[emmjay]

I have a friend who just legally immigrated to this country and they would like to improve their language skills. They are looking at getting employment with the government which expects a good comprehension level in English, or French or Spanish. None of these are their native tongue. As these new immigrants have limited resources they mentioned to me that there are websites that provide free downloads of Rosetta Stone Language DVDs (eSoftin is one). They can not afford $650 for the software from the RS website (per language) and they wanted to know why it is free on this other site. I thought it a scam. What advise would you give?

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it's free from that other site because it's illegal (i.e. pirated). it also possibly contains viruses or other things you don't want on your computer. if you ever find the "free" version of a software that normally costs $500 or more, then it's not legit

[dsenette]

it's free from that other site because it's illegal (i.e. pirated). it also possibly contains viruses or other things you don't want on your computer. if you ever find the "free" version of a software that normally costs $500 or more, then it's not legit

[emmjay]

Sure do agree with you on that. I am having a terrible time trying to get them to accept that they should not under any circumstances download anything from these sites. They are of the opinion that the govt. here would not allow such sites to operate illegally and that the software offered on these sites are end-of-life (no longer supported by the vendor) and that is why it is free.

They also believe that companies as large and as powerful as Microsoft (and others) would launch a lawsuit against these sites and have them shutdown. Well, I do not know if this has ever been attempted or not. I can only assume that our laws are more directed to the user rather than the supplier. The Internet is not regulated to the degree that freedom of expression is denied or impeded, but I do believe that it is monitored in some ways...ISPs maybe, govt. maybe!!!

What bothers me even more about this, my friends are beginning to buy into our newcomers' reasoning. I am frustrated and I am losing the argument. It is just not right to walk away and let them get burned.

Sorry, for the diatribe, but I needed to vent.

[dsenette]

well...unfortunately some people don't listen to reason and the only way for them to learn is to get burned

everything they are using as reasoning is false...companies don't just give away EOL software for free, because they'd still have to reasonably support that software. plus if they gave away EOL software, why would anyone buy the new version? just wait for it to go EOL and you get it for free

MS has nothing to do with people selling stuff on the internet, but they DO have a pretty large fraud team that goes around getting sites shutdown for selling pirated versions of their products (or giving them out for free etc..) but the internet is HUGE, and shutting down a website that you don't own takes A LOT of work and A LOT of legal action. so their first action is generally to send the site owner a letter asking them to stop, then they have to wait for a response, if they don't get a response they have to send ANOTHER letter, and another, then they can take it to court, then the court has to look at everything and make a decision, then the ISP has to actually take the site down. at which point the person on the other end just starts a new website and the process starts all over again