Dealing with a Thief

[spicyitaliano]

Here's an interesting situation -

I'm a mixing engineer (and on occasion a producer) in my own small-business studio. I've got some great gear and I have some good sized gigs for big clients for many networks. I'm doing pretty good for myself right now. Well, I've got a long time friend of mine who has been picking at the guitar since high school. I haven't been in touch with him in years now. He called me just the other day and said "I heard you were into recording studio stuff...can you help me?

Well, it sounded innocent at first. Then he adds, "I downloaded a bunch of software, something called logic, some apple-town live program, and something that the guy at Radio Shack tells me is what the big guys use, something called Pro Tech, no no -- Tools of the Pro..." "Pro Tools?" I asked. "Yeah, thats it! And is was all free...how cool is that? I also have a buddy of mine who says he'll give me some Platinum wavy stuff, and something called East West Platinum - sounds lame...what do you think?"

Then he tops it off by asking me if he could come over to my facility and show him how to "run a recording studio." Okay, I was really at a loss of words at this point. I just said, "I'll call you tomorrow."

So what would you do?

[Bob Legs]

I call these types of people "takers"

if this guy is really a 'friend' he needs to understand that in this life, nothing is free

usually with people like this, theyre testing (whether they know it or not) to see how much they can get for nothing.

at the end of the day you can't fast track the learning process especially in the studio game. this applies to everyday life too, best way to teach this guy is to let him know that unless he invests an equal amount to your blood sweat and tears, hes in no position to be asking for anything.

a wise man said once: "in business we act as we must, not as we feel"

[JCBigler]

Of course, he could be genuinely interested, and just isn't ready to lay down even $500 for an MBox to find out if he's really serious.

When I started my serious recording, it was using a demo copy of Cool Edit Pro that a friend had. Now I own an MBox, an MBox Factory Bundle, a set of Waves plugs, and am fully confident that I want to do this for a career.

Think of it as a chance to educate him on the merits of legitimate software ownership. All the same, keep your mic cabinet locked up.

[Joe Evans]

Aside from the obvious comments about legal issues that could be made about this, you could explain to him that more times than not, "cracked" or "warez" software doesn't work right and can cause crashes, add trojan / viruses and just generally isn't what it's supposed to be. Buying the software gives incentives like working properly, bug fixes / updates, tech support, etc....

[Joe Evans]

Man, can I kill a thread or what?

[Dog BBQ]

Man, can I kill a thread or what?

Sweet!!

When I come Across People Like this I explain that the only Real Studio System is a TDM Hardware setup and all the Native stuff is Consumer level!!! Besides confusing them with latency numbers and track limitations they get scared of the TDM Price and give up on the idea!!!!