i think free videogame download is an issue.  youtube is also an issue--why is there an implicit assumption that it's okay to upload copyrighted content?  it's like music downloads in the 90's, though not quite as bad since there are also plenty of original content.

of course there are places where people download copyrighted games for free.  people play pirated games all the time.  this is old technology, emulation on game consoles or not--it's all out there, as long as you dig deep enough.

just think about it--if you're a game developer, you'd want people to pay for your games.  if someone cracks your license, that's 1000 hours of work out the window.  cracking licenses is just way too easy.  it's sad really.

like it or not, people are driven by profits.  it's the essense of capitalism, and while capitalism might not be perfect, it's the best darn economic system we have stumbled upon yet.  ultimately, somebody has to pay for what you're getting.

You'll think differently when you have first hand experience in those industries.

As far as "people are starving out there", I don't see how stealing everything you ever wanted helps, but maybe you see a correlation. 

Im sorry, but saying what i said was different to what you said you would not allow :P "will not allow anybody to post links to piracy/hacking/torrents/rom sites." I didnt post any link or anything. Im not really bothered though, im sorry for my earlier post :P forgive me please!

If your really looking for cheap games, move to Vietnam. They dont have copyright laws there... :P 

I actually didn't see it in time *gasp*, so no worries. And I'll admit to downloading things from time to time, but stealing all your CDs, DVDs, and games is not going to help at all. Would you like these big, bad companies to just break even? Just pay the factory bills, and make you pay exactly what it cost them to make the game? Ridiculous...the games would suck worse than Spiderman 3, and people would whine about the quality of games, whereas a big, multi-million dollar company can produce a top-notch game...if you pay for it. I'd rather pay for an awesome game than get a crappy game for free, wouldn't you?

When a company announces their profits I presume this is after the workers in the industry have been paid, so if the prices came down they could be paid the same wage but the overall profit and the shareholders payout would of course be less. I have never understood the need for such huge profits and why each year it's important for them to make even more than the year before. As for the starving people, I think it should be the duty of every company and person that makes more money than is needed to make a difference to the less fortunate of the world. Me stealing off them means they haven't got a few more $s to add to their many millions or billions of $s profit each year which is nothing compared to people that do not have any clean water or food every day of their lives, yet all I hear are the companies complaining because piracy costs them X million each year. They will charge us whetever they think they can get away with and nothing will change without action from the consumer.

Let me get this straight, If I lived in say China, I could get a mod chip installed? So It is already in stalled in the box??

It's just that I've never heard of the theory that "piracy helps starving children" before.

you can get a mod chip installed whereever u live in the world dpmnymkrprez, its not hard. There are plenty of sites (none of which shall be named) from which you buy them from.

 yeah, if you're looking for cheap games, move to china.  modchip installed, and then games are only $1 US each (actually only 6 Yuan).

 except currently they are only pirating japanese games, not in english.  i know this because many of my relatives live in china.

in concept, socialism works.  in practice, capitalism works better.  it's far from perfect, but it works better.