Pirates vs the moral dilemma......an open letter to Garmin.

I just bought a new electronic chart, Atlantic islands and the Iberian peninsular (Spain) the particular format we use is Garmin Bluechart, in this case it's the all singing and dancing "vision" version.

However, Garmin say that it's not possible to create a backup of this SD card.

That's not true.....

It's not easy, but it is possible.........

I would also venture to suggest that this isn't piracy it's prudent.

So I now have a copy in each of our two plotters and the original as a backup.

Moral dilemma?

Nope....

I know (roughly) the MTBF (mean time before failure) of solid state memory. So I would like a backup of this fairly vital software in case the media fails......

I have absolutely no intention of flogging copies of this sd card on fleabay. That would be immoral.

If I can crack the hidden file security of your software in the ten minutes available before the pub then it does beg the question why bother? The only people your so called security is impacting are infact your customers who you are endangering by your short sighted view.

The real pirates would take less time than me to crack your security, remove it and allow users to create backups of this software. What do you have to lose? If we can all back up in case of a media fail, we all would be a damn sight safer and not so dependent on a one shot deal. I am fairly sure that most of us would have bought an original copy in the first place, after all, this isn't One Directions new album is it?

Or do nothing, and I will just tell everyone who asks how to circumvent your security.