irlandes
07-31-2004, 04:31 PM
First, let me say I do not approve of piracy. Nor do I have any pirated software anywhere in my home or in my computer, in the USA or in Mexico. I don't need pirated software, since I run linux and get all the software I want and need virtually free. If you check with your lawyers, they will explain I don't even admit I TOUCHED pirated software.
Nor does anyone involved with me in the following caper have it anywhere in any form. So, FBI or licensing folks, simply do not waste your time with me. Also, most of Mexico knows what I am telling here, all you gotta' do is go to Mexico within 250 miles of Mexico City and ask where folks get their software. Good luck.
I spend a lot of time in Mexico. The wonderful folks are always offering to take me some interesting place, fix me up with chicks, you name it.
Well, in this case, someone offered to show me just how Mexico can afford all the latest software. We were in Mexico City, and I was directed to a certain well-known street where software is sold.
I was told that normally, you look through the large book, pick out the software you wish, tell the person who gets on a cell phone and in two or three minutes an innocent looking little kid comes out, if the coast is clear, the adult reaches out, the kid hands over a CD in a jewel case and the kid runs away again. You pay your 50 pesos, which is around $4.37USD, today, and you walk away.
With the group which went on this demo trip, it didn't work quite that way, in that the CD was apparently somewhere inside the little booth.
The group dug through the book. It had every program I have ever heard of, games, XP pro, Win 98, Win95, Win 2000, NT, even Mandrake 10.0 which would also cost 50 pesos per CD. I forgot to see if they have CrossOver, though.
In this case, the demo was going to be the most expensive program anyone could think of, AutoCad. No one really wanted it, it was selected only because it was the most expensive we could think of. When it was stated as the desire of the moment, she asked, "2004 or 2005". Apparently she did not yet have 2005, so it was settled to get 2004.Then she asked in English or in Spanish, it was chosen English. She produced it and the 50 pesos was paid. She wrote a license number inside the label.
Away we went, with me expecting nets to fly out of the sky at any moment.
The group looked in the CD, and there was a leeme.txt (which I think should say leame.txt, that is README.txt) file. The version was indeed in Spanish, not English as was requested.
It had a complicated thing to do, which allegedly produced a key. The program was installed in the computer. The KeyGen did not work. The set up told us that we thus were limited to only a 30 day trial usage.
After some thought, it was realized that the KeyGen executable needed to be moved into the computer the same folder as the program. There was then a really strange error message, and it was finally realized there was a DLL file on CD that had to be moved into the same folder as well.
Then, it asked for which country, and then some weird number, which turned out to be a number in the window of set up. It was put in KeyGen and it produced an authorization key, just as promised. When the key was installed in the set up box, poof, the computer was up and running with a permanently authorized version of AutoCad.
The KeyGen was run again to see what would happen. It produced a different Key, but more runs kept giving the same key. So, we do not know if it generates a lot of them or what.
No one knew how to run AutoCad. No one has a need to run AutoCad. So, after we stared at it for a while, we removed it, and disposed of the CD.
I gotta' admit such easy availability of software at such nominal prices is sure tempting. The only problem who wants junk that runs on Windoze even if it were free, not to mention risking fines or jaii???
Nor does anyone involved with me in the following caper have it anywhere in any form. So, FBI or licensing folks, simply do not waste your time with me. Also, most of Mexico knows what I am telling here, all you gotta' do is go to Mexico within 250 miles of Mexico City and ask where folks get their software. Good luck.
I spend a lot of time in Mexico. The wonderful folks are always offering to take me some interesting place, fix me up with chicks, you name it.
Well, in this case, someone offered to show me just how Mexico can afford all the latest software. We were in Mexico City, and I was directed to a certain well-known street where software is sold.
I was told that normally, you look through the large book, pick out the software you wish, tell the person who gets on a cell phone and in two or three minutes an innocent looking little kid comes out, if the coast is clear, the adult reaches out, the kid hands over a CD in a jewel case and the kid runs away again. You pay your 50 pesos, which is around $4.37USD, today, and you walk away.
With the group which went on this demo trip, it didn't work quite that way, in that the CD was apparently somewhere inside the little booth.
The group dug through the book. It had every program I have ever heard of, games, XP pro, Win 98, Win95, Win 2000, NT, even Mandrake 10.0 which would also cost 50 pesos per CD. I forgot to see if they have CrossOver, though.
In this case, the demo was going to be the most expensive program anyone could think of, AutoCad. No one really wanted it, it was selected only because it was the most expensive we could think of. When it was stated as the desire of the moment, she asked, "2004 or 2005". Apparently she did not yet have 2005, so it was settled to get 2004.Then she asked in English or in Spanish, it was chosen English. She produced it and the 50 pesos was paid. She wrote a license number inside the label.
Away we went, with me expecting nets to fly out of the sky at any moment.
The group looked in the CD, and there was a leeme.txt (which I think should say leame.txt, that is README.txt) file. The version was indeed in Spanish, not English as was requested.
It had a complicated thing to do, which allegedly produced a key. The program was installed in the computer. The KeyGen did not work. The set up told us that we thus were limited to only a 30 day trial usage.
After some thought, it was realized that the KeyGen executable needed to be moved into the computer the same folder as the program. There was then a really strange error message, and it was finally realized there was a DLL file on CD that had to be moved into the same folder as well.
Then, it asked for which country, and then some weird number, which turned out to be a number in the window of set up. It was put in KeyGen and it produced an authorization key, just as promised. When the key was installed in the set up box, poof, the computer was up and running with a permanently authorized version of AutoCad.
The KeyGen was run again to see what would happen. It produced a different Key, but more runs kept giving the same key. So, we do not know if it generates a lot of them or what.
No one knew how to run AutoCad. No one has a need to run AutoCad. So, after we stared at it for a while, we removed it, and disposed of the CD.
I gotta' admit such easy availability of software at such nominal prices is sure tempting. The only problem who wants junk that runs on Windoze even if it were free, not to mention risking fines or jaii???