Indeed DS, and (not picking on you Resonance) but its not possible to justify using illegal software by saying you do on occasion purchase software where you decide its worth it, its pretty black and white really, paying for some software doesnt qualify you to use illegal software at other times. I have purchased software in the past also, but would not be critical of others for using illegal software or media as to do so would be completely hypocritial of me.
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I find the irony amusing that I gladly paid for the full version of Nero for my burning needsComment
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amen to thatOriginally posted by marcusComment
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thing is, ppl will have the f**k ms attitude as they're so rich, we hate them, linux is teh roxxorz and all that, but the games companies are just as bad - look at sony ffs, and it's no secret the kinda crap nintendo's pulled over the years.
*rushes out to buy a dms4 and a supercard ds*Comment
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It was not meant to be an attack on you, if that is how you feel about software then its completely your choice and I am not going to try to police what people do with their computers. The reason I admitted to occasionally pirating software is because I am not 'whiter then white' either just that I try to do good when it is in my power to do so.Originally posted by marcus
It just seems odd that software piracy seems somehow more justifiable then gaming piracy. When often both require great amounts of work and effort. But on the other hand (as DS and Marcus pointed out) 99% of the people on this forum are guilty of piracy of some sort and I guess there is really no "good piracy" and "bad piracy" just piracy...
Ahhh bollocks....
I am gonna get off my soap box... cause I just don't have one
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I'm not taking any moral high ground here. Though in some ways I'm a bit irked. Mainly because I write software for a living I suppose. But its the double standard that irks me and not the actual piracy. It particularly irks me when, for general software, there are free alternatives available of similar quality to the commercial releases - something that just isn't there in the gaming world.
I don't really believe piracy harms sales in an enormous way - I write software for a living but I don't think people are "stealing from me". No one is whiter than white. And I think piracy actually has some fringe benefits and a lot of people who pirate software wouldn't buy it because they couldn't afford it or its just not worth the asking price to them.
I just find it strange that people jump on people who buy pirated games from some guy down the market then on the other hand are quite happy to use a pirated OS or other software.
Next time I see someone being moaned at for pirating games or downloading ROMs I'm gonna link to this thread....Comment
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Gonna have to start a piracy thread at some point to find out what people feel about it, what they see as okay and what they frown upon. I did feel sort of justified until I though of the wad of DVDs that were sitting next to me full of my favourite shows
. I must say I personnally find ballancing my conscience and just enjouing life quite challenging. There is a part of me that would like to feel like I am somewhat moral (to a degree) and a bit better then the person that pirates with gay abandon and zero respect for other peoples work, but as each DVD is burned, that part of me gets smaller and smaller .
On the other hand there are the ridiculous laws and DRM technologies that punish the people who do pay. I once bought a copy of Matlab Student Edition aware that it had some minor limitations but I thought it was a great way to pay for software I was going to use extensively and find of great benefit, when there is no way I could pay the thousands of pounds for the full version. I install it to find that it has one of those stupid copy protection scehemes forcing me to keep the CD in the drive (not done in the previous versions and only mentioned breifly in the manual which cant be accessed without opening the box). The rest is err.... history
Or there is the case of the film industry wanting to charge people for changing the channel during advert breaks, one exec went as far as accusing people who watch, shows but cut out the breaks, of theift
Bah anyway... enough talking, this thread has been more then derailed and all this belongs in its own thread.Comment
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every thread gets like that after the first page (some even derail ON the first page) so let's just go with the flow
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Numerous threads have been started before, but since you're asking.Originally posted by ResonanceGonna have to start a piracy thread at some point to find out what people feel about it, what they see as okay and what they frown upon. I did feel sort of justified until I though of the wad of DVDs that were sitting next to me full of my favourite shows.
I think there is a great degree in the spectrum of piracy, it happens on many levels.
At the top end there are the organised pirates, those that go out of their way to counterfeit goods and pass them off as genuine products at markets and car boot sales, perhaps even a proper shop, simply to make money.
Next we have the Internet profiteer, the chap who doesn't go as far as the counterfeiter, and pushes out his stuff on golds with either no cover or an Epsom stylus printout. His main area of operation are sites such as eBay, or perhaps spamming forums such as this.
Next we have the dedicated down loader. He'll grab everything he can from the Internet and never pay for a bean, regardless of whether he can afford to or not. He doesn't really give a crap and just want to have everything.
Next we have the playground piracy stuff, kids who swap games with their mates, and are unlikely to actually be buying more than a few games a year, simply because they can't.
Next we have the casual down loader, who buys lots of games, perhaps he's a bit unsure about a certain title, but doesn't really want to do the GAME return policy thing. He'll d/l something, but if he likes it, he actually go out and buy it.
As I see it, the only real place that anyone is losing money is down to the first two examples, and tbh I think the "losing 6 billion a year" or whatever is currently being quoted is nonsense. If piracy were stamped out over night, there wouldn't be an increase in 6 billion profit the next year; people only have a finite amount of money to spend.
Other grey areas are things like downloading TV series, something that I think is slightly different to d/l films. If something is broadcast on TV which I could record on my lovely HD/DVD recorder, where is the difference between me doing that or me grabbing it from the Internet? I will happily keep paying for Sky because there's lots of stuff on there I enjoy watching, so this I think is more of a grey areas.
It's great that Sky lets you download hundred of movies if you are a movie subscriber as I am - but I've also managed to collect a great deal of films from recording the stuff onto my DVD recorder off sky movies, and unless the DVDs have a commentary or extras I'm interested in I'm unlikely to add them to my 600 or so retail collection - so then, if I'm paying for those films via Sky and recording them, where is the difference if someone d/ls them instead of recording them?
With regards to NTSC-uk policy, we don't want to know if you are downloading stuff and we certainly do not want to see links or people trying to profiteer from piracy in the trade forum - but we are not stupid, and we know it goes on. If you d/l stuff, it's your own conscious you have to deal with - please just keep it to yourself.Last edited by MartyG; 11-05-2006, 22:22.Comment
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Back to the orignal topic... I am restoring Xp on a mates machine but the original install discs are long gone. Is there anyway I can install Xp using their legit license number since they legally own a copy of XP. This would prevent them from needing to avoid updates which I could see them needing.Comment
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get the cd off someone else or use your own, bearing in mind that you'll need an identical xp to make it work (home, pro, corp pro, student/teacher home/pro, whatever). the keys aren't interchangable.
the cd isn't the problem if that's what you mean - it's just the media - the license is the key (no pun).
i used did work exp at ACi (the laptop builders) years ago and we'd use cdrs to install windows, but each laptop would have it's own windows manual with the unique license key on it.Comment
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