What do you think of warez websites and forums?
Do you support them?
Are you against the, and think they should be removed from the web?

I'm gnerally against warez, It's stealing.
Programmers don't owe me anything.

against it.

do you know where the most dangerous place to steal is? its a jail, full of people who do it. Just shows that they don't really believe its ok, they just don't care about the other persons work.

Against it of course. But I believe that piracy is a bigger problem then it should be. The companies that are producing content aren't giving people enough options as to how to consume the content. DaveMo and I had quite a good discussion about this topic on TNT. I think todays biggest piracy problems are undoubtedly to do with media.

No matter which way you look at it, it is stealing. But people will get what they want no matter what you do; todays companies need to realize this. Once they tweak their business models to take into account the power technology has over their products, then I think piracy will decrease. It'll never stop of course, but pointless ideas like DRM only promote piracy and annoy honest consumers.

For example, in the US some television networks are starting to stream entire programs online. If I were American, I could watch entire episodes of Lost or Ugly Better with a few clicks. For Joe Blow who missed an episode because he had to work late one day, that is a perfect solution. But the same kind of guy who lives in Amsterdam is forced to wait until the season is over to buy or rent the DVD's, or he can download it. What is really disappointing about this is that the downloadable copies of this media is often better quality then you would able to watch legally via purchase from iTunes or streaming from the networks website. These are the kind of barriers that are making piracy thrive.

Don't you think the hosting companies have the power to shut down every warez site/forum?
For example a forum is hosted on server X on a shared hosting package, the company can easily delete the account and stop the forum.
Or if the warez site/forum has a dedicated server, the company can stop the server coz it's warez...

Can't they do that?
And why wouldn't they?

its a legal requirement in the united states, but just go to russia or china and no one cares

Originally Posted by Chroder

Against it of course. But I believe that piracy is a bigger problem then it should be. The companies that are producing content aren't giving people enough options as to how to consume the content. DaveMo and I had quite a good discussion about this topic on TNT. I think todays biggest piracy problems are undoubtedly to do with media.

No matter which way you look at it, it is stealing. But people will get what they want no matter what you do; todays companies need to realize this. Once they tweak their business models to take into account the power technology has over their products, then I think piracy will decrease. It'll never stop of course, but pointless ideas like DRM only promote piracy and annoy honest consumers.

For example, in the US some television networks are starting to stream entire programs online. If I were American, I could watch entire episodes of Lost or Ugly Better with a few clicks. For Joe Blow who missed an episode because he had to work late one day, that is a perfect solution. But the same kind of guy who lives in Amsterdam is forced to wait until the season is over to buy or rent the DVD's, or he can download it. What is really disappointing about this is that the download able copies of this media is often better quality then you would able to watch legally via purchase from iTunes or streaming from the networks website. These are the kind of barriers that are making piracy thrive.

Very well said. I do not support theft of any kind. But do so how its grown for the simple reasons of companies trying to lock things down. You're right about TV for example.

"John" works for a living and lives in The USA. He misses his show, but is able to visit ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, or just about any major TV Network's site and can still catch it online for free. "John" moves to Spain (or just about any other country) and isn't able to do this. "John" really likes his shows, so he hits up any P2P network. Now "John" can not only watch it for free, but now own it.

It is also true that many of the "pirated" content is starting to look better then the legal stuff. A friend of mine had bought a "priated" movie and I watched it with him, not knowing how he had got it. I thought it was odd that his copy looked more clear on his older TV & DVD Player. Turns out The DRM is what made the image look not as clear on my DVD Player and in order to make it as clear, I would have to buy a new model. My copy wouldn't work on my PC either, but his would. Mine cost me about 25.00. His was only 5.00.

Originally Posted by Snitz

Don't you think the hosting companies have the power to shut down every warez site/forum?
For example a forum is hosted on server X on a shared hosting package, the company can easily delete the account and stop the forum.
Or if the warez site/forum has a dedicated server, the company can stop the server coz it's warez...

Can't they do that?
And why wouldn't they?

As Dan said, not all countries share the same copyright laws. Some countries really don't care either way. If a warez site has a server located in such a country, then it is extremely hard (read: impossible) to shut them down.

And some sites ride technicalities in the law to survive. Many torrent sites for example defend themselves by not actually hosting the content on their servers, but only providing a link to it.

The U.S is currently trying to help other countries crack down of warez/piracy. It really is getting out of control. It's gone so far, that the government put a new "FBI Anti-Piracy Warning" on every DVD and CD sold. They also are placing this clip in with the trailers of every DVD produced. I am against piracy.

Originally Posted by Millipedeman

The U.S is currently trying to help other countries crack down of warez/piracy. It really is getting out of control.

The U.S aren't trying to help anyone. All they are doing is telling people to change thier laws to suite America. In Russia there is no such thing as copyright infringment when it comes to media produced in America, Yet Rusia still agreed to shut down allofmp3.com because the U.S leant on them. Allofmp3.com was a perfectly legal site which followed all local laws, There was no cause to shut it down.

It's only America that cares about copyright laws because it is a nation whose economy thrives on entertainment mediums to a large extent. Other countries can't afford such luxories. Most of their citizens have to work real jobs.

Originally Posted by InfTekHosting

It's only America that cares about copyright laws because it is a nation whose economy thrives on entertainment mediums to a large extent. Other countries can't afford such luxories. Most of their citizens have to work real jobs.

This is a fantastic point. It reminds me of a quote that I heard once although I can't remember who said it (perhaps it was Glenn Beck), "Americans have reached a point that they no longer have to worry about survival in the same way that our ancestors did; so we put most of our efforts into innovation and vice". I'm sure that was a bad paraphrase but it gets the point across. To this extent America shares a lot of parallels with ancient Rome, kind of scary to think about.

As far as how it pertains to warez I think there is a huge divide in this country between the haves and have-nots which makes some very essential software unfordable for too many people. Perhaps if companies like Microsoft offered a pricing structure based on income and licensing that allowed for households to purchase once and install on all their own PC's (say all under one IP since internet connectivity is more prevalent) then there might not be so much piracy.

I used to build PC's for my entire family and friends etc. They went through me because I could put it all together much cheaper than they could buy one at Best Buy. They didn't know but the reason was that I pirated Windows (I know I know, in the words of Jesus, "Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone") to save them the cost of buying it for every PC in their house.