Well, at least I will try to look on the bright side still ( considering the case ain't over until the appeal is over with ).
We've all lived through with[
the printing press ,
the photocopier,
the eight track,
the VCR and now the internet.
All these pieces of technology have to some extent allowed people to copy illegally yet they still have survived gracefully, even though some had different types of copy protection on them. Granted, today technology has made it alot easier for people to get whatever they want whenever they want, just as technology have given the music\film\game industry even more ways to stop this. It is just a shame that many of these attempts have been of the "we are assuming you are a thief until proven otherwise" sort of protection and thus making it even more tempting to have a pirated copy that is free of all the hassles.
I seriously think that for things to work in this digital age there has to be two things that has to change.
The most important one is that the entertainment industry actually get some fresh young blood into the higher echelons who understand technology, the current generation of kids and adolescents and who can find a decent way to distribute and sell their content online without having too many strings attached on how, where and when we can use this content. In other words, the current pricing, regional and copy protection crap needs to be changed. And unfortunately for them, I believe they're going to have to live providing content at a lower price than before because we are mainly dealing with digital content and not any physical media, not to mention that the whole world is our oyster on the internet, so we have more competition.
The second thing that needs to change is the mindset of people. Because of the ease of copying and distributing online it seems that many people just expect they can get anything for free without paying for it. I find that wrong as well. Hopefully reduced pricing, increased availability and ability to play your tunes or games wherever you want will help swing people over to supporting the people that make all this content that we so much enjoy. That's why I am hoping that sites like gog.com and whatever other sites that may pop up along the similar vein, will give more people a reason to just that. It is kind of funny, but I am sure that considering the games here are DRM free it would be a breeze to share with everyone. Yet not for one second have I contemplated giving a copy to anyone else - that's how glad and supportive I am of a site and the developers\publishers that are on here that actually treats me like a normal paying customer and not a thief.
( this is just my personal opinion based on what I've been reading on different forums, and I do not have any hard facts to back up the previous paragraphs ).
Yes, its a tall order to get this stuff changed and I am sure it will be a long bumpy road where we haven't heard the last of the stupidity of MPAA, RIAA and those politicans who sucumb to their pressure. In the end, I believe that as time moves on, both technology and the fact that the old guard will disappear will benefit us more than them.
To quote Louis Armstrong - "We have all the time in the world".
