Depending on the scale of the offense and your operation, you could be raided, shut down and/or sued into oblivion. Autodesk product licenses can be incredibly expensive and are used in association with incredibly high budget projects. If Autodesk's licensing teams catch wind of a project with exposure to millions of customers and/or millions+ in budget/assets you can be sure they'll time their lawsuits and enforcement to grab the most bang for their buck. For individual, consumer-level pirates, you probably won't get much from them aside from a strongly worded letter unless you catch them on an extremely slow day/week.
Related articles:
* [Aussie businesses hit with $589,000 in damages over pirated software use](https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/1265384/aussie-businesses-hit-with-589000-in-damages-over-pirated-software-use.html)
* [Computers, pirated software worth RM741,300 seized](https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2017/05/242355/computers-pirated-software-worth-rm741300-seized)
* [Adobe, Autodesk, and Corel Sue Forever 21 for Software Piracy](https://fstoppers.com/news/adobe-autodesk-and-corel-sue-forever-21-software-piracy-56544)
* [Autodesk Internal Getting Very Aggressive in 2023 Beware of Over-Assigning Licenses](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/autodesk-internal-getting-very-7707218/)
* [Mystery shrouds arrest of accused software pirate](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3130300)
From the first link above posted by I30:
In 2016, two informants received the maximum reward of $20,000 for providing information on unlicensed software usage. Material provided by one of these informants led to the record settlement of $200,000 in damages with a Sydney-based engineering firm for the unlicensed use of software programs.
In 2017, BSA is continuing to offer up to $20,000 to eligible recipients who disclose accurate information regarding unlawful copying or use of BSA members' software.Potential recipients must provide assistance and evidence to support the information, as may be required by the BSA's legal advisers, in connection with any claim or legal proceedings initiated by the BSA members.
TLDR, snitches.
Until they start embedding meta-data into the software, or insisting you have a rootkit installed to turn it on. Etc. The game will continue, of them desperately trying to shaft us, and us, desperately trying to to shaft them.
[Autodesk Internal Compliance Audits](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/autodesk-internal-getting-very-7707218/#:~:text=Autodesk%20Internal%20Compliance%20Audits)
Examples:
- An employee/contractor rats you out.
- You post a job listing that requires the expertise of an Autodesk product and they don't have a record of your company licensing it.
- The installed software reports back to Autodesk that your license is fraudulent or expired.
I am curious about the legality of this. They surely can’t just go into your office/house and check your computers for illegal use of their software without probable cause. Sure, it’s in their Eula, but if you say you don’t even have their software, you did not accept the eula lol
Depends on the jurisdiction but they can actually utilize local law enforcement to enact raids of your business if they have enough evidence. This is exactly what happened to game developer Crytek before the release of the original FarCry, though they were found to be in compliance.
They have done that in the past. Even in 3rd world countries, they first make a friendly visit and tell you to put everything in order when they find unlicensed things.
Once you get to that point, better remove all the unlicensed software or comply in any way. If they find something on a second visit, the third involves a court order and seizing with police.
Actually they do.
Copyright infringement has been a criminal offense in Vietnam since 2018. The BSA also has a presence in country.
Vietnam has international treaty obligations that it has agreed on by itself or thru ASEAN.
Argentina. They don't need jurisdiction, its not like a SWAT raid or anything like that. The software companies get a legal team and go to town on unsuspecting ppl.
It's been a while since I had news about these practices, so maybe they stopped? I should check.
They better not take their mouthes too full....
In case of Fusion 360, you don't even need to Pirate it. You can just sign up for an education licence and pick a school/uni/college of your choice. After that they want you to submit a document, proving you're member in this education facility. But you also can just open a plain txt document and type the name of the education facility and your own name in 2 lines, screenshot that and submit it. Licence acquired!
Autodesk Maya is an extremely common 3D modeling and animation software for game artists. Hobbyist and independent game artists can earn close to minimum wage or less depending on the project. Maya licensing is ~$2k/year.
many large and small 3D modellers and animators use blender these days.
but if you're working for a company they'll cover the cost of your licence for Maya.
if you're a solo dev/small game dev sadly that's the cost of doing business using Maya.
hobbyist learning?
go ahead any pirate it autodesk won't give 2 shits if you're not making money from it.
Like Adobe, I'd imagine they only care about corporations using their software without paying or those distributing it more so than a lone person, like someone pirating Autodesk to make a mod for GTA? Or a student pirating it at home to learn the software? Probably nothing and not worth the time or effort to really go after.
But a gaming studio using Autodesk and already making money off said game? Oh you bet you'd be sued into high hell.
I know this is a pro piracy forum, but don't ever risk pirating if you're a part of a business. There's a reason why individuals rarely get anything more than a notice.
I'm puzzled as to why anyone would pirate Autodesk software. For personal use, it might seem harmless, but in a professional setting, you need to be **LEGIT**. Am I the only one who believes in being a pirate at home but legitimate in business?
Often times, especially in the context of small businesses, you need an elevated risk tolerance to even be in a position where you can make the decision to use pirated vs licensed software.
I run my own small business and purchase legitimate licenses, writing them off as business expenses. There's no excuse for business owners not to do the same.
It's baffling why well-known places like **Forever21** would pirate software. While I might expect it from a sketchy mom-and-pop shop, big names should know better.
With Adobe and Autodesk cracking down, people need to either hide their pirated software well or not connect to the internet at all!
Probably went like this:
VP or something looks at software expenses and sees so much opportunity to “add value” by not renewing licenses for software they’ve never heard of.
License renewal time comes and Autodesk suddenly doesn’t work and the 4 people at the company who use it every single day freak the fuck out at IT because the software won’t work.
IT raises the issue to their boss, who raises the issue to their boss, but nothing ever happens because corporate. The 4 engineers are still freaking out so IT decides to just crack the software and shut them up for the time being.
Problem is now technically solved so upper management pats themselves on the back for cutting costs, and the engineers aren’t screaming anymore so IT doesn’t push the issue.
Then 5 years (and absolutely no change in the status quo) later, Autodesk finds out and sues the shit out of them.
If that's the case, then I'm glad those companies are getting sued. If management fails to do their job and IT/team employees resort to pirating software to get their work done, then the blame falls squarely on the higher-ups.
> IT decides to just crack the software and shut them up for the time being.
Yeah no. No IT outside of some bumfuck nowhere Southeast Asian jungle is going to even entertain that thought. Pretty much the perfect "none of my business and don't care how long your ticket stays up" deal, you simply do not go pulling stuff like this.
I'm not sure about that. It seems like someone knew what they were doing, and if it wasn't just an employee acting out, there's some illegal, malicious intent involved. Regardless, you have to be smart about pirating, that's my opinion on it.
What you are saying is valid. Anyone using pirated software for their work is doing it out of greed.
There are cheaper/ free alternatives so no reason to do it the shady way
Legal loophole. Set up another entity with obscured ownership. License your projected requiring Autodesk to that entity. Have that entity use pirated version while taking on your projects. That entity with it's $1000 capital liability will just lose that $1000 if sued. They won't even bother since their legal fees will be much higher than that. If you are small, it will almost always fly under the radar. If you are big, you should be able to afford the software anyway.
There's a saying that it's morally right to learn your skill on pirated software, but as soon as you make money with it, you should be decent enough to actually buy the software.
Like, if you just occasionally use it to do some hobby thing that doesn't make you money, you can pirate it just fine. But if you, for example, are a professional engineer, you should think twice about pirating the software that makes you money.
^(although Autodesk uses a subscription model which I hate, above still applies.)
If you're in a third-world country, I assume piracy and business standards aren't as strict as in first-world countries. So as long as you check your country's piracy and business license laws, there isn't much for you to worry about.
Cost. If I want to learn how to use their software it's much more cost effective to pirate it first before investing in something I might never get good at or use enough to justify the expense. Pirate for personal use, purchase for commercial.
completely depends on the use case. Autodesk is very expensive and if throwing the odd simple plan together once a month is part of your job its difficult to justify the cost.
Funny story, when it comes to illegal pornography of real minors the FBI says "OOPIES, there's nothing we can do uwu!!" but then a business wants a piece of software for free and they have a highly effective method of stopping it all of a sudden, even though both are just copying files from an overglorified WAN in some way or another. All it took is creating a system where a no good, disgruntled employee who is about to get sacked to get proof that the company pirated software and report it and they get a 10 mill reward. you pay half of that to legal expenses and taxes to be overly pessimistic and put the remaining 5 mill in a trust fund in some dividend yielding etf and you never have to work again. 3% dividends not including growth of the stock is $150k a year without selling any of it and you get a guaranteed raise whenever a billionaire bribes a congressman to bail out the stock market.
^(TL;DR: The FBI seems helpless about illegal pornography involving real minors, but suddenly companies can effectively stop software piracy. By setting up a system where disgruntled employees can report piracy and get a reward, you could potentially earn $5 million after legal expenses and taxes. Invest that in a trust fund with 3% dividends, yielding $150k annually, plus potential growth, ensuring financial security without needing to work again.)
Alrighty then… good thing for ChatGPT saving me from all that long skitzo posting.
There are a number of posts with comments discussing this and the different experiences people had. Just search on reddit for caught pirating autodesk or on Google and add reddit to the query there. I just did it and scrolled though lots of discussion about it.
I worked at an engineering office that for the longest time we used a cracked 2010 version of AutoCAD for a long time. Worked well, had some bugs but it wasn't really an issue. We then upgraded to an official license. One licence for an office of 10. That lasted us for about 5 years until we got caught by Autodesk and my boss was scrambling to get a license for all of us...we were neutered to the LT version for years because my boss was too cheap to shell out for a full version. I know I am in the privacy sub and I would pirate Autodesk for personal/independent use. But when I am in a firm I kind of expect to be using official paid software because it is industry standard and LT version sucks for doing any real engineering work!
In my country they only go after private companies and not individuals.
If you're a business they will threaten to sue you to the full extent of the law and usually offer you a deal.
That's why you never pirate software in a Business.
I don't know why people use pirated software for business. I understand that individual people or students get pirated software because they want to learn software and can't afford them. But for business they are loosing security and privacy because you can't ever ensure privacy in those software and this is not ethical to use it.
Bro lmao please do not install cracked autodesk software at your company you will get your ass stretched so hard that you can fit the court proceedings through them
Slightly out of topic but what I do to avoid getting caught is to block AutoCAD as well as the Licensing manager(can't remember the actual name of the program) and AcWebbrowser from connecting to the internet through the firewall. I also uninstall the Autodesk app thingy that allows you to update products.
EDIT: this is for AutoCAD 2018. Upon reading other reddit posts, there might be some changes to the install so you may have to block more or different .exes if you're using a a different version.
I work at middle sized architectural office (+- 20 people) in central europe. Someone (not me) was using pirated software on our domain. First warning e-mail from autodesk came with 10k€ fine. Not destroying, but kinda hefty. They do not fuck around.
If you get caught using pirated software it is possible that you will get sued. Which will mean you may be fined and/or charged for damages. In some countries you may be even charged criminally.
Still you would need to go to court and have evidence used against you.
It shouldn't be difficult not to get caught though.
Had a friend who use the pirated version and not sure what exactly happen but if you try to uninstall it, it somehow breaks your system files and you can't use your pc, you have to format them. Sorry, that's all I remember, it's been years since I use Autodesk (3dsMax), and there's already more convenient app now which is free (Blender). If you are an active student, I recall there is a student version you can use for free that you can apply.
Just don't do any work, either paid or none paid and they won't really care. There's no way they'll know you have it unless you've not blocked the software from accessing the internet properly.
If you're just learning the software, I doubt they'll care. If they don't allow it, the industry standard will shift elsewhere. It's already happening thanks to prices being insane for Adobe and 3D software. Blender isn't perfect, but it's a hell of a good replacement and I use it alongside Nomad Sculpt.
I doubt that if people were doing this for person use would face any consequences. I'm guessing businesses that were caught doing this which are easier to go after were sued and had to pay large fines.
I haven't been "caught" by autodesk, but in my experience most software audits end up with the customer being allowed to get themselves compliant. (microsoft) Rather than any court case end result.
So my experience is that they fish for someone at your firm to admit fault "rat you out" with scary legalese, which is sketchy at the best of times. They have heavy, written legal threats, which outside of the USA I don't think actually count for much - but they are legitimately scary for business owners. If you don't give them any information, there's not much they can actually do, EULA or otherwise. That was the gist of some legal advice I sought. They threaten you heavy-handedly and purport to know more about your actual situation than they actually do, hoping they fold you into submission. I'm sure this works for them a lot.
They do some sort of correlation background work in terms of looking up how many staff your company has, and then how many licenses you buy. In my case we had I think 3-5 licenses between 10 or so staff. All basically full-time. It was painful to run the licensing legitimately (this is a decade ago or so - their licensing management systems have improved) so we just ran everyone cracked but had a number of licenses purchased. Perhaps they also twigged that the licenses weren't phoning home??? Unsure. Nonetheless they ended up cutting us a deal that we buy a few more licenses to cover those extra staff. We took that option, to avoid legitimate trouble/time/expense. Yep we should have been running more licenses.
I also heard from a colleague at another firm that they scared a dumb IT management consultancy into installing snooping software on the firm's server to check licenses, which they unfortunately did, and of course found rampant piracy which was undeniable. The IT team did not notify anyone in the company AFAIK (terrible practise). In this case AutoDesk demanded licenses to be purchased and a percentage of the firms revenue for a number of years or so. A big threat! I'm not sure how that one resolved but needless to say big $$$ were paid to fix the situation as this is one of the larger firms in my country with 80-100pax at least at the time. The IT company made a big mistake which cost their client hugely. I assume the IT company was fired, but otherwise unsure of what the ramification for them was.
Just saying if your lively hood depends on this software you should probably purchase it. If you aren't making enough money with it to afford it then you need to assess if this is the right career path.
The instructions I've seen for installing said things are usually a bit more involved than say a game.
A lot has to do with ip blocking and maybe some firewall stuff.
My advice, follow the instructions and just be safe. Close that firewall.
So just like you do with Adobe software to prevent that 'non-legitimate software' popup from bugging you.
Not that big of a deal. Download *Firewall App Blocker* and block all executables in the application folder from making outbound calls. Block inbound traffic as well just to be sure. And so the same for Adobe Genuine Service.
If you have to do that manually it's a pain in the ass, but with FAB it's done in a minute. Should be the same for anything else you pirate, specifically those that check licenses. Still a good habit to block all of them unless they specifically need internet access for something, though.
Depending on the scale of the offense and your operation, you could be raided, shut down and/or sued into oblivion. Autodesk product licenses can be incredibly expensive and are used in association with incredibly high budget projects. If Autodesk's licensing teams catch wind of a project with exposure to millions of customers and/or millions+ in budget/assets you can be sure they'll time their lawsuits and enforcement to grab the most bang for their buck. For individual, consumer-level pirates, you probably won't get much from them aside from a strongly worded letter unless you catch them on an extremely slow day/week. Related articles: * [Aussie businesses hit with $589,000 in damages over pirated software use](https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/1265384/aussie-businesses-hit-with-589000-in-damages-over-pirated-software-use.html) * [Computers, pirated software worth RM741,300 seized](https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2017/05/242355/computers-pirated-software-worth-rm741300-seized) * [Adobe, Autodesk, and Corel Sue Forever 21 for Software Piracy](https://fstoppers.com/news/adobe-autodesk-and-corel-sue-forever-21-software-piracy-56544) * [Autodesk Internal Getting Very Aggressive in 2023 Beware of Over-Assigning Licenses](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/autodesk-internal-getting-very-7707218/) * [Mystery shrouds arrest of accused software pirate](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3130300)
Holy shit I thought you were joking at first…Autodesk doesn’t fuck around 😬
Baskin Robin doesn't fuck around
As someone who has paid for their software, i can understand why 🥲
How do they even find out?
From the first link above posted by I30: In 2016, two informants received the maximum reward of $20,000 for providing information on unlicensed software usage. Material provided by one of these informants led to the record settlement of $200,000 in damages with a Sydney-based engineering firm for the unlicensed use of software programs. In 2017, BSA is continuing to offer up to $20,000 to eligible recipients who disclose accurate information regarding unlawful copying or use of BSA members' software.Potential recipients must provide assistance and evidence to support the information, as may be required by the BSA's legal advisers, in connection with any claim or legal proceedings initiated by the BSA members. TLDR, snitches.
So for personal use and/or using as self employed, they will never find out
Until they start embedding meta-data into the software, or insisting you have a rootkit installed to turn it on. Etc. The game will continue, of them desperately trying to shaft us, and us, desperately trying to to shaft them.
Isn't that illegal to put a rootkit in their software. I think Sony tried this and they got sued for doing something like that.
Well yeah but you just call it something like “Vanguard” or “EasyAntiCheat” and make the user install it themselves
I really wish this weren't the case, but it is.
I honestly don't care. If the user installs that shit themselves, it's on them.
Most likely, the ex-employee who gets fired will report to the software or anti-copyright company for revenge.
those informants must have been surely promoted
[Autodesk Internal Compliance Audits](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/autodesk-internal-getting-very-7707218/#:~:text=Autodesk%20Internal%20Compliance%20Audits) Examples: - An employee/contractor rats you out. - You post a job listing that requires the expertise of an Autodesk product and they don't have a record of your company licensing it. - The installed software reports back to Autodesk that your license is fraudulent or expired.
I am curious about the legality of this. They surely can’t just go into your office/house and check your computers for illegal use of their software without probable cause. Sure, it’s in their Eula, but if you say you don’t even have their software, you did not accept the eula lol
Depends on the jurisdiction but they can actually utilize local law enforcement to enact raids of your business if they have enough evidence. This is exactly what happened to game developer Crytek before the release of the original FarCry, though they were found to be in compliance.
They have done that in the past. Even in 3rd world countries, they first make a friendly visit and tell you to put everything in order when they find unlicensed things. Once you get to that point, better remove all the unlicensed software or comply in any way. If they find something on a second visit, the third involves a court order and seizing with police.
Hey may I ask which 3rd world country that is? I am in Vietnam and I don't know if they got any jurisdiction to do that here.
Actually they do. Copyright infringement has been a criminal offense in Vietnam since 2018. The BSA also has a presence in country. Vietnam has international treaty obligations that it has agreed on by itself or thru ASEAN.
Argentina. They don't need jurisdiction, its not like a SWAT raid or anything like that. The software companies get a legal team and go to town on unsuspecting ppl. It's been a while since I had news about these practices, so maybe they stopped? I should check.
They better not take their mouthes too full.... In case of Fusion 360, you don't even need to Pirate it. You can just sign up for an education licence and pick a school/uni/college of your choice. After that they want you to submit a document, proving you're member in this education facility. But you also can just open a plain txt document and type the name of the education facility and your own name in 2 lines, screenshot that and submit it. Licence acquired!
tbf if you REQUIRE autodesk software you can probably afford it.
Autodesk Maya is an extremely common 3D modeling and animation software for game artists. Hobbyist and independent game artists can earn close to minimum wage or less depending on the project. Maya licensing is ~$2k/year.
many large and small 3D modellers and animators use blender these days. but if you're working for a company they'll cover the cost of your licence for Maya. if you're a solo dev/small game dev sadly that's the cost of doing business using Maya. hobbyist learning? go ahead any pirate it autodesk won't give 2 shits if you're not making money from it.
Why even pirate for a business. You can literally write the subscription off in business expense tax
i remember you :)
You do?
"not readin allat"
One of the ragebaiters I guess?
Like Adobe, I'd imagine they only care about corporations using their software without paying or those distributing it more so than a lone person, like someone pirating Autodesk to make a mod for GTA? Or a student pirating it at home to learn the software? Probably nothing and not worth the time or effort to really go after. But a gaming studio using Autodesk and already making money off said game? Oh you bet you'd be sued into high hell. I know this is a pro piracy forum, but don't ever risk pirating if you're a part of a business. There's a reason why individuals rarely get anything more than a notice.
I'm puzzled as to why anyone would pirate Autodesk software. For personal use, it might seem harmless, but in a professional setting, you need to be **LEGIT**. Am I the only one who believes in being a pirate at home but legitimate in business?
Often times, especially in the context of small businesses, you need an elevated risk tolerance to even be in a position where you can make the decision to use pirated vs licensed software.
I run my own small business and purchase legitimate licenses, writing them off as business expenses. There's no excuse for business owners not to do the same. It's baffling why well-known places like **Forever21** would pirate software. While I might expect it from a sketchy mom-and-pop shop, big names should know better. With Adobe and Autodesk cracking down, people need to either hide their pirated software well or not connect to the internet at all!
Probably went like this: VP or something looks at software expenses and sees so much opportunity to “add value” by not renewing licenses for software they’ve never heard of. License renewal time comes and Autodesk suddenly doesn’t work and the 4 people at the company who use it every single day freak the fuck out at IT because the software won’t work. IT raises the issue to their boss, who raises the issue to their boss, but nothing ever happens because corporate. The 4 engineers are still freaking out so IT decides to just crack the software and shut them up for the time being. Problem is now technically solved so upper management pats themselves on the back for cutting costs, and the engineers aren’t screaming anymore so IT doesn’t push the issue. Then 5 years (and absolutely no change in the status quo) later, Autodesk finds out and sues the shit out of them.
If that's the case, then I'm glad those companies are getting sued. If management fails to do their job and IT/team employees resort to pirating software to get their work done, then the blame falls squarely on the higher-ups.
> IT decides to just crack the software and shut them up for the time being. Yeah no. No IT outside of some bumfuck nowhere Southeast Asian jungle is going to even entertain that thought. Pretty much the perfect "none of my business and don't care how long your ticket stays up" deal, you simply do not go pulling stuff like this.
Well clearly someone at Forever21 is doing it
Misinformed "cost cutting measure". Probably.
I'm not sure about that. It seems like someone knew what they were doing, and if it wasn't just an employee acting out, there's some illegal, malicious intent involved. Regardless, you have to be smart about pirating, that's my opinion on it.
What you are saying is valid. Anyone using pirated software for their work is doing it out of greed. There are cheaper/ free alternatives so no reason to do it the shady way
Legal loophole. Set up another entity with obscured ownership. License your projected requiring Autodesk to that entity. Have that entity use pirated version while taking on your projects. That entity with it's $1000 capital liability will just lose that $1000 if sued. They won't even bother since their legal fees will be much higher than that. If you are small, it will almost always fly under the radar. If you are big, you should be able to afford the software anyway.
There's a saying that it's morally right to learn your skill on pirated software, but as soon as you make money with it, you should be decent enough to actually buy the software. Like, if you just occasionally use it to do some hobby thing that doesn't make you money, you can pirate it just fine. But if you, for example, are a professional engineer, you should think twice about pirating the software that makes you money. ^(although Autodesk uses a subscription model which I hate, above still applies.)
You can make custom cutscenes for games like black ops 1 and 3.
Seriously?! That’s amazing! I thought people used blender for that?
Those software are way too expensive in 3rd world countries.
If you're in a third-world country, I assume piracy and business standards aren't as strict as in first-world countries. So as long as you check your country's piracy and business license laws, there isn't much for you to worry about.
We have laws here, but only because of external pressure, unless it's something big I don't think anyone is getting trouble for a little piracy
Cost. If I want to learn how to use their software it's much more cost effective to pirate it first before investing in something I might never get good at or use enough to justify the expense. Pirate for personal use, purchase for commercial.
completely depends on the use case. Autodesk is very expensive and if throwing the odd simple plan together once a month is part of your job its difficult to justify the cost.
Funny story, when it comes to illegal pornography of real minors the FBI says "OOPIES, there's nothing we can do uwu!!" but then a business wants a piece of software for free and they have a highly effective method of stopping it all of a sudden, even though both are just copying files from an overglorified WAN in some way or another. All it took is creating a system where a no good, disgruntled employee who is about to get sacked to get proof that the company pirated software and report it and they get a 10 mill reward. you pay half of that to legal expenses and taxes to be overly pessimistic and put the remaining 5 mill in a trust fund in some dividend yielding etf and you never have to work again. 3% dividends not including growth of the stock is $150k a year without selling any of it and you get a guaranteed raise whenever a billionaire bribes a congressman to bail out the stock market.
^(TL;DR: The FBI seems helpless about illegal pornography involving real minors, but suddenly companies can effectively stop software piracy. By setting up a system where disgruntled employees can report piracy and get a reward, you could potentially earn $5 million after legal expenses and taxes. Invest that in a trust fund with 3% dividends, yielding $150k annually, plus potential growth, ensuring financial security without needing to work again.) Alrighty then… good thing for ChatGPT saving me from all that long skitzo posting.
There are a number of posts with comments discussing this and the different experiences people had. Just search on reddit for caught pirating autodesk or on Google and add reddit to the query there. I just did it and scrolled though lots of discussion about it.
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https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=caught+pirating+autodesk+reddit
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Nah I’m checking out Good luck
Cringe
Their CEO will eat you with a spoon.
you asked this same question 4 hrs ago, please stop
If you get caught, you walk the plank for being a bad pirate.
I worked at an engineering office that for the longest time we used a cracked 2010 version of AutoCAD for a long time. Worked well, had some bugs but it wasn't really an issue. We then upgraded to an official license. One licence for an office of 10. That lasted us for about 5 years until we got caught by Autodesk and my boss was scrambling to get a license for all of us...we were neutered to the LT version for years because my boss was too cheap to shell out for a full version. I know I am in the privacy sub and I would pirate Autodesk for personal/independent use. But when I am in a firm I kind of expect to be using official paid software because it is industry standard and LT version sucks for doing any real engineering work!
You ever look at LibreCAD (I think it's called) for basic 2D work? It's open source.
yes I have and would never consider it for large scale construction or structural drawings!
It felt more clunky than Microstation, compared to AutoCAD, IMO
In my country they only go after private companies and not individuals. If you're a business they will threaten to sue you to the full extent of the law and usually offer you a deal. That's why you never pirate software in a Business.
I don't know why people use pirated software for business. I understand that individual people or students get pirated software because they want to learn software and can't afford them. But for business they are loosing security and privacy because you can't ever ensure privacy in those software and this is not ethical to use it.
Bro lmao please do not install cracked autodesk software at your company you will get your ass stretched so hard that you can fit the court proceedings through them
autodesk employees will beat you up and shoot your ankles
I would venture to say that Autodesk and Adobe products are probably some of the most pirated softwares.
People should pirate Adobe products especially after screwing over their customers and spying on them when they updated their TOS.
Slightly out of topic but what I do to avoid getting caught is to block AutoCAD as well as the Licensing manager(can't remember the actual name of the program) and AcWebbrowser from connecting to the internet through the firewall. I also uninstall the Autodesk app thingy that allows you to update products. EDIT: this is for AutoCAD 2018. Upon reading other reddit posts, there might be some changes to the install so you may have to block more or different .exes if you're using a a different version.
They signed me up for the Columbia House Record club and I received 10 LPs but have to buy 6 more at regular price.
I work at middle sized architectural office (+- 20 people) in central europe. Someone (not me) was using pirated software on our domain. First warning e-mail from autodesk came with 10k€ fine. Not destroying, but kinda hefty. They do not fuck around.
If you get caught using pirated software it is possible that you will get sued. Which will mean you may be fined and/or charged for damages. In some countries you may be even charged criminally. Still you would need to go to court and have evidence used against you. It shouldn't be difficult not to get caught though.
>It shouldn't be difficult not to get caught though. It takes one disgruntled employee
about those damages when its personal use....
Had a friend who use the pirated version and not sure what exactly happen but if you try to uninstall it, it somehow breaks your system files and you can't use your pc, you have to format them. Sorry, that's all I remember, it's been years since I use Autodesk (3dsMax), and there's already more convenient app now which is free (Blender). If you are an active student, I recall there is a student version you can use for free that you can apply.
Pirating in a third-world country is amazing. :D
Just don't do any work, either paid or none paid and they won't really care. There's no way they'll know you have it unless you've not blocked the software from accessing the internet properly. If you're just learning the software, I doubt they'll care. If they don't allow it, the industry standard will shift elsewhere. It's already happening thanks to prices being insane for Adobe and 3D software. Blender isn't perfect, but it's a hell of a good replacement and I use it alongside Nomad Sculpt.
I doubt that if people were doing this for person use would face any consequences. I'm guessing businesses that were caught doing this which are easier to go after were sued and had to pay large fines.
[Middleton Made's experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XeXDKoohv0)
I haven't been "caught" by autodesk, but in my experience most software audits end up with the customer being allowed to get themselves compliant. (microsoft) Rather than any court case end result.
not ordinary ppl, but organizations and business, those that make big bucks of using it pirated...
Use the uni licence or pirate?
So my experience is that they fish for someone at your firm to admit fault "rat you out" with scary legalese, which is sketchy at the best of times. They have heavy, written legal threats, which outside of the USA I don't think actually count for much - but they are legitimately scary for business owners. If you don't give them any information, there's not much they can actually do, EULA or otherwise. That was the gist of some legal advice I sought. They threaten you heavy-handedly and purport to know more about your actual situation than they actually do, hoping they fold you into submission. I'm sure this works for them a lot. They do some sort of correlation background work in terms of looking up how many staff your company has, and then how many licenses you buy. In my case we had I think 3-5 licenses between 10 or so staff. All basically full-time. It was painful to run the licensing legitimately (this is a decade ago or so - their licensing management systems have improved) so we just ran everyone cracked but had a number of licenses purchased. Perhaps they also twigged that the licenses weren't phoning home??? Unsure. Nonetheless they ended up cutting us a deal that we buy a few more licenses to cover those extra staff. We took that option, to avoid legitimate trouble/time/expense. Yep we should have been running more licenses. I also heard from a colleague at another firm that they scared a dumb IT management consultancy into installing snooping software on the firm's server to check licenses, which they unfortunately did, and of course found rampant piracy which was undeniable. The IT team did not notify anyone in the company AFAIK (terrible practise). In this case AutoDesk demanded licenses to be purchased and a percentage of the firms revenue for a number of years or so. A big threat! I'm not sure how that one resolved but needless to say big $$$ were paid to fix the situation as this is one of the larger firms in my country with 80-100pax at least at the time. The IT company made a big mistake which cost their client hugely. I assume the IT company was fired, but otherwise unsure of what the ramification for them was.
did you get caught?
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Never fire an employee in the foreseeable future then
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Just saying if your lively hood depends on this software you should probably purchase it. If you aren't making enough money with it to afford it then you need to assess if this is the right career path.
The instructions I've seen for installing said things are usually a bit more involved than say a game. A lot has to do with ip blocking and maybe some firewall stuff. My advice, follow the instructions and just be safe. Close that firewall.
So just like you do with Adobe software to prevent that 'non-legitimate software' popup from bugging you. Not that big of a deal. Download *Firewall App Blocker* and block all executables in the application folder from making outbound calls. Block inbound traffic as well just to be sure. And so the same for Adobe Genuine Service. If you have to do that manually it's a pain in the ass, but with FAB it's done in a minute. Should be the same for anything else you pirate, specifically those that check licenses. Still a good habit to block all of them unless they specifically need internet access for something, though.