Have you ever pirated anything?

[psydT0ne]

I cannot confirm nor deny that I may have come into contact or possession of certain contraband materials.

[ssmithisme]

I cannot confirm nor deny that I may have come into contact or possession of certain contraband materials.

lol, The MPAA is going to troll our forums!

83w4r3

[Seshan]

lol, The MPAA is going to troll our forums!

83w4r3

Well this is what I have to say to that...

[h3%5kr3w]

hmm... Well, I have a massive electrified rare earth magnet in hand. Come get my hdd! :P

err.... better yet nawt~! (cuz you'll be paying after you lose it..)

[barry99705]

lol, The MPAA is going to troll our forums!

83w4r3

Who says they already don't, along with a few TLA's.

[h3%5kr3w]

Who says they already don't, along with a few TLA's.

...anyone feel like it's that part of (insert damn near ANY movie here) where everybody get's busted?

[Rab]

Pirating is illegal, therefore "absolutely not"...

[ssmithisme]

...anyone feel like it's that part of (insert damn near ANY movie here) where everybody get's busted?

lol, The day I have a room full of hard disk arrays and cd/dvd burners, is they day I have a ultra powerful magnet in a box that says "The suits are here, and they have a warrant!"

[h3%5kr3w]

lawl!

[Razor512]

it is useful if you want to test something out before buying especially when it comes to things that good or bad is based solely on the individual, the last thing you want to do is buy it just to find out it sucks

this is especially true for some games, music and movies

piracy is illegal but according to the mpaa and riaa so is copying your content from a cd, onto your ipod or any other device is also illegal because you paid for 1 copy but now you have 2, 1 on cd/dvd and 1 on the portable device or on your pc

if piracy is to be reduced then companies need to stop being so greedy. music companies don't even want you to hear even a second of their music with out you paying first, so they settle for a low quality 20 second sample which is useless

game companies release crap games and no demos, or when they release a demo it comes with malware like securom (why does a demo need to come with securom, who pirates a demo? )

and when companies do give a demo, they end up limiting them to the point that it either makes the game suck or it seems fun then you later find out that the demo was all the full game had to offer

piracy had increased by a lot ever since companies added DRM because people were not willing to risk buying something that they cant return if it sucks

[deleted]

Companies are just not viewing the situation in the modern world. People want their media wherever and whenever they like, beit on a computer at home, a computer at work, an name-brand white media player etc. People also want to get their media easily and quickly. At the moment, I think the easiest, quickest and most convenient way to get media like music and videos is through piracy.

My Comparison of first time Downloading a track from the internet:

Limewire: Download > Install > Search > Download Track > Listen

BitTorrent: Download Client > Install Client > Search > Download Torrent File > Download Track > Listen

iTunes: Download > Install > Search > Create iTunes Account > Verify Email Address > Enter Credit Card Info > Accept T&C > Download Track > Listen

Id say thats a typical first song download. Which one is Easier? Which one is a new person to online music going to choose? My bet would be limewire for people who want a few songs and BitTorrent for people who are looking for albumns.

P.S. In no way is this account associated with the MPAA or RIAA and is not monitoring your interweb usage *shifts eyes* :P

[h3%5kr3w]

I second dark blue box. This acct does not follow, document, or even - not drink heavily in front of these forums :P!

[ArkNinja]

My views on piracy are that its not like stealing candy from the 7-11 down the street, the makers of the Software/Movie/etc are not losing money from your piracy, they are just not making it. And for people like me who would never purchase the Software/Movie/etc its not like they are losing any business.

[h3%5kr3w]

Ya know arkninja, that is the age old question on piracy, and that is, are they loosing any money to piracy? TBH, I am not sure at all. I have seen hockey stick diagrams that go both ways. Now I am sure that what they do not realize are A. Most piracy (that they call it) they will never see (rip cd/give to a friend, or copy to mp3/ipod) because it's not 'online' when it happens. B. and this one is for the movie industry... Sorry but the real reason your losing money is because the good to crap movie ratio went far right-field years ago, so my bad if I do not feel like paying $30 of my hard earned money to go see a real time and life wasting movie on the big screen, especially if I can just wait till netflix has it, and to top it off my surround sound is just as good as yours!

The only people I really feel bad for are the software makers, and the mall shops, though the mall shops has nothing to do with piracy. But the internet influence with piracy has ripped thousands if not millions of dollars away from software developers, and for the mall shops, well... I'll put it to you this way. Before the internet boom, the local mall was a beautiful sight to see. Thousands of people were there. You could probably bump into one of your friends there. You could meet new friends too. And the mall had a large excitement to it.

Now the mall is close to being deserted.. You go in on a Saturday, and at best.. maybe a few hundred will be there. Here is my problem with malls though. PRICE. No-one ever seen it coming, but the whole thing that happened WAS why the hell do I want to go to the mall to buy something when I can go online and buy it for at least 40% cheaper, and the worst of it, is I have to pay for shipping, and the best of it, I dont have to go anywhere..

Ya know it's kinda strange.. People seemed so much more eager to get out there and have fun before the internet.. (not that I am blaming it completely for what has changed these new generations) Any of your remember going and hanging about the mall?

[Netshroud]

[VaKo]

Amazons MP3 store is very good actually, it takes about 2 clicks before the music is downloading, at high speed. No DRM, and plays on anything. Good quality too.

[ArkNinja]

God, I loved that episode...

[doyouhas]

Not sure if this was pointed out in the thread but many artists such as Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead are completely against artists suing people just to make a quick buck. They have repeatedly expressed their frustration when they see other multi-million dollar artists suing people because they feel their rights are being violated. They have plenty of money and now their only wish is to share their musical creations with the world. That is the definition of a true artist. Now I have a much different view when it comes to starving artists, the guys who really do struggle to make ends meet in an effort to produce music. I have no problem buying CDs from them and have done so countless times, although I rarely buy from retail outlets such as Best Buy and prefer to buy directly from the artist's website (if possible) because they get more of the profit from that sale. Some people really are strapped for cash but love a particular artist. It sickens me to think that it's a crime to enjoy music without paying for it, especially if you legitimately don't have enough money to pay for all the music you like. I've done calculations to figure out how much it would have cost me to purchase my entire music collection, and the results are not pleasing. I have 12,500+ songs in my library and if I paid a dollar each for those songs, I would have spent over 12,000 dollars for my collection. That just seems a criminal amount to charge for music. I am most definitely in favor of a service where you pay a flat rate and have access to all the music you desire. If a service like that was done correctly (which will happen eventually, no matter what), it could be fare to both artists and consumers.

[CraigHB]

I don't pirate movies or music, but not because of principle. I'm really into movies, but not music so much. Netflix along with my TiVo provides everything I need legitimately in that regard.

Software is a different story. Some of the software I run is pirated. A lot of times I do the torrent thing on stuff first to check it out. When I come accross well done software I have a use for, I generally buy it. I like to support smaller makers that offer good products. The demons like Microsoft and Adobe can go to hell. I go out of my way to avoid giving any money to them.

[doyouhas]

You can say whatever you want about Adobe as a company but they make great products.

[CraigHB]

Umm, what products? I detest their Flash player and PDF reader. I use Foxit reader, but since Flash is proprietary AFAIK, there's no option, at least none that I've found.

[doyouhas]

Dude, im not talking about the flash player...have you ever played around with Photoshop CS4? You can do really amazing things with it. Especially if you have the whole adobe suite, which has Light Room, InDesign, and a bunch of other applications that, in the right hands, can be used to produce really stunning works of art.

[CraigHB]

Oh, yea, photoshop. I'm just a computer user, not a graphic artist or developer so that's my viewpoint. My only exposure to Adobe is the products I've used or have been forced to use so that's my reference. But, I don't know, with my impressions after Acrobat Reader and Flash Player, I would probabably look elsewhere for a graphic suite if I had to use one. I know there's others out there and some are even open source.

[VaKo]

The open source stuff like gimp doesn't even come close for the most part, Adobe make quality products. But for 90% of people Gimp is more than enough. I personally don't see a problem with pirating Adobe's stuff if your a student, even if you have lab access somewhere, because your aiming to be pro and its a skill you can sell, to earn money you will spend on adobe stuff. If your a for-profit outfit or freelancer making money with pirated software then there is a special section of hell reserved for you however. One where your forced to do McDonalds adverts with tv friendly R&B soundtracks.

Same goes for Microsoft stuff, you may slate them but MS do an entire eco-system of products, a lot of which you just cannot replace with FOSS stuff. Again, 90% of people reading this will have no need to ever touch any of that but for the people that do its invaluable. Microsoft have there problems, just like Apple and Canonical have there own set of Bad Things they have done, but they do make quality products. The competition is good for them, so FOSS does have its place.

[h3%5kr3w]

Wow this is weird because... I fully agree with VaKo *yet again [swear i'm not sucking up!]*.

If your a student, you need to know your tools. Would you go into gardening if you did not know what flowers smelled like or a little of what goes on in the first place? No. Same goes for most other things.

Unlike gardening however, it does not take 700usd to buy a hoe, shovel, and seeds (well most of the time anyway)

Now there are always demo products but um... cmon. If your a student of the trade you need WAY more than cut down, time limited, hendered demos of products....

That's like me. I'm going for my CCNA in a year. Do I have $700+ to spend on Cisco routers and switches? HELL NO, but I do have a couple of emulators :P

Would I route a network with it? hell no. I wouldn't route my home internet traffic with it, but it's perfect for learning.

I feel that companies need to look directly into the learning market. Why not have a fully functional Adobe suite for $100 instead of $1000? Obviously the biggest grade student is using the suite on a full time basis to learn everything and do all he/she can so that when they get out into the graphic artistry world, they have half a chance as a living with it. So either A. they have rich RICH parents [or they saved their entire teen years and worked a job for it] or B. they pirated it. I mean cmon Adobe. This is where I do support piracy.

I hate to say it but at least Microsoft will cut you a deal. This is why I think Microsoft is more of a saint than Adobe ever was.

I feel that Adobe also pushed the issue so far out that it's ridiculous. Right now, either you use Adobe or nothing at all (what the hell else is there?) for professional work. Used to there were tons of suites you could get a hold of for professional artistry, so it's not like they are not making money. To top it all off, even for institutions, they wont give anyone a break (their idea of a break, at least for my school, for 50 licenses for the full adobe suite for web developer class was $35 off... No one in school get's a freebie or even a discount outside of it either)

Also I feel Adobe is loving the fact that they just cant seem to get it right with Linux and Mac. A company of their size and after how many years, still cant get their product working on either properly??? Now before you go saying 'hey it works fine on mine', go look at your processor chart the next time you fire up a good flash based vid (hell even the hak5 vids).. Bet you it eats up at least 45% of your clock cycles, and that low of a number is probably only if you have a corei7. So what I mean by working properly means not only does it work, but works efficiently, and there is no excuse whatsoever that you cannot get video streams to work properly. In linux, I can view HD quality video in H.264 format and clock for clock beats the snot out of the flash player in a windowed stream...

Blah! :P