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Read more.Blocks despite its policy not to?
China how dare you censor the internet, its immoral and against free speech.
Oh whats this people are breaking the law in the US....
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
Indeed
If you think this kind of shotgun censorship is bad now, wait until you see the fallout when the US Congress rams through the Stop Online Piracy Act.
I'm yet to meet someone who uses any kind of file-sharing site/method for a reason that was fully legal, particularly when it comes to searching for something (rather than sharing an arbitrary large file with a couple of friends when you might email them a link).
I'd be quite happy to see all the file-sharing sites fully blocked from search. Rights to free speech are really quite different from distributing copyrighted material!
From what I've seen most of the 3rd party ROMs shown on xda-devs are hosted on these kind of sites. Certainly the last revision of the Wolfbreak ROM that I had for my X10 needed three visits to megaupload.Originally Posted by Fraz
I've also seen NVidia and AMD drivers up on those sites - mainly as a supposed "faster" route to get these than the main sites. Whether these are actually faster or not I don't know.
Last item first - as stated above, and in the article, not all content on these sites IS illegal sharing of copyrighted materials - there is a load of legitimate file sharing going on. If these were harbours of the criminal classes then surely law enforcement (since most of these are in the US) would be going after them hammer and tongs.
I don't have a problem with Google blocking them from search - heck, I'd go further and stop scanning them too. After all, if you're not providing search results (and punting the accompanying advertising) then what's the point of wasting resources scanning them?
Career status: still enjoying my new career in DevOps, but it's keeping me busy...
crossy i use it the same as you, alot of roms are uploaded on these sites and provide a very useful way of getting it. I honestly cant recall a time when i used these websites for illegal stuff, never saw it that way!.
I think what Fraz is getting at is that if for example you are using someones ROM they will have pointed you to the correct link, you wouldnt have searched it on google you would have been on XDA looking so it doesnt matter what google does to searches for it which i agree with.
It is of course, their service, and they decide how it should operate. However, their corporate charter stipulates "Do no evil", a rule they've violated many times over the last few years. Now they're seemingly very happy rolling over for the MAFIAA and their Federal cronies on command.
OK - I stand corrected.
It'd be interested to see the stats of freely distributable vs. copyrighted material from somewhere such as megaupload.
Since I've stopped being a student (6+ years ago now), I've actually grown a real hatred towards peers who have a decent job yet continue to download TV shows, music etc. A lot of this material is really quite good value for money when bought from shops at the right time. E.g. House season 6 is about £13 right now on Amazon. That's about 20 hours of entertainment for £13 pounds. Pretty good value if you ask me.
Same is true of games. I bought Batman Arkham Asylum for £10 the other day. That's going to give me at least 20 hours of gameplay, so 50 pence per hour. A bargain.
People are willing to spend vast amounts of money down the pub for mere hours of entertainment, but that's not true when it comes to digital entertainment.
And yes, that is pretty much what I was getting at. I.e. The ability to search for "film X download" on Google makes meI think what Fraz is getting at is that if for example you are using someones ROM they will have pointed you to the correct link, you wouldnt have searched it on google you would have been on XDA looking so it doesnt matter what google does to searches for it which i agree with
sould have waited for the steam sale - batman AA was £3.74 last time and the sale has just started again
Well, we haven't "met", so I guess that continues to be true, but if online "meeting" counts, well ..... me raises hand.
Completely agree with that, though.
More than 20 hours if you watch it more than once. For instance, I have Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister on DVD, and I've lost track of how often I've watched them over the years. Every time I feel something a politician said appears to make sense, I refresh my cynicism by watching an episode. It keeps me sharp.
The general population don't have a clue about the sort of effort that goes into producing games, movies, music or any other type of file people may download illegally.. So all they see it as is a small disc for, sometimes, over £50.People are willing to spend vast amounts of money down the pub for mere hours of entertainment, but that's not true when it comes to digital entertainment.
Personally, I think people should be educated about the time that developers put into making their games, the amount of money spent on making a blockbuster film, or even the effort that a singer will go to just so they can produce their next album..
If people realised the work that goes into these types of media, maybe they'd be more reluctant to download them in future.
I doubt it. Despite all the moral battles that go on all over the web, on forums and the like, most people would rather have something for free than pay for it.
Whether that's because it was accidentally delivered to them, and they're hiding behind Unsolicited Goods in order to steal it, or because a friend made a copy, or because they've pirated it on the internet, people will do. There aren't really any consequences to having a knock-off of a game, so why would they be concerned about getting one?
For me, Steam was a huge deal. I spend far more on games (albeit far less per game) with Steam than I ever would've done without. And for music, my album collection was a huge deal - I'm looking forward to one day getting a big bookcase type rack to put all my music in and display it. As for films, not sure what would tempt me into spending money on them, but maybe something will happen in the future.
Point is, yes a few people will go on and on about the moral issues on forums and the like, but many will just sidestep the whole argument and get what they can for free. I imagine if I took all the money I'd spent on games and music over the years I could probably buy myself a car... it's not hard to see why people would rather have pirated versions of all that material and the car.
You just totally ruined the warm feeling inside me for getting a good dealsould have waited for the steam sale - batman AA was £3.74 last time and the sale has just started again
Damn you man! *shakes fist*
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