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davidnThe ease with which you can copy any and all software around these days is quite a large problem for smaller companies who try to make a living on it, and Clickteam is no exception. However, they've not been hit as badly as they could have been, with only one known BitTorrent version of MMF going around that has a serial that's locked out of getting any of the more useful updates. Apparently they contacted the customer they'd originally sold it to and he said, in a burst of upstanding personal responsibility, that his friend did it.
Sometimes it can almost be a positive thing as it gets software out to people that wouldn't otherwise buy it and possibly increases its visibility for people who would, but if these people are going to avoid paying, they could at least have the courtesy not to show up on the technical support forums and demand help from the developers - one such individual kicked up a storm about having bought it for "a lot of money" and moaned about it not doing what he wanted it to, then finally admitted after he'd been told it was suspicious that the updates didn't work that he had copied it off someone else. The cheek of these people is outstanding.
Most torrent users, though, make up for it by being easy to spot because of their phenomenal thickness. As in situations above, the most common way to find unpaid-for copies is to look for threads in which someone's complaining that they can't update, ask for them to private message their serial number, and then quietly remove their posts when it inevitably turns out to be the dodgy one. Or they'll start a thread straight off admitting that they copied it from someone else, oblivious that if you ask the people who wrote it for help with your copy that you didn't pay them for, they might get a bit annoyed.
One of the best of them happened today, though, and I feel quite disappointed that I didn't notice it myself. A user perfectly innocently asked about not being able to get any sound working, which is usually a problem caused by using external sound files and then not selecting the sound filters to go with them. Helpfully, he provided a screenshot of his desktop (I apologize for it being a JPG, but a PNG was evidently beyond him...)
What's wrong with this picture?
Here's some advice - if you're going to BitTorrent something, don't ask for help from its community. But if you really must do that, try not to give them any illustrative screenshots that show you have your BitTorrented folder (complete with recognizable [lZr] tag) open in the background.
Sometimes it can almost be a positive thing as it gets software out to people that wouldn't otherwise buy it and possibly increases its visibility for people who would, but if these people are going to avoid paying, they could at least have the courtesy not to show up on the technical support forums and demand help from the developers - one such individual kicked up a storm about having bought it for "a lot of money" and moaned about it not doing what he wanted it to, then finally admitted after he'd been told it was suspicious that the updates didn't work that he had copied it off someone else. The cheek of these people is outstanding.
Most torrent users, though, make up for it by being easy to spot because of their phenomenal thickness. As in situations above, the most common way to find unpaid-for copies is to look for threads in which someone's complaining that they can't update, ask for them to private message their serial number, and then quietly remove their posts when it inevitably turns out to be the dodgy one. Or they'll start a thread straight off admitting that they copied it from someone else, oblivious that if you ask the people who wrote it for help with your copy that you didn't pay them for, they might get a bit annoyed.
One of the best of them happened today, though, and I feel quite disappointed that I didn't notice it myself. A user perfectly innocently asked about not being able to get any sound working, which is usually a problem caused by using external sound files and then not selecting the sound filters to go with them. Helpfully, he provided a screenshot of his desktop (I apologize for it being a JPG, but a PNG was evidently beyond him...)
What's wrong with this picture?
Here's some advice - if you're going to BitTorrent something, don't ask for help from its community. But if you really must do that, try not to give them any illustrative screenshots that show you have your BitTorrented folder (complete with recognizable [lZr] tag) open in the background.
