Topic: Piracy, Torrenting, Copyright Laws, Kanye Wests Gold Plated Jet

[Bayushi]

But in exchange there are a lot more people making a living -- or a respectable side revenue stream -- off of indie development.

Most certainly.

The most profitable corporation in the United States for FY2010 is a small indie developer. Zynga, who made Farmville and Mafia Wars and some other lesser known Facebook games are making a killing with micro transactions for "<insert game here> Cash".

I was shocked to hear how profitable they've been. The games they make keep people playing, but are low-maintenance with low-overhead... so most of the money they receive is pure profit.

Brilliant, in my opinion. Angry Birds nothing...

[Alice Wonder]

I use to play frontierville and stopped at level 97 I think because it just started to get way too cutesy and I got sick and tired of spending an hour or so on the game only to then have an "Internet gone quiet" message and find EVERYTHING I had done rolled back.

Started happening more and more often, they lost this paying customer because of their sloppy code and complete lack of error recovery.

[Alice Wonder]

Not to derail the thread, but this comment made me think of a single word.

PEBKAC.

 /evilgrin

Sorry, I refuse to pay money for inferior operating systems that are both far more problematic to use and prone to viruses.

When I tried using windows, it took me over half an hour to get my printer working because Windows is so fucking brain dead that the way to set up a network printer is to choose local printer in the stupid wizard, not network printer. What kind of bull shit is that? Yet Windows is full of it.

[Doomsday]

I don't feel guilty at all. I'm looking out for my bottom line, and the industry is looking out for theirs. I'll pirate all day until I hit a wall, and then, if the product is desirable enough, I'll cave in and purchase it (example is 2 years ago, my roommate had a modded xbox and we didn't need to pay for games. Now, we have a huge collection of paid-for games because his box got banned).

As far as music goes, I have no moral qualms about pirating albums or even discographies, because in the end, I will contribute so much more to the artist themselves by attending the concert and buying a bunch of overpriced swag. I don't have the numbers, but from what I've seen, the artist gets pennies from record sales compared to how much they rake in on tour. I'd rather support the artist any day than the bloodsucking labels that they work for.

[Legendary]

I don't feel guilty at all. I'm looking out for my bottom line, and the industry is looking out for theirs. I'll pirate all day until I hit a wall, and then, if the product is desirable enough, I'll cave in and purchase it (example is 2 years ago, my roommate had a modded xbox and we didn't need to pay for games. Now, we have a huge collection of paid-for games because his box got banned).

As far as music goes, I have no moral qualms about pirating albums or even discographies, because in the end, I will contribute so much more to the artist themselves by attending the concert and buying a bunch of overpriced swag. I don't have the numbers, but from what I've seen, the artist gets pennies from record sales compared to how much they rake in on tour. I'd rather support the artist any day than the bloodsucking labels that they work for.

I tend to go the same route when it comes to concerts and swag. It's a much more rewarding experience for me to be able to actually see a band I like live. That being said, I still do like purchasing CD's. I guess it's the collector in me that loves seeing shelf after shelf with CD's stacked to the rafters.

As far as new artists/bands, I usually look them up on youtube to get a feel for them and sometimes I'll even use a youtube to mp3 converter to get the music on my iPod so I can listen to it while I'm out until I actually get around to purchasing the CD.

[Serephino]

I don't pay for downloads because of what a pain the ass it is.  They charge too much, and then there's the write protection on it.  I bought a couple of songs from Rhapsody that I don't have anymore because I got a new computer, and couldn't transfer them over. 

My boyfriend will pirate games to try them out.  If he really likes them he'll buy it.  It saves him from wasting money we don't have on games he doesn't like.