Well, on this pc there is only 1 type of illegal software: MSX games i run with OpenMSX.

BIG is a worthless initiative. I can't believe serious people can be behind it. Or is it like a police officer who lights (illegal) confiscated fireworks? I guess....

The site's poll is far from reality. I know NO-ONE personal who uses and owns a legal windows. On top of that, none of those people use bought PC software... they use cracks

The actual poll score should be inverted... or did only freesoftware (linux/*bsd) users vote the poll???

DarQ: I have legal copies of Win95, Win95 OSR2.1, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinXP Pro UK (3x). Currently only use the latter 3. Scary huh?

I think only people behind bigweb 'voted' on the poll though, it looks rigged

ah well, there are exceptions of course.. but i don't know you personal
oh, i know one guy, he has a small webdesigning company.. that explains.

and since you're a bazix dude... you have no choice either

DarQ, you know me, I have legal:
MS-DOS6.20
Windows 3.11
Windows NT/2000/XP (pro and home)
Windows 95/98/ME
Windows Longhorn beta
and a whole lot more...

I guess it's an advantage when you're a student at an University where they have useful contracts with Microsoft, i.e. all computer science students can legally download Microsoft products (except for MSoffice though, strange :|). Yeah, that rocks

snout: I was one of the 2% saying 'I have illegal warez on my PC'

Yeah, it's the Office crap

ok D-Tail.. that makes two.. but still...
window users: use OpenOffice.org! saves you the cra(ck/p) or the money.

DarQ, let me help you out of your dreamstate: OpenOffice is *SLOW*. *DAMN SLOW*. I tried it one time, because I really had it with MSOffice, but man... Loading a .doc or a .ppt in open office is a hell. FYI: I've got a Intel Pentium III 600MHz w/ 256MB PC133 RAM. That's ideal for a workstation (and it even runs NLMSX fluently! ).

Yeah, I can't use openMSX or blueMSX there NLMSX is good enough for me.

I'd like to know whats Mr. Peter R. de Vries suggests about the "Media Canon" actually applying in Spain:

ALL media storage like CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, etc... have a "tax" due to "they should be used to copy music and illegal software". This means, if I buy some CD to backup my pictures from my digital camera, I'm paying a plus tax for others that are using CD to record illegal software or music.

Amazing

Oh... and this could be worse: the "SGAE" (the private organism that "defends" the copyrights of musicians and software development in Spain) are trying to add a tax to Hard Drives and so on....... XDDDD

incredible.

in the Netherlands there's a tax on CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-Rs too. But there even was a similiar tax on cassettes in the old days. Still is, probably.

well and when we see comercials of internet providers they want to let you believe that dowloading music and games are legal i guess

Quote:

DarQ, you know me, I have legal: MS-DOS6.20 Windows 3.11 Windows NT/2000/XP (pro and home) Windows 95/98/ME Windows Longhorn beta and a whole lot more... I guess it's an advantage when you're a student at an University where they have useful contracts with Microsoft, i.e. all computer science students can legally download Microsoft products (except for MSoffice though, strange :|). Yeah, that rocks

Note that that student-license is AFAIK only legal as long as you are a student
Once you finish your study, you are not allowed anymore of using those products


As far as the spreading of Cracks and Serial numbers being illegal according to the B.I.G. site (and I agree with you Grauw on the 'design'-issue): AFAIK crack programs itself are legal.. and a serial number is just a piece of text... hardly can call it illegal... the use of them though, to obtain a license for a program which you didn't pay the license fee for, is illegal..

And I believe there were even plans on putting such taxes on copy-paper. Since quite some companies use copy-paper to copy excerpts from official documents/magazines.

D-tail: i never use office applications at all so i don't know
EDIT:well, i downloaded and installed it in a few minutes, and gave it another try..

it isn't that slow. only loading the entire application takes a while

DarQ:
IMO the only disadvantage of openoffice - and other freeware alternatives, including non-office programs of course - is often compatibility.
Just try to give other people your documents written with openoffice, or the other way round, getting MS Office written docs (which is more common in my case).
The other person gets a different document due to compatibility...

Well it's in some way a vicious circle: (Sometimes) You'll have to use MS Office because many other use it.
And even worse, nowadays Office & co. is often included with new computers!


Poisonic:
Eummm.. don't really understand what your piccy is supposed to say

Realy ??? its a fake label of solid snake

its a reprinted label on the real cartridge that did not had a solidsnake label

so i guess

if i was stupid enough i could rip of people on ebay people would believe what they see i guess ....

Quote:

I know NO-ONE personal who uses and owns a legal windows.

I do. In general, legally owning software is much less bothersome. Especially for the OS, I’m not going to jeopardise my day-to-day working system with a risk of not being able to use it anymore, or keep it secure. Besides, I use it so often, I think I they’ve earned their money fair and square.

But ok, yeah, twas available for cheap because I’m a student . Nevertheless, I’m not too to pay for something, and I have legal copies of most of the software I use regularly.

FiXato, about student licenses: they are for academic and non-profit use, afaik, but they’re not void once you graduate... I mean, with the average product lifespan, that would hardly be worth the effort to enforce (quite bothersome, actually). Of course, you can’t use them for commercial purposes. In any case, I’m not about to graduate anytime soon, so I guess that’s a good thing ;p.


~Grauw