BS ARCTICLE - READ THIS: This is just more propaganda to scare the "un-informed"! Simple as that. I run a gaming site, and for many years I fought piracy (no-win issue so gave up). My personal research revealed the following:
First and foremost - all piracy (the long term ones, not the wannabe's) are hosted outside the USA . With that said, only a handful of countries recognize piracy and its negative implications and has laws regarding it, BUUTTT,(and this is huge) many countries could give a rats-*** about it, and stick the proverbial finger at any country(persons or company) that complains. So Is it legal in these countries? maybe not, but they do not honor the DMCA that's for sure - I had better luck calling obama-care and/or the DMV!!.
Secondly, even more important - anyone who says pirate files are dirty - doesn't pirate. end of story. To better understand, you have to understand why people pirate in the first place (the "seeders"). The last 20yrs, there is big money is pirating. HUGE money. Avg punk-*** kiddie pirate can make about $500 - $3k month! While some may scoff - how much do you make sitting on your ***? And those are the kids! (sorry not revealing their "money-making" methods - search for it) It is extremely important that these pirates keep their **** clean! Otherwise you will not come back. Don't believe me- ask a drug dealer what they think about shootings - scares the customers. in the virtual world, the shooting is the malware (there is no viruses - people who believe that are stupid - look it up), one or two people report your stuff dirty and you can kiss your pirate days away. Groups such as Myth(back in the day) to Skidrow and many others these days (I lost track) are around many years, NOT because they are dirty, but because they are good and their stuff is clean(not to mention very fast - many games get out before they reach REAIL!! wtf!!). I know 2 sites that are on BLOGSPOT(OWNED by google ) that has been up over 15yrs!!! One of the sites I was able to get accepted and log on, and they have 100k visitors a day!!! - how would you like that on your blog? and, if the people are fairly honest, average age is 35 -60 on there (so they have no clue what they are downloading is illegal), and anyone mentioning that fact (ME!) gets banned (yup I got banned just by asking "do you guys realize this is illegal software your downloading?") So why doesn't google shut them down? DUH!! But there are a few Devs, authors and musicians that pose as pirates and send out crap (*cough* Madonna *cough*), but if people fall for that - they are just stupid. Its like going to a doctor - do your research THEN go see the doctor.
I did some other searching about the people that actually pirate - most that do were never gonna buy, and many of those that did pirate - usually bought the software they were pirating. Some gaming devs, while frown on it, found that their software circulated faster due to the pirates. Many people who never heard of a certain song, movie or game, did so by randomly downloading it.
So in conclusion to this long post - its unstoppable (I loose tons of money each month), and they make money - YOu have a better chance getting malware from sites like cnet (that mash toolbars and search bars in their installers) than you would getting malware from a pirate
28x more likely my ***! I agree with the rest of you - that is made up!
Anyone that contradicts this post, is prob a dev, or an anti-piracy agency (if so I wanna talk to you) - I do not in anyway shape or form support piracy, I just wanted to share the REAL TRUTH about it. Piracy is around because it has a reputation of being good - Its a huge money-maker for those that seed it, and for the hosts (google?) due to the traffic and revenue - its a win-win fore everyone but the developers! go figure - Welcome to the real world