What's THIS? Permission for piracy?

[vurt]

I have no opinion about the content

shame, id have at least been interested in whether or not you (or other devs) agreed that the time of dling cracks is almost at an end?

What I meant to say was: I haven't bothered thinking this through. I would have to ask a native English speaker to figure out if this was to be interpreted as a threat, a cynical remark about reality or whatever it was. I really haven't formed an opinion yet.

i think, from reading it as a native, he was just chancing it in the hopes of getting a freebie.
really wouldn't surprise me if you all (devs) received the same mail in the next few days

[venomode]

I've received the exact same email for both Venomode, and an other manufacturer I provide support for, back in August.

The email uses "plugins" as plural (even though the other company only has one plugin), and doesn't specifically mention the company name or any plugin names - I guess that he hasn't "experimented with my plugins" and is simply spamming as many devs as he can for freebies.

[deastman]

As already noted, this is obviously a scammer who sends the same request to every developer on the planet, hoping to score some free software. There is no school, there are no students. Real schools have an annual budget for IT resources, including the software being taught. I don’t see why this debate is worthy of even a single second of our time.

[Fender19]

Fender19 dunno if that letter is scammish or not but academics and students have been conditioned to have certain expectations.

****

I understand. I give out A LOT of NFRs to industry people and even other developers. I am a firm believer in "good will". I also BUY their plugins and they buy mine. If this guy was asking for a student discount I would have obliged.

But he killed that chance with the last line in the email that says if the students can't find pirate plugins they don't know what to do. What does he mean they "don't know what to do"? BUY them! How could any teacher at any college say something like that?

I found this email incredible and that's why I shared it here.

[Vertion]

I can’t stand those freeloading scammers trying to weasel their way into getting free products. We should all teach them a lesson by giving me a bunch of free software.

All kidding aside though. You could always respond in a friendly manner and sour the milk with a difficult task. Like each person must submit proof of eligibility along with a 30 page essay on why your plugins rock, along with a some chinese food. I must be hungry, my husband is cooking and it smells awesome!

[Fender19]

I can’t stand those freeloading scammers trying to weasel their way into getting free products. We should all teach them a lesson by giving me a bunch of free software.

Gold!

[No_Use]

As already noted, this is obviously a scammer who sends the same request to every developer on the planet, hoping to score some free software. There is no school, there are no students. Real schools have an annual budget for IT resources, including the software being taught. I don’t see why this debate is worthy of even a single second of our time.

FWIW I googled the name that appeared in the OP before it was removed and I indeed found an audio teacher of that name (location also matched IIRC).
But then again if he is a spammer he could have googled and used a random audio teacher name as well of course.

[Richard_Synapse]

Don't really have an opinion about this email, all I can say is we get similar stuff all the time. We usually look at the sender address, which means 90% of such emails go into the trash right away. No way we are sending NFRs to freebie emails, let alone one-day-accounts

Richard

[Richard_Synapse]

Fender19 dunno if that letter is scammish or not but academics and students have been conditioned to have certain expectations.

Students can buy full academic versions of MS Office or Matlab cheaper than the typical cost of the (overpriced) specialized disposable textbooks that total hundreds of bucks extra expense per semester above the tuition financed against their future earnings until retirement. But an ordinary civilian possibly even more penniless than a student has to fork over the big bucks for the same MS Office or MatLab. Young people and academics have "natural privileges" because they are so special ya know!

Sure, and students fully deserve it! The problem is just that from our experience, both EDU and NFR licenses attract scammers like there's no tomorrow, which is sad and thus requires some care.

Richard

[DJ Warmonger]

i think hes pointing out that students are asking him what they can use, as piracy becomes more difficult to keep up with the latest and greatest stuff?

Exactly! So if they can't steal it they don't know what to do? How about BUYING it?

That's great idea... as long as you have money. Point is, not everyone in the world does and young students are the least expected to have some.

Well, there are some companies which offer educational licenses. There are other companies who just charge 500$ for a product and they have perfect right to do so There are many free plugins, too.

[JCJR]

Sure, and students fully deserve it! The problem is just that from our experience, both EDU and NFR licenses attract scammers like there's no tomorrow, which is sad and thus requires some care.

Richard

Yep it is nice to have at least one fella in a sales/marketing dept to wade thru the BS. Am not imagining how big or small any particular dev is. Haven't the foggiest idea. Just that there is such a daunting amount of random distracting BS to plague a sole proprietor developer.

Am ignorant of education issues in USA and even more ignorant of it in other locations. Feel sorry for students. There seems something or the other that my generation screwed up with USA education. It doesn't seem to be public spending because in the past when things were "easier" for students I think that a smaller inflation-adjusted percent of funds were spent on education than today. But could be wrong.

It is just unfortunate they seem to graduate in debt for the rest of their lives. Maybe sounds like science fiction by today's standards, but in 1960s-70s I managed to pay for school playing music in nightclubs and graduated po as a church mouse but debt-free. Nowadays they graduate po as a church mouse in debt for decades. Something went wrongn somewhere.

Of course a student's standard of living was rather low back then. However a lot of petty discomforts might be tolerable to avoid the crushing debt.

[earlevel]

What I meant to say was: I haven't bothered thinking this through. I would have to ask a native English speaker to figure out if this was to be interpreted as a threat, a cynical remark about reality or whatever it was. I really haven't formed an opinion yet.

Frankly, I wasn't sure what it said, but after your note I took the challenge and gave it another look...

This request is not so I can simply use these plugins for myself, but as a way to help keep up with the changes in the industry as well as demonstrate how these plugins work to encourage them to purchase the plugins themselves. The time of downloading cracked plugins is ending quickly with the progress in software security so many of my students are asking me where to turn to.

Note I fixed two typos (italicized), the most important being "is ending quickly...".

The first sentence is clear—he wants to keep up on the latest, to stay current and to show them to students. He seems to hope that this will encourage students to buy plugins that appeal to them.

The second sentence is short on details, and a little awkward, but his overall intent is still clear in light the previous sentence—we know that he expects students to purchase, not pirate.

For instance, it seems he might mean something like this:

"In the past, students used to pirate software (maybe they pirated just to see what was available, possibly to buy ones they like a lot [haha—still, his previous sentence indicates this is his expectation]). Now, with improved copy protection, they can't copy willy-nilly, and would benefit from me demonstrating some plugins. They'll learn what kind of processing is available, and possibly find some that they are compelled to purchase."

Regardless of the exact interpretation of the last sentence, I don't see anything sinister.

[mladi]

Oh please...

[Fender19]

Regardless of the exact interpretation of the last sentence, I don't see anything sinister.

I didn't find it "sinister" either - I found it astounding. His students - which represent much of the young music production public - seem dead in the water if they can't download cracked plugins.

THAT is the issue. "I can't get it for free so what should I do?".

My reaction - that for some reason got some ridicule here was - BUY IT! THAT is "what you do"!

[earlevel]

Regardless of the exact interpretation of the last sentence, I don't see anything sinister.

I didn't find it "sinister" either - I found it astounding. His students - which represent much of the young music production public - seem dead in the water if they can't download cracked plugins.

THAT is the issue. "I can't get it for free so what should I do?".

My reaction - that for some reason got some ridicule here was - BUY IT! THAT is "what you do"!

OK—but were you really astounded that students pirate software? For that matter, surprised that musicians of any age pirate software? You must be a young guy.

But as for the guy writing the email to you and the way he framed it, he seemed to just be trying to make a case for you to send him free stuff—which you can choose to or not. I wouldn't read a lot more into it than that, he just went about it awkwardly.

Story time: Back in the '80s, I was recording a couple of original tunes along with another keyboard player. all synths and drum machine, in the studio of a big-time synth session musician who had done quite well (a union musician, if he went in to do something that would replace multiple musicians, he would get triple scale, etc.). While we were between things, this musician played a bit of a current radio hit for someone. My music collaborator asked if he could pop a blank cassette tape in and make a copy. The session musician had a gentle talk with him about how that is stealing, and he should always pay for music. Later that same day, this session musician studio owner is on the phone with a friend, talking about the little MIDI-centric studio he had just built in the next room, and they got talking about trading Emulator samples each had acquired, as well as computer applications. No discussion of this being stealing. This is a very nice person, btw—it didn't seem to occur to him it was the same thing as copying musical recordings.

The moral is, musicians and students are pretty good about rationalizing software theft.