cracked serial codes

[tali122]

i have seen a thread on here about cracked serial codes for software- and the fact that the company will be aware of this - but will do nothing, - but arnt they likely to send you corrupt, spyware riddled or outdated updates to teach you a lesson for ripping them off?

[Potatoman]

Doubt it!
The problem is, that some of the serial codes that are illegally posted on the net are real ones that people have shared - so the software companies wont know who has the real one. I doubt very much a software company will risk their reputation by putting real customers at risk.
I think you are more likely to get something nasty downloading these illegal files in the first place.

[mikeyp]

Agreed. The fact is, for every person that illegally owns a piece of software, there is someone who buys it. They still make money. And it's a lot of trouble tracking people down.

[ll_billym]

I remember recently that an MS Office service pack would stop versions with "certain" serial numbers from working after being applied.

Darn, it took me nearly 3 mins to find a hack for that one...

[QmunkE]

Valve, the company behind Half-Life 2, used their Steam distribution system to stop the sharing of CD-Keys very effectively. Also, if they discover fraudulent keys, they can simply close down the accounts of the people who use them. That'll teach those cheapskates! Of course, being a computer science student at university, I have access to a large amount of free software anyway, but that's beside the point.