And so are you for admitting to having downloaded the pirated copy, so are you going to sue me ? Because you will end up being guilty too :P

Anyway I woudn't go as far as Twestern.

I would just make my software realize it's been pirated and after a certain period of time corrupt the save game....

That should annoy the shit out of anyone playing the pirated copy and there would be no risk of lawsuit there..........( try to sue me because your pirated copy's save game is corrupted and can't be loaded anymore...)

Actually, I'm not so much into turning people against piracy.  I learned long ago that I wasn't going to be the thing that turns people and I'm not too proud to give up.  My little crusade is to just make people realize that they are in fact greedy fucks and not pirating for some other motive.

I'm going to take a guess and say you don't work in the software industry.

I do so I actually have a clue of what damage it is causing to the industry I work in...

Are people working in the industry really the best people to ask about this?

Ask your average citizen why they can't get a job and they'll say "Illegal Immigrents."

I'd say the people to ask are the economic theoriests and the people who actually do research on the effects of piracy.  (The real studies, no the ones who just go from torrent site to torrent site counting download numbers then multiplying by $50.)

There is indeed a positive side to piracy as well, which no one seems to admit to, except Microsoft.  Who has the slogan "Don't pirate... but if you are going to pirate... pirate us."

Little actual research is done on the matter however since most studies are just funded by groups with agendas.  (Which is why the economizing of science sucks.)

Ok, i'm assuming that you live in the US, so before i refute your first paragraph, do yo live in the US?

I'ts against the law because it's copyright infringement, and that's the legal issue that would be brought up, not theft. If you referred to this in court as theft or stealing, then the opposing attorney would object, the judge would sustain it, and if you continued to do so, you'd be held in contempt.

You can't just arbitrarily assign new definitions to words for the purpose of trying to make your argument seem more substantial. TBH, twestem, your argument doesn't have a leg to stand on to begin with.

-If you make your own code available to the public, then the download is legal.

-The bricking of modded 360's was not intentional as it only happened with a certain versin of modded firmware(an older one), and only with certain DVD drives. It also happened with unmodded 360's.

-You, on the other hand, would be intentionally release malicious code onto the net for which you'd eventually have to answer. While a company does have the right to protect its intellectual property, it does not have the right to act illegally to do so, so if you think you'd be able to destroy peoples' computers with impunity, then you're sadly mistaken. You'd probably also end up destroying data that belonged to people who hadn't done anything wrong. That being said, not only would you face criminal charges, you'd also have a ton of lawsuits coming your way as well as irreparable damage to your company's image.

I do but am not a US citizen :P

The people working in the industry are the one feeling the effect not the theorist sitting in his chair in whichever university....

That's like saying we shoudn't ask people working in mines if the work conditions are bad but should have some outsiders sitting in Washington do a study about it..

Do you realize the irony of what you are saying ?

I know piracy cost my companie about 10% in revenue the last 3 years that we know off ( that's the customers we caught  and sued so we know that number for sure) and that we had to spent about 8 man months of development to make the software a little harder to pirate. That is a fact, not some study with an agenda.

FACTS, that's what I am talking about..

Alright, QUICK, change of topic. So SPORE seems like it could take on LBP easily with the level of custmomization it has. It's much easier to make a level editor with camera controls, it's much harder to make sure that NO MATTER what is created it follows your code without a glitch. The monsters all know what hands are hwo to use them how to dance, every action works on the literally infinite amount of combination of creatures you can make. As a CS major centering on AI I have to say that this is extremely impressive. SPORE WILL BE HUGE!

@Ail

Even better, the mayority of the US citizens don't know the US legal system better than the non US citizens... I practically live in 2 countries because of work, one of them is the US but i am also a non-US citizen...

You must know some of the "wonders" of the US legal system, one of them is that not everything is based on the written law, most of them are based in precedents, jurisprudence, and if it is a jury trial, is not even about the law, if you convince those 12 people then you win the case, and sometimes the case doesn't even get to court not because of the law, it's because of avoiding bad publicity and court expenses...

So if the pirate sues you with a great lawyer and definitive proof that the malware was put by your company, who losses the most? your company or the pirate? your company, because even when the guy was a pirate, your company is supposed to be serious and if that case get to the media, no one will trust your software and BAM, your company lose money, if it is a judge, he'll rule according how the law applies to the charges of the lawsuit, if it's a jury they'll rule according to the lawyer that convinced them, and in both cases the charges are against your company... Last there is the settlement option, where the case doesn't get out to the media and you lose the amount accorded between both sides.

The best way is before doing that, consult with good lawyers what is the best way to protect your software and your behind at the same time in case of a lawsuit...