Well,that was easy ...

people should pirate more so they will eventually run out of money

That's great, but with sites like MegaUpload closing, and with ACTA coming to light today (which may be worse...), SOPA did its job. Now that it may have happened, it will happen.

I'm all for proctecting children from being use like that. Any sensible parent would too. Somebody in this other thread i read about put it quite nicely but i forgot his name. (It only really applies during face to face discussions. Most people over the net should know why anybody would reject this bill)

"Only in the US would they make you choose between being an advocate for child pornography or your internet freedom"

That's actually a good analogy lol

ACTA IS worse, because this would affect more countries than just the USA, ACTA is a international agreement on anti-piracy measures that countries that sign the contract have to take... and these are of the same nature as SOPA and PIPA, maybe even worse (destruction of bought goods going through customs in international trade to prevent import of copyrighted goods into a country (see UK and the rest of Europe))

I think companies are going to be absolutely baffled when their sales actually decrease if/when all these piracy rules finally do pass.

A huge majority of people who pirate things would have never purchased the product in the first place. That effectively costs the companies nothing.

Another chunk does it to effectively demo things. If they like it enough, they will go out and purchase hard copies, and possibly even purchase future games from the same company because it was so enjoyable.

The percentage of people pirating stuff that would actually go out and purchase that material immediately given that pirating didn't exist is miniscule.

Plus, none of this costs the economy a damned thing, so people need to stop saying that. Phantom sales that you think you would have had is a bullshit thing to base stuff off of.

I also couldn't resist figuring out that if this costs the economy $100 billion annually, where is every single American magically going to have $333 more to spend on stuff, when the average person already spends every last penny they make? Yea, I know that part of this spending would equate to profit for companies, therefore some people having more money, but not even close to all of it will...so they just think it will magically appear out of nowhere?

bull shit - i've got lots of friends that haven't put a single penny into any media in at least 5 years if not longer that have put hundreds into devices that allow them to avoid paying for media. they are media whores that digest hundreds of hours of media a week and absoluting love tv/movies/games.

piracy is not 1:1 a lost sale but it certainly not 1:0 either.

i've seen piracy lead to lost sales - when my friend canceled their cable quoting "i can get if for free online" that's a lost sale.  when they take that money and buy beer or whatever it still hurts the media companies and that can lead to a lack of advancement or even lost jobs as you see when studios shut down...

or if we we're to follow your logic then if the governement were to double taxes it wouldn't hurt the economy or you cause it's not like your wage was dimished .. it's just going to the government and still being spend afterall...

I repeat:  piracy is not 1:1 a lost sale but it certainly not 1:0 either.

As much as I hate getting taxed and the government wasting money, one could actually very easily argue that money spent by the government is going into the economy and helping the economy just as much as money spent elsewhere.

I know that piracy HAS led to lost sales, but I'm trying to say that a majority of piracy either wouldn't have been sales, or may even lead to additional sales of an item, which offsets at least a large chunk of any lost sales.

I just think the argument saying it is costing the US economy $100 billion is bullshit.  Without piracy, our GDP would not be $100 billion higher.