I think that, for at least 80% of piracy, there was no lost profit. Most pirates would not have bought the stuff if it were not free. Not saying anything about the ethics of piracy, just the mindset of pirates.

And Dshiz, I couldn't agree more. They're just missing the fact that anti-piracy measures tick off legitimate customers by forcing them to jump through hoops.
So far, just about every questionable download I've gotten has been many years old, so even if I had bought them, their developer wouldn't have made any money off those sales. I rarely ever buy games when they're new. In fact, modern anti-piracy measures(like securom, which makes it impossible to use a backup of a game without a crack, thus rendering the backup useless and removing my right to have one, or Assassin Creed 2's requirement that you be connected to their servers at all times in order to play) as well as methods to stop used-game purchasing(like one-time use codes for online play and other features) are pushing me more towards the idea of piracy as a form of protest. If software companies want to mitigate piracy, they need people to see it as less honest than the industry's own practices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w6GtwOvnWM

Admin Edit: Language warning in above video.

This interesting video currently graces the front page of TPB.
DShiznit, great video, thanks for sharing. I'm glad that SOPA is suspended temporarily; I'm not glad it's not permanently off the table.
Was happy to get this in an email this morning:

Quote:
Dear Sir/Miss,

You may have heard about Protect-IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act
(SOPA) currently under consideration in Congress. If passed, among other
things, SOPA requires Web hosting companies like 1&1 to police websites in
order to prevent them from communicating copyrighted information on the
internet. We would like to make sure you are aware of 1&1’s official
position on SOPA.

As a global provider of domains and hosting services, we oppose the Stop
Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or Protect-IP (PIPA) Acts currently under
consideration. While we observe the concerns of those who are troubled by
the potential impact on protecting intellectual property online, 1&1 feels
there is an urgent need to strike a balance between dissemination of and
access to information and protection against its illegal use within the
public domain.

The US government is currently reviewing SOPA and PIPA as possible ways to
prevent unlawful distribution of copyrighted materials available on the
internet. These current proposals, if passed, would allow for significant
interventions into the technological and economical basis of the internet.
This could put the vast benefits and economic opportunities of entirely
legal and legitimate e-business models at risk. Generally, companies
offering technological services should not be forced to be the executor of
authority in such matters. If they were to act upon every implication of
content infringement without any judicial research into the actual usage of
its customers, the integrity behind their customer’s freedom of
information and speech would be enormously harmed.

1&1 Internet, Inc. has worked through associations and with related
companies to ensure that these aspects are taken into account. Thus, we
welcome the serious consideration by the US Congress of the potential
harmful effects on Internet freedom should SOPA and / or PIPA be passed as
law, and hope the stability of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS)
remains intact.

We encourage every Internet user concerned about these plans to contribute
to the debate and to raise their voice with their local representatives in
the House or Senate. One way to express your concerns could be to use one
of the websites that emerged to protect user interests in the current
legislative debate, such as http://fightforthefuture.org/.

At 1&1 we support you, our customer, and an open internet. If you find that
you are supporting a company that encourages SOPA and wish to drop them as
a provider, please follow the simple instructions contained on the website
linked below.


Thank you for being one of our extremely valued customers, and for taking
the time to read this.


Best regards,

Frederick Iwans
General Manager 1&1 Internet Inc.

link: http://order.1and1.com/DomaininfoMove?ac=BE.US.US263K22814T7073a


Glad they oppose it, would have hated to go hunting for a new webhost. lol Hopefully they are doing more than just telling people about it, though.
Oh, the funny thing is that I got a letter via snail mail from the NY congressman, he was talking about how SOPA won't allow the government to shut down any site >.>
Riiiiight. Don't vote for him. Razz
qazz42 wrote:
Oh, the funny thing is that I got a letter via snail mail from the NY congressman, he was talking about how SOPA won't allow the government to shut down any site >.>


Technically that's true. The government, while it could abuse that power, is also under our control through voting. The people who would have sites shut down under SOPA are corporate entities and their CEOs who are not [supposed to be] part of our government and who we cannot control through voting.
*bump*

J!NX is now protesting this too:

http://www.jinx.com/p/say_no_to_sopa_premium_tee.html
DShiznit wrote:
*bump*

J!NX is now protesting this too:

http://www.jinx.com/p/say_no_to_sopa_premium_tee.html
Or at the very least capitalizing off of it.
merthsoft wrote:
DShiznit wrote:
*bump*

J!NX is now protesting this too:

http://www.jinx.com/p/say_no_to_sopa_premium_tee.html
Or at the very least capitalizing off of it.


Quote:
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
DShiznit wrote:
merthsoft wrote:
DShiznit wrote:
*bump*

J!NX is now protesting this too:

http://www.jinx.com/p/say_no_to_sopa_premium_tee.html
Or at the very least capitalizing off of it.


Quote:
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.


Quote:
A portion


Great way to get more people to buy it Wink
merthsoft wrote:
DShiznit wrote:
merthsoft wrote:
DShiznit wrote:
*bump*

J!NX is now protesting this too:

http://www.jinx.com/p/say_no_to_sopa_premium_tee.html
Or at the very least capitalizing off of it.


Quote:
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.


Quote:
A portion


Great way to get more people to buy it Wink


It's not perfect, but it's something.
The money not being advertised as "A portion" is probably being spent to just cover the cost of the tee-shirts themselves; that's what I've seen as the outcome of most organizations I've been involved with that sell support tee shirts for a cause and only donate a chunk of it away. That would be my guess -- however, it's just as equally possible that they could be acting greedy and be making somewhat of a good non-SOPA related profit.
Hey, quick question. Has anyone thought about Cemetech going dark the 18th? I know it's hcwp day, but at least a banner or something. We can't assume all users of the site know SOPA and PIPA exist.
graphmastur wrote:
Hey, quick question. Has anyone thought about Cemetech going dark the 18th? I know it's hcwp day, but at least a banner or something. We can't assume all users of the site know SOPA and PIPA exist.

I completely concur with this. Hell, I wouldn't be opposed to blanking the site entirely like will happen on Reddit and possibly Wikipedia. Just move all topics to the suspended category and lock all post functions. Finish the job with a fake "this site has been blocked" banner and a link to the EFF or similar page about SOPA.
That sounds like fun. It would cause quite an uproar in the unnotified members Razz

I approve this concept! Of course, Kerm's the one that really matters.
I'll consider it. I'm certainly against SOPA very strongly, but I must balance my duties in keeping the site running and active, and even three hours of downtime can be fairly bad. Let me weigh the options.
KermMartian wrote:
I'll consider it. I'm certainly against SOPA very strongly, but I must balance my duties in keeping the site running and active, and even three hours of downtime can be fairly bad. Let me weigh the options.


I'm so glad we have an epic Admin that considers the best for us. Because he knows that some of us can't go all too long without posting on Cemetech. Would you like a muffin Kerm? I think I should send a real muffin to Kerm through snail mail. It always clogs the email.

But in all seriousness, I hope google/wikipedia at least does a grey out so that people know what's going on.
KermMartian wrote:
I'll consider it. I'm certainly against SOPA very strongly, but I must balance my duties in keeping the site running and active, and even three hours of downtime can be fairly bad. Let me weigh the options.

Three hours of downtime in the middle of the day? Sounds like an omnimaga simulator.
  
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