Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

[bergauk]

It actually costs more as you have to factor in things like support costs for 10 times the customer base. If I can sell 4 things for $100,000, or 400,000 things for $1 it's pretty obvious to every business which one to go for.

I completely agree with Azure, while I don't think pirating software because you think it's 'too expensive', is justifiable. The TV industry is a completely different matter, as they offer items for free, or for subscription for one delivery service, but then completely neglect the Internet...I'd happily pay a fee too consume content broadcast live in the US (Hell, include ads, I don't care), but that's not offered.

That's true. I hadn't really thought about it like that. But eventually there must be a price that evens out that, that doesn't cost that much. 3000$ for a software is just ridiculous.


HBO, here in the US at least offer a service called HBOGo, that is available with your paid subscription to the TV service. It's "free" I suppose you could say, and it allows you to enjoy all of their Programming on mobile devices, or your computer, so long as you have a TV subscription to them.

I think it's great as my desktop is in my room, and the tv is way out in the living room. I enjoy movies, but I really don't want to go all the way to the living room just to watch something for an hour and a half. Plus my sound system in my room is better than whats out in the living room

 

[Casio]

That's true. I hadn't really thought about it like that. But eventually there must be a price that evens out that, that doesn't cost that much. 3000$ for a software is just ridiculous.

$3000 isn't that much in the scheme of things. Again, it has to be remember that these program are used in critical applications where their failure to work as intended would cost many times that. Take SQL server for example, current licencing costs for SQL2008 Enterprise is $28,000 Per Processor (The most expensive is Datacentre version for 55k Per Processor). Paying 28k+ for software may seem ridiculous, but if that software didn't work as designed for .0001% of the time then many companies who deploy it (mine included) could stand to lose much more than that when it fails.

If you think $55k is a lot for software, my previous workplace paid over $1,000,000 for a customised software solution.

 

[bevo]

That's true. I hadn't really thought about it like that. But eventually there must be a price that evens out that, that doesn't cost that much. 3000$ for a software is just ridiculous.


HBO, here in the US at least offer a service called HBOGo, that is available with your paid subscription to the TV service. It's "free" I suppose you could say, and it allows you to enjoy all of their Programming on mobile devices, or your computer, so long as you have a TV subscription to them.

I think it's great as my desktop is in my room, and the tv is way out in the living room. I enjoy movies, but I really don't want to go all the way to the living room just to watch something for an hour and a half. Plus my sound system in my room is better than whats out in the living room

Like the guy above me said, 3000$ isn't that much for commercial software. That type pf software was not made for you to have. It's for commercial use, and not for every tom, dick and harry to have at home. I have spent 10 times that ammount on software before for our business. It's a small market and they have to pay people to actually trouble shoot and fix problems with it on the fly. When is the last time you called about a video game because it crashed on your PC? There is no one to help you with it, that will actually help. I can call forestry systems or elimbs, and they will spend hours trying to get everything fixed for me, they might even do some programming to get it to add some features i want.

There is no need for anyone to have autocad or photoshop ce at home except to play with it. We even pay 4k for handheld computers that run windows mobile and have 700mhz cpus in them. That is way overpriced, but I know that no one else has a need for them except people using them for inventory needs.

There are free options out there for autocad, it may not be as nice as it, but that's why it's free. Don't you think that if there was a market for a 60$ autocad program, someone would make it? There's a reason they cost that much, because if there was a way to make money selling it cheaper someone else would write something similar and sell it cheap.

 

[Ibonibo]

The EU just criticized the Sopa indirectly.

I got a general view on this:
Copyrights and patents are ok and necessary!

But for a few decades now, it just becomes plain stupid. Paying 150000€ fine for ripping a music CD is not logical.
A hamburg-er judge ruled in one case 5 € of damage for ripping 5 songs (actual loose)
Look at the patent market. It's become a market. Apple sueing everybody using an apple as logo (NYC green compain, adult enter.,....). Next they gonna put a patent on the fruit! The design patent for the ipad is ludicrous. The design was already in the 1968 movie 2001 odyssey.
As it seems a guy put a patent on the wheel in the 2000's years.
Or putting patents on embryo's stem cells (forbidden in the EU)
Come on.

You know when i was a kid, we were all pirates and rippers. We used casettes and VHS and copied the crap and traded and exchanged it. Nobody cared.

Now i also think, if you have the money buy it. If you don't and don't need it, don't buy it.
If you're not sure if you need it and want a trail or demo (both which are rare nowadays) then ....

When I was young and had no money, what do you think did I do in order to play a recent game or a cd.
Now that I have money I actually buy it.
Priate turn into legimate buyer.

On an other note, a lot of countries with high pirate %, it is mainly due to overpriced, -taxed, products, or not available, or forbidden because too gore (germany), so people resolve this with piracy.
It is not all black and white.

The industry would make more money trying to turn pirates into legimate buyers than just punishing and pushing them away.
Steam is a great exemple of this, and i am not even too fond of steam.

Either way I don't really care, as it doesn't concern me.

 

[Azuremen]

There is no need for anyone to have autocad or photoshop ce at home except to play with it.

You really should think about that a bit more. The number of small business photographers, where they run a lot of it out of their home, is quite amazing. Not saying Photoshop is excessively priced, but software like that is often useful, if not needed, for a small business to work. And those are often run at home for a long time.

 

[Seismica]

I dislike how many people in the industry put forth the argument that piracy costs the industry X billion dollars a year. The majority of people I know who pirate things never intended to buy them in the first place.

My own personal opinion is that music piracy is to some extent justifiable because of the percentages they make on the music. How much does an album cost to make? $50,000-$100,000 for the studio time and labour/work involved? When you compare that to a film or a game, that is almost nothing. Yet a music album is priced very similarly to a DVD.

The use you get out of a product also determines the value it has. I've played 30 hours of Skyrim in the week it has been out. That cost me £30. If I bought a music album on the day of release with 10 tracks on it for £15, you would expect me to get 15 hours of use out of it right? Well it would not be anywhere near that, as the entire album is less than an hour long. So unless you have that one album on repeat every evening, you're not getting anywhere near as good value for money, especially when you consider a game gives both visuals and sounds whereas an album will give you sound, but on it's own is often not enough to engage you. Most people I know listen to music whilst doing other things whereas a game like Skyrim would pretty much occupy you 100%.

Maybe it is unfair to draw comparisons across different types of media (Apples to Oranges and all that) but I honestly believe that music is horrible value for money, one would call that daylight robbery. I'd be more sympathetic if the industry didn't make odd decisions like initiate the banning of radio in workplaces because it uses copyrighted media, despite the fact they have already taken royalties from the radio stations themselves. It is the music industry that is the major driving force behind legislation like this, so I thought it suitable to direct my comments at them.

I don't pirate music, I respect the rights of artists as some at least are just trying to earn an honest living through their talents. It's just that the actions of recording companies make it hard to oppose those who pirate the music. I guess it's a form of protest as they are essentially boycotting the products.

As for the Autocad argument, I as a student need CAD software for assignments etc. as there is only a limited number of computers in the university with them running, most of which struggle as the hardware isn't up to the standard it needs to be. We use Siemans NX 8.0 and there is no student license available for it. We cannot get a license of the university to use it, so where do I stand? If I want it I have to pay full commercial price for it. I don't know how much it is, because you have to contact Siemens software and ask for a pricing brochure, but I believe it to be in the region of £2500 at least, which is more than I have for my living costs this year minus my rent.

 

[bevo]

You really should think about that a bit more. The number of small business photographers, where they run a lot of it out of their home, is quite amazing. Not saying Photoshop is excessively priced, but software like that is often useful, if not needed, for a small business to work. And those are often run at home for a long time.

If your a small business and you can't afford to spend 1000$ on a program that you need to run your business, then you should probably close down. If your just starting out then just get photoshop elements, it's only 100$. The high end software is designed for people to make money off of using it. I'm not even saying it isn't overpriced, I'm just saying that if you can't afford it, then just don't assume stealing it is fine, because you won't get caught. It just seems wrong to me, and I really can't believe people argue against this.

 

[MatskiMonk]

At the end of the day, the market sets the price, and it is down to the consumer whether or not they believe the product offers suitable value for money or not. If 70% of the population (edit: Target Market) finds something (such as Album/film/game) too expensive, then the chances are the price is too high. Problem is that nowadays most people can get stuff for free, and that has the knock-on effect of devaluing the stuff that was worth the money in the first place, and one of the things that I find most pathetic about society today is the number of people that think they are entitled to what they want for free.

My GTA: San Andreas 100% complete save game took me 89 hours, for a cost of £45...good value for money IMO. The album Vegas, by the Crystal Method, cost me about £15 over 10 years ago, and I've listened to it countless times since, so again - good value for money. I can't therefore say that a £40-£50 price tag for a game, or a £10-£15 for an album is too much. Granted in some cases a film/game/CD might be rubbish, and therefore not worth the purchase price, but makes the title poor value, not the format (or its market cost).

.. having said that, I also disagree with being charged a comparable amount for downloading music, when it is in an inferior format.. When we can download music fully uncompressed, then it might be worth it - I don't listen to music via crappy computer speakers, or some crappy iPod dock, so most of the online services for legally buying music don't cut it in my opinion. I believe there is a link between freely distributed poor quality audio, and the decline in the number of quality of HiFi shops on the high street... and to me, thats the worst thing.

 

[Azuremen]

If your a small business and you can't afford to spend 1000$ on a program that you need to run your business, then you should probably close down. If your just starting out then just get photoshop elements, it's only 100$. The high end software is designed for people to make money off of using it. I'm not even saying it isn't overpriced, I'm just saying that if you can't afford it, then just don't assume stealing it is fine, because you won't get caught. It just seems wrong to me, and I really can't believe people argue against this.

I never said stealing was fine, I just said people will need it at home. You are being very narrow in your view of what people need and want. And elements is kind of a joke.

$1000 dollars on Photoshop or buying some lighting gear is a pretty big deal, not to mention a lot of people do this as a weekend job. Stop being so short sighted on some of this stuff...

 

[bevo]

I never said stealing was fine, I just said people will need it at home. You are being very narrow in your view of what people need and want. And elements is kind of a joke.

$1000 dollars on Photoshop or buying some lighting gear is a pretty big deal, not to mention a lot of people do this as a weekend job. Stop being so short sighted on some of this stuff...

I'm not really being short minded. If you can't afford to buy the equiment then don't do it, or save up money over time and piece by piece. My wife is wanting to start doing some photos for people. We have been upgrading and buying eqiupment for 2 years.
And what's wrong with elements. It's pretty in depth and more then enough for any weekend photographer.
All I'm trying to say is that, if you can't afford something you probabldon't need or deserve it anyway. I'll say again, just because someone else has or is doing something doesn't make you entitled to it. By the way I'm not speaking to you Azerman, so I hope no offense is taken. I'm going to say again, if you think photoshop is overpriced but you want it anyway so you steal it, then why not just go steal gas. You actually need gas to do almost everything these days. The reason you don't steal it is because you will get caught. And gas is very overpriced, and needed to raise a family anymore, photoshop is not needed in anyway, way, shape or form, to live a decent life. people take it because they want it and don't want to pay for it. If it was 50$ the same people that steal it now, would steal it anyway. People steal online because they can. It has nothing to do with prices, business models, or the need of the object. They steal because it's free and they don't consider it stealing.


There is no way you can't tell me that piracy is what is killing the production of PC games. There is no reason for game companies to even make great single player PC games because everyone can just steal them. I bet 15 years ago the amount of triple A PC games realeased was far greater then it is now. There were consoles 15 years ago, and everyone had them then too, so that argument doesn't work. Pc games have to be the hardest hit from piracy. It sucks too because I didn't know anything about all of this with PC games until I built my first gaming PC this June. Now there really are not that many great games to get. The only ones pretty safe are the online multiplayers because it seems the must be harder to hack.

I'm just tired of all the people thinking stealing stuff online is fine. Everyone has just gotten so use to how free and open the internet is that they think it's not real. The government let the piracy go on so long that now everyone thinks stealing online is OK. Now that something might be done about it, everyone is upset. To get rid of online theft will take extreme measures that no one will like. When did it become the business owners responsibilty to keep people from stealing from them. If someone breaks in your house and takes everything I bet you call the police. I bet you don't just set there and think, damn I should have gotten some thicker windows and a steel frame door with a 50k security system to protect myself. Now I have to go and track down the thief myself and bring them to justice. Why should the record companies, and game makers be the ones who try to enforce the way the internet thieves are dealt with. It's the governments job to protect people and in the end, like it or not, it's their job to stop online piracy. I'm sure the way they do it will suck, but something needs to be done about it. People need to remember that you don't just take things that are not yours regardless of how easy it is.

 

[bergauk]

The problem with Elements and other "free" software like it, is they don't offer enough for someone wanting to become a professional.

If I showed up at your wedding to take photos with a setup I cobbled together, and was doing editing with Photoshop Elements would you think that I was good at what I did? Or would you second guess me?

Some things, like Photoshop are unjustifiably expensive. The sheer amount of people ready and willing to buy the software without ever having used it for more than editing pictures of their families. Photoshop is a prime example of a software, that if the price was lowered to a more reasonable price, they would make even more money off it. Unfortunately they wont. So everyone resorts to piracy for it.

 

[bevo]

The problem with Elements and other "free" software like it, is they don't offer enough for someone wanting to become a professional.

If I showed up at your wedding to take photos with a setup I cobbled together, and was doing editing with Photoshop Elements would you think that I was good at what I did? Or would you second guess me?

Some things, like Photoshop are unjustifiably expensive. The sheer amount of people ready and willing to buy the software without ever having used it for more than editing pictures of their families. Photoshop is a prime example of a software, that if the price was lowered to a more reasonable price, they would make even more money off it. Unfortunately they wont. So everyone resorts to piracy for it.

If you showed up to take my wedding pictures you better be able to afford a real camera and a real edition of photoshop. If you have to steal that stuff then you must not be much of a photographer.

If all you want to do is edit pictures of your family then photoshop elements is more then enough. Elements is absolutely fine for almost anyone. Elements is a very full featured editing tool, there is no reason for anyone to steal CE when there is a product as good as elements for 100$. I have elememts 5 on my macbook and still haven't figured out everythin you can do with it. I would love to drive a ferrari to work everyday, but I'm not just going to steal one to do it. I'll drive my car instead becasue that's what I can afford. Just because someone wants photoshop CE shouldn't mean they can just steal it. There are other options out there. They might not be a Ferrari but they work.

The way you guys are justifying stealing is absurd. Try to apply any of these examples you are using to any product that you actually go to a store to purchase. Like I said before they could charge 50$ for photoshop and 90% of the same people would steal it. Stealing online has nothing at all to do with the price fo the program. People steal because they can. People haven't started stealing gas like crazy have they? They steal it more then before, but not half of the people that use it.

 

[MatskiMonk]

The problem with Elements and other "free" software like it, is they don't offer enough for someone wanting to become a professional.

If I showed up at your wedding to take photos with a setup I cobbled together, and was doing editing with Photoshop Elements would you think that I was good at what I did? Or would you second guess me?

Some things, like Photoshop are unjustifiably expensive. The sheer amount of people ready and willing to buy the software without ever having used it for more than editing pictures of their families. Photoshop is a prime example of a software, that if the price was lowered to a more reasonable price, they would make even more money off it. Unfortunately they wont. So everyone resorts to piracy for it.

Who NEEDS photoshop to edit pics of their family? chances are if you haven't used photoshop in a professional manner before, then you probably have no idea what 95% of it is for, and can therefore get by using any number of free, or far far far cheaper image editing utilities available to download on the web. and as an amateur (just as a hobby, not for profit) photographer, I spent about £1200 on my EOS 60D and lenses, therefore £$50-£$100 on image editing software (that SHOCK HORROR might not be Adobe Photoshop), isn't really here or there! And sorry, but if you want to MAKE money, you must be prepared to INVEST at least some money in order to do so.

I want a BMW Alpina B7... can I afford one? No! So did I go out and steal one? No! I bought something that I could afford,.. an E36 (off eBay!).. why should software be any different!

 

[bevo]

Who NEEDS photoshop to edit pics of their family? chances are if you haven't used photoshop in a professional manner before, then you probably have no idea what 95% of it is for, and can therefore get by using any number of free, or far far far cheaper image editing utilities available to download on the web. and as an amateur (just as a hobby, not for profit) photographer, I spent about £1200 on my EOS 60D and lenses, therefore £$50-£$100 on image editing software (that SHOCK HORROR might not be Adobe Photoshop), isn't really here or there! And sorry, but if you want to MAKE money, you must be prepared to INVEST at least some money in order to do so.

I want a BMW Alpina B7... can I afford one? No! So did I go out and steal one? No! I bought something that I could afford,.. an E36 (off eBay!).. why should software be any different!

Finally!!

Does it blow your mind how people think that because it's computer software, that they shouldn't have to pay a premium for the best of the best. It amazes me how people disassociate the internet from reality. Not just in the aspect of stealing software, but just how everyone interacts with each other. All sense and respect toward other people is completely thrown out the window. Anything I say to people online I would literaly say to their face. I really think the internet as a whole needs some kind of governing body. Kids these days have no respect for other people, and it's only going to get worse as time goes on with a completely unrestricted, without reprecussions type of environment that the internet gives them now.
Don't get me wrong I love the internet, but it has gotten way out of hand. I will restrict my children as much as I can with it, without completely taking it away from them. The majority of parents though will not, and my children will have to grow up with theirs. I know everyone says parents need to give thier kids good advice and morales, but I can only do that with my children. they still have to live in a world where other parents don't do their part.

 

[bergauk]

Whats wrong with investing less? You're missing the point. Lower the price of your software that apparently a lot of people want to buy buy have no money for[aka pirating]. Earn more /equal to what you were earning before. Best part of this. More people know about your software. More people buy it.

I could care less if Autocad is meant for "Professionals" If I want the damn software, I want it. I'm an amateur with it. But I used it in highschool and thoroughly understand how it works and could design things that I wanted using it. Are you guys trying to tell me that only a professional should be allowed to buy professional grade software?

The same goes for Photoshop. People that used it in highschool/college want it. But can't afford it. So why are we teaching art students on a piece of software they can't afford it? Should we just switch over to teaching kids on GIMP?

 

[MatskiMonk]

Finally!!

Does it blow your mind how people think that because it's computer software, that they shouldn't have to pay a premium for the best of the best. It amazes me how people disassociate the internet from reality. Not just in the aspect of stealing software, but just how everyone interacts with each other. All sense and respect toward other people is completely thrown out the window. Anything I say to people online I would literaly say to their face. I really think the internet as a whole needs some kind of governing body. Kids these days have no respect for other people, and it's only going to get worse as time goes on with a completely unrestricted, without reprecussions type of environment that the internet gives them now.
Don't get me wrong I love the internet, but it has gotten way out of hand. I will restrict my children as much as I can with it, without completely taking it away from them. The majority of parents though will not, and my children will have to grow up with theirs. I know everyone says parents need to give thier kids good advice and morales, but I can only do that with my children. they still have to live in a world where other parents don't do their part.

👍👍

The internet is probably the greatest invention of modern times, dosn't stop me despising most things about it though.

Whats wrong with investing less? You're missing the point. Lower the price of your software that apparently a lot of people want to buy buy have no money for[aka pirating]. Earn more /equal to what you were earning before. Best part of this. More people know about your software. More people buy it.

I could care less if Autocad is meant for "Professionals" If I want the damn software, I want it. I'm an amateur with it. But I used it in highschool and thoroughly understand how it works and could design things that I wanted using it. Are you guys trying to tell me that only a professional should be allowed to buy professional grade software?

The same goes for Photoshop. People that used it in highschool/college want it. But can't afford it. So why are we teaching art students on a piece of software they can't afford it? Should we just switch over to teaching kids on GIMP?

If you are being taught it in school then the chances are it is to make you more employable, y'know... to COMPANIES that buy the software, who will pay you a wage, and give you the lifestyle that you want - and if that includes buying expensive software.. fine!... not so you can impress people in GTP's post your 3D stuff thread! You want something.. Earn it.

 

[MatskiMonk]

double post

 

[bevo]

👍👍

The internet is probably the greatest invention of modern times, dosn't stop me despising most things about it though.

I was sitting her saying the same thing to my wife. I love the internet and it can be a valuable tool, but the world was a better place before it. 99% of it is for entertainment alone, and millions upon millions of jobs have been lost because of it. It is playing a major role in why many people do not have a job and the state of the worlds economy. I take full advantage of it, and order the majority of things I get online, but that's because it's the only way I have to get most of the things I want, because all of the brick and mortar shops are gone that carry anything besides food worth buying. I play games, watch videos, etc., but I know that it is the most corrupt and evil force in the majority of peoples everyday lives. It is really, really fun though.

 

[nick09]

I could care less if Autocad is meant for "Professionals" If I want the damn software, I want it. I'm an amateur with it. But I used it in highschool and thoroughly understand how it works and could design things that I wanted using it. Are you guys trying to tell me that only a professional should be allowed to buy professional grade software?

If you want the software cheaper then boycott it and tell everyone to not buy it. Photoshop and AutoCad is expensive because it's a tool used by professionals who need to use it and know how to use it. If you want to learn then go to college. It does not mean you can't buy Photoshop or AutoCad but it's recommended for families to not invest into top grade software they may or may not use.

 

[bergauk]

You know what..

I've come to a conclusion about the Computers and Technology section of this forum.

You guys are all a bunch of idiots. Idiots I'm surprised even know how to use a computer.

If you can't see where my argument is coming from, then you never will.

I'm not arguing for piracy, I'm arguing for the fact that the industry could stand to make even more money off their products if they did something right.

The business I was working for went out of business because we overcharged for our services to the point that no one came in unless they were absolutely desperate.

The state of the industry is going to keep going down until something changes. Yes, there are pieces of software that can be priced at a point that a layman can't afford, but there are ones like Autocad, Photoshop, and many others, that could stand to earn MORE money, if they changed the pricing to something that a normal person could afford.

This post is my final post in this thread. After this, I don't even care about what you say. Because if my opinion on the matter is worthless. Your opinion on what I have to say means nothing to me as well. 👎

 

[nick09]

How is calling people who post in the Computers forum "idiots" help your argument?

 

[MatskiMonk]

You know what..

I've come to a conclusion about the Computers and Technology section of this forum.

You guys are all a bunch of idiots. Idiots I'm surprised even know how to use a computer.

If you can't see where my argument is coming from, then you never will.

I'm not arguing for piracy, I'm arguing for the fact that the industry could stand to make even more money off their products if they did something right.

The business I was working for went out of business because we overcharged for our services to the point that no one came in unless they were absolutely desperate.

The state of the industry is going to keep going down until something changes. Yes, there are pieces of software that can be priced at a point that a layman can't afford, but there are ones like Autocad, Photoshop, and many others, that could stand to earn MORE money, if they changed the pricing to something that a normal person could afford.

This post is my final post in this thread. After this, I don't even care about what you say. Because if my opinion on the matter is worthless. Your opinion on what I have to say means nothing to me as well. 👎

Apologies, maybe I am an idiot, I hadn't realised you know more about designing, developing, marketing and distributing software than Adobe... apologies for under-estimating you.

 

[bevo]

You know what..

I've come to a conclusion about the Computers and Technology section of this forum.

You guys are all a bunch of idiots. Idiots I'm surprised even know how to use a computer.

If you can't see where my argument is coming from, then you never will.

I'm not arguing for piracy, I'm arguing for the fact that the industry could stand to make even more money off their products if they did something right.

The business I was working for went out of business because we overcharged for our services to the point that no one came in unless they were absolutely desperate.

The state of the industry is going to keep going down until something changes. Yes, there are pieces of software that can be priced at a point that a layman can't afford, but there are ones like Autocad, Photoshop, and many others, that could stand to earn MORE money, if they changed the pricing to something that a normal person could afford.

This post is my final post in this thread. After this, I don't even care about what you say. Because if my opinion on the matter is worthless. Your opinion on what I have to say means nothing to me as well. 👎

I'm sure if they thought they could make more money selling it cheaper to more people they would. Do you really think there are millions of people out there wanting to spend 50$ to play with autocad. That is 80 times cheaper then what they charge for it. They would have to sell 80 times more of them to make up for the drop in price at 50$. I'm just using 50$ as an example because that's a good price for an average PC user. Games, cheap editing programs, and other software are around that price point. If you could tell me how to increase my companies sales by 8000% I'll hire you tomorrow and you can name your price.

What price would you be comfortable paying for autocad?

 

[Azuremen]

MatskiMonk and bevo, kings of assuming they understand what everyone does with software at home.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

What price would you be comfortable paying for autocad?

If I had a steady income of any amount, I wouldn't be bothered paying about $120 for a license key for AutoCad, as long as I get free upgrades.

 

[Lain]

I always love the responses threads like this get. It's amazing the excuses people can come up with to justify pirating. I don't agree with a lot of the measures they come up with to fight it (SOPA), but it is stealing, nothing more, nothing less. If you are going to do it, at least don't use the usual lame excuses to make yourself feel better about it. (it's too expensive, the music isn't that good anyway, etc., etc.) Obviously your parents raised you to be theives, be proud of your heritage. 👍

It's amazing the excuses people can come up with to justify completely dismissing the arguments of "pirates".

Piracy is not stealing. It's piracy. It's making a copy of digital information, which does not cause the person(s) who produced and thus "own" that data to lose their copy. It's just making them lose potential money that they've (rightly or wrongly) assumed they could make from it. Whether you're against piracy or not, that's simply how it is. So quit trying to gloss over the nuances of the subject by equating it with simple theft.

But in any case, it really doesn't matter what your stance is on piracy. If you're against censorship, you should be against SOPA regardless. Free speech is more important than, say, the record industry being able to make all the money they believe they would be making if it weren't for piracy.

 

[Seismica]

What price would you be comfortable paying for autocad?

If I had a steady income of any amount, I wouldn't be bothered paying about $120 for a license key for AutoCad, as long as I get free upgrades.

As long as it is cheaper than the Operating system I run it on I would buy it without a second thought

Full retail price for my version of windows is £170 I think. I would go up to maybe £200-250 if it was a niche bit of software with a small customer base. A four figure sum is completely out of the question. One license for Autocad would cost more than just about everything in my room put together (As I am a poor student who doesn't own a car, that's pretty much everything I own). How can they justify that price? Not to cover losses from piracy surely, as the price is the cause of that to begin with.

 

[hampus_dh]

Can´t stop the internet bitches!

I will download pretty much everything i can get a hold of.

But, i pay for what i am happy with, like Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Premier Elements.
Had them downloaded for a long time but since i use it so much i actually paid for them.

Torrents is the best thing that ever happened to the movie and music industry.
Because now they can´t produce crap then expect people to buy the movie/cd.

Most people rather download it, watch it, come to the conclusion the movie was crap and then feel a relief that they did not pay a dime for it.

Torrents have saved me an enourmous amount of money and probably a few anger management therapy sessions.

 

[Lain]

Might wanna reword that, hampus_dh.

Stating on this forum that you participate in illegal activities, piracy especially, isn't a very good idea.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Who said a retail copy of Windows 7 isn't overpriced? The OEM prices are good though, in my opinion for a retail copy.