My life as an ex computer pirate

andy said:
theyd blatantly been watching him for a while etc , watching his net activity , maybe watching his house if thats where he was "dealing" from

i imagine if they had of found more stuff then you could have went to jail for a bit ?

very lucky :)
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I was getting that worried that I installed two cameras outside my house to watch for cars pulling up and I had many false alarms. I'd see a car, men get out and within seconds I was out of the backdoor deposting disks over my neighbours fence into the bushes onlt to find it was insurance men or Jehovas. I'd walk out of my house in a morning expecting to be pulled and I'd be on the constant lookout for parked cars with people sitting in them. I was small time and everybody else I knew who did it were at least 10x as much as me. None of this was internet related either and all my stuff came through the post which is another story.
Some people are born to be criminals and some aren't and I fell into the latter category and couldn't get out.
 
nealw said:
i take it you haven't heard paris hiltons musical efforts...

:p
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2 of her songs went straight to #1, and her album went to the top 40 in 40 countries, even though she sounds like she has a blocked nose...

Surprisingly, Nicole Richie's music is actually good. Dandelion is a pretty good song, not a number 1, but still good. :)
 
QABoy said:
I was getting that worried that I installed two cameras outside my house to watch for cars pulling up and I had many false alarms. I'd see a car, men get out and within seconds I was out of the backdoor deposting disks over my neighbours fence into the bushes onlt to find it was insurance men or Jehovas. I'd walk out of my house in a morning expecting to be pulled and I'd be on the constant lookout for parked cars with people sitting in them. I was small time and everybody else I knew who did it were at least 10x as much as me. None of this was internet related either and all my stuff came through the post which is another story.
Some people are born to be criminals and some aren't and I fell into the latter category and couldn't get out.
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Good read :D
 
stoofa said:
Why is it?
In most cases when it comes to piracy those same people who are making a profit from pirate software and DVD's are also making money from drugs, prostitution and other illegal activities.

The pirate software pusher himself may not be pushing drugs around, however the person he is pushing the software around for or gets his stuff from is quite likely to be doing so.
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That's an archaic and uneducated view, and frankly it's just not the case anymore. The majority of dvd/software 'piracy' takes place on-line, and is facilitated by late teen/early 20's script kiddies, small time crackers and communities not too dissimilar to this one (on-line tech forums). Pirates With Attitude/H20 etc are in no way connected with drug trafficking or prostitution, yet they have been responsible for a huge amount of on-line piracy/torrent/warez.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a 'pirate', and have never sold software for profit, just wrote an essay on it once).
 
stoofa said:
Piracy is no less victimless than shoplifting.
However we very rarely see people on these forums write:
Yer, I just "Acquired" a new 8800GTX *Wink* as if it was big and clever.
Only difference is one activity your unlikely to be caught, the other you probably would be...
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This is where the piracy-is-bad-mkay line fails.

A stolen video card is a physical item which the regular man in the street can not recreate. If i download & burn or buy a duff copy of office, the seller has not lost the item.
 
SB118 said:
This is where the piracy-is-bad-mkay line fails.

A stolen video card is a physical item which the regular man in the street can not recreate. If i download & burn or buy a duff copy of office, the seller has not lost the item.
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It's like when people download something like Adobe Photoshop. Adobe isn't losing out, as the person who downloaded it probably wouldn't have bought it anyway.
 
You deserve what you got.. pirates make me sick :mad:

Everyone does the odd bit of downloading, but making money off the back of something you basically get for free is lower than low and goes to undermine the hard work of the artists that you've stolen
 
Fraggr said:
It's like when people download something like Adobe Photoshop. Adobe isn't losing out, as the person who downloaded it probably wouldn't have bought it anyway.
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In fact with things like Photoshop/Office it may even work in their favour by creating market dominance.
 
Fraggr said:
It's like when people download something like Adobe Photoshop. Adobe isn't losing out, as the person who downloaded it probably wouldn't have bought it anyway.
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Thats exactly what I think. RIAA and them lot just pull numbers out of their backsides when calculating cash values of damages.

People who buy pirated DVDs on the street to watch the latest movies obviously were never going to the cinema to see it in the first place, and in most cases would not have bought the DVD at anywhere near retail prices. They may have bought a long time later when the price of the original DVD is pretty close to the price point of the pirated one. But then its so far in the future, that you cannot even predict with even the slightest accuracy whether someone would have bought the said DVD.

It similarly applies for expensive software which costs in the thousands. People just would not have bought it except for professional uses. So piracy would help people become aware of the software and maybe even become proficient in it, ensuring that when they are in a situation where they have to choose a piece of software to buy they would go for the one they know. E.g. Adobe Photoshop. An average person is not going to fork out £1500 for it. If they didnt pirate it, they would find an alternate. And when the time came to buy it, they would go for the alternate rather than Photoshop because that is what they are used to.

Piracy is bad - agreed. Its really bad when there are organised rings making millions of pounds off it. But it doesnt do much harm when you download for your personal use and don't distribute it.
 
DJLOREY said:
You deserve what you got.. pirates make me sick :mad:

Everyone does the odd bit of downloading, but making money off the back of something you basically get for free is lower than low and goes to undermine the hard work of the artists that you've stolen
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i agree in general mate, but its a bit strong isnt it?

most people only pirate software because of its cost, i for one think its overpriced



although in truth people who sell the stuff on, are bad eggs
 
Sinizterguy said:
People who buy pirated DVDs on the street to watch the latest movies obviously were never going to the cinema to see it in the first place, and in most cases would not have bought the DVD at anywhere near retail prices.
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How is that 'obvious'?
 
cheets64 said:
Some people see it as a harmless money earner but its up there with drug dealing imho.
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Wow, look at how many people are jumping on the "You're an idiot" bandwagon. Did you people know that piracy has nearly taken over heroin sales to fund for terrorist activity? Doesn't cause death? Rubbish.

P.S. Ooo Arr! I'm a farmer pirate!
 
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Chrisss said:
Amazingly enough responding with a comment like that doesn't actually help.

Seriously though, explain your reasoning.
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If they watch the pirated movie they are not going to the cinema to watch it.

And they probably bought the DVD because its cheaper than going to the cinema.

I know people who buy these discs and they never go to the cinema. I have asked them why and they have said its not worth it when they can just buy a cheap DVD from someone off the street.

I also know people who go regularly to the cinema and these lot wouldnt buy the pirated stuff even if they missed it in the cinema. Me included.

And then there are the people who are a bit smarter and will just download it themselves. They wouldnt go to the cinema either as they have already seen it.

There were a few other likely reasons mentioned, when these discussions come up, but it is enough to support my conclusion as far as I am concerned.

I don't of anyone who has bought the DVD and was so thunderstruck that they went to the cinema to rewatch it.
 
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