Anti Piracy Day

**w31n3r** · October 22nd, 2008, 05:37 AM

and Microsoft loved us so much, that it set forth a special day to remember our hard labors by. well...not exactly, http://www.informationweek.com/blog/..._missed_a.html

anti piracy day? has hallmark got any cards out for this? why wasn't i invited to this event? you'd think they'd at least inform us. not that you can blame them. they are, after all, losing $50 Billion annually to software piracy, almost enough to buy bill gates a new tie.

a silly thought, but if the worlds greatest software could cost a little less, maybe instead of losing so much money (sic), they'd make a few billion more :icon_scra

**mountain_rage** · October 22nd, 2008, 06:08 AM

Reality is, when you have a monopoly, and you price your product outside the price range of certain consumers, they will pirate it. Its not a real loss because if it were not for their monopoly they would never even have that customer as a potential client. Still their attempt to get public support for an anti societal measure is humorous. Its like having a dictatorship day, to celebrate the removal of civil rights.

**thelastfreeman** · October 22nd, 2008, 07:15 AM

This day is a joke. They would have more success by going after the Somali pirates plundering booty on the high seas.

**RACKnRAIL** · October 22nd, 2008, 08:25 AM

Shit, I missed that one. Had I known I would have downloaded Vista and then deleted it.

**thepuzzler** · October 22nd, 2008, 08:27 AM

Today, Microsoft announced Global Anti-Piracy Day, to draw attention to the ever growing piracy problem. While Microsoft itself celebrates October 21st by launching anti-piracy enforcement actions in 49 countries, The Pirate Bay does so by linking to counterfeit Microsoft products on their frontpage - in every country in the world.

To celebrate Global Anti-Piracy Day, The Pirate Bay has decided to replace their well known logo with the mugshot of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Below the mugshot it reads “Bill Gates made me do it,” referring to his ‘criminal’ history.

Although the company does send out DMCA takedown requests to BitTorrent site owners, Millions of Microsoft products are being pirated on BitTorrent and other filesharing networks every year.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-c...cy-day-081021/

**El Comandante** · October 22nd, 2008, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by w31n3r

.... not that you can blame them. they are, after all, losing $50 Billion annually to software piracy, almost enough to buy bill gates a new tie.

MS is an enormous company. It costs them nothing to try to raise awareness although these half ass efforts demonstrate that they simply want to keep the problem manageable.

Say what you will about Microsoft being a cut throat monopoly and itself built on piracy of other peoples work...... Gates, on the other hand, is a great humanitarian IMHO. They guy is giving away billions..... nothing wrong with that...

**Drew Wilson** · October 22nd, 2008, 12:13 PM

They should have called it "International Propaganda Day" to be more accurate.

Still, though, companies like Adobe have been known for being a monopoly as well. Microsoft is just the most well known monopoly. I'm sure you can think of other monopolies like the RIAA and the big four record labels colluding to fix the prixes of CDs at retail stores.

**Mels_Smileys45** · October 22nd, 2008, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by mountain_rage

Reality is, when you have a monopoly, and you price your product outside the price range of certain consumers, they will pirate it. Its not a real loss because if it were not for their monopoly they would never even have that customer as a potential client. Still their attempt to get public support for an anti societal measure is humorous. Its like having a dictatorship day, to celebrate the removal of civil rights.

The Fair Market No Longer Exists

That (your quote) was once the case, although debatable, but now its simply a clear case of its easy and convenient. It also saves loads of money too. I know most of us could afford at least 2 or 3 CDs/DVDs a month but choose the illegal way not because we are trying to prove a point or we care (yeah right) about artists rights but solely and only for the reason we are greedy and want it all without having to work to obtain these items. Once people had to budget their entertainment dollar and now they don't. Thats NOT a winning formula for the consumer in the end. The pay off is big at first but will dwindle with time as the funds of that market slow.

People may hate others who earn more than they do and justify pirating in this manner but when the tale is told, these people are earning a living and its their jobs we are fucking with. And I'm not saying I am innocent or of at times feeling vindictive towards the MPAA/RIAA for doing their clients dirty work but I can understand it. These institutions are merely trying to protect their earnings of the share holders and themselves. They are standing on fundamental rights giving to them by the founding fathers of our nation. If anyone feels like not paying for the software then don't. Let the market hash it out. When people say they can change the law by breaking it the matter becomes a horse of a different color.

Not to be trite but this quote fits:

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." Thomas Paine

**shawners** · October 22nd, 2008, 01:05 PM

Thats good.. To celebrate. Ill burn midnight club 3, fable 2, gears of war 2.. And FAR CRY 2.. So when my wife goes to choir tonight. Ill have good choices on what to play =)
THIS IS for you MS.

I can tell your not married. Here is the point.
"Hey honey, theres a game i like to spend 60 bucks on and buy. I know i could easily download it but i want to support the game developers."

Her
"Okay honey but your going to have to buy me something thats just as equally expensive."

The other way it could go out.
I buy it, she sees it and yells at me for not discussing the issue of buying something for myself and not for my family.

And i get in the dog house.
So 60 dollars could easily double.. So pirating is the way to do it.
Queue it up on newsleecher. Come home from work, unrar it.. Burn it. And play it later. No going to the store, no sales tax, no waiting in line or using my debit card. Just not a lot of Bullshit.

**Mels_Smileys45** · October 22nd, 2008, 01:10 PM

And there you have it! lol

Buck up and admit that you only download because youre a cheap bastard like me. I'm killing the movie industry and youre killing the Video Game market. We are both super cool.

**shawners** · October 22nd, 2008, 09:31 PM

Stay away from midnight club L.A. Glitchy and buggy. During game play, the car sinks in to the ground and some of the artifacts stays still on the screen after you passed it.. I hope they release a patch to fix it, otherwise i wont be playing it again.

**mountain_rage** · October 22nd, 2008, 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by El Comandante

MS is an enormous company. It costs them nothing to try to raise awareness although these half ass efforts demonstrate that they simply want to keep the problem manageable.

Say what you will about Microsoft being a cut throat monopoly and itself built on piracy of other peoples work...... Gates, on the other hand, is a great humanitarian IMHO. They guy is giving away billions..... nothing wrong with that...

Is it really that great of a deed. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful he does spend some of his money for the greater good. But when you have billions more, is it really that hard to make large donations? To be honest, he doesn't strike me as anything special. Someone with 80 000$ a year salary donating 10 000$ seems like a much more significant and applaudable act in my opinionl.

Originally Posted by Mels_Smileys45

The Fair Market No Longer Exists

That (your quote) was once the case, although debatable, but now its simply a clear case of its easy and convenient. It also saves loads of money too. I know most of us could afford at least 2 or 3 CDs/DVDs a month but choose the illegal way not because we are trying to prove a point or we care (yeah right) about artists rights but solely and only for the reason we are greedy and want it all without having to work to obtain these items. Once people had to budget their entertainment dollar and now they don't. Thats NOT a winning formula for the consumer in the end. The pay off is big at first but will dwindle with time as the funds of that market slow.

People may hate others who earn more than they do and justify pirating in this manner but when the tale is told, these people are earning a living and its their jobs we are fucking with. And I'm not saying I am innocent or of at times feeling vindictive towards the MPAA/RIAA for doing their clients dirty work but I can understand it. These institutions are merely trying to protect their earnings of the share holders and themselves. They are standing on fundamental rights giving to them by the founding fathers of our nation. If anyone feels like not paying for the software then don't. Let the market hash it out. When people say they can change the law by breaking it the matter becomes a horse of a different color.

Not to be trite but this quote fits:

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." Thomas Paine

Well first off, I'm using a purchased copy of Vista, but thats only because the alternatives are not compatible with the majority of games. We could have fair competition if copyright laws were written differently. If I could run the majority of software on another cheaper platform, I would. Even now I've attempted to switch to Linux, but I'm tied to Microsoft for a few key pieces of software. Is this right, no, so allot of people in my situation pirate their software. You and I both know that politicians have shown their cards and are not interested in the consumers interest, so like with other idiotic laws that went against the will of society, we choose to ignore it as our form of protest. Lumping everyone into your reasoning for file sharing is just as miss guided as me stating everyone is doing it on principle. They are all real reason why people pirate copyrighted content.

Should people be able to make a living off their work? Of course. Should we automatically bow down to all copyright enforcers demands simply so they can make the living they feel they deserve, of course not. The laws have been hijacked in their favor, and as such consumers are the ones at a disadvantage. Its even gotten to the point where they are allowing the copyrighting of DNA strains. That is a natural occurrence, how the hell can you justify that? What would happen if I have the strain and it turns out they need to treat it, will that be infringement? If we continue on your logic, they should be allowed to make a profit on their research right? I mean their work discovered the DNA strain. The point I'm trying to make is everything has a limit, and at some point the lines have to be drawn. When you are given extra rights that afford a monopoly, than their should be a balanced law that prevents you from exploiting consumers with it.

You have gotten on your high horse before to proclaim that filesharing is done because people are cheap. Like all other times it just struck me as an asanine comment. Sure some people do fileshare for financial reasons, but stating it the way you see it is oversimplyfying a complex issue. One that has many view points, issues and reasonings. If you start to look at copyright not as a product, but as the right to ideas you may start to understand the problems and complexities. If you look at how our herritage, history and many others have been only possible due to the lack of such laws than you might start to realize that maybe monetizing such things isn't the right way to do things.

**Mels_Smileys45** · October 23rd, 2008, 12:16 AM

Please do not take offense, I believe in being a straight shooter.

You see, I find this very narcissistic. Its as if some people think the world owes them "things" and they want it now. This self sense of entitlement is NOT how the real world works. Only in a cyberspace world of make believe can people act like a child and somewhat get away with it.

Do you believe everyone should break a law they want to change? Lobby your congressman and tell him you would like to take away some peoples rights because they inconvenience you and you don't really feel like working harder to obtain more "stuff". Good luck with that campaign. See if you can get me free internet too because I'm very tired of paying for it. That would be a cool sweetener.

I feel I am a realist. I respect the rights of others as long as they do not physically harm me or others. That being said, with all due respect, I am still going to take what I want because I'm a complete bastard. Most people think that they are only hurting the bad corporations so its all okay. That is not the case. Nor is it right to take away anyones right to make a living because you feel that they're bastards for wanting too much for their product. Let the market decide WITHOUT taking away their rights to their work. This is the fair market. The only reason this is even up for debate is because people have found a way to circumvent the system without much fear of getting punished. Thats it. Its not about helping the artists or any other bull I have seen people post. Its about helping ourselves to free products. Im sorry if this is too logical or ruins peoples good time but be real. Lets not lie to ourselves about our actions to make us feel better. It is what it is.

Eroding profits will only hurt the consumer or the working man. No one wants to invest big money into a commodity that can easily be stolen. Cuts must be made.

I can see both sides of the argument but to be frank, taking away anyone's rights is not something I am willing to do for my own personal gain. I don't think this is a high horse attitude because at the end of the day I am still pirating almost every piece of software I own. I just don't delude myself with some delusions of Grandeur where somehow I am freeing the market for the peoples own good. I know where I stand. I'm cheap, I am greedy and I have extra cash to spend on hookers and beer.

EDIT: As far as DNA goes that is a completely different matter and does not apply to this debate. Its apples and oranges. I will say that researching genetics is very expensive. If some corporation can make big money while feeding the world let them go ahead and get paid for it. With out going much further I will say that feeding the world carries a lot more weight than some fat ass only wanting a free copy of WoW. I could see fighting for limits on this type (food) of copyrights. I'm sure this should fall under a Patent right and all patents of this nature usually have limitations.

I'm not sure if youre saying they are copyrighting people and fruit that grow naturally. I would like to hear about it if they are doing this or not. (perhaps in a different thread) Sounds strange and interesting.

**Mrs Robinson** · October 23rd, 2008, 03:54 AM

I think Zeropaid should hold an Anti Anti-Piracy Day.

We all could target school kids with information about how good it is to copy and innovate. Tell them about p2p and how safe it is. Show them the wide selection of films, TV progs and music out there and that there is more to watch and listen to the "High School Musical".

**mountain_rage** · October 23rd, 2008, 09:51 AM

Here Mels, turns out I was mistaken DNA is being patented not Copyrighted. Although a company is trying to create a DNA copyright, not sure how that would work if you're a twin. Patents have gotten just as ridiculous as copyright in my opinion. Both are now at a point of stifling innovation, rather than encouraging and fostering it. They don't have to be eliminated but rights need to be relaxed.

http://www.actionbioscience.org/genomic/crg.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1492859.stm

As for your argument of artist being allowed to make a living, and that its a free market. Well its not a free market because there is a lock on what compositions people can use to create their music, and its continually being minimized. It wouldn't surprise me if you analyzed the worlds catalog of music that allot unknowingly break someone else's copyright (trying to find the research article from a professor at my university that backs this up). If I took a server farm and generated every single tune, filled them all for copyright, should I then have the right to sue all new artists? How about people on youtube who are singing their favorite artists song, should they be sued, or should youtube be sued? Those bastards are breaking copyright and not respecting the authors right to make a profit right? How about Joe the wanna be plumber, if he is listening to his boombox at work should be be sued for not getting a license for public performance? Again he is breaking copyright and by your logic breaking the authors rights under current laws. How about singing happy birthday at a party, breaking copyright law. Happy birthday is owned by Warner music, so by singing it you are breaking their copyright. My point is the laws don't reflect reality. You also can't simply say you are removing authors rights, because those rights are in fact limiting the rights of others. So I could argue that I want to give back consumers some rights. Even better are the artist fighting against new copyright laws and more consumer rights, can't argue that they are one sided in the debate.

http://www.musiccreators.ca/wp/
http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com/media.html