Thats well known.  The thing is, most of those download programs are entirely illegal.   Music downloads are illegal unless you pay for them.  So I would suggest that you ask a mod to lock this thread and not bring up these types of programs to avoid any trouble.

Yeah...it does suck....sad once you know about it...

'tis a sad fact but one that I've come to accept as it is nearly impossible to destroy P2P networks and some are harder than others to track users on.

Even without these things people still buy a payware then swap em with a mate over MSN or something. I'm not complaining I'm just glad that some people decide to pay and am thankful for it.

Many of the people who purchase the pirated stuff are usually those who are not so informed about the dangers. And those who are not informed are usually those who don't visit forums like SimV, AvSim, or Flight Sim. Forums provide tons of info, but those who get ripped off don't know that.

What I'm trying to say that knowledge is a powerful tool. If you know where to look and know where to avoid because you were informed in the forums, then your chances of getting ripped off are reduced significantly.

I agree but You will never stop P2P as long as there are computers and the internet. When it comes to songs they should put a small surcharge on disks, cd's & DVD's to forward onto the performers as royalties. That way they will at least get something for their songs. What about recording a song off the radio onto a cassette or a show off your tv with a video. it's the same thing but you never hear about that. i am sure years ago they put a surcharge on Cassette tapes for the same reason. As far as i am aware It is legal in Canada to download music, it is just illegal to upload it. The governments of the world need to find a formula to make it legal and a way of obtaining a small surcharge wether by adding a bit to the price of blank media or some other way. Even security devices in the software don't always work either, someone opens it probably by buying it then after it is extracted forwards it on to a mate or someone else. No sooner does someone come out with a good security device for software then within 24 hours someone has a crack or hacked it one form or another.

Sometimes payware is a ripoff too.  I dont have any, but paying 60 or more dollars for 1 plane is absurd.  Thats twice as much as the sim!  Also, some of these companies that make you buy the plane THEN buy the textures are ripping you off.

I have the just purchased my only payware aircraft the Aeroworx Kingair 200 a great aeroplane with excellent detail. Slightly overpriced when you concider you can purchase the complete FS2004 program for double the price. But i must admit the detail that has gone into it is like chalk and cheese compared to the default aircraft. Then again if the default aircraft were a perfect replication of the real thing (AS REAL AS IT GETS) we wouldn't need these great payware addons.
FS_Pilot