Coreldrawx5 illigal copy

[Clark Pace]

So it sound silly, but I use Corel draw 9. Have used it for 20 years. I have never had need of any new fancy features. And it's blazing fast on new machines. If you can get away with using an older version perhaps you can find one somewhere?

[Doug Fisher]

>>Trying to register a pirated copy of software should be stopped in its tracks at the moment of registration, not several years later.

Agreed. With that said, my guess is that Corel has recently reverse engineered the pirate key gen crack software and Corel has a better idea of the range of illegal serial numbers so they are making everyone in that range prove they are legit.

There are potentially tens of thousands of people using illegal copies of Corel 12 because just about every ebay and amazon laser comes with Corel 12 plus a key generator on the included CD.

[Kev Williams]

IF the law in this instance works anything like normal criminal law, and I see no reason why it doesn't, the burden of proof is Corel's to prove, users have no need to prove they're 'legal'...
And how will they prove mens rea, 99% of those who actually have 'bad' software paid for it in good faith, no intent to defraud.

And I'm pretty sure any statute of limitations that applies has long since expired...

Corel just needs to count this is a lesson learned and move on before they alienate the client base...

[Gary Hair]

Corel just needs to count this is a lesson learned and move on before they alienate the client base...

To be fair, anyone still using X5 isn't really in their client base...

[gary l roberts]

Well, it's a mess. Wondering whether your about to lose the program and files that you have been using for years. You would think that they would recognize it when you register the program one of the 3 or 4 times I upgraded computers and re-registered , and not just some random time frame. I've take measures to project my files (thanks), And I'm sure not about to pay a company any more money for the hassle and threat. If I loss it, I'll change software.

[Rob Damon]

Speculation on my part.
In the early years the computer software came with paper manuals and software came on floppy disk. The serial number/code to verify it was legit was print in the manual or on a card or on the disk. You could mail in the registration card. Once companies realize that media / process allowed for unlimited installs they started to change the process. Once CD's/dvd media came along they stopped sending hard copies of manuals and made you call a 1-800- number to register the software for every installation of the software to verify it was legit. Once they realized that most people were continuously on line, they required you to connect to the internet to thier servers to verify the software is legit during the initial install. Some still offered phone registration. They pushed the subscription model and digital downloads to reduce cost (increase profit margins) and generate a steady flow of revenue and spy/track on it's user.
Fast forward to today.
When I purchased my laser I wanted to buy Corel but it required you to be online. My shop does not have internet access. So I could not use it. In December I recieved an email from Corel offering a discount on the corel suite 2018. When I contacted them I told them my issue with not having internet access and they indicted that now for a perpetual version I just needed internet access for initial install and it would work fine offline after that. So I ordered it. The ordering actual came through a third party service even though it was being ordered directly from the corel website.
Since nearly all current lincenses are cloud based I am guessing that alot of the legacy versions of the software license was not cost effected to add to cloud based system especially if a third party service is handling the electronic downloads and licensing process. So many do have legal copies but the companies do not want to spend the money maintain records of older licenses especially since they are most likely not directly handling the process. Also since most older software is no longer supported there would be no real reason to continue to track and maintain license by these companies. You want support buy a newer version is the mindset.

[Bert Kemp]

[QUOTE=Rob Damon;2904958]Speculation on my part.
In the early years the computer software came with paper manuals and software came on floppy disk. The serial number/code to verify it was legit was print in the manual or on a card or on the disk. You could mail in the registration card. Once companies realize that media / process allowed for unlimited installs they started to change the process. Once CD's/dvd media came along they stopped sending hard copies of manuals and made you call a 1-800- number to register the software for every installation of the software to verify it was legit. Once they realized that most people were continuously on line, they required you to connect to the internet to thier servers to verify the software is legit during the initial install. Some still offered phone registration. They pushed the subscription model and digital downloads to reduce cost (increase profit margins) and generate a steady flow of revenue and spy/track on it's user.
Fast forward to today.
When I purchased my laser I wanted to buy Corel but it required you to be online. My shop does not have internet access. So I could not use it. In December I recieved an email from Corel offering a discount on the corel suite 2018. When I contacted them I told them my issue with not having internet access and they indicted that now for a perpetual version I just needed internet access for initial install and it would work fine offline after that. So I ordered it. The ordering actual came through a third party service even though it was being ordered directly from the corel website.
Since nearly all current lincenses are cloud based I am guessing that alot of the legacy versions of the software license was not cost effected to add to cloud based system especially if a third party service is handling the electronic downloads and licensing process. So many do have legal copies but the companies do not want to spend the money maintain records of older licenses especially since they are most likely not directly handling the process. Also since most older software is no longer supported there would be no real reason to continue to track and maintain license by these companies. You want support buy a newer version is the mindset.[/QUOTEoo I don't want support I just want to beable to use the software I paid for yeras ago. I don't need a newer version the one I have works fine for me
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[Bill George]

Buy a used Windows 7 computer, install your copy and use. Do not allow that computer on the internet. Simple. I never allow my Corel to "call home" and its X6.

[Kev Williams]

Wasn't going to post this about losing the 'illegal notification', but here goes:

Search your computer for your %appdata% folder
Within the %appdata% folder find the Corel folder
Within the Corel folder find the Messages folder
delete the messages, or the whole folder, it doesn't matter.
If your computer is on the internet and Corel.com isn't blocked, they will just install another Messages folder
I'll leave it at that--

[Bert McMahan]

--Does he? According to Corel (according to Bert), they can't confirm whether his is a legal copy or not. Why is that? It should take Corel's accounting computer .0001 seconds to figure out if his serial number is a duplicate of a previous valid registration. So, what happened to their database? Pretty sure Bert didn't hack it or delete it, I know I didn',t pretty sure Gary, Jerome and Hilton didn't either....

It's not ethical and probably not legal for Corel to hack OUR computers to put a "you have an illegal copy of Corel" message in the %appdata%/Corel/Messages folder AND install a hidden trojan to render your software inoperable, when by their own admission (to Bert) that they can't even prove it.

Trying to register a pirated copy of software should be stopped in its tracks at the moment of registration, not several years later. They've discovered a problem and now they're trying to get their customers to pay for it.

Yes, he does have a serial number that's been used fraudulently... that's how they knew to contact him! Whether or not HE used it fraudulently is what they're trying to prove. I'm not saying Bert obtained his key illegally, I'm saying the key he does have HAS been used frequently and illegally. I am not arguing the ethics of if they can brick their software or not, as I'm no lawyer and nobody here has ready the terms of use anyways

I think your logic is flawed regarding usage of serial numbers. How many computers have you installed CorelDraw on? I know I've probably had 3-4 installations over the years on new computers, reformatted machines, etc. My license allows 2 installations, but I've never been able to figure out how to "release" a claimed installation, so I just install it on the new machine when I get it. I never have more than 2 active at any given time, so I just leave it alone.

Corel *probably* lets you install 10-20 times before they crack down on things, heck maybe 100 times, who knows. If they were super strict about licensing, they'd just stop you after installation number 2, leading to gobs of upset users who can't get their computers to work. If they are incredibly strict in their licensing (like most other companies are), they have to spend TONS of time on support with people trying to just use their software.

So what do they do? They let the "little fish" go, and when some particular key has been used a million times, they start cracking down. After all, only ONE person who uses a given key is likely to be the one who ACTUALLY purchased it, so they can get rid of 9,999 illegal copies if they can find the ONE actual person who purchased it.

This is just a theory of course, and again I'm not sure of the legalities of bricking your software after you activated it. I'm not arguing that at all.

Also, I'm fairly certain that Corel, and the law, doesn't care if you weren't trying to buy a fraudulent number. If someone sells you stolen goods, you don't get to keep them just because you thought it was legal when you bought it.

[Bill George]

He does have a serial number that's been used fraudulently... that's how they knew to contact him! Whether or not HE used it fraudulently is what they're trying to prove.

So if he purchased an illegal copy unknowingly and registered it, would they not have his email address from that? I believe this is a illegal ploy on Corels behalf to get users to upgrade. Apple did the same thing in slowing down the older iPhone 6 and got caught. They slowed them down so the end user would buy a new phone! I have never used the Online benefits of my legal copy. Do not need.

[Mike Null]

Since version 8, I have purchased all my upgrades directly from Corel. I now have X7 as my latest version though I use X5 for all my work. To date, I have not encountered the warning from Corel. My machine is online just about 24/7.

I have 5 and 7 loaded on 3 machines although only one is in use at a time.

[Bert McMahan]

He does have a serial number that's been used fraudulently... that's how they knew to contact him! Whether or not HE used it fraudulently is what they're trying to prove.

So if he purchased an illegal copy unknowingly and registered it, would they not have his email address from that?

Yes they would... I"m not sure exactly what you're asking. Registration is basically "Here is my email address and I have serial number XYZ123". If XYZ123 is a valid number, the software works. If it's not a valid number, the software doesn't work. For them to be starting a fraud investigation, they will have about 1000 different people that said "My serial number is XYZ123, here is my email address". Their task right now is to figure out which one of them, if any, purchased the serial number from a legitimate seller.

Anyone with a valid serial number can just copy their CD and go on eBay and sell the CD, then send the same serial number to everyone. It will activate initially, but once they see the number of activations are 100 or 1000 they start retroactively locking all accounts that used that serial number. Scammers can just buy 20 copies of Corel Draw, then resell each one 4 or 5 times on eBay and make a nice profit, then close their accounts and move on. It's even easier if they sell 40 or 50, or 400 or 500 copies of the same serial number. They will reuse a legitimate serial number until Corel stops accepting that it's valid, which means all of the people who bought their CD from that eBay auction are now hosed, as they don't have a legal copy, even though they THOUGHT they bought one.

If Corel only allowed, say, 2 activations per serial number, then they would cut down massively on fraud, but they'd = off about a million people who recently replaced their hard drive and can no longer install their software anymore. They give some leeway on the number of activations they allow, until it hits some threshold.

To continue my example, if they see XYZ123 has hit, say, 100 activations, they stop everyone's accounts from working and tell everyone to send in their receipt. Only ONE of the people, at most, has a valid receipt for that serial number, so they just deactivated 99 illegal copies. Unfortunately, if you are the ONE person with the valid number and never got a receipt (even if it WAS valid), you're in a pickle.

If you bought a car from someone on Craigslist, then the police showed up and said "Welp, sorry, but this car was stolen" you don't get to keep the car just because you didn't KNOW it was stolen when you bought it. You won't be *prosecuted*, but you can't keep the car.

I think what most people don't realize is that a serial number will very frequently start out as "legal" but then gets duplicated a ton of times. Keygen programs are the exception here- none of those serial numbers started out legitimate (unless the keygen just happened to guess a valid serial number).

[Bill George]

Bert, the only thing Corel has is my First name. They do not have my Email address. Its activated and its legal but I never Log in or do anything Online. Same way with Microsoft, its activated and legal but they do not have my name or email address unless I give it to them. That is why I asked, how did they have his email address, very simple you do not give it to them and they will not have.

PS Cars have titles, no title no money, no sale.

[Bert McMahan]

Then they know to contact him by the software phoning home. I'm not quite sure what the issue is, the question was "How do they know to contact him" and the answer is "He either gave them his email when he registered it or the software is phoning home". That's the answer to that question, which is all I was trying to say, nothing more.

And regarding the cars comparison... change it to a stereo or most any other item, you still don't get to keep it if it's stolen.