moral dilemma

jazzcat · Post by **jazzcat** » 2006 Feb 06, 13:55

firstly i would like to say xplorer2 is an absolutely brilliant product, it is probably the best 20 or so euros i have ever spent on software. it is the first program i put on any machine i use, and i can't imagine life without it. congratulations to the author on a brilliant piece of software.

however there has always been one slight annoyance for me in my situation at work. i work for a security company as a malware analyst, and use x2 on all the machines i work on. on the 'dirty' machines i have admin access so altho i reimage frequently, i can install x2 no problem and don't much mind pasting the key in every time. however on our clean network, i do not have admin access, just user access, plus the machine is reimaged *every* day, so the domain admin was not happy to keep installing x2 for me all the time.

so one day when i was bored and no new malware was comin in, i decided to have a wee look into the x2 binary, and after a bit of reverse engineering i was able to patch the binary to completely remove the 'licensing subsystem' such that it now runs as just a plain user with no need for a key. this is mighty handy! but it has left me wondering, is this bad? since i own a license, and would never dream of distributing any copies, is what i have done wrong? from both a moral or legal standpoint?

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2006 Feb 06, 14:06

Yes, and Yes.
But as with most things legal, there is arbitration -- you should take it up with the developer. i.e.: send PM and discuss with nikos whether he will grant a special case situation.
For the moral isue, take it up with a "higher authority".

Post by **nikos** » 2006 Feb 06, 14:37

i guess that merely by admitting this publicly you are a good egg

nowadays anybody can get a crack or whatever to avoid paying for most programs. I cannot say for sure if yours is one of the sins that count against you in the purgatory (if any) but having bought the licence you have a good excuse

what should come across to people is that not all companies that trade software on the net are like microsoft. It's different stealing from m$ and different stealing from zabkat. xplorer2 is just me. If i get out of business then the internet ecosystem is a little bit poorer. I guess there are environmental friendliness arguments you can put forward here.

jazzcat · Post by **jazzcat** » 2006 Feb 06, 14:53

It's different stealing from m$ and different stealing from zabkat. xplorer2 is just me. If i get out of business then the internet ecosystem is a little bit poorer

oh i couldn't agree more and reiterate that i would never dream of distributing anything that helped anyone to steal from you!

this was born out of some spare time, an interest in reverse engineering, and a slightly non-standard setup at work which caused the annoyance of not having x2 on my clean machine

i sincerely believe that this product should sell well enough for you to earn an exclusive living from it - it is such a superior class piece of software! just out of interest, are you making enough from this alone to live on? (and devote all your working time to it?)

Post by **nikos** » 2006 Feb 06, 16:00

i guess in a different country i would have stopped my day job but in london decent houses cost £500K+ so x2 is just for beer money

WimdeLange · Post by **WimdeLange** » 2006 Feb 07, 07:20

Unbelievable, that you can put out such a nice product while you have a day job! And have the time to react to this forum too?

Gandolf · Post by **Gandolf** » 2006 Feb 07, 07:49

Perhaps it's the Greek food and wine that give him the stamina!