For shame, Ubisoft.

[Lingus]

Ha! You pay... for illegal software downloading!? Hah! Those people are brilliant! At that point I would just pay for the game legitimately.

[Seifer]

Yes but I download upwards of 100gb a month sometimes. It's not games. Very rarely. I download movies, music and tv shows. Tons. I save ALOT of money this way. And I can download a movie in like two minutes. Nothing like speeds of 4mb/s.

[ARTgames]

I think this topic should stay away from more of the hows to pirating and more about the effects of it.

[Lingus]

Yes but I download upwards of 100gb a month sometimes. It's not games. Very rarely. I download movies, music and tv shows. Tons. I save ALOT of money this way. And I can download a movie in like two minutes. Nothing like speeds of 4mb/s.

I still find the concept amusing. Regardless of how effective it is, someone has swindled you into knowingly paying for an illegal product. The only way I've ever been able to justify pirating to myself was that it is free and that it was the only way I could afford to enjoy these things. If I had to start paying for it, it'd be out the window. At that point I would simply save up and pay for it legally. Which is exactly what I do now.

I think this topic should stay away from more of the hows to pirating and more about the effects of it.

Agreed. And actually, the topic is really DRM and its effects (which ironically includes pirating).

[Scotty]

That is brilliant, and when you think about it, it's no different than buying bootleg DVDs.  I should build a data center and get rich doing that, until I go to jail that is!  Charge pirates for free stuff! Ha!

[Lingus]

That is brilliant, and when you think about it, it's no different than buying bootleg DVDs.  I should build a data center and get rich doing that, until I go to jail that is!  Charge pirates for free stuff! Ha!

Lol, good, so it's not just me.

[Scotty]

No, you're not the only one.  That's like doubly illegal.  I just think it's funny that people would pay for free stuff. 

That's like literal Arr type pirates agreeing to paying a "pirate our ship" fee to board a ship then rob it.  It just doesn't make sense!

[Scotty]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/tenenbaum-675000-is-absurd-when-i-caused-21-in-losses.ars

[ARTgames]

well if you want story's like those
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_v._Thomas

$1,920,000 for sharing 24 songs. Might as well rob a music store at gun point and take everything for a lot lesser price.

[Scotty]

well if you want story's like those
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_v._Thomas

$1,920,000 for sharing 24 songs. Might as well rob a music store at gun point and take everything for a lot lesser price.

Yeah, but the judge came back and reduced it to some odd $50k if I remember.  Even he realized that the punishment was so disproportionate.  Still... 50k?  That's a brand new sports car.

[ARTgames]

well if you want story's like those
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_v._Thomas

$1,920,000 for sharing 24 songs. Might as well rob a music store at gun point and take everything for a lot lesser price.

Yeah, but the judge came back and reduced it to some odd $50k if I remember.  Even he realized that the punishment was so disproportionate.  Still... 50k?  That's a brand new sports car.

yup, i agree

[Lingus]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/tenenbaum-675000-is-absurd-when-i-caused-21-in-losses.ars

That's why you always block your shares folder... If you aren't contributing to the problem you won't be targetted. Of course, if everyone were to do that... well, it would eliminate piracy as we know it. Obviously, that's the point of these kinds of cases.

But, I can further argue that a majority of people who may have downloaded the music from that guy, including the guy himself, may not have bought it even if they weren't able to pirate it. In otherwords, the damages they are assuming are assumed. And the fact that the format is digital means they would have had no damages whatsoever. No lost revenue, no lost product. I always compare it to walking into a retail store and taking a CD off the shelf. I may not have bought the CD in the first place, but it cost money to produce that item, and the store lost a sale because they have one less CD to sell. Now, if I were to walk into the store, take the CD and make a copy of it, but leave the original CD, then no harm no foul. Sure, it's still illegal, but consider that I would not have bought the CD in the first place and the retail store has no lost revenue at all. It's pretty foggy morally since you could argue that if I don't have enough money then I shouldn't be able to enjoy something just by taking it, but it still makes sense logically.

[Jake]

Yup, and that's partially why piracy is such a debatable issue. Companies are losing potential sales, not real sales. It's possible that they might not be losing any money, or they could be losing money equivalent to a real sale. If we extrapolate this to a large amount of people, how many real sales are companies actually losing? This isn't an easy answer, despite companies often times claiming that each pirated game is a lost sale.

[Scotty]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Didn't even take a full 24 hours yet!

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/04/study-pirates-buy-tons-more-music-than-average-folks.ars

[Jake]

I honestly feel bad for Ubisoft. They've got the best intentions, they're just really really stupid.