I can not seem to find any paid advertisements on The Pirate Bay, BayImg, SlopsBox, PasteBay, BayWords, or IPREDator that they make money from. The only ads I see are one for ViO, which is a free media converter they made to begin with, and a link to TPB themed shirts on a Kopimi website where the profits go to Piratbyrån. This was also covered during the trial, nearly all of the revenue made from the site goes to paying site related bills or covering the costs of starting free services. IPREDator does/will cost 5 euros a month as it is a VPN service.

On a side note: Isn't what is considered morally correct determined by the masses? Sweden's Pirate Party continues to grow rapidly following the verdict, it is now one of the largest political parties in Sweden.

I lol'ed. Let's be honest, who doesn't envy people who are making more money than you? And who doesn't like getting free stuff? Coupled together, that's piracy at its core. We think we're paying too much for music, so we'll download your music for free. We don't want to spend $10 for a movie ticket, so we'll watch your movie for free online. I don't think you deserve my money, so I'm just going to steal your product. I don't see how you can even attempt to argue that it's moral to steal, or to "pirate," as RNH prefers to define it. Moral correctness is theoretically represented by lawfulness. Whether that will be upheld in court remains to be seen.

You're evidently not looking very hard... http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4151/piratebayadss.jpg
That's 5 advertisements on a single page. With the recent attention the trial has gotten, I don't doubt that advertisers are having to pay even more, and that T-shirt sales have skyrocketed because it's now "cool" to support piracy. The selfish and shallow mindset of the majority of my peers absolutely disgusts me.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 19 2009, 1:13 am by FaZ-.

He must have AdBlock or something, 'cuz I don't see any of those advertisements

Hi, I'm Corbo. I live in a third world country.


You people know NOTHING about real piracy. I support piracy because, at least in my country asses like those companies we're "stealing" double their prices and sometimes even triple them just because we're poor and ignorant. Some might say that they double the prices because they have to make up or fight their loses in third world countries' common piracy practice, the fact is, it's not like that. Prices have always been high.

I support "piracy" because, even if I have the money to pay for movies, CDs, games many people in here don't and would like to. Even if I like to pay for them because of something twisted in my (and my sister's head) of self satisfaction after paying for a CD I decide not to sometimes. Try paying mora than $800 for a 40GB PS3, how much is it there? How much are the games you "steal" from HUGE companies that have no need to overprice in there? $30 bucks? $40? Well, in here they're $70, sometimes $90. How much are movies there? They don't even bring them here, your only option to get a movie is, after hoping that it's actually in the 2 only CD stores we have in here, is either buying a super cheap $1 pirated version in... pretty much anywhere or downloading it. Of course, since everything is so overpriced in here not many people have internet so they just pay $1 dollar and hey, they even get the movies before they show them in theatres

So if you come and tell me that piracy, torrenting, downloading copyrighted content from the internet is illegal and stealing. Try GETTING OVER YOURSELVES and think of the majority, the third world and overpriced countries that have no option but to obtain material illegaly


Thank you.

I love piracy.

I'm hurt. You know I lived half my life in Russia, right (2nd world. 0wnt)? Pretty much everything you buy in stores (well, maybe not the huge corporation stores like the equivalents of WalMart, but those stores aren't that common) is pirated. It's really rather fantastic. I got my original Photoshop (which I still use) together as a pack of 50 image-editing programs for less than $3, I believe.

On the other hand, it is very true that those corporations put work into creating a product, and just because you can't afford it doesn't necessarily justify piracy, as without the work of people in those companies the product in question wouldn't exist anyway.

Taking that into account, I'm for piracy of things like music and expensive programs. Music is really overpriced and very little of that $1 goes to the artist, so it doesn't mess with my scruples at all. As for stuff like Photoshop, it's just insanely expensive. I mean, if it were $100 with free or inexpensive upgrades I might buy it, but $1000 for a program (or $350 to upgrade)? Good luck with that. You're definitely making up for the people who don't buy it but pirate it with those saps that pay $1000.

I generally support piracy, mostly because of your argument, Corbo, but also because with that piracy, companies have managed to stay afloat and pay their workers, so they're doing fine. But honestly, pirating something that costs less than $50 isn't nice (well, unless it's really crap, or unless you're really poor).

I should throw in something about the government being a scam and probably tells companies to rip other countries off, but this isnt a conspircy post.

Hi Im Dark_Marine, and Im poor and live off Government survivor benefits and food stamps.

I pirate because it is the only way Ill ever see media in my house. Im LUCKY to have a XBox or Internet (Probably cuase I had a job at the time but lost it)., so dont even start about things being legit. If the FBI and other federal agencies are really against pirating, everyone in america who uses limewire should have their computer scanned for illegal media. Why doesnt this happen? You dont see too many companies losing business over some piraters.

You'll find a lotta emo/scene/prep/non internet savvy people buy media legit, brag about what they just bought on Itunes, or show off their brand new CD. Mp3 players have been out yet I still see CD's and CD players. Nobody is losing business due to piracy.

Also the worlds population is skyrockting every day. The same amount of people today probably bought the same amount monetarlly compaired to people buying casettes in the 80s.

I wouldn't even buy any of the shit I pirate if I was forced to pay for it so they aren't even losing potential profit.

I like pirating because I spend less money, I could care less about other people I'll never meet in my life. Selfism FTW.

Seems I was mistaken about the lack of advertisements, I temporarily allowed global scripts on NoScript and disabled AdBlock before posting and didn't see any.


If someone is pirating an item and then in turn making a profit from pirating, then by all means seek appropriate justice. There are people who would never pay for an item because they don't believe it is worth the price, instead they will pirate it and then send money (if comments are to be believed). A third group pirates items they have no access to commercially (small bands, foreign items), it was never a sale the creator had in the first place. Finally, there are those who pirate simply because it (potentially) costs them nothing and is retardedly easy. The first and last groups are those I generally view to be in the wrong.

[RANT]
Personally if I need a piece of software then I'll either get a freeware or open source program that does what I need it to do, program the functionality needed myself, or rethink why I need it. Probably 40% of the music on my computer is various techno that the artists put online themselves, the rest from CDs I received via family. After I stopped receiving birthday gifts I stopped playing new commercial games, as evident by my xfire page. These days I'm playing mostly indie games that xfire doesn't even list (such as Dwarf Fortress).

I will gladly pay for something to cover the effort needed to create it. However, how do you determine an accurate cost for digital items when they can be reproduced at only the cost of the consumer's disk space/bandwidth? I find the cost of professional commercial software to be ridiculous. Apparently a lot of others do as well, as evident by piracy and the movement towards open source.

If I feel something is overpriced, I'm not going to pay for it. I don't go download the item either, instead I will join the community surrounding a similar item that happens to be free and support it. If I take something from the community I try to give back to it, I always become more active on SEN when I start a thread in UMS Assistance. Though my maps aren't groundbreaking or incredibly popular I always leave them open on the off chance that someone can gain something by editing the map; in turn I hope they contribute to map making in some way whether it be discussion, creation, sharing, or inspiring others.
[/RANT]

Can someone tell my why Faz- thinks: intellectual property = a person's freedom?

No it isn't.

Theft denies you the use of and enjoyment of it. Read the link. Your argument is not valid because you don't understand why theft is wrong, and because you think "irregardless" is a word.

If I didn't pirate something, I wouldn't buy it anyways. And neither would 99% of people who pirate things.

It doesn't hurt companies, it doesn't deny them their ability to sell merchandise, and just because you don't know what theft is, doesn't mean it's wrong.

"- Officer, someone stole my Ferrari last night.
- Right. What model was it?
- F430 2006. Yellow.
- License plate number?
- 4361 GHT 12
- Do you have a picture of it?
- No, but if you have a digital camera, it’s parked right outside.
- Huh? What do you mean? You still have it?
- Er yes, fortunately.
- What’s the problem, then?
- Well, I sort of resent the idea that someone is now driving the same car without having spent a ridiculously huge amount of hard-earned tax evasion money on it."

Get over yourself.

I was wondering how such a stupid reply could possibly be here, then I realized this wasn't in SD. So my reply will be equally offensive, but it will at least maintain some semblance of a comprehensible argument, which your post fails miserably at.

The difference between theft and piracy does not at all reflect the discussion, it's a foolish tangent that you've taken in order to seem like you might have a valid point. You win, they're different words, congrats. It doesn't change the fact that your analogy is not even remotely accurate.

You're stealing someone without permission, without paying for it. Do you buy a movie ticket to own the movie? Do you download a movie to own the movie? No, you watch it once and then delete it or throw it onto a 500 GB hard drive and probably never look at it again. Intellectual property is NOT physical, and so different rules apply to them (like that whole copyright thing I mentioned in my last post that you conveniently managed to completely ignore).

Are you seriously that braindead? If it makes you sleep better at night thinking all of your stealing isn't hurting anyone, fine, but that doesn't make it true. Why in the fucking world would so many companies be up in arms about copyright infringement if it wasn't affecting them. Do you think they hire hundred-thousand dollar lawyers to protect their intellectual property for fun?

That's utter bullshit. It might be true for shitty music, but if someone wants a product badly enough to steal it, they are most likely willing to buy it. Does that matter for people in third world countries or the like, obviously not. But for all the ignorant teenagers that think they're hot shit because they "know how torrents work and how they're technically legal so that must mean I'm not doing anything wrong," it doesn't change anything. People will take what they want when it suits their purposes without regard to morality or the larger picture. Everyone wants to cheat the system, and that's one of the major reasons that I think the economy is in the trash.

As for the price of something: it's called supply and demand. If you don't like the price, that sucks for you. Maybe if enough ignorant people stopped giving in to idiotic prices it would be a more moderate purchase. Unfortunately people tend to be stupid. So you can steal it and blame others for forcing you into the theft; how very selfless.

Well, that's bull. The population increase is mostly in 3rd world countries, which, as Corbo pointed out, don't really buy these things. European population grows by less than than 1%, I believe, while the US is itself maybe 4%. And taking into account that those immigrants traveling from other European countries / North America don't add to the net European/NA population and that all other immigrants are too poorly educated to become rich enough to purchase these products legally en masse... yeah.

If you look in most developing countries, everything is pirated. My friend who used to live in China discovered that the government itself had "pirated" software.

And that's why records had the highest sales in 20 years in 2008, right? I would not buy anything I pirate if I couldn't. It does not impact any company. Your argument fails. I'm not stealing anything, and neither is anyone who pirates anything.

You are confusing gross commercial copyright infringement with piracy. Learn things, please.

Are you seriously that braindead? If it makes you sleep better at night thinking all of your stealing isn't hurting anyone, fine, but that doesn't make it true. Why in the fucking world would so many companies be up in arms about copyright infringement if it wasn't affecting them. Do you think they hire hundred-thousand dollar lawyers to protect their intellectual property for fun?[/quote]

No, they do it because they're run by brain-dead idiots like you that don't take time, look into studies confirming the FACT that piracy doesn't impact sales, and instead waste their money. That's the only way that piracy hurts companies. By them spending money to pursue it.

Feel free to cite sources then to back up these "facts."

Hopefully they'll be a bit more credible than the blog you posted as your last source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software
Reference 9

Microsoft admits that piracy of its Windows operating system has helped give it huge market share (90%) in China that will boost its revenues when these users "go legit." Bill Gates said, "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not."[9]

Gonna have to say Piracy seams to be a GOOD thing if Bill Gates thinks so.