This is depressing

This is why I pirate.

What??? You make no sense.....are you saying you priate material SO that game developers can take legal action??

Shold it not be, "this is what happens because because i pirate"

...what is depressing is the easy at which they got ISPs to hand over personal info..

I'm with Virgin but I don't File Share.

And what about legitimate File Sharing anyway? ISPs and the Government seem to be in this state of mind where ALL File Sharing is considered bad.

You pirate because ISPs hand over the details of pirates?

Im sure you argument will be something along the line of, "they are evil and go after people for the joy of it and are only in it for money and we should all rise up againste them and that it was them who drove you to is with their evil (again) capitalist ideas comrade, not the fact that you just dont want to sepnd the money to buy the product...etc etc".

for the record, i no longer download stuff illigaly uni a year ago, when i got a job and have the stuff we call money.

BTW, I don't download stuff illegally, but I still pretty much agree with the quoted sentiment.

Also, being anti-capitalist doesn't make you a communist.

Although I agree this is the real point here.

lol i know i know...

...what pisses me off is the reluctance to upgrade the networks to handle the higher bandwidth which leads to restrictions on a service you HAVE paid for...

I pirate because I cannot justify giving money to people prepared to run someone into the ground financially for downloading a game that was a complete flop.

I mean, come on! Dream Pinball 3D got slammed by virtually every single publication for the same reason only 800 people bought it in one week.

It sucked.

So, they try to reclaim profits by being assholes and suing everyone they can.

I think topware ought to make games that aren't crap before they fire off the CnD letters.

if it sucked as much as you say....why did so many people download it???

The point is that they put a price on it, and by not paying you are effectively stealing. To them it doesn't matter if you can physically touch it or not. To get that piece of digital content you'd have to pay up cash.

By not paying you're breaking the law. It's as simple as that.

Well,

1.) In recent weeks, I've started to use an encrypted VPN, so I have an IP in Sweden now, and not even my ISP knows what I am doing. It just looks like encrypted web traffic, like at your bank! As a result, I am like the ginger bread man. You can't catch me!

2.) Good point. I thought this was illegal under the Data Protection Act. I wonder if there will be any litigation by people being sued against the ISP's.

Totally agree!!

There are many more products that suck than are great...all have a cost. But data based products are the only ones people seem to think its ok to take for no money just because they dont think they are worth it.

If a car was rubbish you couldnt take it for free and use the excuse it was rubbish!!!

I think the bigger point is the data protection issue that matt raised

The same reason why so many people downloaded the latest Slipknot album.

ZINGER!

Sorry, could not resist.

To be honest, most didn't. The people doing the suing have the use of a company called Davenport Lyons who rely on an anti piracy group based in Switzerland (note, out of the EU). Lots of these letters have been sent to people who simply didn't know how to download or have never even heard of the game.

It's a flawed system, and people are getting scared and paying up.

It's a wonderful money making tactic, don't you think?

But a car is a tangible object. Not a digital file which can be copied infinite times.

not really....because if people have not downloaded it, then they are safe.

and anyone who has should know how to get rid of the evidence...they need people to just blindly pay because it would cost a fortune to check the PC of every person accused.

People who get a letter and pay up without fighting it....deserve all they get.

IMHO, the best way to combat such organisations is to simply ignore them, and recommend alternatives when you speak to other people.

There's one time when I think it's fair to do what people nonsensically call "stealing", and it only applies to software. There are times when you have a non-commercial need for a piece of software (e.g. data recovery or educational), which you cannot possibly afford. In such a case, the publisher had absolutely no chance of getting a sale from you, although you stood to suffer by not making use of that software. I.e. by "stealing", nobody was worse off, but by not "stealing" someone would suffer, you.

It is for such cases why I think some commercial software companies should have much more pervasive free trials or free versions, so as to legitimise such uses.

Although having said all that, use free and open source software whenever and for whatever you can, then none of this is an issue. Consequently, you don't have to be criminalised for having the same needs as everyone else, but not having a fat enough wallet.

Because of what I've just said above, I do not think it is fair to say this as a blanket statement.

Sure you could say it in some cases, but not all.

I agree with more or less everything that you said.

One thing though, I feel the 'old' content industries deserve, and need to die. Not only for the good of the consumer, but for the good of the industry themselves.

I pirate because
1.) I'm poor.
And
2.) I cannot justify giving these arseholes my money.

If they stop suing people on disability benefits and children, stop making crap and stop using DRM, I would be happy to pay for things.

But in the mean time...

Let me just say that it is less expensive to settle than go to court.

That's why people settle.

People settle because they are weak and scared of long-worded, quasi-questionable, morally-bankrupt legal poppycock from large, faceless corporations who make absolutely ridiculous profits and STILL moan they aren't making enough. Not enough people stand up to these monkeys. I'm with Matthew on this.

Actually there's a woman who was sued in America recently. I think, he RIAA accused her of destroying evidence, so she volunteered her computer for them to do analysis.

The judge threw the case out when the RIAA refused to say whether they found any evidence for their claim.

She is now counter suing them, and last I heard they were trying to settle out of court.

Sorry for the sketchy details, I heard this on TWiT a week or two ago.

This ^

DavidRGilson says:
Actually there's a woman who was sued in America recently. I think, he RIAA accused her of destroying evidence, so she volunteered her computer for them to do analysis.

The judge threw the case out when the RIAA refused to say whether they found any evidence for their claim.

She is now counter suing them, and last I heard they were trying to settle out of court.

Sorry for the sketchy details, I heard this on TWiT a week or two ago.

I think she should press for the most damages possible.

REALLY, make these scumbags suffer.

The thing is, nobody wants the RIAA, not even musicians.

But how do you fight them, without hurting musicians?

We don't.

Musicians are just collateral damage. They can move on, even if this is a temporary setback for their careers.

I want to see The Killers and Britney Spears on Jamendo, where they are recognised for the quality of their music, not the marketing budget of their record company.

Matthew said that the company were going after everybody essentially, even people who had never downloaded the game....now i dont question this because i dont know the facts...But my point was that if you have not downloaded it, and you settle....you deserve to loose your money for not fighting a false accusation...if you did download it without paying, then just accept you have been caught.

But i still cant get over the amazing ability of some people to seperate data based products from the law just because....it is really easy to copy them!!

No they don't deserve to lose their money. The truth is, they would be taking on someone MUCH BIGGER and with more resources than them

To use a star trek analogy, it would be like the USS Defiant taking on a Borg cube alone.

lets not shall we, although i understand you reference to size, its not exactly to the point...

...so are you saying that even if you didnt download this game and they served you with notice, you would pay up just because they are bigger...?

...No...if you didnt do it you have the law on your side no matter how big they are...so you fight...if you dont fight then its your own fault.

Matt your such an atention seeker !