torrent spy owes 111million dollars!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

yes thats what i mean, people think free stuff is crap. like you said there are many free apps that are brillient

[mediaboy]

free stuff? I live for freebies.

I go on loads of courses just to get the free pens... I have like 100+ now, and have NEVER run out of pens. Huge saving.

Of course... some people would argue this is theft, as I'm not actually paying anyone anything.... so of course it's theft...

I suppose it comes down to your definition of buying and your definition of freebie

[chuckskull]

I've said this loads of times I like buying things, gotta love that new game smell. GTAIV was very smelly .

Do hate the MPAA, RIAA and all the other association acronyms with a fiery passion though. They make no impact on piracy, ruin the product for anyone who actually bothered to pay for it in the first place and manage to harass and abuse a lot of (often innocent)people in the process. Corporate vigilantism isn't going to help fight piracy and just from speaking to people seems to encourage it. Lot of folks will download something instead of buy just to give them the middle finger.

Someone getting in a huff and suing everyone he can find while trampling over the legal system because some spotty kid with limewire stopped him adding an extra wing to one of his mansions generally isn't going to be popular.

Want people to stop pirating things? Make the original product more appealing. Ditch the DRM, anything you can code, someone else can code around, no exceptions, get over it. Don't force me to sit through your dumbass low budget anti-piracy propaganda. I'm not stupid; Osama isn't wringing his hands with glee every time someone copies an MP3, ok? Pirates get both of these, why cant a paying customer?

The only thing they can really beat pirates on consistently is quality and at the moment their not even managing that. I cant watch the latest HD movie without forking out a cash for equipment gotta have HDCP and all that junk. Where as johnny pirate gets the full 1080i experience, no DRM, no buying a new player every two years because some specification got updated and the DRM is incompatible with old players all of a sudden. He gets a better product, usually before me and it costs him precisely nothing.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

BLOODY well said. i agree alot. look at bioshock as a prime example of the mess they have generated trying to beat the pirates which they couldnt after all the efforts

[chuckskull]

Thanks josh Oh and one very important point I missed. To date the RIAA has not paid a single penny to any artist from the settlements in these cases, not even when the defendant actually pays up. I think it was $400mil from napster and kazaa back in the day. The last I heard on the matter was that some artists were considering suing them.

Not to mention it's currently trying to CUT, yup cut artist royalties again down to 9%. Not as bad as apple though who are aiming at 4%. Yes that's right the RIAA wants 91% of the profits from music sales of artists under it's umbrella (some of the biggest record labels and therefore artists in the world). Apparently the current 13% they pay to the artist is way to much

These groups are the biggest scam artists on earth, they screw the artist, then screw the customer and just for fun try to screw the pirates too(usually failing to get anyone actually involved in piracy and ruining the life of some college kids who just wanted some free music). Of course if you're a multi-billionaire with friends in congress and an army of lobbyist's, no worries.

[mediaboy]

Erm... no money.. no friends.. no army.
I'm messed up. Oh dear. Such a pity.

Didn't know that all these AAS (Annoying Acryonm Societies) wanted to cut back on losses and rip off everyone. Anyone up for a massive law suit? I'm sure if we started writing off to all these artists we could get backing and funding for it, and we could probably battle it out for 20 years in the courts, lose because they've got money, friends and armies but then win on appeal or something.

On the otherhand, probably wouldn't happen, as these groups legally screw the artist, screw the customer and just for fun try to screw the pirates too. Damn stupid laws we have.