Disturbing Facts

[Cyrien]

It is a conflict between defense and offense. History shows that only temporary gains are possible on either side. You gain what seems the perfect defense and then someone has the perfect weapon to break the perfect defense. As others have already said, you can't make something pirate proof, but you can try and educate your citizenry to make the correct and responsible decision. By the same argument though you need to educate your corporate leaders to do the same thing. So far neither side is really doing that and the few that do get crushed between the rock and the hard place.

A few quotes to finish my thoughts off.
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Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.

Benjamin Franklin
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In the United States we value security more than freedom.

Hugh Daniels
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I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791
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Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

George Bernard Shaw, Liberty
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The antidote for misuse of freedom of speech is more freedom of speech.

Molly Ivans
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They came for the communists, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a communist;
They came for the socialists, and I did not speak up because I was not a socialist;
They came for the union leaders, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a union leader;
They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.

Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984
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We felt the effects of herb were so dangerous that it was better to lie to the american public to save them rather than tell them the truth...

Partnership for a Drug Free America
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The Last one is my personal favorite.
Not because I support drug use but due to the feeling of others wanting to protect me from myself by whatever methods available.

It also serves as a reminder that even those with good intentions can walk the path to disaster.

[wr8th]

I'll add a couple:

"You live and you learn, or you don't live long." - Heinlien

"Liberty is a well armed lamb." - Benjamin Franklin

[Grayhorse]

Im glad Richard commented on game sending info back to co. I was a little worried there for a sec. When I got my original se4 gold, I burned a copy to play with. I try not to use original cds for scratchs and things. I did that once, and the original went bad. Had to go by the bLasted thing again. So now I make copies of all my games and use the copies. Its easier for me.

Piracy, is, unfortunately a way of things for gaming. I to wish game companys could develop a way to stop it, but alas, I dont think it is humanly possible at this juncture. Maybe in the future.

Note to Richard.....SE4 gold rocks.

[Skulky]

i admit i priated GTA1 and 2 i later bought GTA 2 (i got them at hte same time) and i don't play GTA1 anymore. I pirated driver b/c hte demo didn't give me a good enought taste of the game to decide. I found out i hated it, uninstalled the pirated copy and never bought it. I got the SE3 demo, wow it was so good i kept playign new games until it stalemated at the tech line or i won. I got he SE4 demo and i bought the game a few weeks later.

Both of the Last two had good demos so i never felt the urge (and Shrapnel and MM are so cool, if i could pirate windows i would b/c i HATE microsoft) to get the whole game to test it out.

And also think that a person who pirates a game and never buys it probably wouldn't ever buy it, so its not really money lost. I let my friend try SE4 (the full Version) and after about a month he purchased the CD to support the company, and he is scrappign together allowance for GOLD.

On the drug use, i condone marijuana use in a safe manner. I mean we consider alcohol and tobacco safe so i can't see why marijuana is so much worse. It's jus the fault of a bunch of politicans with sticks up their @$$'s. hope no one is incredibly offended those are my views, and dont' worry, i gave a speech for Communications on this so i have evidence. Just look at hte dutch for instance, they don't sit around stoned all day (most dont').

[Phoenix-D]

"could pirate windows i would b/c i HATE microsoft"

I'm not condoning piracy here, but that's a pretty funny statement. Considering that those games you mentioned have copy protection and Windows DOESN'T.

solution for internet piracy: make the game so freaking big no one bothers to download it

Phoenix-D

[Spoo]

quote:

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solution for internet piracy: make the game so freaking big no one bothers to download it

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Or just put the game on a DVD. By the time DVD burners are common, the game will probably be out of print. I guess the trade-off is that not everyone has a DVD-ROM drive.

[TerranC]

DVD Can still be pirated: I'm ashamed but I do have some DVD movies ripped and put uder DivX format in my computer... And It's surprising how much ripped DVD movies are out there.

The big file doesnt matter as long as they have some Download Programs or/with Broadband, As download programs allow you to pause when the server is at its worst and allow you to continue at your own pace when no one is looking around.

The Best Hope yet are CD keys, which can be overcome by malicious programs, such as CD key generators or Rip/Fake CD's.

In my opinion, if the programmers can Incorporate some Absolutely Crippling Flaws into the game, hard code it, and make it so that it can only be fixed by giving the registered distributors registered CD keys which then in turn give you a patch that would fix those problems.

Just my two cents...