Yes of course, though I think a lot of engineers, producers, etc. operate independently. Anyway it's known labels are generally (or at least have been) greedy scummy bastards out to bleed artists dry, so it's not just a case of equal division. I've talked to musicians, executives, engineers, read books by them, etc...that's the consensus. Certainly though, there are exceptions, now more than ever.

Also I think the ones against it generally don't understand it -- they assume if that relatively small amount they do make from album sales is hurt at all, it means the end for them. In reality, it can mean more money going directly to them as there's much more money to be made for them through live shows.

This is not to say everyone should pirate music or anything -- I don't feel fully confident or comfortable in saying anyone should. Personally, I buy mine for reliability, and the at least one iota of good it does in supporting the band, if only as a property to the label.

I mostly pirated games back in the 90's, when I was underage and didn't have that much money to spend. I bought only a couple of games, mostly kind of my friends didn't have. For us it usually went like "I buy this and you can have a copy".

As a fun note, I've actually bought some of the titles I copied back in the day, mostly thanks to GOG.

Thanks for sharing, interesting stuff! Just out of curiosity, how much responses did you get?

About 50 after filtering out the bad entries... so... pretty damn tiny, especially considering how large the community over there is. I'm always interested in thoughts and behaviours, which explains my degree in psychology (not the most useful degree, I've gotta say). What easier way to gather up information than whipping up a quick survey and posting the link on the internet? Granted it's not the most accurate method by any means, but it's not like I'm being graded on it, it's just for fun, so whatever.

That EA rep has a colored opinion. It's hard to convince someone their job is destructive or bad when their paycheck depends on it. The best thing that could happen to PC gaming is everyone boycotting all DRM until it basically died. The vacuum would allow something better (hopefully) to fill it.

I didn't state his opinion. Regardless, I am the type to question, and I learned something from him. If it helps, he offered a disclaimer they were his personal opinions and not necessarily EA's.

Economics are rarely that simple. Anyway, we've seen a lot of improvement thanks to protest. The biggest issue currently as I see it is games requiring Steam. Could be worse (and it will may get worse -- e.g. Steam monopoly), but could be a lot better.

The way EA does business, everything that comes out with their logo on it should be boycotted. They move in on smaller companies, buy them out, and then fire the entire original staff under the guise of not cooperating or not being skilled enough. My credentials were far far superior to the 3 people it took to replace me Origin (I trained them).

EA is crooked, plain and simple.

Sorry I know this thread isn't about EAxis, HOWEVER, it is about piracy and EA deserves what they get for how they conduct business. I feel bad for the Joe Shmos that do the grunt work in EA and never get any credit, but they'd be better off without EA as employers in the long term.

Nah, when this was happening it was unheard of, at least with the folks I worked with to purposefully mess with game code. We were all very professional and tried our best to make sure everything worked, the first time. In both companies, in both teams I worked on we considered it an embarrassment to put out something that needed to be patched.

Plus, when we got termed we had NO warning. They came in, handed us our paychecks and a flimsy excuse for why we were being let go and we were escorted out the doors.

I wanted to do 2 things my entire life. I wanted to learn to fly, and I wanted to make games. (didn't start out as computer games, I wanted to make games like DnD)

I will never forgive EA, I will forever hate them, and If I saw the CEO of EA on fire I wouldn't pee on him to put him out if he was on fire.