I think with this one, fan translation will be affected too, whether it is in the movie, games, or any other kind media possible. And as for me, this is a bad thing.

crippling free speech -- lol, plagiarism isn't protected by free speech nor should piracy.

@ Mr Khan -- way up you said you can't turn pirates into paying customers. BS. my friend has a ps2, wii, ds, psp, and ps3. cant you guess which is the only system he has paid for a game on? hint, it is the only one he can't pirate on...

Right, and would he have bought a PS2, Wii, DS, or PSP if he could not pirate on them? Would he have had the revenue to buy all the games he had bought? At best he would have bought a few games more legitimately on one system at the expense of legit PS3 games

It's a wash, i'm telling you.

and i'm telling you that's not true.  this isn't a money issue, he makes plenty.  i've said it before but maybe you didn't see it...i'm quite well off as is really all of my friends.  when i say well off i specifically mean household incomes of $100k to $300k -- i'd hope you'd agree that's plenty enough to buy a couple of games/movies/songs a year.  

and yet across all my friends only two households don't pirate; myself because i have a huge stick up my ass on the subject and one other who is a lawyer and says he's too afraid to loose his job/career.   all of the rest pirate their media and that makes me sad and angry.  the problem is that it's just too easy to do, there is almost no risk of getting caught, and they get free shit out of it.  

what i'm telling you is that as long as they feel they can get away with it they won't change no matter what business model content developers create.  seriously, they pirate free content just because they don't like watching commercials.  promise you though, if they had to...they'd pay.

Make hay while the sun shines.

I don't steal games btw, but I personally believe value should be intrinsically tied to cost.

Piracy is not freedom of speech. Why do people not understand that definition? Either way, i doubt it will stop it much, but if it does, it will help companies and the people they employ.

No kilter, mr Kahn knows your friends better than you and every other pirate, you're WRONG.

Everyone in both threads is coming at me with all kinds of anecdotal evidence, and their only refutation is that i cannot refute their anecdotal evidence.

I shall make an examination into this. Surely there has to be scholarly data in the economics discipline to support this and either shut me up, or shut the rest of you up.

Difference is we're refuting what you're saying. We're not saying this goes for everyone (I already said that) just that you simply can't tell either way what people will do when they can't pirate. Wheras you and that other guy seem adamant it's not going to change anything without any proof.

Prevailing trends defy anecdotal evidence without making it untrue. Take for instance the countless "My Wii is gathering dust," statements put forth across the generation that, while they might have been true for the individuals, were not true on the whole.

I'll grant that i have only been going off of prevailing wisdom i have heard in discussions involving those whose economics knowledge i trust. Therefore i shall table further arguments until studies can be cited