I know what youre saying, but the fact is if theres a game you like the look of, and you can afford it, but there isnt a demo. You could buy the game be £40 down and have a really crap game in your hands, OR you can download it, try it for an hour or so, if you like it then you can buy it knowing your money is well spent. If you dont like it then you uninstall and delete it, and you dont lose £40 in the process.OldRod wrote:Maybe I was just brought up in a different era (yes, I am probably the oldest one on this board) but I treat pirating software as stealing. You can justify it all you want by saying you wouldn't have bought something anyway, or you're just trying it out, but facts are facts - you got something that you were not supposed to get without paying for it.
If you can't afford something, either work to earn money and save up for it, or go without. If it's that important to you, you'll find the money to buy it legally. And you'll feel better about yourself for doing it.
Just my 2cp
I agree with you if you mean music or programs that you just dont want to pay for at all, but with games its understandable why people do it. You could say that with games its the same as downloading a demo, as long as you buy it afterwards. You could also use this with music since you cant listen to an album in the store before you buy it, I look at pirate stuff as a trial of something, or a way to get a copy of a game/movie etc that you already have but maybe the disc is broken.
I bought Star Wars Emprie at War a couple years ago, second hand from a pawn shop, the disc was empty, it was official and everything but it had been wiped. I couldnt get my money back so I downloaded it and put it on a disc in the official discs cover, now did I do something wrong anywhere there? No, because buying the game is just buying the CD-Key, which I had.
Anyway back to the threads main point, No, you cant download Publisher for free, although you could try an alternate thing called OpenOffice, I used it till I got Microsoft Office and it is compatible with MSOffice files. I am not entirely sure if it has a Publisher equivelent but its worth a look at.
http://www.openoffice.org/