young man this morning and joked with him that he should be careful using "pirate software". He asked me why and I said it is all beeped and blipped and has watermarks that tell the government who steals it and where they live. Now I was joking with the boy and he almost passed out. I told his dad what occurred and he asked me what could happen, and honestly I do know that some of the things I said are somewhat true to an extent. I also know that companies, and not govt, are the only people listening for sub-hearing markers. My questions are: What should my friends do beyond stop using cracks and deleting them, if anything? Could there be trouble from the tracks already made and sold? I honestly do not know and do not want to misinform anybody.

The watermark stuff is a myth. Just tell the guy to buy his most valued stuff first. Once you start buying stuff, it gets easier to turn away from pirated stuff.

I am curious about the name or denomination of this church...

All complete FUD Some of the biggest names in music are caught year in year out using pirated software (Happened again last month) And what happens, absolutely nothing thats what I have zero pirated software on my computer but that is more to do with the fact i had to limit what i was using to get anything done, otherwise i would be constantly trying stuff out. I would not give a fly f**k if i wanted to use a pirated piece of software and in the case of some companies i would choose that over paying them anyway (Companies that break the law should not try and hide behind them too)

The father, my friend, became enraged and totally had a meltdown as the events unfolded. I am thankful my own son is only four. I dread the day when I learn of the bad decisions he is making when he is 19 years old. There are a couple life lessons to be learned here. Not the least of which is my friend has been legally exposed by his son's downloading habits. not cool. My wife's two sons do this to me every time they visit. I tell her to not allow them on my desktop. Every time she allows them to check their email. Every time the download history shows plenty of illegally downloaded songs. My blood pressure is going high while I am just thinking about it.

Think what you want. Do what you want. Embrace the new and still coming laws concerning intellectual property and software or ignore them, but I assure you, the noose is tightening. I suggest you keep one eye on recent events in the EU, if you want to know where the US and other countries are also heading. In general, legislatures everywhere are lately much more aware that pirating and theft of music is a serious and growing problem, and they have begun to respond accordingly. Will it affect you directly, if you use pirated software? Well,, I suspect it will before very much longer. I wouldn't be too concerned if you've come into doing digital music and are some flash in the pan, no track record, career, and you're off to some new hobby like hang gliding in a couple of years, then I don't think I'd worry much. But if you intend to stay in this field and would like the respect of all -- peers, colleagues, consumers -- then I strongly suggest NOW is the time to pull your act together, become an ethical adult, and face the new realities of how governments and the people who use the internet and these goods are viewing this. I might point out that the fines are incredibly high. Most of the organizations that chase these offenses rarely loose a case in court. The one I used to work for never lost a case. Never. So ... joke away, those of you who perversely think this is something funny. Get caught and convicted and it'll be I who do the laughing.

hey OP, it's none of your business to police other people's computers. "mind your own business" is some really good advice. you are not your brother's keeper. if he asks you for heroin though, do the right thing and don't give him any. don't be a creepy spy ok? be righteous yourself, that's enough work to keep you busy. in short, i hope you are trolling.

Tell him to ensure his licenses are all in order, because the penalties for copyright violation, which he is absolutely doing, are pretty severe. The copyright holders for the stolen material he is using are entitled to up to $150,000 for each work infringed. So if he's got half a dozen out of license VSTs, you can do the math. The fact that he is selling his work makes it a commercial enterprise, and the fact that he is some what successful at it makes it even more so. So he's in deep shit if he gets caught. The costs of purchasing the rights to use the software is peanuts in comparison to the cost of paying the infringed attorney's fees, which he will be doing, too.

Well, he clearly is using the cracked version. Then he states someone else also broke the end user agreement by "sharing" their license. Sounds lame and stupid to me, even if he's story is true.

Actually you are completely and totally wrong, an employee may buy a licence for you of course, much like he may buy you a car, however same as buying a car that licence has to be in your name, not the employees name, so no i am not libelous, the whole thing was a joke and he provided zero proof that he owned the licence/bought the licence or indeed even employs the person whose licence was shown. If he did have a licence and it was in his name he would have showed said licence, not some reciept from some random person, again i reiterate, lets not get rosey eyed here, he got caught, thats that.