Cracked software / Site design

[monaghan]

Hi,

If you have a site designed and the designer is using a cracked version of the designer (a lot of Dreamweaver & Photoshop kiddes about these days), where does that leave you legally with your site design ?

 

[Will]

As far as I'm aware, your site is still perfectly legal. (As long as said script kiddies have not ripped off the design!)

It is not your (the design client) responsibility to ensure the designers have legal copies of software - it is only they who are breaking the law. This being said, you could be in trouble if you continue to hire said designers after discovering their software is illegal (it is like hiring a joiner who doesn't pay tax - as the prices are cheaper, you are profiting from the proceeds of crime) and may face charges on this count.

(This is the law as I understand it, anyway.)

 

[monaghan]

That's sort of how I would understand it.

It was just a thought I had when I saw a thread on another forum where a kiddie was boasting about having not paid for his copy of Dreamweaver, then a few posts later offered to do some design.

 

[Matthew]

There was an issue a while back where one of Microsofts staff created a little WAV file with some cracked sound editing software... This didnt effect any users of Windows (in which all XP or 2000 had this WAV file on) but I am sure the sound creator at MS got a good beating

I believe the same would apply with website design. It would be too hard to police and have legal teams recall every image and site designed and go through legal processes with every owner of a site.