Poll: Did You Use A Crack For Live Before You Bought It?

[gavspav]

After reading pious forum posts about people using unauthorized versions of software, thought I'd do a poll.

Sorry if its misplaced or offensive to anyone (The Abes largely). I'm genuinely interested in the numbers.

For what its worth I do believe software developers deserve to be paid for their work.

But I also like getting stuff for nothing!

Unless you're absolutely minted you have to make decisions about what you're gonna buy and what you're not.

For me that meant buying Ableton Live as I love it, can earn money with it and want to support its future development.

I chose not to choose crack. I chose Live.

[gavspav]

Just realized this has actually been done before:

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=49577

Well it was a few years ago.

[Willyum]

Crack made me do it...
5 licenced versions
Full licenced suite
and all licenced libraries

But YES, Crack made me do it!

[UKRuss]

It's funny, because I always thought the decision to pay for something or to steal it was more a moral judgement that a financial one.

I may be out of touch with the mdoern definition of theft though.

But still, I tried the demo and then I saved up and bought the full version when I could afford it. Old school I know, but there we go.

[yoshitosser]

I voted with a lie, 'cos pollsters are there to be lied to, particularly those who are "genuinely interested in the number" of crack users.

[Pasha]

For 1 week. After that I was convinced and bought Live 5.
I was crazy about not being able to save...
I make music here and there so I cannot afford a full day
with Live, even today as a paying customer since L5.
Today with 14 days activation I would not go that route.

In general I think software companies should adopt Ableton Vision
about a fairer way to let potential customers evaluate their software.

- Best
- Pasha



Edited 1 time.

[Kilroy]

I went from 14-day demo, to another 14-day demo on a separate machine to that horrible waiting period with no save, to Live 7 Suite. Now I have Live 8 Suite for about a week, but have not installed it yet. Just waiting for things to shake out a bit.

JK

[Tarekith]

I used a crack verison off and on for a couple months while I decided if it was something I was actually going to use for awhile. I work in cycles in the studio, so I might be using any software for weeks at a time and most timed demos are too short for me. I was used to hardware where I'd have 45 days to return something I didn't end up using or liking much, and you don't get that kind of guarantee with software. Once I realized it was a tool that would get use in the studio, I bought it happily.

[8O]

I used the Live 6 demo for a few weeks before buying L6. Beta testing for L7 and L8 made my mind up already to buy both new versions too.

I don't know if it's still the case for L8, but certainly with L7 you could use the 14-day trial version, as well as a time-unlimited (but no saving) demo version. I think this is plenty of scope to make a fully informed decision before buying.

[john doe by choice]

I never tried it before getting an NFR from M-Audio when I worked at guitar center. After I quit, I paid and upgraded to Live 6, and now that I'm a student, I got the edu upgrade to 7.

[doc holiday]

i never even heard of live before someone passed me a copy of v1

i jumped on two from there

[musiker01]

It's funny, because I always thought the decision to pay for something or to steal it was more a moral judgement that a financial one.

I may be out of touch with the mdoern definition of theft though.

Well, you may be out of touch with the traditional definition of theft. It has something to do with somebody having something, and then you take it from him and now you have it and he does not. Clearly, that doesn't happen when you use a crack. It's the internet, and digital stuff can be copied ad infinitum. Maybe this demands new business models and new politics and maybe the rewards will be great sometime in the future. And I do see all the problems that these facts raise. So, I paid for Live 7 because I loved the software and wanted to contribute to its future development and make sure that I get support when I have a problem.

By the way. I also bought Tracktion 3 expecting to get a midi editor that actually worked as advertized. I've waited for an bug fix update for over a year now together with many other loyal customers who once thought Tracktion could become the best audio sequenzer ever, when it seems now that Mackie have ruined this once fine piece of software. I'm not too happy anymore about that purchase.

I also bought GuitarPro expecting them to fix the strange window focus issues on the Mac that drive me up the walls sometimes. One year later - nothing has changed. Will I ever pay for an update? In a pig's eye!

Axel

[leisuremuffin]

no, never had to.


live one or two (can't remember) had a simple run around you could do:


open a set, change something, then quit.
at the "do you want to save" dialog, save was greyed out, but if you canceled you'd be back in the program and able to save.

or something like that, a friend showed me that and i used the program for about 6 months before i decided to buy v2.
'



.lm.

[aizo]

I got a demo disk at guitar center for v6. I tried it out and had no idea what the fuck this thing was. I couldn't figure it out to save my life. So, I just kept it on my computer because I liked the way the icon looked in the dock. I was looking at youtube and saw a video on how Aaron Spectre uses live. I was like oh fuck me what dis be? I looked on Ebay for a good deal. Bought it....started using 7 to only cut up the amen because I thought working with VI's was too difficult. I had a long boring day at work with a bunch of free time. Discovered racks, and a bunch of other shit and I have been using it full time ever since.

I don't used cracked software because I like upgrades and my shit to work.

[Angstrom]

it's interesting that the people who voted in the 'I used/still use a crack' options in this and the older poll - it seems that 96% of initial crack users go on to purchase the application.

Of course, most current crack users probably do not come on the official forum, so the statistics are possibly horribly skewed - but it's still quite a high conversion rate. I'm thinking it may actually be quite accurate.

From my own experience of friends who use a cracked copy, they either:
1: tend to use it off-and-on for about a month and then slowly stop using it and go back to using a different app.
2: use it a lot and then buy a version after they realise that they haven't opened cubase/logic/whatever in a long time

so my experience is that they either delecte it after three months, or they pony up the cash after six months.

So the small number of continuous crack users (%2) we see in this poll may be an accurate reflection of the minority of hardened misfits. In which case the 98% conversion rate is really quite surprising.