DHS/ICE seizes domain names of torrent sites

[Asher]

I'm tired of the posts rationalizing theft and blaming the producers of wealth for the flexible ethics of middle class consumers.

I'm tired of simpletons making sweeping generalized statements made on flimsy generalized morals like "stealing is wrong".

You support laws which make my life, as a genuine purchaser of a product, much more difficult. You support laws that make me a criminal for making a backup of my Blurays so I can play them from my Boxee Box/Drobo rather than ****ing around with physical discs.

That has nothing to do with theft.

As for torrent sites, yes, 99.9% of their activity is of illegal piracy and is indefensible. There are edge cases.

I pirate music and TV shows regularly because they are not available in Canada. I'd love to jump on Hulu or watch a show on Showtime or something...or buy a song on iTunes or Amazon MP3...but while it's there for Americans, if Canadians try to buy it they're told "NO! YOU CANNOT BUY THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT IN THE USA!!!". Thus, it gets pirated. If you want me to buy your ****, make it ****ing available for purchase.

Edit: Another example is eBooks. I buy a ton of books on Kindle, but many popular books are only available in the US (The Millennium Trilogy being a good example). I tried to buy "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" through the Amazon store. It told me I can't buy it since I'm in Canada. So then I added a fake American address in my Amazon account, set it as my default, and purchased the book. A day later I got an email from Amazon asking me to scan my passport or drivers license to provide proof I lived in the USA. I, of course, refused to do so and ignored the email. A week later, the book vanished from my Kindle and I was refunded my money. I then went on to pirate the book.

Some people just don't deserve money.

[Whoha]

Why should it provide anything?

It shouldn't. How much of marginal contribution is risk taking?

[Asher]

There are no good alternatives to pirating. You can't beat free.

iTunes has proven this quite wrong.

The massive takeup for Netflix proves this quite wrong.

The massive success of ebooks proves this quite wrong.

Many, many people pirate because it's simply more convenient. Why go to a store and look for books/cds/blurays when you can click a few times and get them online almost instantly?

It takes a long while for companies to figure this out.

[Asher]

Here's a Canadian specific rant for why it's okay to pirate music, morally, in Canada:

The Canadian recording industry successfully lobbied for all Canadians to pay them each time we buy a blank tape, blank CD, iPod, or even a smartphone. The argument is: people use these devices to pirate, and thus a certain amount of money from each purchase must go to the music artists.

This means I'm paying something like $10 as part of my iPhone, $0.29 per blank CD I've ever bought, etc to license all music available in Canada, no?

I'm already paying for the privilege for piracy as far as I look at it.

(Disclaimer: Unless it's not available in Canada, I always buy my music on iTunes as it's more convenient + higher quality than pirated music)

[KrazyHorse]

It shouldn't. How much of marginal contribution is risk taking?

Risk benefits the winners. I don't know what you're on about here...

[DinoDoc]

"NO! YOU CANNOT BUY THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT IN THE USA!!!".

It's your just punishment for burning DC in 1812.

[Tupac Shakur]

Why would we punish them for burning DC? It was a public service and I wouldn't mind if they did it again.

[SlowwHand]

Let me point out something. I got banned here once for uploading a No CD crack for Civ II. Not the game, a No CD crack, that enabled you to play the game without loading your PURCHASED CD.
That's wrong, and it fits the mindset of people in favor of the actions this thread is about. The same mindset that tries to penalize you for ripping a CD and putting it on your PC. That's bull****.

[giblets]

Why would you need a No CD crack for Civ II? Does it keep the advisors and wonder movies running or something?

[SlowwHand]

It keeps the game. You don't have to load the CD, and therefore preserves the CD. It's less hassle than digging out the CD and loading it. You have to have the game installed in the first place, and I got banned for uploading it. It's comparable to ripping. Of all the things that I've been banned for, that one pissed me off the most.

[Asher]

Why would you need a No CD crack for Civ II? Does it keep the advisors and wonder movies running or something?

IIRC it just did one of those annoying cd-checks on bootup. If it wasn't in the drive, it wouldn't load. It didn't need to be in to play beyond that point.

[giblets]

Okay, it's been a while since I played Civ II but I remember it ran without the CD and I never downloaded a No CD crack. However a few of the extra features like wonder movies required the CD in the CD drive.

edit: oh, that makes sense.

[Hauldren Collider]

Why would we punish them for burning DC? It was a public service and I wouldn't mind if they did it again.

As long as they leave the pretty memorials alone.

[DinoDoc]

Let me point out something. I got banned here once for uploading a No CD crack for Civ II.

Cry some more.

[SlowwHand]

Bite me.