My life as an ex computer pirate
- Thread starter QABoy
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teaboy5 said:
It's fair to say that the more popular the artist, the more people download their songs for free...so by this logic, it works out relative to how popular the artist is. It's always been the case that artists don't make that much money from CDs compared to other souces of income so it aint an issue anyway
Muse is more pirated than dragonforce... and they are all millionaires for example (Muse I mean)
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ggaaaaarrrrrrr ye were lucky then
Soldato
vonhelmet said:
It may well have been, but the term is used by the appropriate media organisations to make what is essentially a low level misdemeanour sound like a far worse crime. It is the same with the use of the word steal in the anti-piracy adverts. People who copy/sell copied software have not at any point stolen anything or committed robbery on the high seas.
I understand that the use of words change over time but I really disagree with the use of the word piracy.
People will always copy music, films and software and the more the media tightens their grip the more copied discs will slip through their fingers.
Man of Honour
NashTax said:
There are already two in his house but he's lived so long without one that he doesn't need one himself.
I know another guy who got his house emptied around 95 and he's never owned a PC since.
Caporegime
LordSplodge said:
And there's the Moff Tarkin quote... regular as clockwork.
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quite a lot of false information given out, a lot of you are making assumptions even though you're most likely not part of a file sharing scene.
From the file sharing community i'm part of (in the least pretentious way that sounds)
People download files for three reasons:
1. They're cheap (these are the people who do not buy anything and are leechers).
2. They're collectors (these are people who download games and music but don't play them - these people are seeders)
3. They're impatient (these are people download files before release, like watching movies before they reach the cinema, they'll pay for it when it's released - they seed and leech).
From the file sharing community i'm part of (in the least pretentious way that sounds)
People download files for three reasons:
1. They're cheap (these are the people who do not buy anything and are leechers).
2. They're collectors (these are people who download games and music but don't play them - these people are seeders)
3. They're impatient (these are people download files before release, like watching movies before they reach the cinema, they'll pay for it when it's released - they seed and leech).
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I'd like to add to someones comment about how the police should have bigger fish to fry.
I used to do the same thing up until 2 years ago but i was doing a bit more than just a few discs from the house. We use to sell at a large market anywhere between 4000 and 5000 discs a weekend.
Now i know you guys are of different opinions on how severe the criminality of this type of business is, yes i say business because that's what it comes down to. Like any other self employed person you have a lot of paperwork, wages etc to sort out every week. I see it as illegal yes but no to the extent that the police go after those doing it. It's not because they want to or because laws are so strict, it's simply down to money. The movie companies pay our government millions and millions each year to fund the trading standards/police raids concerning this. I've spoken to many police officers throughout my time and not one of them could give a toss what we're doing, it's simply because they are pressured by a government who are scared of losing favour with these multi billion dollar companies and the funds they receive from them.
Now the biggest problem with it all is the way that a lot of the police force now look at it as an easy assignment. their saturdays and sundays are spent strolling around the markets making half arsed attempts to catch these people. What absolutely disgusted me however was how when they are assigned to the markets they totally ignore anything else that is going on around about them other than the people with the discs.
There was one particular person who worked at the same market as i who was one nasty piece of work and owes lots of people big money for drugs. On 2 occasions i witnessed "heavies" coming down to sort him out, now this sorting out didn't just involve a beating it involved them pulling out guns and looking very much like they were going to shoot him. The only reason the guy isn't dead is because both times his 2 kids he has working there with him stood between him and the guys with guns. The police turned up 10 minutes after this happened each time. If it had been someone swinging a bag of movies at someone they would hvae been there like a shot.
This in itself doesn't reflect too badly on the police but when you add onto that something that happened a few weeks later it makes me sick. One weekend the police and trading standards were coming down particularly heavy on us and i was unfortunate enough for my workers to get caught bringing gear out of the cars to bring over to the stalls. At the same time this was happening, in the street directly beside the car park which is in full view of the numerous uniforms a young lad was getting a hatchet hammered into the back of his skull for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This got ignored until they had made sure that every last disc was emptied from the cars. then and only then did they go and sort out the lad, phone an ambulance and then go for the guy that did it. Yes fair enough they saw who did it and knew exactly where to find him but that's not the point, the young lad could have died from their stupidity. The guy that did it to him was the very same guy i mentioned previously as almost having been shot there twice.
This happening was one of the reasons that i gave the whole thing up. I loved the money, i made shed loads a lot of which i lived the high life on. But i had gotten sick of the having to look over my shoulder constantly to make sure i wasn't being watched. The crap i just described was the icing on the cake, i had to get out of it before either A something like that happened to me or B i found myself in a situation where i would have to cause someone else a great deal of harm. The odd fist fight to sort someone out i can handle but the whole fighting with guns and knives disgusts me how one person could do that to another.
If i had ended staying at it at some point i probably would have been severely hurt and i certainly wouldn't have been counting on the police to do anything about it until they were sure they have all the discs.
Oh and the police are just as happy to take pirated gear as anyone else, many times you can point them to a boxful and they leave you alone for the rest of the day.
I used to do the same thing up until 2 years ago but i was doing a bit more than just a few discs from the house. We use to sell at a large market anywhere between 4000 and 5000 discs a weekend.
Now i know you guys are of different opinions on how severe the criminality of this type of business is, yes i say business because that's what it comes down to. Like any other self employed person you have a lot of paperwork, wages etc to sort out every week. I see it as illegal yes but no to the extent that the police go after those doing it. It's not because they want to or because laws are so strict, it's simply down to money. The movie companies pay our government millions and millions each year to fund the trading standards/police raids concerning this. I've spoken to many police officers throughout my time and not one of them could give a toss what we're doing, it's simply because they are pressured by a government who are scared of losing favour with these multi billion dollar companies and the funds they receive from them.
Now the biggest problem with it all is the way that a lot of the police force now look at it as an easy assignment. their saturdays and sundays are spent strolling around the markets making half arsed attempts to catch these people. What absolutely disgusted me however was how when they are assigned to the markets they totally ignore anything else that is going on around about them other than the people with the discs.
There was one particular person who worked at the same market as i who was one nasty piece of work and owes lots of people big money for drugs. On 2 occasions i witnessed "heavies" coming down to sort him out, now this sorting out didn't just involve a beating it involved them pulling out guns and looking very much like they were going to shoot him. The only reason the guy isn't dead is because both times his 2 kids he has working there with him stood between him and the guys with guns. The police turned up 10 minutes after this happened each time. If it had been someone swinging a bag of movies at someone they would hvae been there like a shot.
This in itself doesn't reflect too badly on the police but when you add onto that something that happened a few weeks later it makes me sick. One weekend the police and trading standards were coming down particularly heavy on us and i was unfortunate enough for my workers to get caught bringing gear out of the cars to bring over to the stalls. At the same time this was happening, in the street directly beside the car park which is in full view of the numerous uniforms a young lad was getting a hatchet hammered into the back of his skull for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This got ignored until they had made sure that every last disc was emptied from the cars. then and only then did they go and sort out the lad, phone an ambulance and then go for the guy that did it. Yes fair enough they saw who did it and knew exactly where to find him but that's not the point, the young lad could have died from their stupidity. The guy that did it to him was the very same guy i mentioned previously as almost having been shot there twice.
This happening was one of the reasons that i gave the whole thing up. I loved the money, i made shed loads a lot of which i lived the high life on. But i had gotten sick of the having to look over my shoulder constantly to make sure i wasn't being watched. The crap i just described was the icing on the cake, i had to get out of it before either A something like that happened to me or B i found myself in a situation where i would have to cause someone else a great deal of harm. The odd fist fight to sort someone out i can handle but the whole fighting with guns and knives disgusts me how one person could do that to another.
If i had ended staying at it at some point i probably would have been severely hurt and i certainly wouldn't have been counting on the police to do anything about it until they were sure they have all the discs.
Oh and the police are just as happy to take pirated gear as anyone else, many times you can point them to a boxful and they leave you alone for the rest of the day.
Man of Honour
Black Dragon said:
Bowlers by any chance?
I know plenty of coppers and all of them love a bargain.
Soldato
Ahhhh Bowlers. Used to go there on a Saturday quite a few years back. All of the latest PlayStation one games and 101 great utilities for Windows 98 all for sale outside at fiver a pop or three for a tenner.
I don't think there is anything wrong with downloading the odd film or CD here and there. The case of piracy imho is often over stated with it it's links to serious crime. Just because some guy sells the latest game one week doesn't mean he is going to be running drugs and guns in Columbia next year.
That said though when I used to goto Bowlers though, the same guys who were peddling bent software were the same guys who were regularly touting tickets outside Old Trafford on a Saturday afternoon. So imho downloading and distributing for profit is wrong as there can be links to more serious crime
I don't think there is anything wrong with downloading the odd film or CD here and there. The case of piracy imho is often over stated with it it's links to serious crime. Just because some guy sells the latest game one week doesn't mean he is going to be running drugs and guns in Columbia next year.
That said though when I used to goto Bowlers though, the same guys who were peddling bent software were the same guys who were regularly touting tickets outside Old Trafford on a Saturday afternoon. So imho downloading and distributing for profit is wrong as there can be links to more serious crime
Soldato
Clown said:
People download things jsut because they can ...
its like a dog, why does a dog licks its *****? because i can, christ knows i would if i could ...
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i hope you'd trim the hairs 1st 
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Just want to take the time to thank the original poster for the great service they provided to people
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Ooopppsss...
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Just to answer some questions I was not in the scene. I was a humble factory boy who had his MP3's delivered through the post, bragged about it and everybody wanted a piece of me. All my customers were out of the offices and a lot of them were my bosses so I had to keep them sweet. Even when I was at my most paranoid I still had to continue making them because my bosses at the time expected it. It was an absolute relief when they came through my door that morning but they wanted other names which I couldn't give them because I had nothing to do with other departments. I didn't even know where my discs came from because it was all PO Box addresses. Honestly, being caught was the best thing that happened to me because I was heading for a breakdown.
We have two laptops in the house connected to the net which the kids and wife use. I'd be a liar to say I've never been on one of them but my home internet activity is probably about once a month looking at Autotrader or for a new toy or something. I have no need for a tower on a table up a corner somewhere. One thing is definite that when I'm made redundant later this year I will not be posting here anymore unless I get an office job with internet access.
We have two laptops in the house connected to the net which the kids and wife use. I'd be a liar to say I've never been on one of them but my home internet activity is probably about once a month looking at Autotrader or for a new toy or something. I have no need for a tower on a table up a corner somewhere. One thing is definite that when I'm made redundant later this year I will not be posting here anymore unless I get an office job with internet access.
Soldato
iCraig said:The closest calls I've heard of is a few acquaintances receiving warning letters off their ISP about illegal activity on their network.
I think you're not targeted by the police unless you're a major contributor to the problem, not a casual downloader. It still doesn't mean you should do it though.
However I still firmly believe — despite not infringing copyright myself — that the police should have bigger fish to fry. Sure, it reduces genuine sales and costs record and film labels millions a year, but they're hardly bankrupt are they?
FOPP just went bankrupt.
HMV are going to restructure soon.
It does cost millions and yes it hurts mostly young people who had jobs in the record shops.