I agree that people are definitely less likely to pirate from a company that they see as "one of the good guys" and more likely to pirate from a company they see as The (Evil) Man. Whether that's right or wrong is not the point of this post, but I agree that proper PR goes a long way. Hell, look how Microsoft handled Chevron and Windows Phone 7. I have to hand it too them; they played that well.

I've never heard of Chevron, nor do I give a rat's a$$ about Windows Phone. Maybe that's a good thing, as I have no interest in in pirating materials for either.

Yeah, I have enough access to free games anyways that, while I admit I used to be a pirate, now I only pirate things that I can't get legitly anymore, or that I once owned, like a lot of ScummVM games and NES/SNES/N64 roms.

But really, the DRM problems come from new games, not from abandonware. While there was DRM on those games (I'm glaring at KQ3 right now, stupid spellbook) it was pretty painless for people who actually paid for the games.

And yeah, Piracy isn't ruining any companies as of yet. Just look at minecraft, tons of people pirate that and yet they get millions of sales.

Also, pirating phone OSes is not something you see a lot After all, it usually comes with the phone and is a major pain to switch.

Same here. I've also been known to pirate games I already own or owned for another platform, since I find it objectionable that I should pay multiple times for the same product.


Not true, I've had a lot of pain involving DLCs I purchased legitimately on Xbox Live, and many others have had pains playing PC games that require constant internet validation(ACII)

I was referring to applications, not the OS itself.

That's what I meant: New stuff, like for the Xbox, PS3, PC, etc. has far more painful DRMs than what was there in the past. and honestly, I still think the whole "Turn to page 15 of your manual" was pretty darn effective back in the day.

FYI, Abandonware means old games that are still in copyright, but non-buyable so pirating them falls in a grey area, and I don't find it justified paying those crappy resellers who give you a disk with dosbox on it. DLC falls in the "New" category for sure.