



This mostly involves eliminating the copy protection or usage control features of the original version like serial numbers, hardware keys or activation codes. When a person “cracks” software, this means that they remove or disable features that the cracker deems unwanted for his purposes. If there is a website that offers you TeamViewer for “free” and it is not the official TeamViewer website, you should be aware because downloading software from an unofficial source can be quite dangerous. While we provide our software for free for private usage, we ask small business or enterprise users to buy a licence. While the original Napster is long gone and now a legal Spotify clone, many shady websites persist on the web that provide “free” versions of software that nowadays often require a subscription. So, when you downloaded the application, you weren’t even asked for a serial number during the installation process any more. In the case of software applications, the pirates often altered the code in a way to completely remove the copy protection. Now, smart people started to share copyright protected music, movies, and proprietary software online for free. It all changed with the advent of the internet and file sharing platforms like Napster. This worked more or less well, as spreading pirated software was still a tedious task. Usually, long serial numbers that had to be typed in during the installation process. ĭo you still remember the good old times when standard software like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop was sold on CDs or even floppy disks? Vendors had to make sure that people don’t buy the software once and then illegally copy it to the computers of all their friends and family. Quite the opposite, downloading and using “cracks”, despite being illegal, comes with a lot of security risks for you and your company. But as we will show you in this article, there is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to manipulated applications. Effortlessly getting a “free” version of your favourite software online sounds great.
