Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Premium
I hit my teens during the golden age of Napster. I can still remember the feeling when my older brother first brought me on board the HMS Napster for my first foray into piracy. Music with a few keystrokes and a click. I was hooked.
From that moment on the internet could only be free. Movies, books, and software were all obtainable for the price of persistence and the equivalent of knowing the secret knock to a speakeasy. Through the power of an insanely fast internet connection and some motivated geeks I could obtain a terabyte movies during the course of a day in college.
My point? I am just a drop in the ocean of hackers who, inspired by the efforts of organizations like the RIAA, vowed to not pay for that which I could easily obtain through a download and a key-generator. I couldn’t afford the $15 for a CD, or the $20 for a DVD let alone the $50+ cost of software packages. Since I didn’t have a job my efforts went into schooling myself in the dark arts of computers and the internet. This carried me through college keeping my iPod full and my entertainment costs at a minimum.
Then I graduated and got a job… Making software.
Shit. Read more »
