AE $70 = a joke? warez? legal?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
I came across this on the web, cpix.net offering to sell a download of Adobe After Effects CS3 for under $70, full version. Something seems suspicious about this, but I can not find anything when googling for 'cpix.net scam' and whois.net shows cpix.net is registered through GoDaddy to someone in Michigan, USA. Seems too good to be true, getting a full version of CS3 for $70? Can this really be legit?

I already own an academic version of AE, but I was looking for a cheap AE to help a 20 year old down on his luck looking to learn a skill to rise above working at Taco John's. Thinking maybe he could spend a year mastering AE on his own, look for freelance work titling and more with AE, seems he could earn more than $7/hr if he applied himself. But he needs more than a 30 day eval version to really start up a freelance business. Anyhow, just wondering if this cheap AE from cpix is real or an illusion.
~randall
 
William_Robinette said:
NO one is going to be selling AE at that price. It's just common sense.
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I am suspicious of the price, but then again, I legally paid $250 for my academic version of AE CS3 and that was boxed with a very thick user manual and training DVD and install disc. Perhaps without the box, manual, discs, somehow there is this discounted price for download only especially if CS3 is a version behind CD4?
 
It's probably either illegal or a scam. I'd personally think scam if it's the site I'm looking at, which is titled 'Michigan Commercial Real Estate'.
 
ChrisHurn said:
Since he's new to AE, what about AE7.0? You can probably this really cheap somewhere.
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AE7 seems to still be going for $200 on ebay. Amazing software, I just wish there was some $99 studio version or something like that for people wishing to play with it to learn it (beyond a 30 day trial).
 
Casalen said:
It's probably either illegal or a scam. I'd personally think scam if it's the site I'm looking at, which is titled 'Michigan Commercial Real Estate'.
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The website domain is registered to a woman from Michigan, an odd geographic location if it is warez / pirated software, which I would expect to come from outside the USA. Might it be like OEM software, cheap without manuals, linked to a single PC / mobo?
 
It seems like they should offer a stripped down version, since they do for other things. Never really thought about it.

Anyway, on further examination the site looks legitimate. But I looked at your post again, and the download part seems odd, assuming you typed what you meant. I don't know of a good way to distribute like that after market other than the not quite legal ways. With that and the price it seems suspicious enough that I wouldn't trust it.

As for the site... I know Michigan is doing terrible right now, with their major industries taking big hits, and real estate is bad everywhere. Selling software like that online seems like a strange backup plan, but it's possible.

Or the seller just doesn't know what it's worth, having obtained a copy by some means other than purchasing it.
 
I think the clincher that will keep me from buying off that site is clicking their CONTACT us link which brings up a dead link, thus not contact info (apart from what I discovered from whois.net)-- which no contact info on a site that really rings suspicious. Probably is too good to be true. And as you say, maybe with Michigan hit hard by the economy someone is pulling a shady website warez operation. Or it is a site set up and run by identity thieves, which would be a far worse nightmare than saving a few hundred dollars.
 
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