RAVEN! GIMME RAVEN!

Many good points. I have always owned all my software... It has been very costly. (I purchased M-Tropolis M-Factory 6 Months before Quark bought them and promptly killed the package. *sob*) So I understand why people feel software is overpriced and I try to not feel like a sucker when so many other people are using software that they "acquired". People are gonna do what they feel they need to do to learn image editing, page layout, vector editing etc... not all will stick with it once they realize that its a lot more work than it seems. Learning the basics is a blast though and thats why just about every person you talk to says they have "played around" with photoshop. Give those people the legit tools to learn the chops! The ones that have the knack may find themselves getting paid to push pixels. : ) Maybe in the long run more people will own their tools and due to economy of scale, the price will go down for the rest of us! woot! As a person that does photographic illustration for a living, I agree that I don't think that Aviary is in direct competition with Adobe products at this time... Now 10 years down the road... I expect to be doing quick client edits in Aviary on my iPod touch tablet while I ride the train... hmmm, wait-a-minit... well 10 years is a long time. I am sure the flash thing will be worked out by then. : )

You're exactly on the money here. I can't afford Photoshop or I would already have it. I have been using GIMP, but even that has a number of features I don't use, and it can be buggy. For the occasional band fliers and cover art I make, a.viary is perfect - especially when I can start a design and my band mates can add to it easily from different locations. We're all really excited about Myna and Roc, btw. I plan to do an entire project from start to finish using a.viary tools exclusively. Keep up the good work!

"...A hobbyist who stole Photoshop to try it out for fun is not going to go out and purchase a full license once he/she is ready to go pro. (It's a lot easier to rationalize away a crime that's already been committed)."

When I first got into music production i downloaded Reason - just to try it. When I got more advanced and had some cash, I went to the store and to get the original program! I don't mind paying for software where i can see the value.

Rafi, perhaps I should not have generalized as broadly, but do you honestly think that you represent the majority (or even a sizable minority)? Unfortunately, I know too many people online that rationalize software as intangible and there are no moral consequences to piracy.

"Rafi, perhaps I should not have generalized as broadly, but do you honestly think that you represent the majority (or even a sizable minority)? Unfortunately, I know too many people online that rationalize software as intangible and there are no moral consequences to piracy."

Seems a little sarcastic...

But its true, in general pirates wont ever buy their software.

I wasn't being sarcastic at all. Sorry if it read that way.

Hell, I know pros that won't pay for software if they can find any other way to get a working copy. It's always been bad, honestly as much as I try, its hard for me to not be a little bit bitter about the vast amounts of money I have spent to legitimately compete against people that have spent very little or none for those tools. On top of that... since the work and art I create is digital, the same people who see the software as having no value do to its lack of physicality also have no qualms about re-purposing my images any way they see fit, even for a commercial use. I sure don't have the answers... But I am glad people are discussing the questions and trying to work out attribution, collaboration, and even compensation. I want things to be open. I want people to share... but when I do something cool, I realy don't want someone else profiting from it or taking credit. Its not to much to ask. And even though I make a living doing this stuff, this goes way beyond pro vs. hobbyist. Those walls need to be broken down once and for all. A "Creative Middle Class" is something to strive for. But you have to first make people understand the value, then give them a simple and inexpensive way to purchase a license. People making modest portions of their overall income from their artistic or commercial creative endeavors may still be possible. If people can start to see the value in creativity again.

I really do know how to use the return key by the way... for some reason the blog comment function is not seeing my paragraph breaks. I have tried submitting from both Safari and Firefox just to let you guys know. : )

I'm an experienced amateur that uses a lot of the software you're going to offer for fun and, occasionaly, for work. I used to own a legal copie of Adobe's suite right up until the CS-edition. Then it got too expensive for me. But as it so happens, I just ordered CS3 Design Premium a couple of days ago. Believe me, that's expensive for a casual user like me. And then you come up with a suite like this... If I weren't excited about this project of you I would be very disappointed at having spend so much money! Any planned releasedate?

I am a professional graphic artist with over a decade of experience. In a majority of the companies that I have worked for the employer has refused to purchase new software or even upgrades to existing software unless it is absolutely necessary. This has forced me to pirate software because I cannot adequately do my job without it. My employers have known about the piracy, and have in the past instructed me to undertake it. I also have no doubt that if legal action were ever taken against them, they would deny responsibility and place the finger of blame on me. Unfortunately in my industry, and many other production end graphics industries, this is how it works. At the current moment my employer has asked me to use one of his children's student ID's to purchase the new version of CorelDraw at an educational institution. But that is only because we are in desperate need of an upgrade and CorelDraw isn't readily available in pirated form. I believe that if anyone every went through the computer systems of Print Shops, Sign Shops, Screenprint / Embroidery Shops and others of that ilk, they would find a hotbed of piracy in the "corporate" world....... We're not all slick web developers working for high dollar ad agencies.

I would like to present another side to this whole argument on piracy.

As a youngster I used copies of Photoshop 7 and 8 that I got from mIRC chat rooms. This was wrong in theory I suppose, but I gained enough skill to get a job in graphic design. At the company I work for we use the Master Suite, and pay for a new license for each computer.

I would argue that if I had not had access to illegally pirated software in the past, I would never have had the job that is paying for the software now. I also went out and bought a real version of Photoshop for my home with some of the extra money I make in my new job!

There you go, pirated in the past, pay twice for each version now... Not a bad scheme really. They might want to look into giving software free to schools or students that show promise in design / computer skills.

WOW!!! These photos are amazing....I wonder what I could do with aviary!!!