How much pirated Amiga software did you have?

[TheBilgeRat]

And the industry is adapting.  Soon all software will be hosted and for a sliding fee per month it will grant you access to use productivity software remotely.  Google Docs proves this.  Steam is not far off from this model either.  Ownership of software locally stored will be gone.  As for amigas...Back in the late 80's, I can't think of a single game played on my friends 500 that wasn't a fairlight or whatever production, and he wasn't the one calling the BB.  we used xcopy a lot to make backups of our games because of the abuse the floppies would take sometimes.  This issue always falls into the same camps-sanctimonious goody-two shoes with the "Law is Law! WHARRGARBL!" argument, and then various shades of "well if I didn't download roms I woudln't even be able to enjoy my ancient miggy/intellivision/etc".  Meh.  Don't pirate the latest teeny bopper bullshit music or the latest and greatest software.  For mostly everything in the original Amiga catalog, it's a moot stupid argument, because I guarantee that the rights of the software are most likely not held by the individual who created it anymore.  Do I think EA needs some money for my DPaint copy?!  Hell no.  Piracy did not kill the amiga- if that were the case the PC would be Loooong dead by now.  The sad reality is that all of us amiga people are really bastions of quickly evaporating knowledge about early computing.  Its less about revenus and profit stream as it is about archival preservation.

[TheBilgeRat]

While I've pirated my share of software over the years (mostly back as a teenager on the amiga) I have no delusions that its not stealing. It's quite amusing to see some of the warped justification some people convince themselves of when it comes to piracy. "It's too expensive, its too crap, my mum was mean to me, etc, etc.". Too expensive, buy something else or save for it,... too crap, what the hell do you want it for ? There's also the amusing claim that sales arent lost because people wouldnt have paid for it anyway. Sure, not everyone would have bought what they easily stole, but some would. Marketting is effective and despite the products sometimes being crappy sales are still lost. If even 2 out of 10 people who pirated a copy of software bought it that still all adds up, possibly to a point where a company isnt losing money. It makes a difference. Having said all this though reason and logic will fall on deaf ears anyway. Those who delude themselves about piracy will always find a way to justify that its ok to themselves.
All this aside though pirating for yourself is one thing, but I absolutely despise anyone who sells other peoples work for gain (pirates who sell copied software). Kids are maybe an exception here as theyre not aware of what theyre doing exactly. Still wrong, but Im not going to hold it against them. One of the most amusing things I saw in recent times was a friends reaction at a local computer swap meet (I think called computer fairs in some parts) when we encountered one such person who was selling copied xbox360 and ps3 games. After asking what the heck the guy was doing selling copied games he was told "its ok, theyre just demos" (they werent, and its illegal to sell demos anyway) my friend decided the best plan of attack was to grab a box of this pirates "stock". The fellow then (obviously) started to protest at which point my friend went to hand the guy his mobile phone and said, "here you go, call the police then,... or should I?". The fellow then just put his head down and started packing up his stall.

So your friend did the right thing after stealing from the thief and turned in all those pirateed games to the police, right?

[TheBilgeRat]

Nope. We got as far as the exit/entrance and it dawned on him that he had box of stuff he didnt want. Handed a few out to kids as they approached the entrance but got bored of it pretty quickly and ended up putting the box behind some bushes at the school the swap meet was held at. Chances are some lucky kid(s) hit the jackpot when they got to school the following week (either that or cleaners found them). Ive not seen the same pirate at the swap meets since, so some good come from it at least.

So some lucky kids were set upon a course of theft by stumbling upon illicit goods and keeping property that didn't belong to them.  Your friend contributed to the delinquency of minors by handing out said illicit good, free or no.  The obvious thing to do was call the authorities right away and report the violation of copyright law.

Sorry for busting your chops, but the righteous road is a very hard one to walk sometimes.  Human beings operate in various shades of grey while all the while yelling that some are too dark and some are too light.  Thus the obvious problem with Law in general and enforcement in particular.  In America, it wouldn't have been unheard of for that law violator to have called the cops later and said that you had threatened him with bodily harm.  I guarantee the cops would have cared less about the pirated software at that point as much as your perceived violence towards another individual, right after they busted your chops for vigilanteism.  The older I get, the more I realize that most things we perceive as important or lawful are neither.

EDIT:  I am playing devils advocate here, and assuming you aren't from the US, so apologies if the first feels like an attack and the second if I am assuming wrong =).

[TheBilgeRat]

Who's being righteous? Im just happy that the scum trying to make money from other peoples work has now vanished. The look on his face amused me no end. Just curious, but how did you manage to fit violence into the equation? My friend even offered the scumbag his phone to call the police. And no, Im not from the U.S, but again how does this fit into the equation? A lowlife is a lowlife, nationality plays no part. You're welcome to play devils advocate all you like, it doesnt stop the look on the guys face when he realised there was nothing he could do amusing me.

No, I agree.  That had to have been good

I bring the nationality part up only as it pertains to law.  Many courts in Europe are better at seeing through obvious BS such as an accusation of violence when there was none.  Here, all the scumbag would have had to say is he "felt" in imminent danger.  Maybe you looked at him funny, or had a rough tone to your voice.  Later on it would have probably got thrown out, but not after the (in)justice system had its way with you.  I mention it merely because here in the US I would never open myself up to possible litigation however spurious its nature over intellectual or minor property crime.  If I really had felt strongly about what he was doing I would have informed the police and left it at that.

[TheBilgeRat]

Now that's smart. Give the people a taste of what it's all about, but let them purchase a superior experience either live or in full fidelity on vinyl. It's finally (again) becoming well known that electronic music fares especially well on that medium. Forget mp3's, even 16-bit CD's can't come close to vinyl when it comes to bass extension and the general rounding out of the electronic instruments. Kudos and best of luck in your endeavors!

That and its rally really hard to pirate vinyl now that minidisc is dead

[TheBilgeRat]

I know the digital engineers claim we can't tell the difference but I believe we,or at least many of us ,CAN tell the difference  between digitized music and analog,perhaps only subconsciously.My theory is that our brains  detect the digital  steps and the brain then processes the signal to sound "normal",i.e. analog.
 
The human brain can do amazing tricks.I happen to require glasses  ,and of course having worn glasses for years was used to  seeing  things normally with  one particular lens style. A switch to a special no- line lens whilst retaining the strength needed resulted in a weird hourglass view  TEMPORARILY;for the first  week or so wearing the new lenses ,the walls of hallways or anything not  pretty much directly ahead seemed to "bow" in shape.Then one day I realized I was no longer noticing the distortion and all looked normal shapes and angles again.A quick switch to the original brought a very momentary blurriness and then ok.
 I theorize my brain had somehow learned a new "program" for seeing and also a "sub-routine" for deciding which seeing program to use based on which glasses were being worn!

Some of it has to do with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

And that the way records have to be mastered disallows such dynamic compression.  There are people who argue that digital can sound as good (even better) than a record, and they are right, but for both mediums to sound stellar requires investment in quality gear, and the market shows that convenience (Icrap, etc) and shoddy sound will win over bulky fidelity solutions.  I still use minidisc, which is incredibly good sounding even to this day as a compromise...that and the fact I can actually record the way I used to do when casettes were in.

[TheBilgeRat]

Funny you should mention MiniDisk-there are six new in the wrapper beside my keyboard.Found them at a little secondhand junque store very cheap!

so not fair!  Yet another thing the states ignored and so they are like hen's teeth here