Pirates can play games without disks, so why do publishers still demand the disk to be in the drive when you play? That's one thing I don't get at all. It hinders the consumer more than it stops a pirate. Impulse and steam fix this problem by replacing them with new ones. (One login at a time even if you only play separate games.) But it is still a nice trade since they have other advantages.

Yes, we understand you are a pirate...

True...I din't read the source of the plagiarised thread posting....as the gist of the premise is flawed....too many assumptions and generalizations.

It's a little silly to compare a sale offer of one product with a general retail price of another....so the reference to CursorFX is meaningless.

$9.17 for 5 games then?

Terribly sorry...that's clearly so much better it makes my comments pathetically vapid.

Make up your mind....you did the maths...came to $9.17 ...and I trusted you.....

I   W  I  L L   T Y P E   S L O W

They had a sale pay what you want so braking it down it was $9.17 from each who bought  W i t h o u t  the sale it would be $80.00 for all four Games or brake it down $16.00 each game..

the same for CursorFX sale at one time was a $1.99 without sale it is $9.95

your the one that put the words ... General retail price of the 5 games so I put the R e t a i l  P r i c e   in

I think Jafo needs to take the rest of this day off and go home and take a nap and wake up on the other side of the bed

I cannot, wait, I can, believe this thread continues.

Piracy (which considering no one held a gun, took all their money, took the women and sank their ship or ransomed stolen merchandise) is a bit much.

Let us call a spade a spade.  It is theft, pure and simple. If someone steals a game at Best Buy, it isn't "piracy", it is theft. Now, someone who distributes stolen goods, that is the one you want. That is the "pirate". To me, it is like the arguments of illegal immigration. If you foster illegal aliens to come work for you for less than you could pay others, you are helping create the problem.

I have never understood why bit torrent, napster and youtube (who made a nice dodge after being essentially a home for piracy)  seem to get off cheap. Ok, maybe not Napster, but they made their money before getting shut down. The rule seems to be, if you can be a hub for piracy long enough to get a large share of folks on the web, then sell it to a legit company (who is stupid) before the legal shite hits the fan, you win! Make yourself a corporation so the worst that can happen is they shut it down, but can't come after you personally.

 After all, "Corporation. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." - Ambrose Bierce 

 Some weird dudes released something called shareware back in the day. Somehow those dudes made a lot of money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware#Implementations 

Of course, now days, it takes a lot more resources to make a product. So that is not as practical anymore. That said, I seem to recall Brad/FrogBoy/Draginol of Stardock saying ages ago that one of the reasons for no protection on Stardock games was you couldn't get the updates, which where really expansions to most companies, unless you had a legit license. That sounds suspiciously like shareware.

The other argument was the pirates would steal it anyway, so why charge legit customers for those that steal?

Perhaps he has changed his mind since then.

Of course, Jafo will correct me on all my misconceptions.

Although I wonder how many get his tag and avatar from "Blue Thunder"

Doesn't seem to be too many, actually....

....other than 'JAFO' coming from Blue Thunder [it'd been around before then],

...and the Avatar is my own art...cartoon I did for all us Communicators/Observers who work in Motor Racing [drawn from our uniform/outfit way back in the 80's Adelaide F1 GrandPrix] it's tattoed on my shoulder...

Back to the original post. I read an article on the Maximum PC  site that if i remember right in 2003 the RIAA had spent around $3 Billion on the prosecution of Recording Industry cases. The return on those cases won was only around $350,000.The article made it sound like the RIAA was rethinking how it handles things. I am certain that if it was more profitable we would be hearing about more of these cases being filed. The Tech Dirt website also has plenty of info about piracy in general.

Death to me! we don't need shops selling things we do as hobbies 99% of the world is gonna be entrepenure and you can get real original on ways to make money out of fans without 35000 albums at the rate of 10 - 20 dollars a cd.   amen!

-jeremy Sr.

Make an album art book or pay site for the record company or something smart not charge 10 to 20 dollars a cd and expect (our market for music is so small) us to be happy when there are only 100 bands being sold becuase the market seems big at that price.

100 bands at best buy and 350,000,000 people in america!

Also 350,000,000 Americans buying 35,000,000 records at 10$ a piece is just ideotic.  A best buy size store that sold music at 1$ an album would be better than making less music profitable and every soul have to buy every album they have. -Jeremy Sr.

I believe the above quoted part is a misconception.
Just because a user doesn't "Save" the file to their HD, USB Stick or CD, does NOT mean they didn't download anything.
In fact, if you watch a movie "online", you HAVE "downloaded" it.
This is my technical understanding of it, and probably the reason whomever can make a suit stick:

In order for you to see a movie, the picture and sound has to come from somewhere, it doesn't just materialize out of thin air,
so, the source "sends" those pictures and sound through the internet, to your computer,
which then puts the signals together to produce what you see on screen.
Thusly, your computer has recieved data from wherever, and stored it, usually in a temporary folder, on your computer,
so it can do what it does to show you the movie.
Whether that temporary folder is deleted/cleared AFTER watching said movie or not,
the data WAS downloaded to your computer.

Just throwing in my 2 cents worth to clear that point up.

I'm actually interested to see how they're going to handle this when it comes to multiple users randomly being given the same IP.

As an example... I am banned from 4chan for posting spam. Even though I've never even posted on 4chan. Hell, I don't even GO... to 4chan. But alas, if I happen to get redirected to that said, there's a banned message.

All because somebody else has access to my floating IP through my ISP.

I'd like to know how many 80 year old grandmas are going to be asked to pay $1500 because somebody she didn't know who had the same IP as her download an episode of Family Guy 300 miles away.

I am going to be yelled at and hated here but the fact is there are those of us without the means to afford some of these programs so by going to sites that do file sharing I am ab le tyo try out the product in depth top be sure it is what I want or more to the point something i can truly use to full advantage. Als o want to piont out that it wrong to assume that if a program has popularity that it is better than others as well the theory that one is given a grace period to try a product is a joke. In most cases software that is allowed to be tried before buying is hobbled so badly that to actually think you are getting the feel for the real program is a definite fallacy and not to be given mush credence. There are some that do not hobble their programs and as such would behoove the writer or promoter to let the fact ne known. 

So much software these days is so over the top in price as to be ridiculous. Case in point, Photoshop. Let's face it, whe your supposedly the only game in town why not charge $199.00 for an upgrade to the most basic incarnation or (and this is the most aggravating) $1000.00 for the one package with three seats.

I grant you Photoshop is a great program, even better than one would think, but I tried it out and after comparing it to Gimp, a freeware version that uses the same plug_ins as Photoshop with about the same functions and it is free because it is open source. In my position had I not tried out Photoshop I would have been ignorant of it's complexity but because i research very Diligently whilst considering my possible purchase I make it a habit of trying programs that parallel or mimic the pay for software. In this case it saved me over $600.00 and I have 90% of the functionality of the pay version.

Having said all that and meaning every word I do agree that theft with the intent of stealing someones hard work is wrong. So is charging so much for a program that is obviously not as unique or polished as we are led to believe or as in many cases a one trick pony that otherwise is useless to most is overkill, greedy and without real president other than proving the point that there is one born every second who will dive in with both feet just to have the latest and greates supposedly unique software.

So to put in the short form..... if you are not flush than before buying over priced or not so great software  the use of sharing sites to glean the real usefulness of software is to me not a bad thing and in the end lets me choose between name brands and free_bees or close to it so that my money goes where it belongs and not into the hands of so called better paid for softrware.

Stealing said software is wrong. It is unfair to the writer and developers that even though overcharging in some cases it is their blood sweat and tears that go into the making the software.

The last point and perhaps the most logical and obvious that unlike myself and others that use these sites as a means of trying out, or kicking the tires before buying so to speak) are far and few between. Even so these sites do have a purpose if only to be a stepping stone to legitimate purchase of intellectual property.

OK I'm done and perhaps you think me full of fertilizer but I speak truth for myself. I am disabled and legally blind. I have to be able to kick the hell out of the tires of these products. If you know what it is like to live on a fixed income you know how restricting buying anything is. In many cases i have to save for months if not more to buy the software I need. Of course it would help greatly if I were to get the full benefits and check amounts that are freely given  illegals by the most corrupt of us all, the politicians who cry foul about the fairness rules when they break the rules and laws to steal from us every day to support the people who come here for the soul purpose of taking what they are given without conscience of legal ramifications. This is the real crux of the issue and the one that gives many the mind set they have to steal from themselves because of higher ups that are taking money to turn their backs on the people who elected them so that a few rotten egg manufacturers can have less than minimum waged workers. How very sad and how very typical of the system that makes laws for some and turns it's backs on those of us who have paid into the system and still do pay not too little taxes on the money we paid into so we could if in my case and millions of others

I have a bad habit of talking too much but in this case it takes more than few airhead remarks to make a point. I hope I have done so and perhaps enlightened a few people who perhaps spoke more quickly and without really thinking through what causes many to inhabit some of the seedier sides of software. In any case thanks for giving me an open forum to speak and express my views.

I am going to be yelled at and hated here but the fact is there are those of us without the means to afford some of these programs so by going to sites that do file sharing I am ab le tyo try out the product in depth top be sure it is what I want or more to the point something i can truly use to full advantage. Als o want to piont out that it wrong to assume that if a program has popularity that it is better than others as well the theory that one is given a grace period to try a product is a joke. In most cases software that is allowed to be tried before buying is hobbled so badly that to actually think you are getting the feel for the real program is a definite fallacy and not to be given mush credence. There are some that do not hobble their programs and as such would behoove the writer or promoter to let the fact ne known. 

So much software these days is so over the top in price as to be ridiculous. Case in point, Photoshop. Let's face it, whe your supposedly the only game in town why not charge $199.00 for an upgrade to the most basic incarnation or (and this is the most aggravating) $1000.00 for the one package with three seats.

I grant you Photoshop is a great program, even better than one would think, but I tried it out and after comparing it to Gimp, a freeware version that uses the same plug_ins as Photoshop with about the same functions and it is free because it is open source. In my position had I not tried out Photoshop I would have been ignorant of it's complexity but because i research very Diligently whilst considering my possible purchase I make it a habit of trying programs that parallel or mimic the pay for software. In this case it saved me over $600.00 and I have 90% of the functionality of the pay version.

Having said all that and meaning every word I do agree that theft with the intent of stealing someones hard work is wrong. So is charging so much for a program that is obviously not as unique or polished as we are led to believe or as in many cases a one trick pony that otherwise is useless to most is overkill, greedy and without real president other than proving the point that there is one born every second who will dive in with both feet just to have the latest and greates supposedly unique software.

So to put in the short form..... if you are not flush than before buying over priced or not so great software  the use of sharing sites to glean the real usefulness of software is to me not a bad thing and in the end lets me choose between name brands and free_bees or close to it so that my money goes where it belongs and not into the hands of so called better paid for softrware.

Stealing said software is wrong. It is unfair to the writer and developers that even though overcharging in some cases it is their blood sweat and tears that go into the making the software.

The last point and perhaps the most logical and obvious that unlike myself and others that use these sites as a means of trying out, or kicking the tires before buying so to speak) are far and few between. Even so these sites do have a purpose if only to be a stepping stone to legitimate purchase of intellectual property.

OK I'm done and perhaps you think me full of fertilizer but I speak truth for myself. I am disabled and legally blind. I have to be able to kick the hell out of the tires of these products. If you know what it is like to live on a fixed income you know how restricting buying anything is. In many cases i have to save for months if not more to buy the software I need. Of course it would help greatly if I were to get the full benefits and check amounts that are freely given  illegals by the most corrupt of us all, the politicians who cry foul about the fairness rules when they break the rules and laws to steal from us every day to support the people who come here for the soul purpose of taking what they are given without conscience of legal ramifications. This is the real crux of the issue and the one that gives many the mind set they have to steal from themselves because of higher ups that are taking money to turn their backs on the people who elected them so that a few rotten egg manufacturers can have less than minimum waged workers. How very sad and how very typical of the system that makes laws for some and turns it's backs on those of us who have paid into the system and still do pay not too little taxes on the money we paid into so we could if in my case and millions of others

I have a bad habit of talking too much but in this case it takes more than few airhead remarks to make a point. I hope I have done so and perhaps enlightened a few people who perhaps spoke more quickly and without really thinking through what causes many to inhabit some of the seedier sides of software. In any case thanks for giving me an open forum to speak and express my views.

That's about it.

They could wait for a year when that game comes down to an affordable price. Pay for another program which will achieve the same results as the more expensive item, maybe even save up and buy it down the track. If you want to see that movie rent it out on video.

Why do you need it NOW!!! It just comes down to greed and ego.

If you get caught downloading copyrighted material you only have yourself to blame.