Exhausted, Elias wiped his drive and reinstalled his OS. He went to the official NewBlueFX site and realized they offered a fully-functional free trial. He finished the project using the trial versions, earned his paycheck, and used that money to buy a legitimate TotalFX 360 subscription.

Five minutes later, Elias’s computer was no longer his. His fans were spinning at maximum speed as a hidden miner used his CPU to churn out cryptocurrency for someone in a different time zone. Every time he tried to open his editing software, he was met with a watermarked red X , a sign that the "crack" had failed, or worse, corrupted his registry.

Elias was a freelance editor working on a deadline that was quickly slipping away. His client wanted "high-end cinematic transitions" and "3D motion titles" that his basic editing software just couldn't produce. He needed NewBlue TotalFX , a massive suite with over 1,500 presets, but his bank account was as empty as his project timeline.