Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

I've never been that popular with my software to have to deal with that. The model I came up with originally when I wrote some software a while back and had it on my website (since removed because I stopped maintaining them) - was that if someone requests a specific feature or wants something into it that wasn't there... they can donate.

Bug fixes, or things not working as advertised - I take on as my responsibility for writing the software broken. Adding anything to it... well - it's free. So if I get the time.. maybe.. if not - you can either Donate to me, which will make me care what you think.. or write your own. I did.

Death threat emails would go straight to /dev/null.

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

You also pay for goods or services 'only' because it is required by the seller, not because you like it :) But seriously, software is tricky business, it's very difficult to measure the 'added value', or justification as you put it. I know we established analogies suck, but think about this way.

Imagine public transportation. You have the option of buying a ticket or walk. Instead, you just jump over guardrails, claiming you only want to 'test' the system and that you will buy a ticket at the end destination if you like it, or claim that if could not get in without a ticket, you would have not used the system anyway. The transport company has the same costs regardless if they have 1 or 100 passengers per carriage, so you might think it doesn't matter.

Now, for those that DO buy a ticket, what you are asking is, why is it bad if you buy a ticket and then let in 99 of your buddies in for free ? Because at 1 customer per ride, the system is not profitable. If none of your buddies would have paid anyway, the system is doomed as it's not sustainable at that ticket price. If some would have paid, but didn't, the system is also doomed, as they lost revenue. Only paying customers make THIS particular business model viable. Alternatively, they could turn to subscription, or, the easy way, just tax everybody (not really a win, eh ?).

That's why many systems have complex admission systems and/or people checking passenger tickets occasionally - they are the transport company's equivalent DRM. Does the guy who checks your ticket bother you ? He could penalize you - you might have bought a proper ticket and misplaced it. Paranoid companies might employ hidden X-Ray machines to check on you. Your actions while using the system might be supervised via camers. But the bottom line is the same - whether you are bothered by tickets or not, your choice is to USE or NOT USE the transport system. You can protest in front of the company about terms, prices, but you DO NOT GET TO RIDE WITHOUT A TICKET WHATEVER THE 'REASON'. This also applies to copying - I hope I don't have to explain why copying tickets for your buddies is a problem ?

My suggestion is to get a bicycle. Clean, free and keeps you in shape :D

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

/dev/null my *** I forwarded them all to the ecrimes division of my local police. Which resulted in a 12 year old boy begging me to drop the charges - this after he threated to kill me, rape my wife and kill my child. If I had it in my power I wouldnt simply have had him charged I would have beaten the little **** within an inch of his life.

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

Depends. In the case of WoW and Eve you are connecting to a Server owned and operating by someone else. That's what I consider the money per month to going to. Them keeping those servers online.. not the game itself.

And as I said.. in WoW you can download and install the game.. and play on a Free WoW server and never pay a dime.

I don't mind supporting wow once they made the installer available for download. I had bought the original WoW discs forever ago and have since lost them.. and I refused to re-buy them. Once the installer was easily obtainable.. now I just pay them while I use their service, and don't when I don't. I'm not paying "for the game" in my mind, I'm paying for them to keep the servers up so I can play on them.

Something like Fallout 3 I admit.. there's no middle ground. You aren't always connected to their servers.. but something as graphically intensive and world-in-depth as that game took 1000's upon 1000's of hours to build. People need compensation.

Personally.. I think the problem is not that they need money but that people don't donate. I don't think requiring pay software, or enforcing DRM are the way to go - I think people that use software should be more giving if they like and actually *use* it.

Unfortunately... the latter isn't happening - forcing people to do the former - forcing people like me to have to make a decision on whether or not I want to support that company or writer.

For games.. I'm more lenient: I'll buy a game if it natively supports Linux. I got to pick my battles here...

For normal office/desktop software - I won't pay for it. There's a free alternative somewhere or I'll write it myself.

Re: Angry Birds Levelpack back in OVI-Store (Edit: and now not, again...)
 

I wrote : « a grammar book is still a book ».

This is metalanguage concept and this should not be ignored by a software engineer. I'm quite surprised.

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

Hah.. it appears I'm not the only one that's had a teen arrested before. Win. :D

I had one threaten to assassinate the president in an IRC network I run.. went straight to NCIS (I was in the navy at the time so they were the on-base security and that's where I lived.) who sent it up.

You're correct though.. death threats should go to ecrimes.. not ignored. I stand corrected ;). And I also agree that the kid deserved a little one on one time with a rabid and hungry pit bull...

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

Good for you, you are actually earning your play though by contributing usage data so it's not free, someone else is paying for you.

So becuase you have bought some then you feel you are entitled to all, even though you may not have contributed anything to the people whi's work you are using? Rather selfish really.

A lot of publishers will replace the media for you, so this is not an excuse.

But by taking a copy without paying for it you are saying exactly that! If you can't afford something then either find an alternative or save up for it! Everything in life has a cost associated with it, maybe it is about time you started paying for your costs too. I can't afford some of the items in life that I would like to own too but I dn't just take them and then decide not to pay for them. Just because someone else removed the barrier to obtaining this it made it ok? So if someone looted a store and offered you the items at a knock down price would you think that acceptable too? (I suspect you would).

Excellent - at last you aren't ripping anyone off I hope! Shame it isn't becuase you have improved your morals!

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

@Bratag: Dude, you've gotta tell us what kind of software you wrote to wind up a 12 yrs old that bad :D

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

Why is this different? Software on DVD's are a signifanct part of the content too.

So support the open source software and don't ripp off the commercial sector. If open source works better then the model will change but don't be a hypocrite.

I have investment banks amongst my customers too but what tools were you using in your development? If you used the MS stack at any point that is retail software!

Re: What is "piracy" and is it ever justified
 

Nokia is actually still living on it's IP though unless you have missed all the information about the legal wrangles between Apple and Nokia? nokia are also not selling Maemo, they are selling the hardware which is definately not open for all.