Have you ever pirated anything?

[k0ruptr]

just wondering, I'm pretty sure most if not all people, and me as well are against pirating here. but have you ever done it? even once?

song, movie, game, pdf of your favorite comic book, porn dvd :) or whatever else you can think of.

If this poll isn't allowed for some reason, feel free to close it.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Jes' me gold!

Harrr!

[k0ruptr]

lol.. damn shoulda made that an option :)

[Ragone]

Garr Steve... Garr

[Danny]

Since porn counts, I am screwed

[k0ruptr]

lol. interesting so far. I figured as much :)

[stevew]

I used to, but not anymore. It's not worth the hassle.

[k0ruptr]

Maximum football doesnt count. that game doesnt even deserve to be pirated.

[Groundhog]

Games? Yes, though rarely, and only if it's something that doesn't particularly interest me as I like to support good games.

Songs? Yes, though rarely. See above reason.

Movies? Check, though again quite rarely and not in some time.

Comic books in pdf? Check, sometimes an entire several hundred issue catalogue of a particular series, though I must admit I've probably only read like 3 or 4 of them in pdf format.

Porn dvd? Well, not a whole dvd, but enough individual scenes to quantify a resounding check.

[k0ruptr]

so , according to poll results so far, we all are/have been pirates at one time.

[k0ruptr]

dola, and yes reading comic books or other books in PDF format sucks.

[Terps]

I haven't bought a CD or DVD in at least a couple years, and I'd never pay to download MP3's.

[Icy]

I do TV series mainly, for example Lost that comes to Spain like 6 months after USA and i can't wait as much knowing the chapters are available in the net. I also enjoy watching them in English instead of translated to Spanish. I'm right now downloading Prision break season 1.

I have also downloaded games from time to time but mainly to use them as full demos. If i like them enought i end buying them, but i don't if i play them only a few hours and get bored of them or are full of bugs.

On the other hand i wouldn't ever pirate a text sim. In fact i buy almost all the text sims released, even the ones i never play or are not interesting for me. I feel good supporting the text sims scene and they are usually cheap at around $30 (you pay 50€ for a game here in Spain).

[Glengoyne]

Damn!

I said no, and then I realized that I have pirated OS software, namely Windows 2k, and prior to that 95. Well I bought one copy, and then used it on two PCs...so yeah that was not kosher. The only defense I have is that I was poor, and I wanted a computer. I do buy my software now though. I'm principled, but I guess I have my vices.

[Toddzilla]

I've pirated hundreds of games - mostly back in the Apple II days, but a bunch in college before I could afford them, but I still do with a twist.

With the exception of the must-haves (FOF, etc) I've grabbed pirated copies of the games I was interested in purchasing as sort of an extended demo. To make sure they work on my PC, check out the gameplay, etc. The games I liked, I purchased. The ones I didn't, I deleted.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I'm willing to come clean here. I used to pirate computer games heavily, but that was 15-20 years ago. Hell, when I got my first modem at the age of 8, I didn't know what pirating was. I just knew that I could download games for my Commodore 64, so I did it. My parents didn't know I was downloading copyrighted games, so they couldn't educate me on it. I didn't know what I was doing until my dad took me to Sears and I saw some of the games I'd downloaded on the shelf. That's when I figured out that people were supposed to be buying the games instead of downloading them.

I was only maybe 10 or 11 years old, so I didn't care. I didn't have the money to buy them anyway, so I kept downloading. Occasionally, I'd ask my parents to buy me a game that I couldn't find on the BBS systems, and I'd also get games for my birthday and Christmas. Most of my games were downloaded, though. Sometimes, a friend would take me to "swap meets" where people would bring their floppy disks and computers, and people would copy each other's games. We did this stuff in meeting rooms at the public libraries, and nobody cared. I had literally a thousand games for my C-64 by the time I retired the machine, and I'd probably downloaded or copied 900 of them.

I retired the C-64 when I got an Amiga, and I did the same thing, although I really knew better by then. I was making long-distance calls to out-of-state BBSs to download games before anyone in my area had them. I got together with a couple of friends and we started our own "import" group in New Orleans. I'd download Amiga games, another friend would download PC games, and yet another used "connections" to get games early, crack them, and slap our group's intro screen on them. From time to time, we'd put some C-64 games out there just for the people who hadn't upgraded to better systems yet. We were a small group, but we were starting to get known in the area after a while. It didn't last more than a few months, but we'd gotten fairly serious about it.

I don't bother at all with pirating software anymore. To me, besides knowing that it's illegal, it's more hassle than just going out and buying the game. People put incomplete cracks out there, someone might slip a trojan into the software, or maybe I just don't know where to go to download them. For me, it's not like the old days when you could just call a BBS, go to the download section, and there are lots of files. Now people fool with Usenet and Bittorrent, and while I know how to use those things, it's not worth my time. I can just go to the store, buy the software, and know that I'm not breaking the law.

As for movies, music, TV, etc., I generally don't fool with any of that. Movies and TV shows are the same as software to me. I don't know where to "safely" download them from, and I don't care enough about any movies or TV shows to bother. Music is a slightly different story. I have maybe 15 or 20 songs that I've downloaded, but I don't even know why. I have a Napster subscription, so if I want to listen to a particular song, I'll just go to Napster and they probably have the song in their catalog that I can listen to anytime. I don't have a portable music player, so I'm only listening to music when I'm in the car or at a computer anyway. If I'm in the car, I'll listen to the radio or one of my CDs. If I'm at a computer, I'll start up Napster if I want to listen to something specific, or I'll go to Pandora if I want a "hands-off" approach and don't mind letting a computer pick the songs for me.

In a nutshell, I don't pirate anything anymore because I don't have a reason to. I can't think of any possible reason for me to do it either.

[Dutch]

Next poll: Have you ever slammed somebody for pirating software? :)

[stevew]

I remember i had an Apple 2GS when i was young, a friend of the family worked guys who all went in together and split the cost of new software among 5-10 of them and made that many copies. And he usually passed the gameshe didn't like over to us or made us copies of copies since he knew we had a 2gs as well. I must have had more than 40-50 games that way.

[Bee]

I didn't even know you could pirate comic books. That fact alone kind of blew my mind reading this thread.

I copied games back in the C-64 days but didn't really think about it being illegal or anything. Funny thing was my main source of C-64 games was a priest. :D I've also downloaded a couple tv shows when my DVR screwed up and didn't pick them up. I think those might have been legit though because I'm pretty sure I got them from an nbc website, although I could be mistaken.

[Ksyrup]

Steve... Garrvey

Seriously, we don't want or need to know any more info. :p

[condors]

i will go thru every means i can to purchase a game but if i want to play a game and am unable to purchase it (no longer available) i will download it, most times i have already purchased the game at some point, perfect example would be wizardry i have purchased it several times but i have no way to install the floppy disks on my current pc, and have no idea where the 10 year aniversary cd is currently and if i wanted to play i would download it.

[Kodos]

I think I have 2 CDs pirated (one of which I just asked to borrow) and a few songs here and there, if you count copying a song from a friend as pirating. Never pirated anything else.

[Maple Leafs]

I have a few GBs of stolen music. I haven't taken any movies or TV shows, and I don't pirate games. I'm not sure if that's a function of some sort of ethical line in the sand, or just a file size issue.

(I used to have a nice collection of copied Amiga games that I got from my cousin when I was a kid. Now I come to realize they were probably cracked by Pumpy.)

[rkmsuf]

Does buying a copy of Dr.Dre, The Chronic from a guy on the street in Washington, DC count?

[lighthousekeeper]

i love reading the posts where the righteous try to justify their own pirating history.

[lighthousekeeper]

i will go thru every means i can to purchase a game but if i want to play a game and am unable to purchase it (no longer available) i will download it, most times i have already purchased the game at some point, perfect example would be wizardry i have purchased it several times but i have no way to install the floppy disks on my current pc, and have no idea where the 10 year aniversary cd is currently and if i wanted to play i would download it.

why on earth would you purchase the same game several times? how many times does it take to purchase wizardry before you can play it?

along that line of thought, maybe i should try purchasing ootp2006 again - maybe this time it won't suck.

[Ksyrup]

I regularly download pre-release music and stuff I've never heard, but the only stuff I keep is the stuff I can't buy. I just like having new music before it comes out, but I end up buying it on release day anyway. They want to sue me for that, then fine. I'll just put up a music review blog, claim I'm a critic, and request a copy. The stuff I listen to is usually so obscure I'm sure they wouldn't mind the attention anyway...

[Desnudo]

I bought an Izod sweater from the back of a truck in the North End of Boston once.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

All my music is pirated, many of the movies I dont catch in theatres and many older releases are pirated. I dont do games because I dont really play games on the pc and the games I do play are text sims I pay for. All new software I acquire is pirated.

[thealmighty]

Yes, but not in a couple years or so. All my mp3s are old- my playlists are not very "now" anymore.

[Fidatelo]

I pirate things all the time. If I like 'em, I buy 'em.

[st.cronin]

What's another word for pirate treasure?

[Brillig]

What a wretched hive of scum and villainy...

[Deattribution]

At what point does koruptr reveal this was all a message board sting operation?

:)

[aran]

I don't pirate movies.

Games: 2-4 a year. I buy games that I really care about.
Music: I use downloads as quality checks to see if I like stuff before I buy it.

[SirFozzie]

I'm surprised that we haven't devolved into the usual argument yet.

[Brillig]

What's the point? It's been gone over a hundred times already, no one is going to change their position. Perhaps this board is finally going to show some maturity and not beat the dead horse?















BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Okay, I'm better now.

[JediKooter]

Only some fair wenches booty.

[Izulde]

Music: Hell yeah. But it also gets me to buy CDs that I otherwise wouldn't.

Games: Only English-language hentai dating games, though I really should pick up the Classics Collection from Jast USA because it's cheap and it's updated for Windows XP. The older versions could get a little buggy.

[Desnudo]

What's another word for pirate treasure?

booty

[panerd]

I wonder what the ratio of pirated to legit C-64 games was? The industry to be in back then was the blank disk and copy program industry and I can even remember copying copy programs.

[DanGarion]

So are those that have confessed to pirating going to be banned?

[Groundhog]

So are those that have confessed to pirating going to be banned?

Yay, let's ban 92% of the board!! :)

[Pumpy Tudors]

Games: Only English-language hentai dating games
Say what?

[Izulde]

Say what?

hxxp://jastusa.com

NSFW!!!

Extremely NSFW

[Drake]

The above post is a guaranteed "check out this link" advertisement. Well done, Izulde.

[Pumpy Tudors]

oh dear god

[SirFozzie]

I much preferred the original "Do You Like Horny Bunnies?" over it's substandard sequel "Do You Like Horny Bunnies? 2".

(Note: I haven't played EITHER of those games)

[Buccaneer]

Music - never (unless you count my brother making a tape for me)
DVD - nope
Games - sure, not only shareware stuff that I never paid for but still get stuff from under-dogs once in a while.

[stevew]

So, who amongst us has actually registered Winzip, instead of keeping it for countless years in the trial version?

[Raiders Army]

If pirate a pirate movie is it pirating? Like if you illegally download Pirates of the Carribean is that wrong? Wouldn't it be like stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor?

Wait...wrong genre.

[Pumpy Tudors]

So, who amongst us has actually registered Winzip, instead of keeping it for countless years in the trial version?
This is an excellent question. I have not registered Winzip.

[condors]

why on earth would you purchase the same game several times? how many times does it take to purchase wizardry before you can play it?

along that line of thought, maybe i should try purchasing ootp2006 again - maybe this time it won't suck.

i would were out the floppy disks from playing it too much

[FrogMan]

So, who amongst us has actually registered Winzip, instead of keeping it for countless years in the trial version?

aha! I use ZipGenius, which is a true freeware :)

Although I did use Winzip without registering at one point, maybe 4 years ago, heh.

FM

[Easy Mac]

music - sometimes, stuff i have no interest in buying but want to see if it gives me a reason to buy.

tv - if i forgot to TiVo it (or the TiVoing messes up), I'll download the show.

movies - Sometimes, depends on how deep my Netflix queue is and it there is a wait.

games - not in ages. I've said before i've pirated the original CM way back when (around 97 or 98 once the 2nd version was out). Since then I've purchased every single version. Otherwise, other than that, I'm not sure.