In the long run, free software becomes expensive software because of the uncertainty in its security. Someone in our class mentioned that one of downsides to free software is that there is no customer service if something goes wrong. Paying for a legitimate software program is a good idea because your paying for the service, which can save you time and money.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Free Software
In our class discussion on free software, the topic of illegal music downloads came up. Currently, I do not download music illegally. I buy my music on iTunes, usually using gift cards that I have received from the holidays or birthdays. I try not to use my credit card that I have registered on my account. But the fact that I buy my music does not mean that I haven't downloaded music illegally before. When programs like Napster, Kazaa, and Bearshare, were still up and running, I was an avid user, even though the threat of being caught and fined was possible. I know of other websites now that are illegal music sharing websites, and a lot of people that I know use them avidly. I could easily download one of these free music softwares and save a lot of money but I choose not to because when I used those websites before my computers would get so many viruses. I had to bring my computer to get fixed and cleaned out three times, each time costing me 60 dollars, and all of my songs had to be erased. On iTunes I could have had 180 songs with the money I spent getting my computer fixed.
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Caroline,
ReplyDeleteI think it is very hard for people to avoid downloading illegal music, especially since they make is so easy. It is a lot easier to work with a program that you pay for, even though their customer service may not be that great, its better than nothing.
-Liz
The same thing has happened to me, but only once. I had to spend money getting my computer fixed because of illegal downloading. I tried to delete the illegal software that i had downloaded to my computer, but apparently I'm not smarter than geek squad and they figured out what had cause my computer to stop working properly. Just like you, I wait for holidays when I receive gift cards for itunes and buy my music that way...sometimes I have to wait a while but its not a big deal. if i really want to download a song I steal my roommates computer and download it on her limewire (hopefully she has no way of checking your blog comments!)
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