For me, it's a simple ordeal. I don't mind paying so long as the product on offer is worth the cost of payment.

Adobe's pricing model is abusive, so I went with Affinity which is much cheaper and not a subscription. Zynamptic's Morph sounds sweet and is reasonably price, but it comes bundled with a driver based DRM. So I got it for free without the DRM bollocks.

With games I used to pirate, but games nowadays are dime a dozen. If it looks interesting, I might try out a demo. If the game is shite, refund which is the loudest review you have. Piracy generally isn't worth the risk for software entertainment in my eyes, yours may differ.

The only thing I still consistently pirate is movies, and that's because they all have DRM up to where the sun doesn't shine. I want to support creators, to help fund what they create. But if I have to pay to have what I bought held for ransom. I'd rather have it for free and forever mine.

To my memory the only movies I have bought were DVDs, the movie "Ink" (check it out on GOG, it's DRM free and its a pretty cool indie movie) and helped fund a S.T.A.L.K.E.R short film on kickstarter.

To wrap it up, Gaben was right. It's all about the product/service, its cost (not just price, but ease of access, DRM if any, risks, etc) and what it offers the consumers.

If I pay for a license which can be taken away at any time, that is one cost. If I can get the same thing for free and forever, but with the minor risk that it can be bundled with malware, that is another. With how bloated pricing models are and the constant DRM abomination that are forced into everything, it's no surprise Piracy is still alive and well today.

No, I salute you! Assembly is miserable, I count myself lucky that all I needed to do is bust out a sheet with the opcodes to figure out what they did. If I had to actually write Assembly instead of just swapping opcodes, this project would be over in an instant.

I may make it sound easy, but when I did this, I already had 8 years worth of C# experience. I definitely recommend that you learn how to program first, then once you know what you're doing. Read up on some tutorials on reverse-engineering. General practices, that sort of thing.

When you're ready, pick the right tool for the job. If you can decompile to get the code out (like dnspy for example in .NET programs), that's much easier, other languages may require other tools, C++ will likely require hardcore programs such as x64dbg, and you don't wanna touch that until you can understand Assembly to at least a passable degree.

TL DR: It's hard, but there is a path there, don't eat more than you can chew.

There's always a path that leads to where we need to go. For me, I kind of started to get interested when I watched this Excellent video by Exilelord (He did something way harder which was fixing a bug and later adding outright features in a AAA game obfuscated by SECUROM).

My first rodeo was probably cracking the level security of Synthriders, that one wasn't obfuscated and was modern so it took me about 1-2 hours to get it to spit out the password for the level files.

Then... the only logical way up was cracking an actual game.

Hey! I thought I couldn't do it until I tried. :3

Sidenote: Background in programming or computer science may be required.

I'm guessing you, and possibly Relected's screens are running high DPI screens. Resulting in more pixel density for the same information.

Edit: Cheers

Edit2: If you're reading on mobile, blame Imgur. It automatically swaps the original image with a low quality version. To see the original, please check desktop view.

It's a fun challenge for sure. For a first one, try not anything too ambitious, modern DRM is bullshit in its difficulty.

They are not webp, at least not originally. Try opening the images directly, the text should be crisp, crystal clear.

Edit: If you're reading on mobile, blame Imgur. It automatically swaps the original image with a low quality version. To see the original, please check desktop view.

Do note, I believe that this discussion has little to do with Piracy. While a thing entering public domain would mean that it could be distributed freely, I'm largely concerned about the creators and their ability to remix existing properties, as unfortunately, you can't really pirate copyrights. Everything created based on another's work (which lacks special permissive licensing) is always dancing on the knives edge of the owner's whims.

With the system as it is, anything that released when you're a five year old, you can only legally remix it when you're so old you can't remember it anymore. (And that's if you're lucky)

Leaning towards the shorter times, as in 10 years by default, with two additional extensions of 10 years up to a maximum of 30 done by filling paperwork and paying a fee. This time frame would provide plenty of opportunity for work to be monetized by their creator, and as well as there being room for continued monetization up to a realistic (IE non eternal) limit. While providing space for new generations to develop things that were abandoned, and the next generation to remix something they enjoyed as children.