For context, I want to run a small personal gig (offering stuff on Patreon). Nothing too fancy.
In order to do that, I would need to use the Adobe suite, Windows, some audio and video effects, all requiring a commercial license.
In theory, I start to make money. How would Microsoft and Adobe know that I don’t pay for their software?
If I use some audio effects, how would their owners even be able to tell / find my work? We’re talking about basic sound effect, like rain, door knocks etc.
I’ve always been confused by this
If they ever do find out, they’ll sue you and your business into the ground. Either pay for it or find an alternative.
I paid for Resolve Studio and use FOSS tools. Mostly because I regularly render on the cloud and FOSS gives me the freedom to do this legally without licensing hassles. IMO, it’s not even the cost, it’s the compliance hoops that make commercial software so onerous to run on clusters.
If on Win or Mac, the Affinity Suite and Resolve are good alternatives. If on Linux, my experience is to break up asset creation between GIMP for cutouts and background creation and Krita for compositing. Neither on their own come close to Ps but together they get much closer. GIMP has the better clone stamp and heal tool, and fantastic guideline support, while Krita has nondestructive adjustment filters and layer styles for nondestructive text effects. Inkscape is excellent, like 90% of Ai.
Finally, your clients. I sell works for hire. Once my clients pay, they get all the original files plus deliverables. That they can use free tools to change assets matters to some of them. It gives them the freedom to hire someone else, or do it themselves, or just trust me that I’m not fucking them by stringing them along. Use Adobe and you can’t sell that to your clients.
But everything depends on who your clients are and what they need. Big corporate clients won’t care about that. So every business plan is different and tailored to its target client.