"Copying software is so easy, of course I've done it," says Matthew, a London-based IT specialist. "That was in my undergraduate years - I didn't know anyone who bought the stuff legitimately.
"Someone would turn up and say 'give this a crack, it's the latest version' and it'd get passed around until it was obsolete. It was mostly office and spreadsheet programs, the kind of stuff you can download from the web now."
After graduation, Matthew used a mix of licensed and copied software until 1998. "On holiday in Malaysia, I bought a copy of Microsoft's FrontPage from a guy at a dodgy market stall. For months it worked fine, but it turned out to be laced with the Chernobyl virus - it cost £600 to repair the damage."
His fingers well and truly burned - and his spending power far greater than in his student years - Matthew now only uses licensed software. "Not only do they work properly, I get all the technical support and upgrades I need.
"I think Microsoft and other big firms benefited from that early piracy by my generation. Yes we saved money, but we became much more computer literate and so are now regular customers. I bought a photo editing program last year - I wouldn't have been interested if I hadn't tried out a bootleg copy years ago."
"Someone would turn up and say 'give this a crack, it's the latest version' and it'd get passed around until it was obsolete. It was mostly office and spreadsheet programs, the kind of stuff you can download from the web now."
After graduation, Matthew used a mix of licensed and copied software until 1998. "On holiday in Malaysia, I bought a copy of Microsoft's FrontPage from a guy at a dodgy market stall. For months it worked fine, but it turned out to be laced with the Chernobyl virus - it cost £600 to repair the damage."
His fingers well and truly burned - and his spending power far greater than in his student years - Matthew now only uses licensed software. "Not only do they work properly, I get all the technical support and upgrades I need.
"I think Microsoft and other big firms benefited from that early piracy by my generation. Yes we saved money, but we became much more computer literate and so are now regular customers. I bought a photo editing program last year - I wouldn't have been interested if I hadn't tried out a bootleg copy years ago."
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