Simple...

1-- Find the source of the "activity"

2-- Storm the place with web police swat agents and electronic freaks.

3-- Trace the brain behind the stuff.

4-- Arrest THAT one person.

5-- Lock him/her in a jail.

6-- Put a PC in the cell.

7-- C:\_ dos prompt blinking all day long for weeks.

It's torturing the mind but if they don't understand, they never will.

Im with you on this one.

Also if you close pirate bay and the like, all that happens is professional criminals copy them and sell them on, much like pirate VCR's e.c.t. used to be, so you'd be indirectly financing drug dealing and that sort of thing

Some sites will take down listings when notified. The "hardcore" ones though would only laugh at you for trying.

At least some listen.

I really like your guys' feedback because it told me something about my idea: it just won't work.

Your arguments and ideas are also great. Seems like I need to think about things more before posting.

Oh and Glitch, you don't need to be jerk about this. It was merely an idea.

The problem is that it's really hard to tell the die-hard true believers from well-intentioned users, and if you don't fight the die-hards then they might start being able to make their views law (such as it is on the internet ).  I'm all for ending piracy, but not if it comes at the cost of anonymity or freedom.

Hey, I totally understand what you mean. Those "die harda" are behind StarForce and SecuROM. I was the latter. Hopefully that will sort out any confusion.

Me too.

There is another level of piracy (which, ironically, is "laughed at by 'hardcore' anti-pirates") which is a matter of "try before you buy". There are tons of people who actually does this (hardcore anti-pirates may wish to slap themselves in the face to actually believe this, but yes, it's true). Me, I don't download games I can get a demo for, or music I can listen to on youtube/spotify or similar services. But there are times when you can't get any sample of the work you're interested in. You may have seen a good review of it, or heard the name being mentioned somewhere. (Like the "similar artists" feature on last.fm.) Then I'm all for piracy, as this ONLY increases the chances of the end-user actually buying the game/album/whatever, as very few people buy something they know nothing first-hand about.

So, to be blunt, it's kinda stupid to just see it as "ooh, every pirated copy of a certain piece IS a lost sale", because simply, it isn't. It's like seeing everything in black and white, and sure - if the world truly was black and white, it'd probably be well and great to look at everything that way. Now that the world is more of a gray-scale (no wait, it's really colorful! ^^) that view of the world is pretty worthless.

Of course, same thing goes when flipping the coin; piracy isn't all good and well, as there are several people that just download and share a lot just because it's free. IF, however, they wouldn't have bought the pieces at all, no matter if they would've downloaded it or not, this doesn't matter, actually; as no property has been lost, and the revenue generated on the piece has not been decreased.

So please, people - open your eyes a bit, and realize that it isn't just a simple matter of right and wrong, or black and white. That goes for both anti-pirates and pirates, you should look over the matter, and actually see what you're doing and what the 'other side' is doing, and why they're doing it. Understanding a matter is far more important than being fanatically pro- or con- it.

And laws are built around the same problem, they are not case-to-case unique, as this would be impossible to manage (imagine a law book without any definitive rules at all...), and since piracy isn't theft (NO, NO and NO, it isn't, because no property is lost whatsoever, and as said, it's not a guaranteed revenue loss. And since the companies doesn't provide the files and server space/internet connections, the files cost nothing directly for the companies.) it's not as simple as a theft case.

Actually, many countries have been a little quick to judge cases like these, and create laws for them, just because of the aforementioned - it isn't black and white, and because the downside to the 'crime' can be absolutely zero (very few other crimes have that, it often negatively influences someone) it should probably be investigated further before laws and rules are made to restrict or control it.

Back to piracy and alternatives anyway; as mentioned in an earlier post one thing that can (and probably will be the most effective method) decrease piracy is to provide content to people at prices that actually fit what a certain piece is worth. Selling games at online stores - EA Store, Stardock Impulse, Steam, iTunes, etc. - at the same rates as the piece costs in a 'physical' store is absolutely ridiculous, as the costs are drastically reduced for the distributor when using an online service provider, compared to a 'physical' store. (That is, if the online service provider does not have ridiculous charging rates, but most doesn't, for the sake of competitiveness.) We're talking about many things being cheaper or even removed from the costs in the comparison; store revenues (more middle-hands reduces the income in the end ofc.), manual/leaflet printing, disc creation (both previous posts include materials for this, which needs are also removed when using an online distr. system), shipping and handling everywhere, etc. etc. etc. The costs are generally MUCH lower when using an online distribution system, yet many of them retain the prices used in physical shops. There are, of course, marketing and market controlling reasons for this. (Distributors want to sell the physical copies, of course.) But as long as the alternatives aren't more reasonably priced, considering costs and expenses, the companies cannot effectively combat piracy, no matter the laws, threats, maffia methods etc. they tend to come up with.

And as some last words; the Internet can't be controlled, and to large extent shouldn't be, as people, countries and cultures are so vastly different from eachother, and what's allowed and popular in one place may be frowned upon, or even illegal, in others. If the Internet was to be controlled you'd affect too many people for the Internet to be a viable source for basically anything anymore, as nearly all things on it offends someone.

I just wanted to pop in and say that I have pirated some games, but only to try them out. If I like it then I go buy it legally. If I don't like it then I delete it off my computer. I originally pirated a copy of Sins. Liked it so well that I bought it and then when Entrenchment came out bought it too. I do think that if the industry was to release games free or for just a small cost, then charge a bigger price for a license to it so you can get the updates/patches etc. that they would end up selling a lot more games. As others have noted it would also cut way down on the large number of very poor games that are released every day. In my personal opinion those devs. that make and sell that crap are by far worse offenders than anyone who "pirates" some game(s). They are actually stealing money out of our pockets for something that is basically worthless. Again I agree that if they would start producing good games that are worth buying, they would get known for producing quality games and people would buy more of them, just because of who made them.

Just my 2 coppers worth

I don't understand the premise here. Why would you want to shut down software piracy ? Copying allows unlimited supply. Digital information is fundamentally different from physical goods in that there's almost no cost to copy it. Why make so much effort and try to put shackles on it ? To delude ourselves and think it's physical property ? It's not.  Selling software and anything that can be accurately represented in digital formats just doesn't make sense. Not from economic point of view, not from moral point of view. Easy file sharing is empowerment. Why should people pay for copies of what is trivial to reproduce ? In the end, what's important is recovering the research costs, because software development is like research and not like a factory. People should focus on getting payment for development costs, not for plastic discs.

If you're a game developer, for example, you should think what your actual business is. Is it selling plastic discs, or making games ?  Is it carriages that people want, or transport ? If it's transport, you should probably switch to automobiles.

I'm delighted with the raise of the internet and computing in general. I'd say it's a major change at least as big as print or steam engine. Things are changing rapidly. New business models are emerging. For some insight on copyright and ways to recover development costs, read this (by former Bullfrog lead designer)

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

Today's pirates don't see anything wrong with sharing files. This trend increases in younger generations. And guess what, they're going to vote. They're going to change laws they perceive as absurd.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070521/015928.shtml

It's interesting to note that the Industrail Revolution only started once James Watt's patent on steam engine expired.

http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/against.htm

As for the original post, that would achieve little and mostly force people underground. Even if possible. Encourage darknets. Darknets are hidden networks in internet that appear to be something else, look like ordinary traffic. People have been using P2P software for years. There are many, many ways to share files and more coming. In the end, are people for government, or government of the people ? Piracy isn't strictly good or bad. It's inevitable.

Internet is the only Island of Liberty.Dont take it away.Faggots.Damn you all.

Don't pay for something you are buying, you're stealing it.

That's the Law.

Do not even try turning the issue into Copyrights or Liberty terms, because in THAT specific case of Online distribution processing (by whatever means, in fact) the activity will always have weaknesses. P2P included.

Honesty is a different beast also.

But when it comes to purchasing as a customer in any valid commercial situations, the www has its **CURRENT** flaws.

It is an ongoing fight against criminals, bootleggers, hackers, viruses spreaders and what else was created by design rather than intent be it personal or collectively managed.

If we don't stop Piracy on its tracks, the world economy will keep on collapsing to such a degree that the only rational property owned by anyone for a cost will be the food they gobble up daily.

Virtual or real, theft is still against some principles. I'm not being tortured by shame every minutes of my existence for a reason; since i pay for what i want or need.

Crooks end up in Jails for as long as it takes to alter their minds-- now, that's inevitable.

I've worked with a publisher before on the matter of taking down sites that host pirated versions of our product. Soon as you take a site down another will pop up. The only way to effectively fight piracy is to make sure the legitimate product will far outshine the pirated product. There are several ways to do this, amongst them:

Secret checks in a game to see if it is pirated. If it is, corrupt save, config files, limit resolution, crash game etc...

Online multiplayer accessible only with legit CD key that is both fun and stable.

Good support for legitimate users. 

Constant free DLCs available only to those with legitimate CD keys, as well as updates.

Your greatest friend in the fight against piracy is the CD key. Even if the pirates figure out the algoritm and keygen it, you will always have a private whitelist of keys that you published, and can blacklist all the keys that weren't published (keygenned keys). A CD key is the only way to tell a pirate from a legit user. Use it wisely.

This only works if the user registers his/her product.  Otherwise, the original key can be used indefinitely, passed on from person to person.  Yes, this cuts out the official support, but that can be found in various forums online, as can patches, and the like.

Game developers could always follow some music artists, and let the games be bought for the price that they user wants to pay. (I believe NIN did this, with excellent results.) Not only will this result in widespread usage, it would take away some of the resentment that gamers feel towards these huge empires, because we would be paying what we felt the game deserved.  Yes, there will be those that freeload, but not to the same mass degree. 

This could also be used as a better basis for developers to see where they are going wrong in creating games, and encourage more creativity, depth, etc.

That is why you force the user to create an account and tie the CD key to it before he can get an update or DLC.

Both of which can be found through... dun dun dun... pirate sites and torrents. 

The more you try to lock something up, the more it will be attempted to be cracked.  Game developers need to work WITH the gamers, not AGAINST the gamers.