Going back quite a few years ago I made a sizeable investment into music software. My shoulders slumped when I discovered that other colleagues were having the time of their lives producing their tunes with even better software than I owned, yet they hadn’t paid a blinking cent! Their entire DAWs consisted of cracked software.

I contemplated joining the dark side, then the Wise One’s words reminded me, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his own soul?”.

Add to that the benefit of sleeping well at night.

But here’s a sticky one. I know of at least one studio where I’ve done freelance work that has a sizeable rack of cracked plugins. When I work there I avoid using the cracked plugins and stick to using the legit plugins in their collection. But if the judge’s gavel fell upon that studio would I be considered guilty by association? Food for thought!

Yes, and the more he sold the cheaper they got….

Universal Audio has the best method…. A dsp card (dongle).

Their plugins simply don’t stand out from the [usually much cheaper...] crowd in order to justify the price, yet you don’t see other plugin companies taking studios to court.

Also, historically, taking pirates to court isn’t a particularly effective tactic (for example, thepiratebay.org).

But when they make their first CD and hope that it earns at least enough money to pay for itself and perhaps fund the next one, things become very different.

Intellectual property is intellectual property…

One of the reasons people get involved in the music industry is to make a living doing something they are passionate about. That passion manifests in many different ways: songwriting, performing, sound recording, sound reinforcement, management, promotion, production, etc. That list also includes developing and manufacturing tools for making music, which includes musical instruments, sound equipment and, of course, software. Most of the people developing audio plug-ins are as passionate about sound and/or music as anyone else in the music industry, and their contributions have become absolutely fundamental parts of the recording process. In fact, there are entire genres of popular music that are 100% reliant on it…

I have met software developers who are as passionate and enthusiastic as any musician I’ve ever met, some moreso. Most of them are musicians, but their real talent lies in writing code, not notes – so they focus their energies and talents on making cool tools to help others record music. Despite that, people continue to steal from them…

I would dare any jerk who uses cracked software to walk into the local music store and steal a $250 Stratocaster rip-off on the same grounds that he/she justifies using cracked software – cannot afford it but really wants it. Unlike the cracked software, that rip-off guitar owes its manufacturer nothing in research and development, cost them about $10 in parts and labour, and is probably made by some faceless and passionless employee who is just doing a job. (Remember Chris Holders’ video tour of the Behringer factory?)

Stealing is stealing, and the ramifications and punishments are the same (and should be). But for the stupid, ignorant, greedy and selfish among us, when the thing being stolen exists as bits (a plug-in) instead of atoms (the guitar), the guilt equation changes significantly…

Intellectual property is being decimated by the belief that production costs are so small, companies must be ripping us off!!! Wrong.

All business’ are set up to make a profit by selling a product. Waves sells software, MacDonald’s
sells burgers, Audi sell cars. The fact remains that theft is theft, and we need to stop this theft.

I am glad Waves have had this decision go in there favor. Perhaps they need to reconsider there pricing policies and how they bundle there software, thats up to them!

Henry Ford use to offer the model-T Ford in any colour you liked, as long as it was black!
he still sold cars!!!

Because it is mounted on the instrument, the tone remains consistent no matter how much the musician moves around. The benefits to the reproduced sound are obvious, but perhaps less obvious is the fact that the musician is free to express him/herself without worrying about playing to a microphone on a stand.

I used a 4099S on a soprano saxophone in a live concert in Chennai (Southern India) back in January 2009, and the saxophonist was as pleased with the recorded sound as he was with the freedom it gave him to move around.

I dislike Waves and their products immensely; I moved away from them some time ago and it’ll be a cold day in hell’s studio before any of my audio passes through a Waves plug-in again. Their plug-ins always add the same thin and harsh sound to everything that passes through them and are extremely over-rated, imho. I also dislike Waves’ philosophies regarding bundling stuff together. Finally, I hate their pricing and upgrade policies – they’ve been taking the piss out of the audio industry for many years now. BUT… that’s no justification for stealing. If you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. Simple.

As owners of intellectual property, Waves have a right to defend themselves from theft. Perhaps their prices are too high, but that doesn’t change the reality of the law. And it doesn’t justify stealing from them on the grounds that someone thinks they are charging too much.

You know, I’d really like a Ferrari. Based on my miniscule knowledge of the costs involved to design, prototype, test, manufacture, market, ship, sell and support a great sports car, I reckon Ferrari are charging way too much. Therefore, I’m going to steal one instead. That’ll be okay, won’t it?

The nice thing about bits (1s and 0s) is that they take the atoms out of the equation, and atoms are hopelessly expensive (in comparison) to create, ship and store – so bits have the potential to be cheaper. But this isn’t about whether it’s bits or atoms, it is about the thinking and knowledge that goes into programming a stable plug-in – whether it’s sold as bits or atoms. We should always be prepared to pay for that if we want it…