Hello I am Aleksi Haapajoki, the runner of flintnt.com and I am starting this page to give you information why you should not use pirate music programs.

Today's pirates mostly acquired through peer-to-peer networks in the age of software studios, sequencers, and plug-ins have a lot of risks and other bad points that should be considered..

1. There are lots of software around that hasn't been checked. There is no insurance that if you buy a fake program that it will work. Also lots of files circulating have Trojans, spyware and viruses in them. Is it worth risking your hardware for pirate software?

2. The Companies making the product are loosing out. The companies are not releasing the programs so that you can get the pirate versions, but because they think they can get themselves food and pay their living expenses. Pirating is theft.

3.You are missing out on lots of good things. There is a reason that the program ships with that big manual, no its not just a paperweight. If you get the pirate version, you do not get the manual. Also some companies have online freebies for registered legit users. These freebies include access to sound libraries, technical support, ability to upload your own songs and download updates.

4. You are committing a crime. In today's world it may not feel like a theft downloading a full version software, but it is. You tell yourself that there is no way you can be caught. This is true to some extent, it is rare that users of pirate software are caught and fined (or imprisoned), but it happens. If you are distributing the pirate copies, it is much more likely that you will be caught, fined (and/or imprisoned).

5. You are slowing the development of the programs. If everyone had a pirate copy, the software wouldn't exist for long. Legimate users are the people who keep the updates and new versions coming, if all the pirate copies of a program would be replaced by legimate copies of the musical program, the companies making the programs could afford to make bigger and better updates to the program.

Say no to piracy

Don't do piracy. I do admit I have obtained  pirate copies of  programs, in fact my first music making program was a pirate version of Fruitytracks, a program that was discontinued quite a few years back. That coupled with some freeware trackers is where I made my first beats, but they were bad (read awful). Then I realized a few years later when I bought my first copy of Computer Music magazine (Issue 33) that had my first legimate copy of a program and I worked good music with that. Since then I have bought quite a lot of original music programs.

Enough about me. The point here is that even though I may have become my music journey with a pirate software, it doesn't mean that I will continue to use illegal music software forever. Musicians are hard to sell software to, because many seem to think that if they make big then they will pay for the software. How many people you know that have actually bought a legal copy of a software that they have had illegally before without being forced?

What can you do?    

You can tell people who are using pirated copies of software to change, but the real change becomes inside every person. So think twice before downloading or buying pirated software, why not buy a legimate copy?

What can developers do?

I see many developers taking aboard good measures to counter pirates. One and the best way is to give the legimate user so much more with the purchase that they feel that it is a very good deal. The second one is the thing people generally don't like: dongles, challenge-response, and other sorts of piracy protection. At the end of the day I feel copy-protection is needed so that pirating is made more difficult.

Developers can take action and sue big distributors of pirate software. This is the thing some of them are doing, but there are many places in Asia where it is difficult or impossible to sue big distributors as in some countries they are seen as legal business or there are not good enough laws against piracy.

With countries such as China, companies should think of lowering their prices to sell there. This means that in China you will get less profit per sale, but overall you get much more than if the same software had been sold as pirate copies.

        .... To come in second installment : Graphics you can use on your CD or on the packaging to create awareness.