Weekend Open Forum: What's the first thing you remember pirating online?

[Jos]

Online piracy isn’t going away anytime soon but legal access to media and other digital content has come a long way since the early days of Napster. So while we may have moved past the sometimes cumbersome process of illegally finding tracks and downloading movies, in favor of a free or paid subscription service, let’s be honest -- we’ve all done our fair share of piracy at some point.

In this week’s open forum we want to ask: What’s the first thing you remember pirating online? Mine is an mp3 of Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping. It was an eye opener -- not the song but the notion of downloading songs for free.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/62781-weekend-open-forum-what-first-thing-you-remember.html

 

[Panda218]

I also downloaded an MP3. It was BLINK 182's Carousel.

 

[Satish Mallya]

Nice try, MPAA!

 

[davislane1]

Impressive. If only the question had been asked immediately after I rolled out of bed this morning.

 

[DelJo63]

OUCH! *IF* you've pirated software (aka stolen without paying for it, and I hope NO ONE here has), then I would pray your bright enough not to wash your dirty laundry in public.

Sorry man, but the concept offends me as a professional program. Take it or leave it (n)

 

[Lionvibez]

Well the first thing I remember copying was dos games on floppy disc.

For things after the internet came around would be Napster and Mp3's I was all over that before the bandwagon started, and was off it before it got shutdown.

 

[oldikes]

Please dont actually post that here. Not the greatest idea.

 

[veLa]

I remember my friends and I would use a burned Quake III Arena CD back in middle school to install it to the computer lab machines. That's pretty much it, and it was well over 10 years go.

 

[Amigosdefox]

Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls. Took around 30 minutes to download on a 56kbps modem.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

I won't say what it was (just because it was an embarassing song), but I do remember before even Napster you could visit a regular webpage and download mp3s like they were regular docs. There wasn't even any hiding them or using separate software.

--of course, it took 30 mins per song on our modems back then, so it's not like there was a ton of trading going on.

 

[rvnwlfdroid]

Not exactly sure if it's pirating but Grateful Dead songs in .wav format recorded from tapes using MIRC. I say not exactly pirating because at the time the band never had a problem with you recording during their concerts. Not really sure how that all worked. I just know it would take the better part of a day for one song. lol

 

[davislane1]

Sorry man, but the concept offends me as a professional program. Take it or leave it (n)

I advocate following the law where it is rationally consistent to do so. I also believe in try before you buy.

 

[Jos]

I won't say what it was (just because it was an embarassing song), but I do remember before even Napster you could visit a regular webpage and download mp3s like they were regular docs. There wasn't even any hiding them or using separate software.

--of course, it took 30 mins per song on our modems back then, so it's not like there was a ton of trading going on.

Yep, I remember downloading directly from websites back then and trading URLs for the best download sites with friends.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Can't remember if it was a game, program or song but it would have been around 22 years ago and probably off a ftp site.

 

[Ziffel]

I downloaded a car.

 

[davislane1]

I downloaded a car.

Where did you get a crack for the VIN number? I can't find those anywhere.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Where did you get a crack for the VIN number? I can't find those anywhere.

You wouldn't want those anyway, they come coded with anthrax.

 

[alabama man]

Porn picture, took so long to download. Young people have it so easy these days....

Mostly got my pirates on floppy disk and later from russia on cd. Damn if I wouldn't have been pirate back then amiga could have survived, had 200+games and only 2 were bought.

 

[fimbles]

I remember recording the charts on to a cassette back in the good old days.

Always annoying trying to remove the DJs voice.

Not really online but piracy yarrrr.

 

[hitech0101]

The first PC I bought from a local vendor came with a pirated copy of windows XP dual booting with win 98. I did not even know what digital piracy was back then.

 

[mctommy]

Forgot what game on 3 1/2" floppy... that was back in 1995 or something.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I downloaded a car.

Where did you get a crack for the VIN number? I can't find those anywhere.

Just go up to the 1st parked vehicle you see and jot down the VIN. A little plate with it inscribed is usually pop riveted somewhere onto the dash in plain view.

 

[trgz]

An old 3-masted Dutch Clipper - a fine ship she was - arg!

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

MS DOS 3.
Online... I think it had to be music. I would've preferred swiping a game but seeing I was on 56K dial up at the time it was impractical.
Having said that, it took quite a while to download songs as well, it would've been quicker and easier taping them from a friends LP, which I did anyway.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Just go up to the 1st parked vehicle you see and jot down the VIN

Ah yes a VIN for a minivan placed on a Ferrari. That would be believable.