Yes I'd steal a ****ing bike if it belonged to an RIAA lawer (or equivalent)!
Meanwhile install Ubuntu and Nexuiz and have some legit fun.(feels kinda weird though )

Good Article! I doubt that any of these companies will listen. And the reasons are simple, they don't understand the motivations of users, and they believe their own hype. They think they can "force" people to do what they want them to eventually. Makes me sad to know that I "support" them on such a frequent basis.

Excelent read! Very good article guys, great work! And now if only they could listen...

Good article

I think you missed one reason, which is related to "prevent fire with fire"; Copy Protections.

I know an increasing amount of people who do not purchase software known to use StarForce, and I also heard a few who start to avoid SecuROM protected games.

The cause is the number of rumours regarding what theese protections may do to your computer. From the most severe:
1. Known to destroy hardware (such as trashed CD Readers due to StarForce)
2. Known to not work with specific hardware (such as SCSI readers due to SecuROM)
3. Blacklist software people use to backup, burn and run software such as Alcohol 120%, NERO and Daemon Tools
4. Copy Protections are often the cause of bad performance sometimes make a world of difference in frames per second, reduced lag and faster loading times.
5. CD swapping is annoying if you play several games and may lead to scratches.
6. Preventing your legal right to backup your purchased software.

Many have started to use download services such as Direct2Drive for NO OTHER REASON than to avoid the copy protection. Some, a few, even buy the D2D version AFTER they bought the original version.


Id like to use an example.

When it comes to NWN2, Obsidian have several reasons for people to not pirate the game such as being registered to the popular forum (with the game's name next to your name if you are registered) where you can discuss building new modules, direct access to new patches via the Update Tool, and probably getting future premium modules with less hassle. You also get a large game that even when you finish it you can continue to play custommade modules. In short, Obsidian have done everything right with a game worth the money and great customer service, yet Neverwinter Nights 2 is a game hampered by a copy protection it does not need.

Being forced to have a DVD in your drive just to create, compile and run your own modules is a huge hassle and it's proven that you can get up to 30% improvement in in-game performance just by using a crack.

That's a very valid point indeed. Very true. BTW welcome to the site!

add: bla bla bla... NWN2 is hampered by everything, there's not a single thing right about it (Apart from DnD which is not NWN). It's at 1.03 and still unplayable by my standards and I'm not even hardcore. They just remove the CD check and make the multiplayer nicer so people will want to buy the game to get the cdkey to be able to play on the nice servers (The ones without griefers, whiners, etc) *drifts off*....

Some people are just stupid. If it doesn't work the first time you buy it why buy it again? Just crack it and enjoy. All the pirates are having a deathmatch on hamachi right now and you're buying the game once from the shop and once from d2drive? OMG some people should wipe their *** with their cash.

If I'm not mistaking, you can't buy anything from Direct2Drive if you're based in the Middle East. We are too primitive for them!

I will state my opinion on this subject.
In the last few years many game makers are rushing games out to the market
because nowadays we all know that videogaming is a lot more popular then TV.
Every child owns a console, and most people now uses computers.
The reason why I would use warez is because of this very reason.
Companies don't strive to make good games anymore, all they want is the dough.
I mean look at COD2.
Came out no PunkBuster.
Took like 6 months before they actually added the fix.
The only games I own are HL2 and COD2...(yah I bought it...)
I play games through when I DL them off the net and if they are worth my money then I buy them.
Of course I don't buy many because I am picky.
But if anyone has ever played Fallout and Fallout2 then those are the games I had DL of the net a LONG LONG time ago and actually bought it a few years ago.
Just to be proud to own the game.
Those games were masterpieces.
About fallout3...ill get it off the net and try it out and see if bethesday didn't screw it up.
Anyways I think people get my point.
If people keep on buying crappy games then more shit games will come.
Of course some people abuse of warez but oh well...whatcha gonna do about it...

Well, I've never actually pirated anything, but I can see a lot of valid points here. However, there is something I would like to comment on. When you talk about the high prices of software (photoshop in the hundreds, houdini is 17,000 USD), those are usually designed for professionals. If a high school student or someone not working in those fields (graphics design, etc.) needs the software, they can use free alternatives with equal, if not more functionality (the GIMP, Blender).

i could go into details of HOW the "warez world" works, but IMHO it isn't really RELAVENT to this topic. (i LOVE my "flashFXP" !! ) .

here is MY input on this subject.

MUSIC/MOVIES "fix" :

DOWNLOAD movies in a vcd (mpeg1) = VERY cheap price (for those who don't know, this is = to "vhs" video tape quality or LOWER)

DOWNLOAD movies in a Svcd (mpeg2) = cheap price (for those who don't know, this is = to "vhs" video tape quality or HIGHER)

DOWNLOAD (or in-store kiosk burner) movies in DIVX/XVID or "4.7 gig" DVD format: reasonable price/higher than vcd/svcd prices.

HD/blu-ray DISK: retail (no download) ONLY. retail prices.

==========================================

MUSIC:

MP3 in different bit-rates = DIFFERENT PRICES!!

64-bit = VERY cheap (pennies) and/or "watch / read these advertisements and get song FREE"

128-bit = cheap. maybe $0.25/song

198/256-bit = $0.50/song or cheaper if advertisements are viewed

384-bit = $1.00 or HIGHER.

384-bit and WAVE (wave = retail music cd) = retail KIOSK that BURNS your selection/s. drop the darn "retail cd's" TOTALLY. "retail" prices.

========================================

AND, adjust my suggested prices to be EQUAL in all countries/economies (as ALREADY stated in the "review"/story) .

untill SOMETHING like i am suggesting is put in place, they will N-E-V-E-R reduce "piracy" .

now i'm off to go watch "Employee.Of.The.Month.DVDRip.XviD-iMBT " on my PHILIPS brand DVP-642 divx player.... BYE.

One reason why people dont feel like it is stealing is because you are not stealing a physical object. For example, if you steal a packet of bread, you are actualy taking a product which cost the manufacturer money to produce and it also means that it is a packet of bread that someone else was going to buy but you stole so profit is also lost to the person selling and the producer.

Games, music and movies can be cloned any number of times up to the capacity of the harddrive. This is not costing the manufacturer a cent and it is why people dont feel like they are stealing at all since if you download the data it is still on the machines it came from.

Lastly, the record companies, singers, game developers etc arn't losing money at all. They just see the profit they could of made if all those people who were never going to buy the product had baught it.

Photoshop cost about $1500 in australia. Obviously their target audience is rich graphic designers businesses. So why should they get angry if some 13 year old snotty nose kid downloaded it to make his amaturish forum signature?

I download warez and I'm proud to do so. Thus far australian piracy laws are not like they are in the u.s.a but we still have them. These companies have not lost any money from me downloading pirated software because I was never going to buy them in the first place.

Edit: Oh and I dont pirate everything. I baught my Black and white 2, my TES Oblivion, My MS Flight sim 2004 and several other games.

Another reason for piracy - having to buy a new version of most software every 6 months. There are no updates anymore, just bugfixes in crap that shouldn't have been rolled out in the first place. What should be called updates are all next-generation releases, requiring another purchase - I don't buy Photoshop once, I have to buy it every damn year, and the version I just paid $1500 bucks for is no longer supported. As soon as they actually get XP working, I have to buy Vista, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
And don't feed me any crap about overpriced upgrade 'discounts' - 1st, they're usually only good for 1 generation; 2nd, as any sysadmin can tell you, if you want it to work you can't install the old version and then upgrade, you have to do a clean install of the new (full) version.
These companies have brought in on themselves - they don't want to make a living, they want to make a killing. Reap what you sow...

Yes its like that for norton antivirus.