No, it's not our jobs to take upon law and justice and punish someone. Should we ban any criminals? They do damages, only not to the gaming industry (but then again you can say by pirating music and movies, you're hurting Sony, and therefore their gaming department).

I say lets keep out personal and subjective shit out of this, and keep it objective. Trolling alone is controversial enough of a reason to ban. We shouldn't ban someone because of their outside activities. They can do whatever the fuck for all I care, I'm not here to be a police man and get on a high horse of morality.

And honestly, who here has NEVER pirated anything, or done anything illegal? All we'll be doing is punishing honest and forthright people, instead of people who lie and act all high and mighty.

Well, those who advocate piracy, sure. Let's get rid of them, since we don't need them. Talking about piracy in general, though... that's a touchy one. For instance, I'm considering looking into the P2:IS patch for a game I own. It probably means I'm going to have to burn another copy of the game. (As in, a copy of my legit version, not a second burnt copy.) I'd say merely talking about it should be fine. Those who admit to it, well... that's even tougher. If they're blatant about it, with no reasonable justification, then get rid of them. Rules on what makes "reasonable justification", though, would need to be set, and that's just not going to happen, making it implausable to try to do this.

But modding? No, that's not a bannable offense. Most European gamers can tell you how they get shafted on a lot of games, and have to import them to even play them. Even in the USA, there are plenty of games that come out only in Japan (and that occasional EU/JP only release; I still remember you, Terranigma), and again, we can import them. So does this mean I should have 2 (or 3) of every console? That's overkill; modding is a more effcient way of playing these games. Yes, I have a Famicom here, but there's also a modded SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, and a dead modded PS1. All of these are just for imports. Then again, I love the systems that don't need to be modded. I've a handful of import GB/GBC/GBA games, and more Japanese DS games than the average Japanese owner has!

Now, if you mod to pirate, then I'll defer you to the first paragraph...

Let he who [has never broken the law] cast the first [ban].

I would absolutely love to ban all pirates and modders, but sadly can't.  ;_;

That said, people can confess that they pirate but the moment they even hint at how to do it they are warned/banned (straight out banned the vast majority of the time) so believe me, this isn't a pirating site.

Also, I do believe modders are just as bad.  As I was telling someone yesterday about the R4, it may have uses other than piracy, but that's still it's primary use.

And then by your logic, a lot of people should be banned for used software purchasing because developers and publishers don't see that money either.  Or used music CD sales, which musicians and music labels don't see that money either. 

That's because it's sanctioned by the government so you feel comfortable in buying used games. Game companies hate that people don't buy there games. Game companies hate it more that people will make money from their games when they don't. That's why the movie industry had/has a warning about public viewing and charging. The industry want's to make money off of each printing. Stores that sell used games ethicaly are worse than pirates due to the fact that they make money from a license where the company doesn't.  What your arguing is that it's ok for Gamestop to make money on a game and the company can't just because it's used.

The first step for game industry to bust down on resellers is to put in a resellers caluse into their games. That the license of the game maybe not be commercialy sold. Then companies can send the authorities to the stores for illegal activity. Doesn't feel very good to hear such news.

Vagabond is right their is a difference from legality and morality. In these days times many practices that companies due would be considered highly unethical and unmoral 50 years ago. Just because you feel comfortable going to store buying a used version doesn't mean it's anymore right than pirating. For niether ends up giving money for a new game.

Unfortunately, your feeling that there is a difference doesn't make the publisher feel any better. Intent to buy a game doesn't fund a developer's next project. Regardless of a person's intent, a person who pirates a game and a person that goes and buys a used copy of a game and a person who rents a game instead of purchasing it are all doing harm to the developer and publisher of that game. The issue isn't legality, it's what's harming the industry.

And stopping people talking about modding consoles and playing backup games here will do what exactly? they will just go to other sites to do it and i'm very sure this isn't a site they would want to use to discuss it anyway as there are proper sites for that lol

And yes, I have a modded 360, PSP, Wii, PS2, xbox etc, I also buy retail games, pay for xbox live, arcade/psn games, DLC and so on, I think most people mod PSP's as they do a lot more and will allow you to play homebrew games etc,

And for your information it is totally LEGAL to mod/chip consoles/handhelds in the UK, US and many other places, also playing backups of games you own is also totally legal, I mod 360's and wii's for people, not illegal in the slightest, it's the downloading games and playing them which is illegal and no one condones that, do they?

I think this is the best policy:

Ban anybody that makes threads on how to hack consoles, and posts sites where to get games.

Don't ban anybody that said they have pirated before, and even if they advocate it, as long as they don't actually do anything to assist in the process of pirating/hacking.

There are gray areas to people such as being gay.  That is not a clear right or wrong to everyone and people can argue either side until the cows come home.

With piracy, it's flat out stealing, and this isn't the type of stealing that you can use the old would you steal bread to feed your family argument because while food is a necessity, gaming isn't.  Piracy is stealing and that's really all there is to it.  It doesn't matter if you (general you, not you cdude) think it's right or not wrong, it just is.

Is it alright for me to rape someone because I think it's not wrong?

Also, I'm not going to get until into the piracy is not stealing argument if you don't intend to buy, this isn't the thread for that argument.