Guys, thank you all so much for the responses. Many of you have recommended using virtual machines, and that will probably be sufficient for most scenarios, but I just want to leave a link to the person’s comment about some software being able to detect virtual machines just in case, so that you keep that in mind and don’t put yourself in danger.
Yes, thanks for the reply!
I don’t like to use stripped down versions of programs only to discover in the process that the functionality I need has been cut out. In my experience with ZBrush, the stripped-down versions lack quite important, and I would even say fundamental, functionality. I would still prefer to use the alternatives mentioned above, where if something is missing, it is not something fundamental.
And I just don’t want to give money to developers who put up $6,000 price tags and then sue individuals if they use unlicensed versions of software that they simply can’t afford.
I never heard of consumer apps doing this. I’m not familiar with foundry, but it seems their target audience are companies? Cracking hard on companies that use unlicensed copy is very common in b2b world. Microsoft, Oracle, etc all doing this to companies, threatening to “audit” them when they detect unlicensed uses from the company’s ip address
In the links I sent, at least 2 private users (not companies) complained about Foundry demanding money from them, or otherwise starting to sue. I’m not really sure why they’re doing this if it’s just inhumane to demand money from people who don’t even have any. My understanding is that people are not sitting on torrents out of surplus funds. Probably, if they would give up this kind of behavior and stop paying salaries to employees dealing with this issue, they would cover the expenses they have due to the use of unlicensed versions of software by private individuals. But maybe I’m seeing the situation wrong. But whatever it is, tracking down private individuals who use unlicensed software and demanding money from them is to me a kind of madness.
I’m just wondering how I can protect myself from something like this.
In the case of Nuke, “just buying” a legitimate copy is not “just” - it costs $6,000 per year. But it’s not necessary, I’ve already found alternatives.
Sounds good!