How does everyone feel about torrenting proprietary software when you are broke? I'm especially curious with what developers' opinions are about this. And for the sake of a simpler scenario, I would say just big name software companies with expensive products (Adobe, for example).

You shouldn't do it. And not because you have to pay for it but because its closed source meaning you don't know what code you are running

I've been torrenting for years e.g Adobe Photoshop, premiere, visual studio, i should feel bad but i dont because they charge ridiculous amounts of money for the software, but if theres a free version or open source version as good i will choose that over pirating.

I used to do it with Adobe Illustrator/Ps, but i deleted those programs since i don't have design skills. :( and i moved from windows to ubuntu.

I don't do it because I would much rather use open source but if I'm actually required to use something proprietary and expensive my company is paying for it.

In our society there is such thing as ownership not just of physical things but also ideas, designs, music, software, etc. This applies to everyone whether you are broke or not.

People who own these things decide how they are to be used not you. So if those software companies no matter how big they are require you to pay a license fee then you have no excuse not to.

I would be fine with changing things to make ownership apply only to physical things. Not sure about getting rid of the concept of ownership altogether though? Anyway those changes are never going to happen in our lifetime so just deal with it.

One thing you can do if you reject the concept of virtual ownership is to help support free software by using it instead.

I am mixed. Part of me says fuck them for the prices. The other part says it is their software, and they should be able to do what they want.

The reason I support the second point is because I want to be able to do what I want with software I craft, whether that is open source, closed source, only runs on Wednesday. If that is the licence, I feel it should be honored.