P.S. A couple of interesting facts:1) I have never had an un-trapped Virus on any machine I have owned in over 20 years and the trapped ones could probably be counted on one hand.2) Almost every game I try on my machines (Metaboli or otherwise) works first time and stay working - and the count of those in well into the hundreds.Being honest has side-benefits.

Brian you do know most of that is piracy?The first about software from the office, well dont know about that because they would need additional licenses and most companies buy em in bulk so this one is likely legit.Software on multiple PC's is piracy and against most EULA's (as you mentioned) where you can install the software on 1 PC, to install on another you gotta remove it from the other.Donation-ware well thats not illegal as its freeware that people ask if you like it that you donate but there isnt a legally binding thing to say you have to.CD to MP3 is piracy and a lot of people have been done for this although most people dont realise this it is against the law to copy music/film from one medium to another, the attitude is that you paid for the CD not an MP3 if you want it in MP3 format go buy it from iTunes. However I dont know anyone who doesnt do this and in the future you'll likely be encountering CD's which will have copy protection to prevent it as the authorities would have to go arresting just about everyone otherwise.With recording TV onto video cassettes I actually went to go check on that for a post I was going to do but decided not to. Its apparently ok BUT if you allow people that are not from the same household to borrow the cassette it becomes illegal.Edit: Not trying to offend with that just pointing out that some of the laws in regards to piracy and copyright are far too excessive.

What happened to saving up to buy a game! I remember saving up for months to get Warcraft: Orcs and Humans The CD to MP3 thing is technically piracy, but record companies have said they will ignore it, because if they stop it completely ,sales in cds would drop massively. Why by a CD that you can only play on a clunky great CD player when you can fit 40 times the amount of music on a mp3 player the size of your thumb.Once you send these mp3's to someone else thats when you are crossing the line, and taking advantage.I don't by many cds anymore, i get them off iTunes mostly.As for games and software i don't think i have anything on here that i haven't paid for...i'd have to double check though I don't think the gaming industry is hugely damaged by piracy, and it wont be as long as there are always people honest enough to pay.

Wildride,Yep, I know that a lot of what I mentioned would be strictly consider piracy by the letter of the law and, no, not offended in the slightest.Office software is all 100% legit - I checked.Software on multiple PC's I allow myself the self-justification that I am simply saving myself the time and effort of an un-install/re-install. I also rarely do actually ever have more than one PC functional at a time and even then only have one pair of hands.CD's to MP3 - yep strictly illegal - especially as I have it on the PC and, shock-horror, my MP3 player. Some CD's already have copy-protection and even silently install DRM/Anti-copying low level hidden drivers when you shove them in your drive! Watch those Sony CD's folks.TV recordings - I believe that if you hold onto them for any length of time that also counts as piracy - the assumption being that they are intended for watching programs you missed and will then be re-used. Could be wrong on that one.I said I wasn't a saint - but I am honest and try to ensure that nothing I do actually results in someone losing out as a result of my action - or inaction.The original post mentioned:

Quote: I bet you everyone here has a copied music CD album in their collection. Or perhaps a pirated DVD.

My reading of this is copied - as in not owned by you - and I don't.Also

Quote: Who here hasn't tried Limewire or Kazaa??

Didn't answer this first time - but no, never, not once. And Im not cheating here - not any of the clones either.

Omega,

Quote: I don't think the gaming industry is hugely damaged by piracy, and it wont be as long as there are always people honest enough to pay.

Any lost sale a a result of piracy is, by definition, damage as they have lost profit - but that's nit-picking. My concern is not the deliberate malicious piracy - you will probably never get rid of that - it is the casual, often ignorant, piracy that I think is on the increase.

I agree with you about the ignorant piracy, i've spoken to several people recently who don't think downloading (commercial) music or other bits and pieces is against the law.

Widening the topic out a little - into what constitutes piracy.My brother in law downloads MP3's from the web but says that he only ever downloads tracks that he already has legit copies of - usually copies on tape or vinyl. His self-justification for this is that he is merely saving himself the awkward and time consuming job of transferring (analogue to digital).Is this piracy? It is not a million miles away from my own argument about un-installing/re-installing software across multiple PC's.I would argue that because the person who uploaded that MP3 did not know, or care, whether or not the people downloading it had original copies it is piracy as it is encouraging others in the act.

Check out this post from the folks at Stardock on the subject of Piracy - good reading.

That's a good read, Brian. Maybe worth starting a new thread for? I'd love the forum to be more about gaming and less 'mi game don't wurk. matabili sux'.Very briefly: The author says that - in their [Stardock's] experience - if you deliberately target niche markets who will pay for your game, then the piracy effect is reduced. Don't target the largest number of players; target the largest number of customers.Stardock are indie publisher/developers, of course. So is it the case that mainstream publishers forcing mass market plays from their development houses - shy of innovation and always seeking the next greatest FPS or RTS (which also turn out to be the biggest piracy targets) - are creating the seeds of their own destruction?Again, this is hard on dev houses - it's hard to go independent when your game will take 3 years to create. Stardock bootstrapped their games business with desktop customisation stuff.

Stardock consistantly outsell the big players and I would have to say I agree with everything in that article. Galciv2 was a #1 and now Sins. I would have to say a lot of it is the no DRM state for all thier games, they save millions in production by not spending on DRM, thir games also dont require the latest technology to run.Other developers make games to use the very latest graphics cards so its a constant battle to keep hardware specs up for a lot of gamers, they end up without the money to actually buy the game so pirate it instead.I do see a winner from piracy, ATI and nVidia [;)]