Also remember guys, just like XBox360 if these people play pirated games on PSN they will probably get their consoles locked.

If they are dumb enough to do that, they are dumb enough to get banned. 

Which is why I would never mod my PS3, even for homebrew. I admit I would do so if it didn't have an online function like PSN or even trophies. This is why my Wii is softmodded. It is my media center, hooked up with a 500GB external HDD, packed with tons of movies and TV shows for my daughter to watch, plus I have a few Wii titles (Which I own, I can take pictures of everything if someone so wishes) that I also loaded onto the HDD. 

I also have SCUMMVM on it. The Wiimote along with Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max or Full Throttle was a match made in heaven, not to mention the modding also allowed me to create this.

Yes, that is my video. Got that on your Wii? Bet you don't, but feel free to wait for years. 

Games run so much faster with little to no loading thanks to the HDD. It does wonders for Mario Party.

Now understand, while I am a big supporter of the gaming industry, I am also a big supporter of consumer freedom, even if I disagree with some things that come along with the freedom.

Better to keep an open mind about all aspects of something such as homebrew and openness rather than focus on only the one negative.

This is absolutely crazy...in a few months PS3 went from an unhackable fortress to being the most open source system since Dreamcast.

I believe SONY already patented PS2 backwards compatibility on PS3, but then they saw how well the re-releases were selling, notably the God of War Collection, so why give us that ability when they obviously see that we will buy them again?

The ability is there and if anyone thinks otherwise it is quite naive considering the 80GB MG4 bundle PS3 ran only partial software based B/C, and that was over 2 1/2 years ago.

This is why I do not understand when people so adamantly defend these companies, as if they actually give a damn about them. If they cared they would not have removed PS2 B/C.

If they cared they would have given us the PS2 software B/C they patented over a year ago instead of profiting off of us with nothing more than resolution updates packaged with trophies for a price that exceeds the cost of purchasing each title seperately.

Point is that they don't care about you. They care about making money.

Piracy definitely has a significant negative impact against smaller games. 

On the 360 for example:

Dante's Inferno was pirated 1,280,000 times.

Alan Wake was pirated 1,141,000 times.

Prototype was pirated 810,000 times.

Dirt 2 was pirated 790,000 times.

On the Wii: 

Red Steel 2 was pirated 850,000 times.

Punch Out was pirated 950,000 times.

Kirby's Epic Yarn was pirated 880,000 times.

I know that all these people might not have bought the games anyway, but lets say 200,000 from each would have bought the game if the option of piracy wasn't around, then the sales life of Alan Wake, Red Steel 2, Dante's Inferno and Dirt 2 would be significantly better. 

This is also speculation, but a large part of the PS3 audience is probably made of tech enthusiast who know how to take advantage of piracy, while the 360 and Wii audience is far more casual in comparison, this may not be true, but I'm basing it from my own experiences in the real world and online. If it was true, then piracy could have a larger effect on the PS3, than it does on the 360 or the Wii.

Also, Modern Warfare 2 was pirated more than Black Ops, this is just to clarify an earlier point you made in this thread to another poster.

Just a couple of links for the numbers:

http://torrentfreak.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-most-pirated-game-of-2010-101228/

http://kotaku.com/5435876/the-most-pirated-games-of-2009

Yeah... some PS3 models had PS2 B/C without hardware... just software emulation.

Was it pirated more in the same exact time span? I thought it was in the 4M-4.5M range by the end of 2009. Black Ops is over 5M isn't it?

As for the rest of your post, I bring up the point mentioned in this thread where someone said, and I paraphrase, so forgive me if the quote is not 100% accurate.

"People only buy the console if they can pirate the games."

This alone shows that piracy didn't hurt the console that much since originally those consumers had no interest in a purchase to begin with.

Yes you will have games pirated, but many times the game would not have been purchased to begin with. Also, even though this in a way defends piracy, even though I do not condone it, there are also instances where a game is pirated a later purchased, just like when a game is rented and later purchased.

There are many reasons why I think the whole idea is completely overblown. 

Anyone know if the music industry is dying? I know it is pirated to all hell, although the best I can find is articles from 2007 stated that the music industry is in fact growing, despite the high piracy rate.

Modern Warfare 2 piracy in 2009, 5.07M.

http://torrentfreak.com/the-most-pirated-games-of-2009-091227/

Black Ops piracy in 2010, 5.27M.

http://www.digitalbattle.com/2010/12/29/most-pirated-games-of-2010/

So it is has pirated more so far, yet I am sure it is selling more. Also it was pirated less on the 360 this year than last year, so I guess it might be a case of people pirating last year, seeing it is worth the money this year and then picking it up? 

Who knows.

I will be honest: this is good news for me since games in Mexico have craaazy prices. But when I love a game, I buy it. 
Here in Mexico (and Latinamerica aswell) the PS3 has a diminished presence, and the Xbox 360 is, by far, the bestselling console because of piracy lol.

However, this won't stop me from buying my favorite games like Uncharted 3 or LBP 2.