@Rick

"They all need the original cables to run, there is no way around it" In an ablosule kind of sense, this may not be right but in a moral kind of sense, this is right. The only way to make a better formulation: "They all need the original cables to run, there is no LEGAL way around it"

If you do a search here and on other forums, there are plenty of posts discussing ways around and I am pretty shure if you invest abt. 50 hrs research, you will find hints to ways around it. Still, you have to get the components, do some soldering, programming, troubleshooting ... Even if you could find that thrilling, at the end to make it run you still have to STEAL the software. "and that is completely false!" and there is no way you can argue around that.

Robbing a bank is prohibited by law and that seems to common and accepted knowledge. We can certainly start a discussion about the technical issues of robbing a specific bank. According to US law and some european laws, this would be a criminal act of preparing a crime. There could be some folks around here from greater London area who could tell some stories about police actions going on theses days to find out about "preparations of acts of terrorism".

I admit, a different scale but still the same moral dimension. As we all know that any kind of code and security device could be cracked sooner or later (it just depends on the amount of manpower = money you throw into the bowl), we still have the open question if we want this discussion here.

I have read all the discussions about the price issue and all the other "arguments" for those who try to justify their doings. Some arguments may be right for a Bill Gates discussion with all the money accumulated in the back. But if I look into the MODEL HOBBY SIMULATOR "INDUSTRY" I can't see someone driving a Ferrari or just getting his second Porsche. That "industry" still is a very small scale biz with real people at the front end. You are not illegally taking a copy of WinXP from Bill Gates, you are actively stealing from 6-9 guys known by name and face. That is as good as robbing grand ma at the bus station. Nothing to be very proud of, don't you think?

Let me finish with a very obvious idea: If you are brilliant and have some spare time, why don't you take that time to develop a free sim that stands competition. This will enable you to finally bring a free product to the market and plenty of people will love you. You may end up sleeping under bridges but at least you have done something nice.