Pirating?

[Annoying Snails Master]

[randall]

Pure crap, masquerading as content that the public is supposed to purchase by the truckloads. I'm tired of these gatekeepers feeding complete shit into the cultural pipeline, and then bitching when their sales start slagging. It must be nice to have such a high self image that EVERYBODY wants to buy your shit, and it must be even better to have a technology such as MP3 to blame for lack of sales.

Everything seems to be back-asswwards. Copy Protection will never work, regardless how hard they try. What good is copy protection, if offenders can't be prosecuted?

Its actually VERY simple to rob a bank, but getting away with it is a little different story. Imagine if prosecution was just as lax for that kind of offense. Banks wouldn't be able to keep enough money on hand to buy a stick of gum.

The big dilemma is defining WHO can be prosecuted. I've copied entire chapters from a book I never intended to buy. I've copied chapters and pages for friends. Is that stealing?

I can go into Barnes and Noble, and read numerous magazines from front to back, and walk out without purchasing anything more than a Quad Tall Vanilla Latte'. Is that stealing?

How about when I went o B&N to reference info for modelling in 3D Studio? I am using THAT information to build a game that I intend to SELL. Is that stealing?

I DL'd Rick James "Superfreak" MP3. How close are we getting to stealing now? I am not going to buy that CD in a million years, yet here is one of his copyrighted songs sitting on my harddrive.

And at what point can you legally give someone a copy of your software? Lets use PocketPC software as a perfect example. Suddenly, Kyle gets tired of playing Snails, and deletes it from his device. He decides to give the reg info to a friend. Maybe they even TRADE games. Is this stealing? Who is guilty, Kyle, his friend or both? We can't possibly trust that Kyle won't use that reg later on... possibly he wants to load Snails into an emulator 10 years from now. Maybe he'll load it onto his device 6 months from now. Who knows.

I'd be happy as shit if someone was playing Snails in an emulator 10 years from now. Hopefully I won't be concerned with whether they bought a legal copy ten years prior.

I don't support Warez or pirating. But I don't support these supposed "solutions" either.

[Cameron]

[Cameron]

[sponge]

[James S]

I warezed a copy of Maple7 for my Maple class... all I did was copy it from the network through a shared folder. Actually, it was already on my virtual desktop. Whenever I log in to the school's network with my username and password I have Maple right there waiting to be used. A network licensed version. But I don't often log on like that, and I needed to use Maple for my class. So I shared the folder on the computer lab's computer and transfered the program to my laptop.

I wouldn't have bought it. And if I didn't warez it it would have only been an inconvenience for me to walk 200 yards to the computer labs. That's not unethical, because I have legal access to the software, I just put it in a place that much easier for me to access, my own laptop. I don't plan on keeping it after I'm done with Maple, I have a TI calculator.

But Cameron, I back you up completely on that statement you made to com. It's people like him that ruin it for everyone.

[(TSC)Bender]

[com]

[James S]

[com]

[sponge]

[James S]

[Cameron]

[Cameron]

[Cameron]