Want Flash? You broke? Read this.

Legality | Finding Flash | Cracking It

Anti-Capitalist Propaganda 101; or, how I fight The Man*

If you're reading this, you're probably a student. As a student, you are a product of knowledge, shaped by what you learn, what you desire to know, what the educational system provides. What you are taught, however, is limited by what is available to you, based on your spending or your school's spending ability. As such, those with more money have at their disposal a greater array of educational opportunities. They are not limited in the same way. It is my belief that the amount of education a person receives should be based on the person's desire to learn, not on what they can afford. It is unfair - indeed, I would argue criminal - that education in our country is so largely biased in favor of those who were born into a family of wealth. Education should be pursued for education's sake, the desire to learn should be sufficient reasoning. By restricting who can learn what, the division of wealth and status perpetuates itself. Consequently, in a vain attempt to correct these injustices, I have outlined a method in which Macromedia's Flash can be "illegally" downloaded. Since this information is based on a set of standards and principles, the author of this tutorial (myself) requests that this technique not used for a) the making of money or b) the downloading of programs (i.e. videogames) that cannot be used in the pursuit of learning. Thanks.

*Author's note: While I understand this to be a simplistic outline of a very complicated issue, I felt the need to express these views all the same.

Finding Flash

Intro

There are a number of different methods in which a program (in this case, Flash) can be illegally gotten. This list varies from downloading programs (e.g. Kazaa, Bit Torrent, Direct Connect), to IRC, to the sites themselves. While the first two methods to obtain Flash can succesfully be employed, there are a number of risks associated with them. That is, the possibility of downloading a virus or something harmful to your computer, let alone the likelihood that what you download won't actually work. If you are comfortable with this method, by all means help yourself. For the purposes of this tutorial, I will teach a method that is both safer and more amusing.

Simply put, this tutorial will show you how to download a 'trial' version of a product from the developer's website, and then find a simple crack online that will allow you to use the program as god may have intended - free man, free.

Go get it already

Go to Macromedia's Download site and under the "All Product Downloads" section there will be a list of products. Find Flash MX 2004 and click on the Try link (or just click the previous link).

You will need to register some information with Macromedia. Feel free to lie as much as possible. To avoid junk mail, be sure to unclick any promotional offer that Macromedia tries to trick you into accepting. If at all possible, register under an e-mail address you either a) don't care about or b) have set up specifically for such junk mail. Once you have finished filling in as little information as possible, click the "Continue" button at the bottom of the page.

You will next be taken to a page where you can finally download a "trial" version of Flash MX. Under the first pull-down menu, pick the version of Flash MX that will work best on your computer (and in a language you understand.) Congratulations, you have Flash. Now it's time to crack it.

Cracking It

While it was recommended against using a file-sharing program to download the actual program because of potential problems, when it comes to downloading the crack, I would recommend using a Kazaa or an equivalent. Simply enter into the search box "Flash MX 2004 crack" and see what comes up. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: the file you need will be very small, only a couple of kilobytes (e.g. 3-10kb). What you are looking for is merely a product key, a series of numbers. You do not want to nor need to download anything larger. Since this file is small, it is less likely that you will download something damaging to your computer; however, as with all things illegal, there are always risks you must run.

Once you have succesfully downloaded a product key, run Flash MX 2004. Under the Help menu that runs along the top of all Windows programs, there will be a mouse-over option called Activation. Within the Activation menu, there will be an option to Activate Product. Click this. It will ask you for the product key (or, serial number), you downloaded. Enter it. IMPORTANT: Do NOT register this program. It is not yours, it was illegally gotten, registering it will alert Macromedia of this fact. You do not want this to happen.

Congratulations, you now have Flash MX 2004. Go learn.