Now we just need The Pirate Bay to go down. The beginning of the end of this despicable practice draws near!

I would say that anything that is not copyrighted is not a fair comparison.

Copyright is there to make sure the author(s) gets the money they deserve, if a game isn't worth paying for without trying, it isn't worth playing in my honest opinion.

Keep in mind I have next to no money, so no, I don't have the $50 to drop on new releases just to see if they're good. Most games however take up enough time that I don't need more than the few I can afford, and if not there are some excellent free games, NetHack springs to mind, although there are plenty of other free games.

Now, piracy is not theft, it's copyright infringement. The idea is that the author gets money for everyone that views/uses their product, that nobody can access their product without their consent and that nobody can steal their idea. I don't tend to copy music either, and that isn't actually illegal here. (basically the courts ruled that downloading a song for personal use isn't infringement, and putting a song on a file-sharing network isn't distribution)

Just how I feel about it, obviously not going to convince you nor anyone else for that matter nor am I really trying to.

I don't think so. As long as there is stuff people want there will be people who get and distribute that stuff through alternative channels. This is much easier for media, given that media is just information (it's not really "physical") and we happen to have developed a world wide information network.

There will be a Pirate Bay II once the first one goes down, bigger and better than the original (and possibly located in space).

And in my case, this is exactly what happens.
I get a game, it works, I enjoy it, they deserve some money.. I buy the game.
I get a game, it doesn't work or I don't like it, they don't deserve any money from me because they haven't provided me with anything. I don't buy the game.

It is a win/win situation for them. I either find out it works and they get another sale or I find out it doesn't and it didn't cost them anything. The changes I make to their bottom line are either neutral or positive and I'm *not even a targeted customer* (being a Linux user).

If a service was offered where I could acquire the game for a few pounds to test and try it out (even with DRM) and then buy a DRM-less version when I find it worked and I wanted to get it.. I'd be a user. As I (think I) mentioned before, GoG's price point makes it worth the risk and I have purchased quite a few games that don't run in Linux. But I don't feel like my money has been wasted, because I still "used" that purchase to give money to someone who I feel deserves my support (GoG and the publisher that worked with them).

Do all discussions have to be about convincing someone to think something else? :)
I find the topic very interesting and the sheer variance in views just exemplifies that it isn't a black and white issue.

Thanks for sharing your views with me :)

Well YOUR mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries! :D

edit: Oh, and I'm not trying to be insulting to you personally, GameRanger, I was playing Fable earlier and was distinctly reminded of Monty Python, so the quote kind of slipped out. I absolutely agree, you're probably Chaotic Good (a nice rogue type) and I'm Lawful Good (a paladin with his undies too tight under his armor).

I can respect that, and I don't feel that you're right or wrong with your opinion. For the most part, I'm the same as you. I don't pirate media (meaning downloading it for free), but I don't have a problem with cracking the copy protection of something I bought just so I can get the piece of monkey shit to work. And if I find something that annoys me, I'll just avoid similar products in the future instead of pirating it. I mean, I've got a pretty big backlog of legally purchased games right now that will keep me busy enough to wait out all this DRM garbage. If not, well...I'll just replay them. Or take up star-gazing as a hobby. Maybe learn to play the accordion.

With that being said though, how would anything ever change if everybody had your sentiment? If everybody just quit drinking during Prohibition just because that was the law in the 20's (another stupid law, and not just a law but an amendment!) how would it have ever changed? How will pot become legalized? The way I feel, the more rules they make to try to stop piracy, the more piracy is going to become a problem.

This is a U.S. topic, and my understanding is that our government was set up to work from the bottom up, not to be giving people mandates from the top down.

Some excellent points, Kyle. I think the problem here is that I tend to work within the system and hope someone will change the bad parts, whereas other people prefer to ignore the system and not have to worry about when it will change. You're also right about the legality being a U.S. topic. Morality is something I won't touch, since concepts of morality differ between individuals.

Will Frostwire be taken down too? I think thats made by the same people isn't it?

Thats good, but that might be their next target.

Frostwire is a fork of Limewire that was released under the GPL, and my understanding is that the development of it is much more decentralized. Additionally, both Limewire and Frostwire are just clients for the Gnutella network, which is completely decentralized. Basically the shutdown of Limewire (and any future action taken against Frostwire or other Gnutella clients) is just a pointless game of whack-a-mole.