It is very rare that I will use my hard earned money to purchase software. uDaMan & I split a license for BluePhoneElite back in December when we got our Razr phones. The time before that was probably 2 years ago when I purchased MPFreaker for tagging all of my illegally downloaded MP3 files. Now since I have no problem with stealing music it would be assumed that I have no problems stealing software either, or anything else that could be downloaded digitally for that matter.

Due to recent information certain regrets, or what some people describe as guilt have arisen in me. I have been using illegally cracked copies of my now newly purchased NetNews Wire & MarsEdit for about a year now. Hell every post I have made on this blog has been generated from MarsEdit. Now I do agree that people should be paid for there time and hard work. I am a graphic designer by trade and I will not give my services away for free so why should a software developer?

I respect the hard work and innovation which is shown throughout all of the software that I use. I also support small business and the work from home be your own boss business model that most of these developers represent. This is a hard role to take on financially which I can respect, knowing what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. I realize that this is not an excuse and the software that I am using to generate my income (mostly the Adobe Creative Suite) is payed for by my employer. My employer has also purchased many other pieces of software based on my recommendations and needs. The aforementioned software was of corse usually used illegally either in collage as a learning tool or in my personal life. I realize that this is not an excuse, but it is also very similar to these developers offering demos or lite versions of there software. A good example of a lite software package isVoodooPad Lite another wonderful tool that makes my life easier. If I were to use these tools to make money or just as indispensable tools as a computer user I would of corse purchase them. However at my current financial state I am unable to purchase a good number of the tools that I use from day to day.

Today I became a proud user of NetNews Wire & MarsEdit, two tools that have become truly indispensable to me. At their asking price of $30 for the package it still seems a little bit like stealing. I will also highly recommend both of these to anyone who is reading RSS feeds or blogging. Both products will make you more efficient and organized which if you are like me will give you a better user experience over all. As for the other software I am currently stealing I apologize and vow that when I have to money you will get your fair share. You don’t know who you are do here is a list:

CDFinder – best CD cataloging tool
Transmit – FTP Client
Launchbar – application launcher this will be the next one purchased, I could not live without it
CandyBar – my Mac would be a lot uglier without it
Synergy – iTunes Hot key utility, my friend actually purchased this and gave me his serial #

(Via NetNewsWire.)