I have spent a lot of money on legit copies of real flight. I wouldn't let
anyone copy mine (because they cost me so much) but I don't mind people
having copies in general. I can understand the drive to copy because of the
ridiculous amounts that Real Flight and Ripmax charge.
In particular, in the UK I felt particularly hard done buy. For one, the
products are imported at a rate of 1USD = 1GBP. I had Real Flight Deluxe
which cost me 180GBP. 14 months later G2 was out. Was I entitled to any
rduced price upgrade or money back voucher like in the States (No). Instead
I had to buy an upgrade for 100GBP. Ripmax claim this to be reduced price
upgrade but to be honest if you take away the cost of the controller or
interface from the full retail package it wouldn't be far off 100GBP.
What's more we pay more than in the USA but but don't get the support. Sure
there's the online updates but if you try to speak to Ripmax you get little
sense and RealFlight (in my experience) don't seem to respond to enquiries
from the UK.
A word of warning about illegal copies though. Nothing over the internet is
private. Because you have to register online, even if you fill out bogus
details you leave your IP address (plus other info) as your calling card.
If you have done this using a static IP address (like the majority of
broadband connections) then you have as good as given their prosecutors your
name and address and clear evidence of your crime. Even if you have used a
dynamic IP it wouldn't take much detective work to track you down.
I shouldn't imagine that they will bother but one day, when theft has gone
too far, the suppliers just may well decide to make an example of someone.