Bob: Whatever. I kinda need the program if I'm gonna sell my models, because, honestly, NOBODY uses .RDS format, and the conversions are a little... iffy. They need correcting, most of the time. Unfortunately, they have deemed it best to make it fuckin' impossible to do so. So at this point, I'm saying **** 'em. If there's a good, say $500 copy of MAX 3 or something sitting around somewhere, I'd definitely go for that, but I'm not about to get all prudish about warez all of a sudden. I just want something that works. ****, right now I can't even get people to look at my stuff for free. I'd use Lightwave (cheaper, corporation's far less evil), but I'm about as useful at it as a spastic gibbon- I can't even ****in' texture in it, so conversions to .lwo are definitely out.
Venom: But you see old copies of Lightwave around all the time- I don't think they actively collect the old copies. They're actually an option for those who can't afford some obscenely expensive but fancy new version. Hell, all software has upgrades, but you'll find old copies of Photoshop and Lightwave and the like sitting around for a fraction the price of a new version.