I missed my Monkey Island wheel after it got lost, made the game unplayable... (did not have internet back then.)

You are describing Patent?

http://9gag.com/gag/298963

Piracy is piracy. Ignorance does more harm than good to your cause. Study some shit before you open your mouth.

Besides the better wage in europe, people tend to give tips for good service anyway.

Are we really going to go through this again? Do we have to lecture another person (or the same person?) about what DRM actually means?

Your OP reminded me of something so after a bit of digging I managed to find it.

Back in the 70s almost all software was free. Freely developed, freely shared, freely transmitted. There was a core group of hobbyists who loved working with, on, and for computers and they collectively did some amazing things. However, their work was inaccessible to people who didn't know how to use a computer so it remained the best kept secret. Eventually, companies started getting patents for their software and the original hobbyists treated this new, patented software just as they treated everything else, freely used and freely traded. They were the original pirates.

By the late 80s, Apple and Microsoft forced most other small software developers out of business and had a virtual monopoly on the OS generation. That is, except for one group. The GNU Project was a continuation of that movement of free and fair use of software and was led by many of the original developers from the 60s and 70s. Despite attempts by Microsoft to control it, they are still strong and producing wonderful new things.

At the heart of this movement is the idea that if you put something on the internet, it should be free and unrestricted. Whether it be a song, a movie, a piece of software, or a video game, if it is on your computer you should be able to access it freely according to this movement. So while you might be at a complete loss as to why online piracy isn't viewed as a crime, it's because it harkens back to the days when computer software was freely used, freely accessed, and freely transmitted.

So, if you are sick of people pirating games, don't pirate. If you are tired of getting free software, then pay for it. If you hate people who pirate, write us a strongly worded letter along the lines of the original DRM dick: William Henry Gates III. I think the two of you have a lot in common.

http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html

Some interesting comments,, Others not soo much...



I will just add,, Perhaps some should do a little fact checking and some US supreme court case law, one of being the napster battle, when the site was shut down, and people that had Pirated music, were subject to fines and criminal procesuction.. Just ask any of the 1000's of people that were subject to this.. cause it DID happen...

another recent win, was back in 2007, which further defined the act of piracy as being illegal.


While posting pictures about how piracy is copying and not illegial maybe cute, it hardly makes it law...



But outside of all that.. You see the direction gaming is going,, Less and less single player, and more always online, or MMO style games.. this is a direct result of those that part take, in piracy. and the ignorance of those that are part of the multi-billion dollar problem as a result.


I would think gamers would want to unite to end piracy, and improve the gaming industry, and sharing, along with purchase as a whole.. But i guess this thread is evidence that it is not the case..

Cause everytime another game that has online only, or no lan support comes along the pipe.. you can rest assured that piracy was the number one reason for this change..




.

and what of all the content that was never put on the internet by the orginal publisher? Not to mention that was all in a time before a song, or movie, or even a decent sized peice of software could even be transfered over the interent.. which really didn't even exist outside of BB boards..


But clearly you speak as someone that has NEVER had any intelectual property stolen... and most likely you will never create something that would.. Perhaps you should think in terms of what if it was your property...

Usually never do this, but farting is really air pollution. :-) [check effects of ch4 on o3 in upper atmosphere.]

Edit to add, as I couldn't resist: Outhouse gases, are greenhouse gases!

Living green?

An opinion issued by the Second Circuit just yesterday is rather apropos: copying is not stealing. It can still be illegal, but it's not theft.

And now the true purpose of this post has been revealed. The question is what did someone steal from you? Hopefully it wasn't a book or piece of literature and if it was, based on your entries here, whoever pirated it probably did you a favour.

Oh, and pirates didn't steal from you, it's still your idea. You will still have all the rights to whatever intellectual material you made. Someone bought it, made copies, and distributed them for free. No one is changing your original idea. No one is selling it to make money. And you got at least one customer for whatever it is you made.

This is what the discussion should be about, not whether or not copying is stealing (it clearly is not to me.) That's the main thing that I want to achieve. I posit that the burden of proof is on the ones who want to implement such restrictions whether or not these restrictions beneficially increase the whole pie or only funnels resources from the rest of the pie to a small piece of it. Even if these restrictions are proven to benefit, I still posit that it is not the role of government to make it compulsory. The burden of persuasion to potential customers should still be on those who want to sell. The website we are discussing on currently seems to have done a good job of doing this (though damn near ruined much of the goodwill because of lawsuits from the parent company.)

So is there any proof that these restrictions are beneficial?

My apologies for the late reply too. It's too nice of weather out lately.