Be very wary of CD software dealers from Russia

There is a chap around here from Russia - who will promise software and not deliver!!

Tempting but you will get nothing - esp with promises of WIN XP

So beware of him

Can you take this down the skreet ? Doubtful anyone here is interested in illegal activities/products.

Well, you got off easy considering the alternatives for buying pirated software.

What a moron.

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Students only have so much money. We don't have bottomless pockets. The more we have to pay for a university education, THE LESS THERE IS LEFT TO PAY FOR THE TOOLS!. So, with some private universities charging over $20,000 a year in tuition (not including room and board) it's not hard to see why many students going there can't afford software.

Also, students, like any other human being, require food and shelter. (I'm assuming that students get to college with clothing and don't buy any new clothes until they graduate). In the United States, as well as in most other developed nations, food and shelter cost money.

Greatly reduced is in many cases still not affordable. The full version of 3D Studio Max is $3,000. A student version is 1/3 that at $1,000. I have a grandmother who could give me the $1,000 it cost. But most grad students don't. And I can't afford a legal upgrade to my software, so I'm still using 3D Studio Max 2.5 (it's 3 years old). Most of the software that falls in the $300 to $600 price range doesn't offer student versions, and $300 to $600 isn't affordable to someone whose income is $-20,000 a year.

You can go on and on about it. But the fact of the matter is that students can do one of three things. They can get to their final review with substandard work done without the proper software. I've been there before, and it's amazing how biting architecture professors can be. They can live out of their car (or in studio), eat only Ramen, and buy legal copies of the software. Or they can steal the software, have an apartment, eat real food, and have good work for the reviews. Again, remember, students aren't bottomless pits of money.

Now, I might say one more thing. If software makers want to get some money for their hard work (and they should), and if we all want the price of legal software to drop, then perhaps the software companies should ask the universities to pay them for the software students use. Look at the numbers. When loans are factored in, most students have a negative net worth. But university endowments are huge. Harvard's slong is nearly $20 billion. TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS! I'd wager to say that much less than that is lost by software makers each year thanks to

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If I were to have designed a house for you that cost twice what you could afford, and then told you that it HAD to be built for that much and that nothing could be cut or changed to lower the price, then perhaps you might be justified in taking the drawings, giving them to another architect, and having him make the changes. If I were to charge you 20% of the building cost as my fee (4 times the usual) then also you might be justified in taking the drawings.

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Unfortunately, you're missing the point. Adam, you simply cannot rationalize this theft. Period. Q.E.D. Life just isn't fair. There are beautiful people and ugly people. There are the rich and the poor. You just gotta make the most of what you do have.

NOT beautiful and NOT rich but nevertheless dreaming of an architect-designed home,

The bigger problem is schools requiring projects be done in such an expensive manner. It would be the same as an each electrical engineering major being required to purchase a $3k laser for a project....then what do they do with it?

To suggest that people that have $20k to spend for school are justified in *stealing* software is ludicrous, and you know it. I'm really surprised that you've taken this stance. You're claiming it's OK to steal cause you're broke.