I’m broke. We’re broke. That’s all pretty natural since we’re students. Unfortunately, industry-standard software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, among other things, don’t come cheap. So, unfortunately, what many people do instead is to pirate software.

Privateer Wharf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Pirate_Bay_logo.svg

                However, there are alternatives. This article talks about what we can get or do instead of resorting to piracy.

Elementary: http://i3.minus.com/ibv6JNJIgNmiiI.png

                Instead of pirating software, we can look for what’s called FOSS – Free and Open Source Software. Most of these software programs can be duplicated and edited for personal use, which is pretty neat if you’re a programmer. For example, as opposed to using Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom, we can get GIMP, Inkscape, and Darktable, respectively. Instead of using Windows or OSX, you can also opt for a GNU/Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, elementary, or Fedora. Open-source games also exist, with titles such as Widelands, FreeCiv, Xonotic, and UFO: Alien Invasion. While they are not as developed as paid games, they’re still pretty good. Most FOSS projects allow people to improve on existing code by enabling them to edit, improve, and fix the code. If you want to improve your coding skills, it can be a good test of skill to contribute to these projects.

XONOTIC: http://www.xonotic.org/m/uploads/2011/09/stormkeep-keyhunt-2.jpg

                For art, music, videos, and images, there’s something called the Creative Commons (CC). They have licenses that basically boil down to artists giving other people varying degrees of freedom over their creative works depending on the license, such as using them in commercial products. The images you see when you do a Google Image Search can’t exactly be freely used by just anyone, so it’s very important to see if you can use it for whatever purpose you require. Case in point: the OrSem 2013 Layag logo controversy. Many websites provide content that are under the Creative Commons and similar licenses: DeviantArt has lots of artwork under the license, and Flickr also has quite a number of photographs with the license. Some artists even have released their music under these licenses – Nine Inch Nails has even released two albums under CC licenses, although obviously those were sold for a price. The Free Sound Project houses free sound effects under the CC licenses.

                Finally, fonts! A lot of people download fonts, and a lot of them can be downloaded free. While some of them are free, many aren’t licensed to be free for non-personal use (like advertising, promotions, or in logos). There are a few foundries or creators who do provide fonts you can use for basically anything, such as The League of Movable Type, while dafont lists many free ones under Creative Commons.

League of Movable Type: http://i.imgur.com/K8s0Zmi.png

                I’m not a corporate shill, I assure you. I wouldn’t be talking about alternatives if I were. Not choosing piracy over these alternatives is a small moral victory for anyone who does, and that’s probably the least you’ll get. You’ll still get something fully functional and fully free.