A single window popped up, but it wasn't a crash report. It was a simple text box that read: “Editing is about making choices. Here is yours: pay the ransom or lose the footage.”

For ten minutes, it worked. The familiar purple splash screen of Premiere Pro appeared. He started importing his footage, feeling like a genius who had beaten the system. Then, the cursor froze.

Every file on his hard drive began changing icons to a blank white page. His months of raw footage, his carefully backed-up photos, and even his resume were being encrypted in real-time. The "free" software had come with a very high price.