the warez bust

[CocaCola5]

The user of pirated goods would never consider or could afford buying that product at retail, its simply not a "lost revenue" for the company, that someone never was a potential customer to began with.

 

[Amused]

<< The user of pirated goods would never consider or could afford buying that product at retail, its simply not a "lost revenue" for the company, that someone never was a potential customer to began with. >>



Uh huh. A kid with a $1500+ computer can't afford a $40 game? A $150 OS?

Sorry, that's a weak defense at best. Computer users are not, on avergae, skid row bums. They have the means, they just choose to be thieves.

 

[CocaCola5]

<<

<< The user of pirated goods would never consider or could afford buying that product at retail, its simply not a "lost revenue" for the company, that someone never was a potential customer to began with. >>



Uh huh. A kid with a $1500+ computer can't afford a $40 game? A $150 OS?

Sorry, that's a weak defense at best. Computer users are not, on avergae, skid row bums. They have the means, they just choose to be thieves. >>




I weren't talking about piracy, I am saying its really bullsh*t the $$figure some of these companies claim they lost from it.

 

[CTho9305]

<<

<< The user of pirated goods would never consider or could afford buying that product at retail, its simply not a "lost revenue" for the company, that someone never was a potential customer to began with. >>



Uh huh. A kid with a $1500+ computer can't afford a $40 game? A $150 OS?

Sorry, that's a weak defense at best. Computer users are not, on avergae, skid row bums. They have the means, they just choose to be thieves. >>



err... I dont konw about you, but here at college, we buy $600 computers. $150 for an OS becomes a SIGNIFICANT amount. Now, these are good 600 buck machines (tbird 1.4ghz / xp1600, 256mb+ pc2100, 40+gig drives, radeon8500, etc) but that doesn't mean $150 is insignificant.

 

[tm37]

<< err... I dont konw about you, but here at college, we buy $600 computers. $150 for an OS becomes a SIGNIFICANT amount. Now, these are good 600 buck machines (tbird 1.4ghz / xp1600, 256mb+ pc2100, 40+gig drives, radeon8500, etc) but that doesn't mean $150 is insignificant. >>



yes but if you drop down to a duron 600 and a radeon original then you can afford the OS to make it work!

 

[Kenazo]

here's the other side of the story. why do people need to have personal net wealth of $50 billion? Why does microsoft need to make so much $. I think if they weren't such greedy ba$tards then ppl wouldn't be pirating. of course this justifies nothing, but it is a valid question.

 

[pulse8]

<< here's the other side of the story. why do people need to have personal net wealth of $50 billion? Why does microsoft need to make so much $. I think if they weren't such greedy ba$tards then ppl wouldn't be pirating. of course this justifies nothing, but it is a valid question. >>



Maybe because the goal of a business is TO MAKE MONEY?

Just a thought.

 

[Kenazo]

of course their goal is to make money. i'm up with that. But is there ever a time when they are making too much money? I would bet that if they lowered there prices to $50 for winxp or whatever os, there would be a huge drop in piracy, and they would make just as much if not more money b/c more copies would be legit.

 

[mithrandir2001]

<< err... I dont konw about you, but here at college, we buy $600 computers. $150 for an OS becomes a SIGNIFICANT amount. Now, these are good 600 buck machines (tbird 1.4ghz / xp1600, 256mb+ pc2100, 40+gig drives, radeon8500, etc) but that doesn't mean $150 is insignificant. >>


$150 may seem significant, but consider the OS purchase as vital as buying the motherboard - your PC won't run without either, will it?

 

[mithrandir2001]

<< But is there ever a time when they are making too much money? >>


If their products are legal (and they are), then no, they can't be making "too much money"...it's not for us to decide how much is enough.

 

[Kenazo]

if you can make an excellent quality kt7 board using a paper clip three rolls of tin foil and some silly putty then i would go that route instead of paying crazy inflated prices too

i think the difference is that with hardware you are paying for a physical product vs software when you are paying for an idea.

 

[Smbu]

<< yeah...would that mean like diablo 2 would be 15 if people didnt pirate it??

lets not even mention companies like EA who should be kicked off the planet for their coding efforts.

i buy my games. I am not going to buy crap tho.

booty



People should read reviews and play the demos - and if you like it, buy the damn game.
>>



Damn, I paid like $75 for the Diablo 2 collectors edition from EB.
If I believe the game/app is worth it then I will buy it. Like Diablo 2 as stated above. Another example is Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which I picked up, because I was playing the RTCW test, so much. Other examples are AvP2. I dl'ed that didn't like it and now it's sitting in my drawer collecting dust, and I'm glad I didn't spend the $40-$50 for it.

 

[NeoV]

Companies are in business to make money...it doesn't matter how much MS makes...piracy is piracy

For all of you that say "well, I wouldn't get the program if I had to buy it, so they aren't really losing money"..you are wrong.

My favorite so far is "for stuff like games, I pay for them...but for the expensive stuff, like OS's or 3d Studio Max, I would never pay that much"..


I would think that the 12Billion in lost sales is pretty accurate...how many "devilsown" corp Win XP versions do you think people are already using? That is just one piece of software!


All you l33t warez punks, and IRC mongers (gimme ops pleaze!) need to grow up. A-holes like you guys write virus programs that cost companies many millions of dollars this year, don't get mad when they try to strike back.

I have quite a few mp3's on my PC. If it is illegal for me to have them, then I am guilty of that violation, but I am not going to sit here and cry that "I wouldn't have bought these songs though!" Admit that what you are doing is wrong..if you choose to continue to do it, then run the risks associated, but don't get pissed because they are trying to prevent it a bit more than they have in the past.

Oh, and one more thing...Gopunk, nice comments..."have you seen how poor people overseas are?" I forgot that the only people and companies with money are here in America, everyone else is ok with pirated software.


If I was in charge of cleaning up piracy, the first thing I would do is eliminate all of the high-speed internet connections in college dorms. They don't need it, period. Intranets are fine, but there is no reason that every kid in a dorm needs access to that.

Then hit the IRC file-sharing servers, and the same for newsgroups. It shouldn't really be that hard.

 

[mithrandir2001]

<< i think the difference is that with hardware you are paying for a physical product vs software when you are paying for an idea. >>


Well I guess that is like saying a library should pay for a card catalog (those archaic multi-drawer thingies) but not a search engine of their inventory. Just because the search engine isn't tangible doesn't mean it has less value as a product. On the contrary, such software is leagues more powerful and productive than the old physical card catalog.

 

[Kenazo]

hey that statement wasn't an ethical argument. I think piracy is wrong. (then again there is no such thing as wrong when there is no such thing as truth, right?) I was just stating that people will always have an easier time w/ their conscience when they are:
a) stealing from someone that has 3,000,000 times more money than the average american
b) stealing a non tangiable article such as software. it's to easy to justify (the cd only costs $0.50 anyway)

i guess that's the great thing about capitalism, it allows for mass theft.

 

[audiophan]

<< eliminate all of the high-speed internet connections in college dorms >>



my experiences with software pirateing:
when I took a class that used math software called mathlab i was doing horrible
not having the software meant trudging to a lab and waiting for an open computer, trying to get a project of homework assignment done before the lab closed. the only time i even thought about matlab was when i had an assignment due, and i seriously wasn't learning anything.

then a friend d/led a 'warez' edition of matlab which he shared with me. this allowed be to work at my own computer at my pace. i could explore the software in my free time, take a break without losing the computer and get back to it at a later time. suffice to say i became more familier with matlab trying to figure things out when it was on my computer then i ever would have merely trying to get an assignment done.

later in life when i work for a corporation which purchases a version of matlab which costs more because of my pirating, i will know my way around the software, increasing my productivity which retributes the company the increased cost of the pirated software

im not trying to say pirating is acceptable in certain situations, but i am sticking up for university internet
if it wasn't for my college's high-speed internet connection i would not have downloaded warez copies of software which im now familier with. i would not be reading anandtech with a dial-up. instead i would be asking someone how to install an os. college is for learning, and learning new technology. it not for college ethernet i would have a lot of less tech-savy friends

already i can tell this post makes no sense, so blame it on two exams and the fact that it's 2 in the morning

 

[gopunk]

For all of you that say "well, I wouldn't get the program if I had to buy it, so they aren't really losing money"..you are wrong.

care to elaborate? i'm interested in finding out exactly how companies lose money when people who wouldn't have bought their products anyways, don't buy their products. maybe some sample math or something would be helpful, because afaik, 0 - 0 still equals 0.

but I am not going to sit here and cry that "I wouldn't have bought these songs though!" Admit that what you are doing is wrong..

nobody said what they're doing isn't wrong, but they're pointing out the economics of it.

Oh, and one more thing...Gopunk, nice comments..."have you seen how poor people overseas are?" I forgot that the only people and companies with money are here in America, everyone else is ok with pirated software.

? i never said everybody else was "ok" with pirated software...

If I was in charge of cleaning up piracy, the first thing I would do is eliminate all of the high-speed internet connections in college dorms. They don't need it, period. Intranets are fine, but there is no reason that every kid in a dorm needs access to that.

there's no reason anybody *needs* high speed internet, but it makes most tasks more convenient. it's a good thing you're not in charge of cleaning up piracy, because all the universities would laugh at you and tell you to go away.

 

[Moonbeam]

It's the warez people I feel sorry for. They apparently are in such competition for hits and ratings that they sent me round and round in circles. Seeing as how I'm too dumb to get off the merry-go-round, I don't visit and they don't get my hits or ratings.

It's OK for me to use pirated software because I took a vow of poverty that I would never buy it or music. Thus they loose nothing if I do.