Nope, just conjecture :D

I am just going to come in here and say that for the past few years I have finished the year thinking "This has been the best year for music ever!" and then the following year I think the same thing. I definitely pirate music but I also buy from 40-70 records, as in new vinyl records a year so I think it evens out. I certainly buy every record I can from some bands often for $20-30 after the cost of shipping so $10 games on Gog are quite cheap in comparison.

If you think music today is bad you are just not trying enough. I recommend going on bandcamp searching by genre and just listening to new bands. If you choose to support the artist bandcamp does not take much of a percentage and many albums are pay what you want anyway.

I have also been buying lots of Blu-Rays recently now that they are coming down to $10/movie. I think the film industry has been putting out amazing movies recently as well.

As far as video games go since I am primarily an adventure gamer on pc and jrpg/pokemon gamer on handhelds the past few years have been some of the best.

Sorry, media is just so good now, and we have such control over what we consume, I just think if you are dissatisfied with current media you aren't looking hard enough.

*raises hand* I do from the bands I support. This year I bought 3 cds from Blackmore's Night, 2 Within Temptation CD, and one CD from Avantasia. Guess what? All three bands I discovered on youtube. I'm a college student and I'm not made of money, but when I do get some spending money I do eventually support what I like.

Yes, 4 of these CDs I bought new. I don't mind buying a full album if most of the songs on them I actually like.

Completely agree, I also like pandora radio and last.fm for music as well. The trick is to not get trapped in the mainstream bubble. While there might be a few gems in the mainstream, but it is limiting. To a certain extent, I think even the mainstream gets too stereotype as being trash. While there is some truth to it appealing to the lcd, but this doesn't mean it is completely unenjoyable.

Well, we were talking about the industry, not about indie underground pay what you want garage pink floyd wannabes.

Hence why there are still some good bands, you just gotta search them out. Demean them all you want but some of these indie bands have real talent. I don't need the industry to tell me what is popular or who I support.

There may be some big-boy industry supported bands I like, but they are not and should not be the end all be all of music.

Just curious here: Why wouldn't people talk freely about it? Are they into witch... I mean pirate hunts in Australia?

I see. That is truly regretable, but you can only blame their own lack of foresight for it. The 1st of April is jinxed after all, no plan announced that day has ever come to fruition. I know we can't let superstition guide our lives, but a bit of care and announcing things some other day isn't that big of a deal.

Piracy is never, ever going to stop, companies need to realize this

Even if TPB gets shut down, something else will take it's place, none of this will ever end

Had a problem downloading an episodic game from Desura (fucking useless tech support...never again), looked it up on TPB, downloaded what I needed in about a half hour or so.

TPB has its good points.

I miss demonoid

Very true. However it is kinda hard to find replacements at times... i went through Supranova's implosion (the new one is not a patch on the old one), Mininova.org and also Demonoid's fall. I use certain other ones right now.. mainly private trackers but took me a while to find replacements... im amazed TPB is still around.
Never know who is actually reading these comments LOL. It happens here, albeit on a lesser scale, mind you i read somewhere australia is kinda high on the list of countries with a lot of 'activity'..

The thing I find most intriguing about The Pirate Bay is that has become a very political organisation, and its political efforts have seemed to overshadow its actual piracy 'services'. In many ways, it has replaced the old Piratbyrån (which disappeared from the face of the earth for whatever reason) in opposing the principle of copyright, something which they have done remarkably consistently.

I don't necessarily agree wholly with their stance on copyright, but they have a better understanding of its problems than most mainstream politicians or lobbyists do.

I'm fucking through with discs. I have DVDs I've watched once before and treated nicely and they skip now, despite the discs looking perfect. Physical mediums are flawed and stupid, I want everything digitally. I sold my games and CDs and went all digital, movies and TV are next.

That said... the versions on torrent sites are not adequate replacements. The quality, frankly, is shit. Also if you're like and prefer older movies and shows you'll probably end up downloading a season a year at the download speeds torrents provide for old shows.

The real solution for me is full quality DVD rips. Within the next year or so I plan to buy a few TB drives and get it done.