Some do because they are cheap... Some because of the thrill of it. But occasionally some people do out of sheer frustration. Case in point...
Recently I got a PPC-6700 phone from Sprint. Along with the Pocket PC phone came software for synchronizing with Outlook, to be precise Outlook 2002 is contained on the set up disk. I've been having problems with this to no end probably because I don't have Office 2002 - I have Office 2000 (I hate Office but that's a whole nother story).
The phone will not synchronize with Outlook 2000 so it requires that Outlook 2002 is installed. So I'm in a weird situation where I have Outlook 2000 and 2002 installed and, of course, they don't like each other.
So I decide to completely remove Office 2000 and this Outlook 2002 then reinstall Office 2000 sans Outlook and Outlook 2002 from the Sprint installation disk.
But up comes a "Please enter your Product Key" dialog box. Well the Product Key is nowhere to be found after my recent move to Texas. So you think all I need to do is call up Sprint, explain my situation, and get another Product Key.
For 35 minutes I'm asked stupid questions from supposedly helpful tech support people who obviously do not have a clue. 35 fucking minutes of completely wasted time!! While I finally got through to somebody who had 1/2 a clue as to what I needed he just said that I have to locate the flimsy CD case that contained my key - that there was no other way for me to get the key (save perhaps shelling out $200 for a copy of MS Office)!!! Meantime, while on hold I decided to crack through a copy of MS Office. Man I told that guy off - I mean 35 minutes of wasted time and he started telling me that I'd have to contact some other company to go through a process of obtaining a code. Fuck 'em! I hacked it instead.
Moral of the story? Screw licensing - just hack it. You can try to do it the legal way (and I do legally own a copy) and spin your wheels. Sometimes people steal software out of pure frustration!
