Though I personally do not condone or promote the distribution of pirated software, I have some friends that do.
A question that I am asked several times, and yet have no answer for, is in regards to the updating of pirated software.
For example, after installing, the program wishes to chech for updates to the main program, to the data files, or to the help files.

Does anyone know for a fact of any programs which are "update safe" and of any programs that are "update if you want your IP logged?"

Though I always tell my friends the best thing to do is just save up the money and buy the proggy themselves, I'd also hate to see any of them getting into any trouble.

In accordance with the TOS of Astahost, please do not post any links to cracks or pirated software.

Your last sentence contradicts your 2nd paragraph/sentence.

You want to know what programs that are pirated and update safe but you don't want us to post them cause they are against the TOS.

This post will be reviewed by an admin and credits adjusted as they see fit.

Lets keep this thread open and see what kind of responses it gets - if the discussion pertains ONLY TO the online registration methods involving networking concepts - then it's fine.

But certainly we WONT PERMIT publishing of names of softwares/companies and their respective registration methods. Any general discussions on this topic is permitted.. But NO NAMES and NO SUGGESTIVE WRITING that can help you spot a software/company.

I think this topic should be changed into "Online software license protection" or something similar.

Why dont you tell us what software u r looking for. We may be able to suggest Open Source ALternatives for that.

It depends on the program, Im guessing. A lot of software I use requires you register your product with them before you can access their upgrades and stuff. If you insist on stealing software, I suppose it would be possible to wait for the latest verion of the software to come out, and get a pirated version of that.

really, anything is possible. even if the program wants to identify itself, there are ways to bypass it. But if u insist on using pirated software, the safest is not to update at all online. or use a program that monitor every single outbound request or information packet, and analyse the traffic. be creative!

In the EU the legal system is probably going to be Grokster ruling gone made!

They are considering banning us even inciting piracy, just like inciting terror; a breach of free speech!

Ok this seems to be a very touchy subject so ill tread lightly....

from what i have been told and what developers have hinted, most packages don’t log your IP or log anything to do with your system, there "live" updates as they like to call will go as far as check to see if that package is registered on there network or within there data base if the serial or activation code is in accordance with there data base then its ok and everything is fine, if not then they will ask if you want to register. Developers hint at tracking and logging "Pirated" packages is to time consuming to program it’s a waste of time. Not only that but what’s to say that the person that has an incorrect or duplicate code is not (to put it bluntly) Stupid, they can’t read, they can’t type or they don’t understand it and what have you. There has to be a clear and distinct definition between stupid users and pirate users, and automated updates and loggers can’t dispute that.

Having said what I have I am totally and utterly against pirated software it’s stealing and any book, if you like a program or package, bye it!!! And support your loved companies so that they can bring out more of what you like and better.

i do not condone pirating in any way. And nor should you what I have talked about here is a debate we had at a work conference about such issues.

I think the question would better suited to "what software keeps information about the user and/or acts upon that information when updating etc".

There is no reason why a user should not be clued into how their private information is being used, it's illegal to take user information without them basically saying "yes you can".... as far as I know atleast.