Sadly there are older software titles (Grand Prix Legends springs to mind) that REQUIRES drive indexing to work properly under XP if on an NTFS drive. (Luckily I have a FAT32 partition for those naughty little bits of software that don't play nice with NTFS).
Ordinarily I'd dismiss this as silly, but seeing someone sue possibly the most wrongheaded and misguided software company out there makes me laugh:) (Anyone who doesn't know what I mean, go look up their history. It's high-larious.)
More to the point, Mary-Kate and Ashley are about 48 days away from reaching legal age.
Yeah, just like a monopoly on operating systems... It quite probably IS illegal, but who do you think will do anything about it?
Saying it's the first games that REQUITE a hardware upgrade is rubbish. The first game that required a 3D card was the exact same deal. The first game that required 4 megs of ram etc...
If the developers want to force you to upgrade, fine, I won't buy their titles then. I really couldn't care less about Doom 3 or Half Life 2. (And I say this is as a huge fan of both games earlier versions.) I've long since stopped caring about whether I can run a particular game. I used to care, but now the system specs are getting so retarded that it's just not worth wasting time or money on, especially when current hardware hasn't even been fully utilised. For the longest time the developers of software said about my particular graphics card (GeForce MX420. Essentially a GeForce 2) that it can't have reflective water surfaces. "It just can't be done on a card that low" they said. I've had two developers say that practically verbatim...
And then along comes Unreal Tournament 2K4... And OH LOOK! Fully reflective water textures. It wouldn't be so bad if developers fully explored what they can do with a card and push it to it's limits, but it's become a case of "Bollocks to this, let's just say you need a higher card".
In short, developer laziness is what has led to this, and I've heard that from people in the industry.
To save wasting time replying to you with what I just posted elsewhere, go read it.
In short: Not making the "important crimes only" argument. My argument is the resources spent on this absurd little fools paradise would be far better invested in more serious crimes.
The scale of the "crime" involved does not warrant the resources invested in it. That's like taking all the man power from, say, a serial killer investigation, and putting all the time and effort and man power into catching a hardcore gang of taggers. The outlay of expense in both financial and non-financial terms is in no way justified.
To put in more physical terms, it's like having a broken nail, and cutting your hand off to get rid of it.
Erm... And quite where do you get that from what I said? Did I once imply that other crimes were irrelevant? Of course not. Don't be retarded.
The POINT that you so obviously missed is there's these thieves walking the streets in the US that are KNOWN TO BE THIEVES. THERE IS EVIDENCE APLENTY, but because of who they are, they're ignored, but some jackoff in his bedroom cracks the latest Securom version and dumps it on the net and all of a sudden he's public enemy number one. (Okay, number two behind Osama. Bang up job finding him FBI...)
It's a complete overreaction. If you don't believe me, go read The Hacker Crackdown, the book about Operation Sundevil. THERE is the FBI in all it's glorious overreaction, and this new operation is very much akin to it, only a much more expensive scale.
I chose two serious crimes to counterpoint, but burglary, fraud, all of them are of course BAD crimes. Software piracy, outside of the US and it's beloved DMCA, is little more than copyright violation. Being in posession of pirated software in England... They can't prosecute you. There were cases in the mid 90's that were thrown out.
You're a typical misguided troll who completely twists a post to his own agenda. I'm not making ill thought out justifications for my blatant criminal activity. Where, exactly, did I say it was justifed? Come on, fucking highlight it you stupid shit. You can't, because I didn't. You're just jumping to conclusions like a typical slashbot.
Software copying is copyright violation, NOT THEFT.
"Sorry D'Sphitz, we don't have the resources to investigate why you were so viciously anally raped, we're busy arresting software pirates."
Only an idiot would knowingly buy pirated software. Any asshat knows you can get it for free, ergo I doubt he knew he was buying dodgy software. Okay, he may be incredibly stupid but, sadly, being an idiot isn't a crime.
Libraries have been around for hundreds of years, and a lot of people in the corporate world want them banned. (Seriously, do the research.)
So I was thinking, you can go and borrow books for free... Books have been around for hundreds of years... And then I thought of a more modern invention. The video tape. You have to PAY to borrow them from a video library.
Draw your own conclusions. You don't need to me to hammer home what the point is.
Sure, have maybe a couple of guys trying to infiltrate the software cracking groups to take them down, fair enough. But a massively global coordinated takedown like this? Gimme a break. That's like the police busting down your door for copying that Doors album back in High School.
The point I was trying to make is the resources spent on this Operation "Waste of Taxpayers Money", not just financial, but man power, time etc... Would be far better spent elsewhere going after criminals that actually pose a danger to society and not the stock price of a software company.
I'm not justifying what pirates do, but having a huge global operation across multiple countries so massively co-ordinated... I mean really, say the FBI arrested 3 confirmed serial killers tomorrow. Society benefits. They arrest three software pirates... WOW! The streets are safe again!
You pick any random person on the street and say "Who would you rather the FBI catch? Murderers or software pirates?" the answer you'll get is pretty damn obvious. It just strikes me that the amount of time and resources put into police work these days by the FBI is directly akin to how much money the people behind it have.
As I said, it's been bought (in every sense of the word) to you by America's Software Companies.
I can't remember the road, but there's a major road in the US where there is a serial killer on the lose currently. I'm sure people around where he (or she) is preying on women can sleep easy in their beds knowing that so much time and money has been spent on taking some really nasty software pirates out of the scene for a little while.
Law enforcement shouldn't be wasting their time and money to take down software pirates. It's a matter of priorities and akin to setting up a global sting to bring down hardcore parking violators. People would say that was absurd, but it's essentially the same thing. "Stealing" (such a ridiculous statement to use in regards to COPYING software. It's copyright violation. It's not theft. Just because the companies say that, doesn't make it fact) parking spaces. It's as equally stupid.
I've never known any pirate who did it to make money. I know a guy who distributed for profit, but he was a wanker and as soon as people found out they stopped supplying him.
I hope the articles figures at the end come to pass. Reduce piracy by 10%... Then we can see clear evidence that all these figures thrown around about losses from piracy are utter bullshit.
For over a decade now the software industry has always put out figures that say they lost X millions of dollars due to piracy, but they do that by counting every pirated copy as a lost sale, which is of course complete fiction.
It's funny. They say about taking Fairlight down, but back last year Fairlight said they were quitting the scene anyway.
This "war on piracy" is a storm in a teacup. Law enforcement rattles a few sabres, takes down the members on the fringe. Prune the branches a little, but the central tree is still there.
And to think, there's probably rapists, murderers etc... Who would maybe have been caught had the resources for this been diverted to real crimes instead of pissant cracking groups. So nice to see that the streets are now safe from some software pirates, while shits like Ken Lay and weasels from the likes of Enron and other completely corrupt boards who defraud tens of thousands of people continue to go free. Nice to see the priorities are right here...
And in the article it says someone was arrested for BUYING software from Fairlight... Since when is buying pirated software an arrestable offence?
Law Enforcement: Proudly Bought to you by the software companies of America...
Hate replying to my own post, but forgot to add, I have CD's here I burned in 1998 that are just fine. I have CD's friends burned in 1996 that are still just fine.
If you ask me, the who makes these claims are just piss poor at looking after CD's.
Would be interested to know if the speed the CD's are burnt at has anything to do with any potential future failure.
Every year or so Slashdot runs a piece about this. Remember all those years ago about how the ink used to label albums was going to eat through all our CD's in seven years? Well, gee, I have CD's that are 15 years old that haven't suffered this fate.
The fact is, nobody knows the real truth. Sure, if you store it incorrectly, don't reat it properly, it was give up the ghost. But a CD stored properly and cared for...
This is just more scaremongering, just like the "OH NO! THE INK WILL EAT THE CD!" stuff about 10 years ago.
If it involves any direct input from the driver, whether that be moving a gearstick, or flipping a paddle, it is STILL a manual, because the decision to change gear is made by the person driving the car, NOT THE CAR ITSELF.
Therefore anyone who claims that a car is an automatic because it doesn't involve shunting a big lever round, is quite obviously a shithead.
Hell, why not take it to extremes. In days of yore you put the clutch in, changed to neutral, let the clutch out, pushed it back in again, then put it into the next gear you wanted. You may as well claim that putting the clutch in and changing straight to the gear makes it an automatic.
As for an F1 gearbox, it's all computer controlled, but this year (after a year where they pre-programmed the gear shifts) they've gone back to shifting with the paddles. It may all be computer controlled, but the driver decides when to change gear, NOT THE CAR.
Yes, that AC obviously thinks these pricks on the street are racers. No, we mean PROPER racers. As in fireproof coveralls, helmets, racetracks like Laguna Seca, speed that would make these losers on the street crap their pants in an instant...
In short, real race drivers, not these pansy ass wastes of space who think they're racers because they mod the transmission on their Mitsubishi...
What you're forgetting is that Electronic Arts are the epitome of evil and represent everything that is wrong with the game industry.
I was going to say about Counterstrike (parent of the parent mentions it... Or maybe the parent of the parent of the parent. I've clicked now. I forget.) I was a HUGE Team Fortress Classic nut. The instant CS started to take hold, the servers dwindled, and dwindled, and dwindled. Back in the day there were around 2000-3000 TFC servers. These days, while CS still has a ton, you're lucky if you can find a couple of hundred TFC servers. Even MORE lucky if you can find one that has humans, not bots playing on it. (For those unaware, Team Fortress was a free addon for Half Life, put out by Valve. You couldn't patch the game without installing TFC, so it was essentially part of the boxed version really.
And everyone buggered off to play Campers'r'Us on Counterstrike. Don't get me wrong, CS is fun, but nowhere near as fun as TFC was.
Some of the old C64 games from US Gold I think it was had little games to play while loading. (Never had a 64 myself.)
I don't mind loading delays TOO much, but when you get something like EA Sports F1 Challenge game where, with the detail cranked up, it can take 3-5 minutes to load... That's taking the piss.
1) Who said I bought it. 2) I already have a PC. 3) I can't afford a console, or more specifically the obscene prices for the games, nor do I have anywhere to actually put one. 4) Since I live overseas from my friends, a console is a shitty idea. 5) Who gives a fuck about social. I play games to get away from it all. 6) Fuck off, console loving whore.
MVP Baseball: None of my friends like baseball, so sadly I won't stop any sales, because there weren't any in the first place:) But hopefully someone read my post here and changed their mind about buying the game...
Id: Yes, Doom was shareware. I don't recall if Quake was. I know you get the first episode for free, but have no idea if it was shareware or regular channels you got it through.
The entire software industry is based on theft, if only of ideas.
Piracy is a problem for smaller companies and that sucks, but when you get scumbags like Electronic Arts releasing games like the recent MVP Baseball that only works with "approved" gamepads, leading you to spend two hours hacking around in your system registry to bypass it, I don't care if I get modded as a troll, but those fuckers deserve it.
There is no excuse for pulling this shit, and a lot of people have been screwed over by EA on this, as playing the game with the keyboard is virtually impossible, and after shelling out $50 for a new game, you shouldn't then have to go out and buy a new controller just because EA are money grabbing bastards. (For the record, my "not approved" Gravis Xterminator from about 5 years ago works just fine in the game once I hacked the registry to make the system believe it's a Logitech Dual Action Gamepad.)
I hate to advocate piracy, but companies that mislead and deceive, like Electronic Arts, really do deserve to be punished. Whether that be through pirating rather than buying, or just flat out not bothering at all, whatever the case, making it so they lose a sale is no more than they deserve.
Piracy can help smaller companies though. For a great example of how piracy helps the smaller companies, Id Software would never be as prominent as they are now without Doom and Quake being widely pirated. I also remember a few years ago there was a rather persistent rumour that Lucasarts were deliberately leaking their games onto the net to build buzz for them. Seemed to work too.
I'm glad to support the smaller developers. My pre-order for Out of the Park Baseball 6 is already in:) This is an unpopular opinion, but piracy is not without it's benefits. One pirated game does not equal one lost sale. Piracy has also driven computer sales. The Commodore Amiga, by Commodore's own admission, was as popular as it was due to the rampant software piracy.
I've pirated stuff in the past, and ultimately wound up buying a game I pirated because I liked it. I would never have bought it had I not pirated it.
For all these doomsayers about piracy, the fact is, while there are many negatives, the positives are largely ignored.
I fully expect to -1, troll now, but ah well. Someone has to post the unpopular opinion:)
I did a test of Blizzard's use of a BT, and it caps the upload to 10kbps roughly. The download does seem to use most of the bandwidth.
The thing that bugs me is this. In days of yore, you wanted a demo, you went to the companies website and downloaded it. Fair enough. Using BT though, using BT means less bandwidth usage by the company, which means saved money. It's a bit cheeky pimping THEIR product using YOUR bandwidth. Some ISP's are crappy (like mine) and have a ridiculously low upload cap. If you go over, they charge you.
Sure, it stops the "slashdot" effect on sites, but it still seems a bit off using your bandwidth to spread their advertising essentially.
The parent post to yours obviously has no idea what Jagged Alliance is...
FPS has been well served in the "here, have the source code" world, so it's nice to see a turn based strategy game get it's code out there. Never played JA myself, but heard MANY good things about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Sadly there are older software titles (Grand Prix Legends springs to mind) that REQUIRES drive indexing to work properly under XP if on an NTFS drive. (Luckily I have a FAT32 partition for those naughty little bits of software that don't play nice with NTFS).
Ordinarily I'd dismiss this as silly, but seeing someone sue possibly the most wrongheaded and misguided software company out there makes me laugh:) (Anyone who doesn't know what I mean, go look up their history. It's high-larious.)
More to the point, Mary-Kate and Ashley are about 48 days away from reaching legal age.
Line starts behind me guys:)
Yeah, just like a monopoly on operating systems... It quite probably IS illegal, but who do you think will do anything about it?
Saying it's the first games that REQUITE a hardware upgrade is rubbish. The first game that required a 3D card was the exact same deal. The first game that required 4 megs of ram etc...
If the developers want to force you to upgrade, fine, I won't buy their titles then. I really couldn't care less about Doom 3 or Half Life 2. (And I say this is as a huge fan of both games earlier versions.) I've long since stopped caring about whether I can run a particular game. I used to care, but now the system specs are getting so retarded that it's just not worth wasting time or money on, especially when current hardware hasn't even been fully utilised. For the longest time the developers of software said about my particular graphics card (GeForce MX420. Essentially a GeForce 2) that it can't have reflective water surfaces. "It just can't be done on a card that low" they said. I've had two developers say that practically verbatim...
And then along comes Unreal Tournament 2K4... And OH LOOK! Fully reflective water textures. It wouldn't be so bad if developers fully explored what they can do with a card and push it to it's limits, but it's become a case of "Bollocks to this, let's just say you need a higher card".
In short, developer laziness is what has led to this, and I've heard that from people in the industry.
To save wasting time replying to you with what I just posted elsewhere, go read it.
In short: Not making the "important crimes only" argument. My argument is the resources spent on this absurd little fools paradise would be far better invested in more serious crimes.
The scale of the "crime" involved does not warrant the resources invested in it. That's like taking all the man power from, say, a serial killer investigation, and putting all the time and effort and man power into catching a hardcore gang of taggers. The outlay of expense in both financial and non-financial terms is in no way justified.
To put in more physical terms, it's like having a broken nail, and cutting your hand off to get rid of it.
So they've gone after a cracking group that's really, just a pale imitation of what it was.
HAHA! That perfectly highlights what I was getting at.
Erm... And quite where do you get that from what I said? Did I once imply that other crimes were irrelevant? Of course not. Don't be retarded.
The POINT that you so obviously missed is there's these thieves walking the streets in the US that are KNOWN TO BE THIEVES. THERE IS EVIDENCE APLENTY, but because of who they are, they're ignored, but some jackoff in his bedroom cracks the latest Securom version and dumps it on the net and all of a sudden he's public enemy number one. (Okay, number two behind Osama. Bang up job finding him FBI...)
It's a complete overreaction. If you don't believe me, go read The Hacker Crackdown, the book about Operation Sundevil. THERE is the FBI in all it's glorious overreaction, and this new operation is very much akin to it, only a much more expensive scale.
I chose two serious crimes to counterpoint, but burglary, fraud, all of them are of course BAD crimes. Software piracy, outside of the US and it's beloved DMCA, is little more than copyright violation. Being in posession of pirated software in England... They can't prosecute you. There were cases in the mid 90's that were thrown out.
You're a typical misguided troll who completely twists a post to his own agenda. I'm not making ill thought out justifications for my blatant criminal activity. Where, exactly, did I say it was justifed? Come on, fucking highlight it you stupid shit. You can't, because I didn't. You're just jumping to conclusions like a typical slashbot.
Software copying is copyright violation, NOT THEFT.
"Sorry D'Sphitz, we don't have the resources to investigate why you were so viciously anally raped, we're busy arresting software pirates."
Sleep tight.
Only an idiot would knowingly buy pirated software. Any asshat knows you can get it for free, ergo I doubt he knew he was buying dodgy software. Okay, he may be incredibly stupid but, sadly, being an idiot isn't a crime.
Funny, I was thinking about this just yesterday.
Libraries have been around for hundreds of years, and a lot of people in the corporate world want them banned. (Seriously, do the research.)
So I was thinking, you can go and borrow books for free... Books have been around for hundreds of years... And then I thought of a more modern invention. The video tape. You have to PAY to borrow them from a video library.
Draw your own conclusions. You don't need to me to hammer home what the point is.
Sure, have maybe a couple of guys trying to infiltrate the software cracking groups to take them down, fair enough. But a massively global coordinated takedown like this? Gimme a break. That's like the police busting down your door for copying that Doors album back in High School.
The point I was trying to make is the resources spent on this Operation "Waste of Taxpayers Money", not just financial, but man power, time etc... Would be far better spent elsewhere going after criminals that actually pose a danger to society and not the stock price of a software company.
I'm not justifying what pirates do, but having a huge global operation across multiple countries so massively co-ordinated... I mean really, say the FBI arrested 3 confirmed serial killers tomorrow. Society benefits. They arrest three software pirates... WOW! The streets are safe again!
You pick any random person on the street and say "Who would you rather the FBI catch? Murderers or software pirates?" the answer you'll get is pretty damn obvious. It just strikes me that the amount of time and resources put into police work these days by the FBI is directly akin to how much money the people behind it have.
As I said, it's been bought (in every sense of the word) to you by America's Software Companies.
I can't remember the road, but there's a major road in the US where there is a serial killer on the lose currently. I'm sure people around where he (or she) is preying on women can sleep easy in their beds knowing that so much time and money has been spent on taking some really nasty software pirates out of the scene for a little while.
Law enforcement shouldn't be wasting their time and money to take down software pirates. It's a matter of priorities and akin to setting up a global sting to bring down hardcore parking violators. People would say that was absurd, but it's essentially the same thing. "Stealing" (such a ridiculous statement to use in regards to COPYING software. It's copyright violation. It's not theft. Just because the companies say that, doesn't make it fact) parking spaces. It's as equally stupid.
I've never known any pirate who did it to make money. I know a guy who distributed for profit, but he was a wanker and as soon as people found out they stopped supplying him.
I hope the articles figures at the end come to pass. Reduce piracy by 10%... Then we can see clear evidence that all these figures thrown around about losses from piracy are utter bullshit.
For over a decade now the software industry has always put out figures that say they lost X millions of dollars due to piracy, but they do that by counting every pirated copy as a lost sale, which is of course complete fiction.
It's funny. They say about taking Fairlight down, but back last year Fairlight said they were quitting the scene anyway.
This "war on piracy" is a storm in a teacup. Law enforcement rattles a few sabres, takes down the members on the fringe. Prune the branches a little, but the central tree is still there.
And to think, there's probably rapists, murderers etc... Who would maybe have been caught had the resources for this been diverted to real crimes instead of pissant cracking groups. So nice to see that the streets are now safe from some software pirates, while shits like Ken Lay and weasels from the likes of Enron and other completely corrupt boards who defraud tens of thousands of people continue to go free. Nice to see the priorities are right here...
And in the article it says someone was arrested for BUYING software from Fairlight... Since when is buying pirated software an arrestable offence?
Law Enforcement: Proudly Bought to you by the software companies of America...
Hate replying to my own post, but forgot to add, I have CD's here I burned in 1998 that are just fine. I have CD's friends burned in 1996 that are still just fine.
If you ask me, the who makes these claims are just piss poor at looking after CD's.
Would be interested to know if the speed the CD's are burnt at has anything to do with any potential future failure.
Every year or so Slashdot runs a piece about this. Remember all those years ago about how the ink used to label albums was going to eat through all our CD's in seven years? Well, gee, I have CD's that are 15 years old that haven't suffered this fate.
The fact is, nobody knows the real truth. Sure, if you store it incorrectly, don't reat it properly, it was give up the ghost. But a CD stored properly and cared for...
This is just more scaremongering, just like the "OH NO! THE INK WILL EAT THE CD!" stuff about 10 years ago.
I just love the piece saying about significantly impacting the scene...
HAHAHA! Yeah, sure:) Just like that oh so succesful war on drugs:)
Ashcroft is a cunt and a whore.
If it involves any direct input from the driver, whether that be moving a gearstick, or flipping a paddle, it is STILL a manual, because the decision to change gear is made by the person driving the car, NOT THE CAR ITSELF.
Therefore anyone who claims that a car is an automatic because it doesn't involve shunting a big lever round, is quite obviously a shithead.
Hell, why not take it to extremes. In days of yore you put the clutch in, changed to neutral, let the clutch out, pushed it back in again, then put it into the next gear you wanted. You may as well claim that putting the clutch in and changing straight to the gear makes it an automatic.
As for an F1 gearbox, it's all computer controlled, but this year (after a year where they pre-programmed the gear shifts) they've gone back to shifting with the paddles. It may all be computer controlled, but the driver decides when to change gear, NOT THE CAR.
Maybe, but at the time, all I had was HalfLife, and Valve's TFC 0wn3d!
Yes, that AC obviously thinks these pricks on the street are racers. No, we mean PROPER racers. As in fireproof coveralls, helmets, racetracks like Laguna Seca, speed that would make these losers on the street crap their pants in an instant...
In short, real race drivers, not these pansy ass wastes of space who think they're racers because they mod the transmission on their Mitsubishi...
What you're forgetting is that Electronic Arts are the epitome of evil and represent everything that is wrong with the game industry.
I was going to say about Counterstrike (parent of the parent mentions it... Or maybe the parent of the parent of the parent. I've clicked now. I forget.) I was a HUGE Team Fortress Classic nut. The instant CS started to take hold, the servers dwindled, and dwindled, and dwindled. Back in the day there were around 2000-3000 TFC servers. These days, while CS still has a ton, you're lucky if you can find a couple of hundred TFC servers. Even MORE lucky if you can find one that has humans, not bots playing on it. (For those unaware, Team Fortress was a free addon for Half Life, put out by Valve. You couldn't patch the game without installing TFC, so it was essentially part of the boxed version really.
And everyone buggered off to play Campers'r'Us on Counterstrike. Don't get me wrong, CS is fun, but nowhere near as fun as TFC was.
Sad you got modded as flamebait when, as a racer myself, I agree entirely.
Some of the old C64 games from US Gold I think it was had little games to play while loading. (Never had a 64 myself.)
I don't mind loading delays TOO much, but when you get something like EA Sports F1 Challenge game where, with the detail cranked up, it can take 3-5 minutes to load... That's taking the piss.
1) Who said I bought it.
2) I already have a PC.
3) I can't afford a console, or more specifically the obscene prices for the games, nor do I have anywhere to actually put one.
4) Since I live overseas from my friends, a console is a shitty idea.
5) Who gives a fuck about social. I play games to get away from it all.
6) Fuck off, console loving whore.
MVP Baseball: None of my friends like baseball, so sadly I won't stop any sales, because there weren't any in the first place:) But hopefully someone read my post here and changed their mind about buying the game...
Id: Yes, Doom was shareware. I don't recall if Quake was. I know you get the first episode for free, but have no idea if it was shareware or regular channels you got it through.
I was just pointing out what Blizzard's client does. I know that's a decision they made and not all clients do that.
The entire software industry is based on theft, if only of ideas.
Piracy is a problem for smaller companies and that sucks, but when you get scumbags like Electronic Arts releasing games like the recent MVP Baseball that only works with "approved" gamepads, leading you to spend two hours hacking around in your system registry to bypass it, I don't care if I get modded as a troll, but those fuckers deserve it.
There is no excuse for pulling this shit, and a lot of people have been screwed over by EA on this, as playing the game with the keyboard is virtually impossible, and after shelling out $50 for a new game, you shouldn't then have to go out and buy a new controller just because EA are money grabbing bastards. (For the record, my "not approved" Gravis Xterminator from about 5 years ago works just fine in the game once I hacked the registry to make the system believe it's a Logitech Dual Action Gamepad.)
I hate to advocate piracy, but companies that mislead and deceive, like Electronic Arts, really do deserve to be punished. Whether that be through pirating rather than buying, or just flat out not bothering at all, whatever the case, making it so they lose a sale is no more than they deserve.
Piracy can help smaller companies though. For a great example of how piracy helps the smaller companies, Id Software would never be as prominent as they are now without Doom and Quake being widely pirated. I also remember a few years ago there was a rather persistent rumour that Lucasarts were deliberately leaking their games onto the net to build buzz for them. Seemed to work too.
I'm glad to support the smaller developers. My pre-order for Out of the Park Baseball 6 is already in:) This is an unpopular opinion, but piracy is not without it's benefits. One pirated game does not equal one lost sale. Piracy has also driven computer sales. The Commodore Amiga, by Commodore's own admission, was as popular as it was due to the rampant software piracy.
I've pirated stuff in the past, and ultimately wound up buying a game I pirated because I liked it. I would never have bought it had I not pirated it.
For all these doomsayers about piracy, the fact is, while there are many negatives, the positives are largely ignored.
I fully expect to -1, troll now, but ah well. Someone has to post the unpopular opinion:)
I did a test of Blizzard's use of a BT, and it caps the upload to 10kbps roughly. The download does seem to use most of the bandwidth.
The thing that bugs me is this. In days of yore, you wanted a demo, you went to the companies website and downloaded it. Fair enough. Using BT though, using BT means less bandwidth usage by the company, which means saved money. It's a bit cheeky pimping THEIR product using YOUR bandwidth. Some ISP's are crappy (like mine) and have a ridiculously low upload cap. If you go over, they charge you.
Sure, it stops the "slashdot" effect on sites, but it still seems a bit off using your bandwidth to spread their advertising essentially.
The parent post to yours obviously has no idea what Jagged Alliance is...
FPS has been well served in the "here, have the source code" world, so it's nice to see a turn based strategy game get it's code out there. Never played JA myself, but heard MANY good things about it.