Your All Pirates !!!!!!

[James]

Taken from NAG. August Edition.

"Copy protection experts Macrovision held a survey amongst some of the leading games sites to determine how much gamers get pirated games and how often. An astounding 52% og the 2219 gamers that reponded admit to having recieved cracked software; 33% of those have whole ISO images(a single file that can be written to cd). 15% of gamers have recieved 15 or more pirated games over th last 2 years. This report comes in wake of the ESA's serious look at piracy. They reckon that the industry looses $3 billion a rear to it. Macrovision agrees, adding that the longer a game takes to be cracked, the more revenue the publisher gets [Doom 3 was cracked hours after it's unofficial release -Pr13sT]. Most of the people polled would not wait longer than 6 weeks to get a free copy of a game instead of buying it."

There is no peace without war!!!

[Andre]

Of course those figures are completely made up.

[freeek]

bring down the price of software/games and I would glady buy it. But paying R600 for a game is just crazy!

..- dot dot dash ;)

[Syzygy78]

its not only the price, sometimes we have to wait a very very long time before a game hits SA's shores...

[Syzygy78]

I recently downloaded Ultima Online from the internet to play on the new SGS server as its not available anywhere in SA. I would have bought it, but I cant find it...

[James]

Lol, I was reading that dooms 3 was available on bit torrant about 2 hours after the unofficial release. It was freely downloadable on the net. Just over that time and there where 5000 people pulling the file, 120min!!! Times that by R300. That is R1500000 lost! If any thing the figures there are underestimated. Did I mension that that was 2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no peace without war!!!

[Chris]

R600 for a PC game????

I don't think so

[Cloud]

Well, it can't be that bad. After all, they still exist. Rest assured the Americans will pay. They can afford to ;)

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death - life is only a dream - and we're the imagination of ourselves.” – Bill Hicks

[Perdition]

Not everyone who downloads the game would have bought it, so it can't really count as lost revenue. I do believe that if you download a game and really enjoy it that you should purchase the original to support the company. A lot of people who usually pirate games are buying Doom 3 cause it's an awesome game. I really don't think the guys at id will lose much sleep over the piracy. I'm sure they anticipated it happening anyway and thus didn't waste time on implementing strong protection.

Games are a strange beast, it's not like other software where you pretty much know what you're getting. A game can be awesome or it can suck large (Daikatana anyone? [;)]). I wouldn't want to spend R300-R600 on what is essentially a Lucky Packet, I'd rather use the money on recreational substances. I know a lot of companies release demos for their games but these often hide the mediocrity of the full versions. I'd rather try out the full version and then decide if it's worth my hard earned cash, companies that make sucky games certainly don't deserve it!

[antowan]

Agreed. The same goes for music. Some musicians actually think that their sales improved because of their music being freely available online for listeners to sample. I think Greenday or some other band mentioned this.

I buy alot of cd's and movies that I have listened to on MP3. I also do not have enough money to buy all the music out there that I like. I do spend as much as I can afford though on legal music.

Regards
Antowan

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Perdition</i>
<br />Not everyone who downloads the game would have bought it, so it can't really count as lost revenue. I do believe that if you download a game and really enjoy it that you should purchase the original to support the company.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

### What we need in South Africa is cheap 24/7, always on Internet for under R300 a month. ###

[Syzygy78]

well, here is my take on the situation...

Most games seem to be taking an online multiplayer stance over the internet. If you have a pirated copy, you wont be able to play as the CD Key will be invalid... thus you have to purchase the original game to obtain a unique CD Key (This is if there isnt some type of CD Key generator that you can download)...

I dont quite agree with Antowan about the music... using mp3's, you can make a custom CD of your choice to play in your CD player! Thus every song on the CD is one you enjoy :) You dont have to continuously press the 'skip' button. I think the music industry has lost out quite alot...

On a side note, when my brother and I were younger... we always used to buy those shoddy 8 and 16 bit games for consoles. We never got that much money, so it took us a while to save up. Often we would buy a game that looked great, BUT it was down right nasty or you passed the game in less than an hour. So... this would mean a big waste of money for us... BUT we devised a fool proof method of swopping games... You would be amazed what putting your hated game in the microwave for 1 second does... LOL! It leaves absolutely no visible damage on the game or the chips... the game stopped working all together :) We always got our money back or swopped the game... hehehehe

[BlackChameleon]

Doom 3 can be bought at top-cd for R350. I`m an old pirate and i`m gonna buy the game. I do agree with the try b4 u buy and that most is not the plastic worth they r printed on.

[freeek]

Yes I agree I have original Diablo 2 had 1 lost it. Got Original Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne EXp
blizzard games are quality. I like it, I wanted to Play on Bnet so now I got originals.

..- dot dot dash ;)

[Chris]

I think ID should have released a demo for people to get a taste of it. The piracy was so widespread because people anticipated so much as they didn't get a demo

[freeek]

well everyone who downloaded doom in SA paid their price for it. Everyone on adsl Paid Approx. R125 (+- 2gigs of their cap). There was a hidden cost involved. So they might of bought the game had the game been R150 but oh well

..- dot dot dash ;)

[noir]

well look at it this way, how did the cracker get hold of the game before it hit the shelves. THEY Stole it. So if one manages to keep the game or any other anticipated product away from the crackers then maybe this before release cracks wont happen

If you Love it let it go, if it comes back then it love you. If not hunt it down and kill it

[James]

I don't think the game was leeked to a cracker. the game was released on the 6 August in the states. Unofficially of course but still released. ID should really have used there budget a bit more wisely and instead of putting 90% budget into graphic design, 5% on creative story line, 4% Hardware surveys and 1% on secutity issues. The game was just cracked in a couple hours simple as that.

I hate Steam(valves content delivery system) but as far as anti piracy is going it is what I can see happening with all games. So viva la cap when u have to buy a code and the download the game.

There is no peace without war!!!

[armitage]

well im an anime trader and just the simple fact of our anime industry( if u can call it that) is so appaling that the only way any anime lovers usually get our stuff is by making communities and trading amongst ourselves.
just the fact that for most animes for 1 dvd with 4 eps on it its gonna cost u at least 300 bucks where most animes have 26 eps in it. come on the chances of me having that much dough lying around is highly unlikely.

Proud South african rip offs.

[freeek]

yo anime :) naruto,full metal alchemist, tenjou tenje, sumarai champloo !!! best anime around
you probs an OC person.

..- dot dot dash ;)

[armitage]

as in organised chaos?&gt;??? if thats what u mean then i am going to the one this weekend hopefully.
im always interested in finding more traders hehe

Proud South african rip offs.

[armitage]

waaaaaah. it sucks i was gonna be going to oc this weekend but then i got offered a weekend lan of ppl just playing eve online. oh well

Proud South african rip offs.

[freeek]

OC is the anime lan! lol. there is another lan in the southern suburbs at KC shopping centre starting in about 20mins. armitage let me know we can trade, i can setup a ftp for us, sadness tho my 120gig SATA drive crashed again! I hate SATA drives. it had abt 90gigs of anime oh well. goto www.dbzdivx.com for good anime. direct downloads! everything is good

..- dot dot dash ;)

[armitage]

sore my ou. by the time i saw ure post i was already at oc. oh well well meet im sure sometime.

Proud South african rip offs.

[alexkellaris]

Pc game sales have been dropping drastically over the years, game developers end up having to stop the development of big titles cause funding runs out.
Consoles are starting to become much bigger then PC games, and this is because console game piracy is much lower then PC game piracy.

Were not gaining anything when we buy pirated games, were only messing up the companies that spend years making these games so we can give R150 to some guy in a store that downloded the game and the crack and sold it to us, and totally bypassed the company that put in the money and the effort to make it.

when will we learn?

[antowan]

Agreed...

I bought HL2 and Rise of Nations recently. Warcraft 3, AOE etc are also all legally in my possession. :)

I have recently cleaned out my PC to replace any illegal software with the Open Source equivalent. I now use Open Office and Thunderbird for office work and email respectively!

Doesn't make much difference to how well I sleep or not, but I guess it is good. MS is still too expensive! Games however seem a better buy these days. Maybe it is because they are better...

Cheers
Ant

PS Having a non MS proggy of any kind makes people less interested in using your PC for stuff like projects etc. Open Office is a very good replacement for MS's stuff, but it seems strange to noobs... I am smiling! :D

[DFantom]

This report comes in wake of the ESA's serious look at piracy. They reckon that the industry looses $3 billion a rear to it.
Yes there is terrible losses on the rear.


Macrovision agrees, adding that the longer a game takes to be cracked, the more revenue the publisher gets
Show me one A title or better not cracked and on warez in under 2 days?
HL2 < 1 day
Doom3 < 1 day
FarCry < 1 day
Halo 2 < Unknown, since the there is a cracked french version out and the real game isn't
Deus Ex 2 < 1 day (for Americans)
Deus Ex 2 < 3 months (for South Africans)


I think ID should have released a demo for people to get a taste of it
They did release a demo of Doom 3. Just after the game came out. If I remember right Carmack was quoted saying something like they wanted to focus on getting the game right then getting the demo right instead of trying to do it all at once

[DFantom]

Of course those figures are completely made up.

Don't you mean that 87.2% of all figures are completely made up :p

[Obelix]

This is all really easy :
do you have the original yes/no
do you have written permission from the publisher to have copies yes/no

If either is no then you dont have any right to have a copy of the game/cd/dvd. Your inability to source a game is no excuse for copying it.

Get a better job and buy the thing, or if youre a white male, emigrate to somewhere else ( your chances of getting any job other than the one you have is slim ).

The South Africa computer copyright Law HAS BEEN TESTED in court and the silly bugger got 4 years for his efforts. And backup copies for your own use ( like to protect the original from wear and tear ) is illegal in this country.

Obelix

[Cloud]

wow Obelix, u must either be very rich or just plain stupid to be able to legally buy all the software u own.

[alchamy]

I find it very interesting that Developers blame piracy for poor sales, It was a hell of a lot easier to copy stiffi & floppy games.

Catch a wake up, the only thing that might have changed is the time it takes for a pirated game to be distributed. The Internet provides a platform for speedy delivery of new games. Back in the day we had to wait until someone got it from someone who got it from someone & even then you could dial up to your local BBS and get your fix.

I use the try & buy system, If a game sux, which 90% do I will probably delete after 30minutes to save myself further boredom. If a game is good I will buy it, not because I care about developers but because I want to be able to patch it & play online without wasting time trying to crack & hack my way around.

I dont see myself as a game pirate, you test drive a car before buying it and that does not make you a thief.

[DFantom]

This is all really easy :
do you have the original yes/no
do you have written permission from the publisher to have copies yes/no

If either is no then you dont have any right to have a copy of the game/cd/dvd. Your inability to source a game is no excuse for copying it.

Get a better job and buy the thing, or if youre a white male, emigrate to somewhere else ( your chances of getting any job other than the one you have is slim ).

The South Africa computer copyright Law HAS BEEN TESTED in court and the silly bugger got 4 years for his efforts. And backup copies for your own use ( like to protect the original from wear and tear ) is illegal in this country.

Obelix

Actually the EULA for most software (including Windows) does include a clause to allow backups to be made of the CD. So to counter your dribble,
a) You have it in writing from the developer/publisher
b) There is no law in this country stopping that.

There also normally a further cause in that only one copy may be used at a time, which is what defines piracy in those cases. If the clause is not in the EULA then any copy made is piracy, but very few software has it missing from the EULA.

[DFantom]

I dont see myself as a game pirate, you test drive a car before buying it and that does not make you a thief.

I've seen this one used before, and it's a bad example. Because in your example what you really did was you broke into the car dealship, stole the car, didn't like it and left it on the side of the road. Still makes you a thief. The demos (which are rarely like the game anyway) are there to stop this argument as well.

Not to say that I don't agree with the logic behind your statement, but comparing it to a car test drive is not the best example.

[bb_matt]

The fact that buying of pirated goods drives the whole piracy "industry" is a moot point - that's blaming the people that use it for the people that distribute it, which is against human nature.

It's like going after all the herion addicts to try to erradicate the dealers.

Your average Joe citizen is ALWAYS going to use pirated goods - even the most squeaky clean person who wouldn't go 81 in an 80 zone will at some point have a few mp3's or a copy of word loaned by a friend - a temporary measure that usually becomes permanent.

I don't condone piracy, but I'm a realist - it happens and the vast majority of people will use some form of pirated goods in thier lives. Hell, cmon, you ALL know someone's mom/sister/brother/dad who just wanted to open a word document and didn't have word, so they obtained a copy from someone.

It's exactly the same as home taping in 80's and 90's - everyone and thier gran taped stuff of records, even though it was illegal - but guess what ? - companies manufactured the means to do this ! - what the hell else was a tape recorder for ? - well, to use todays analogy, just to backup your records ?

However, there is a difference between that occassional taping and swapping of tapes and the guy who sells tapes at the car boot sale - IOW, the low end of the real piracy trade.

The equivalent of that guy now is the guy on the public networks sharing gigs and gigs of data in order to improve thier "credit rating" to get more "warez" - the guys above that trade on the private networks for cash.

Those are the guys that should be targetted, not your average citizen who gets a copy of a game or word from a buddy. But they should be targetted, given a small fine and depending on thier involvement, lead authorities higher up the chain.

This is not a solution, however, because in the final analysis, the method of digital distribution is changing too rapidly for many "brick and mortar" companies to keep up. They have misread the market. Todays youth want things now, they don't care for the packaging, just the product.

Most people over 30 will understand the collectors instinct of having something physical that your music is stored on - many of us had/have an almost reverential love of our record/CD collections. Many of us still collect CD's, or collect DVD's

For younger people, that just isn't the case anymore for the most part. If youth can't afford it and they want it, they just pirate it and the vast majority, no matter how much they deny it, see very little wrong with ripping mp3's of the net, or burning a copy of a buddies windowsXP, or ripping a DVD - that much is plain fact. The packaging means nothing. It's a throw-away digital society - and this has been fed and generated by the very people who create the media.

In the big picture, it's the media giants who are responsible for rampant piracy, by marketing thier products at high cost and making people want them badly. By marketing to youth, who haven't yet got the full mental capacity to sift through the marketing bull****.

The movie industry and the games industry have had record years in terms of profits, that says something to me - despite the piracy, the greed of these industries is what brings in the profits.

[alchamy]

I've seen this one used before, and it's a bad example. Because in your example what you really did was you broke into the car dealship, stole the car, didn't like it and left it on the side of the road. Still makes you a thief. The demos (which are rarely like the game anyway) are there to stop this argument as well.

Not to say that I don't agree with the logic behind your statement, but comparing it to a car test drive is not the best example.


Granted but Demos are not always available, when they are I do download them.

Ok so you don't like my car analogy but do you like paying R300 for game thats so terrible you might aswell chuck it in the bin after 5 minutes?

[caroper]

The movie industry and the games industry have had record years in terms of profits, that says something to me - despite the piracy, the greed of these industries is what brings in the profits.

Good point, and don't forget the source of the information "Copy protection experts Macrovision held a survey......"

That is the equivalent of Markinor saying that 98% of Telkom customers are happy with current pricing.

My CD collection is in the hundreds and my DVD collection is approaching that mark. Very few of the disks do I regret buying, as I saw the Movie or heard the album first. Of my 60 odd legal games however, less than 10% are still played and most of them where never played to conclusion. I don't condone piracy so I stopped buying games.

Cheers
Chris

[DFantom]

The fact that buying of pirated goods drives the whole piracy "industry" is a moot point - that's blaming the people that use it for the people that distribute it, which is against human nature.

It's like going after all the herion addicts to try to erradicate the dealers.

Your average Joe citizen is ALWAYS going to use pirated goods - even the most squeaky clean person who wouldn't go 81 in an 80 zone will at some point have a few mp3's or a copy of word loaned by a friend - a temporary measure that usually becomes permanent.

I don't condone piracy, but I'm a realist - it happens and the vast majority of people will use some form of pirated goods in thier lives. Hell, cmon, you ALL know someone's mom/sister/brother/dad who just wanted to open a word document and didn't have word, so they obtained a copy from someone.

It's exactly the same as home taping in 80's and 90's - everyone and thier gran taped stuff of records, even though it was illegal - but guess what ? - companies manufactured the means to do this ! - what the hell else was a tape recorder for ? - well, to use todays analogy, just to backup your records ?

However, there is a difference between that occassional taping and swapping of tapes and the guy who sells tapes at the car boot sale - IOW, the low end of the real piracy trade.

The equivalent of that guy now is the guy on the public networks sharing gigs and gigs of data in order to improve thier "credit rating" to get more "warez" - the guys above that trade on the private networks for cash.

Those are the guys that should be targetted, not your average citizen who gets a copy of a game or word from a buddy. But they should be targetted, given a small fine and depending on thier involvement, lead authorities higher up the chain.

This is not a solution, however, because in the final analysis, the method of digital distribution is changing too rapidly for many "brick and mortar" companies to keep up. They have misread the market. Todays youth want things now, they don't care for the packaging, just the product.

Most people over 30 will understand the collectors instinct of having something physical that your music is stored on - many of us had/have an almost reverential love of our record/CD collections. Many of us still collect CD's, or collect DVD's

For younger people, that just isn't the case anymore for the most part. If youth can't afford it and they want it, they just pirate it and the vast majority, no matter how much they deny it, see very little wrong with ripping mp3's of the net, or burning a copy of a buddies windowsXP, or ripping a DVD - that much is plain fact. The packaging means nothing. It's a throw-away digital society - and this has been fed and generated by the very people who create the media.

In the big picture, it's the media giants who are responsible for rampant piracy, by marketing thier products at high cost and making people want them badly. By marketing to youth, who haven't yet got the full mental capacity to sift through the marketing bull****.

The movie industry and the games industry have had record years in terms of profits, that says something to me - despite the piracy, the greed of these industries is what brings in the profits.

Excellant Post!

[DFantom]

Granted but Demos are not always available, when they are I do download them.

Ok so you don't like my car analogy but do you like paying R300 for game thats so terrible you might aswell chuck it in the bin after 5 minutes?

I agree with you completely on the fact you should be able to try before you buy. All I was saying was the analogy was bad, not the idea behind it.

[Arzy]

I don't condome piracy, but the retailers in South-Africa leave a lot to be desired. I say this simply because of quick price comparisons, I did this by going to Amazon.com and looking at the Top Selling items they have and checking the South-African price on those items. If you take time I am sure that you will find most of these items still cheaper from other retailers overseas.

The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition)
Amazon.com Price: $23.99(about R150),
Musica Price for normal edition(Platinum extended not avaliable): R225
Kalahari.Net for normal edition(Platinum extended not avaliable): R236.95
So for a lesser product you pay at least R75 more, platinum edition of The Two Towers goes for R661.95 btw so if you want to work on that its R400 more for the same product.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PS2
Amazon.com Price: $45.99(about R275)
Musica Price: R499.95
Kalahari.net Price: R478.95
So about R200 more for the exact same product.

Word of Warcraft
Amazon.com Price: $49.99(about R300)
SA not avaliable at all, but you can play from here if you get a copy of the product

The Sims 2
Amazon.com Price: $39.99(about R240)
Musica Price: Doesn't sell the item
Kalahari.net Price: R285.95
Incredible Connection Price: R299.95
R50 is not horrid, but if you take a look over at www.avault.com you'll notice that the lowest price online for this exact game is $26.06(about R155) and then R150 is horrid

Now I still don't condone piracy, but I also don't like being blatantly ripped off. I understand all about exchange rates and import duties and profit margins, but in my mind these do not add up to a R400 price increase on a DVD or a R200 increase on a PS2 game. If I can't buy something over the web, I just don't buy it, I personally won't support an industry here in south-africa simply because its out of line with other countries in the world.

I'm not sure who ran the program, but a while back I watched a program on TV regarding piracy in SA. What was the most remarkable was an insert they had regarding another African nation and how they totally eradicated the piracy industry in their country. Instead of going out and attacking pirates and enforcing laws and fines, retailers in the country took matters into their own hands, the dropped the prices of their items to the same as what the pirates were selling for. What happened then is easy to imagine, people would simply go an buy a legal copy at a decent price, thus making it pointless for pirates to opperate. Retailers revenue increased within a year of implementing this project due to the increased volumes in sales. I find this an extremely novel solution as in the end it helps everyone, retailers get their money, customers are able to afford the items they want and piracy gets reduced all round.

[alchamy]

I agree with you completely on the fact you should be able to try before you buy. All I was saying was the analogy was bad, not the idea behind it.


Fair enough, will think of another analogy ;)

Arzy, thanks for taking the time to post some real figures.

[AcidRaZor]

BTW, I imported 9 dvd's, it cost me in total just over 350 rand for import duties on all 9 dvd's.

How much is my saving? ;)

[AcidRaZor]

Oh, and interestingly enough, if you don't agree to the EULA, you may return the software/game back to the vendor for a refund. In South Africa, it's strictly enforced NO REFUNDS NO RETURNS

[caroper]

and my favorite quote

"By opening this package you agree to the enclosed EULA. If you do not agree to the terms of the EULA return the package unopend for a refund."

:mad:

[martin]

...

Now I still don't condone piracy, but I also don't like being blatantly ripped off. I understand all about exchange rates and import duties and profit margins, but in my mind these do not add up to a R400 price increase on a DVD or a R200 increase on a PS2 game. If I can't buy something over the web, I just don't buy it, I personally won't support an industry here in south-africa simply because its out of line with other countries in the world.

...


Well said!
I like collecting tv comedy shows (Friends, The Office, etc..) on DVD. I buy all of my dvd's from either America or the UK and even with import duties it's still cheaper. I've saved thousands of rands (I kid you not) by not buying locally. On the complete Friends series alone I saved close to R2500.

[arni1954]

Piracy is coming where there is a gap between the perceived price and the actual price.
If original DVD would be sold for 70 Rands there would not be piracy.
If the various industries want to end piracy they should charge reasonable prices.
Just remember that some years ago gangsters sold in America what we buy today in a bottle stores . As it said “pornography is a matter of geography “ What we are calling today piracy is also can be just a matter of timing

[TheYak]

I can back Martin up on this. I have imported stuff from Amazon.com and it's worked out UNBELIEVABLY cheaper than bying it local.

Example:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The complete 7th season is available from Amazon.com at $38.99. That's R236.41. Add another $10 to that for delivery and that brings us to R297.04. You pay 15% customs for DVDs, so add another R41.58 which gives us R338.62.

I saw the same box set in Look and Listen for over a thousand bucks! R1099 to be exact.

Now... tell me... WHY the HELL would I pay THREE times as much for someting from Look and Listen when I can IMPORT it for cheaper from the States?! I bought the first six seasons for under 2 grand. They're about R1000 EACH in SA. Granted, Amazon had a special where I picked up the first four seasons for something like R600, but still - I would have paid a lot less even if I paid full price for each season!

The entertainment industries in SA are ripping people off! I've heard, from a reliable source, that places like L&L, Musica, CNA etc pay something like R15 for a CD from BMG and other suppliers - they make more than 100% profit on some CDs! I've seen DVDs... normal ones... movies... for over R250 at Compact Disc Warehouse! WTF?! :confused:

I'm a movie nut and own over 150 DVDs of which a fair amount are imported. Obviously for once off DVDs you have to bite the bullet and fork out if you want it, but I tend to wait a while and order in bulk.

So... one day when they decide to stop charging ridiculous prices for DVDs, I'll start buying my stuff from local shops... until then, my cart at Amazon will always have stuff in it.

[ic]

theYak - so did you get BVS-S7? If so, would it be out of line if I asked you to burn me a copy? :D

[TheYak]

bwahahahah!!! It could be frowned upon by some people, yes.

No, I haven't gotten it yet IC. It's on my wishlist though. I'll prolly get it the end of the month. Spent too much money on other crap lately :)

I have a list of something like 10 DVDs (excluding the Buffy stuff) on my wishlist that I wanna get, including some old favourites like the first two "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies etc.

Yes... I'm weird :)

[ic]

...the first two "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies... :eek: This alone is deserving of a list- I had no idea that any such films were made - must be a mental block or something;
Perhaps I'm reading too much into "the first two" - surely you don't mean that more than 2 such films were made?
Please say that these films were animated & not some weirdos dressed up in large green suites...? Actually I don't think I want to know the answer to that.No dude, seriously keep Buffy, drop the mutants ;)

[TheYak]

LOL!!!

I regrettably have to inform you that there were indeed weirdos dressed up in large green suites... with amazingly well done anamatronic heads :)

Three movies were made, but the last one was really crap. The first two were extremely funny and enjoyable!

Hey, these movies were some of my favourites when I was a child - don't diss them! :)

btw, this is not the correct way to go about getting a copy of Buffy - you have to be NICE to me! :D

[ic]

Hey theYak, I was being nice - by potentially saving you years of therapy :)

Oh well, alls I can say is cow-a-bungi-jump ;)

PS: tell master rat-face to throw out all them old pizza boxes!

[AcidRaZor]

Dude, teenage mutant ninja turtles kicks ass... and if anyone can find a dvd with thundercats or robotech on it... oe... and bionic 6, please forward me the url.

re: the topic, piracy is like porn, everyone denies having it/watching it, but everyone did it at one another time.

I like porn, and I pirate **** I feel is too expensive

BTB, "Buying pirated goods is wrong"

Those adverts in the movies never said about downloading and distributing it for free :)

[ic]

Noone, a freshly pirated set of 90 DVDz with 2 episodes of Masterz of the Uni-verz is on its way to your post box...

Project derail a thread is still on time & within budget!

[twixt]

*drool* Thundercats... *drool* Please can I sign up for splendid offering :) And I still have my ninja turtle action figures somewhere...

[AcidRaZor]

Me too, I have Michael Angelo... and the baseball dude from bionic six (with his bike that if you press a button it's transforms!)

:P Lost somewhere... but still have it.

Oe, and 1 leaflet of a thundercats branded notepad

[twixt]

*lol* Noone. Are you saving that to Ebay 1 day? I'm sure you'll be able to gain some valuable currency for SA from some mad american by offering it up... :D

[antowan]

Howzit!

Damn those Bionic Six figures were cool in their day! I think they might even kick most of the modern figures in the behind when it comes to quality. Mostly metal and they could pose every which way!

The Ninja Turtles are back in store, but I am not going to pay the current rates. Nearly R200 for one. Thundercats were awesome too and I believe most of these are now collectibles of note.

A new toy that I nearly bought the other day (the 2nd best seller this past Xmas) is the ROBOSAPIEN. Have you guys seen this thing? Little robot that can be programmed the worx!!! http://www.robosapien.com/

It was out of stock....

:(

Cheers
Ant

[arf9999]

My geek-o-meter just went crazy. 10:1 G/N ratio (Geek to Normal ratio)

[arf9999]

Antowan,

Check out this site for the real geek's Robosapien.

http://tinyurl.com/4zd2k

[koosbeer]

OT:
Soz guys for going OT.
How much would it cost me to buy WoW on Amazon?
Can i do it with my credit card?

[Strobemeister]

Koos, there's a related thread here somewhere.

[Chico]

I really found some of your views very interesting. I especially need to compliment bb_matt for his comments which I thought were excellent.

In respect of this I do most of my downloads via mirc, channel, Phazenet. Where do you all go for yours?

Yours truly,

[TheYak]

Wanna compare notes on figurines?

I have ALL of the Turtles, Bebop, Rockstead and some rabbit dude.
I have some Masters of the Universe ones, including He-Man's tiger
I also have some of the Thundercats: The two small guys and the old man.

And a *****house full of other odds and ends...

These things are worth quite a bit. A guy with a shop at the Rosebank Rooftop market said that I could get up to $45 for a Turtle in good condition! :D

So... no mocking of the "collections" :)

[martin]

A friends of mine who used to work in a print shop made me some great thundercats merchandise as a present:
- A thundercat t-shirt
- A thundercat mug
- A thundercat baseball cap

They are.... precious to me. :)

[ic]

...So... no mocking of the "collections" :)Ok, no offence meant, I just find this all very amuze-ing :)

[bb_matt]

Avast Ya Scarvy Scum
Ahoy Matey!
Aye, aye, captain
Dead men tell no tales
Grab thee a wench
Li'ly libbered land lubbers
Polly wanna cracker?
Shiver me timbers
Swab the deck!
There be treasure in them thar hills
"X" marks the spot
Yo ho, yo ho

[TheYak]

O_o

eh?

I think we lost bb_matt :)

[ic]

I think he has been lost at sea for a while & has scurvy, or at least I think that's what he was trying to say :D

[TheYak]

That, or he's been struggling with his connection for too long and lost his marbles :D

[bb_matt]

hehe - nah, just had waaaaaay too much to drink after a late lunch that started at 2pm and ended at 7pm - lots of wine.

It tends to have that effect on me sometimes, the combination of booze and the internet can be quite remarkable sometimes :D

[ic]

Oh well that explains the scurvy & dehydration effects then - at least it is safe to drink & drive on the information superhighway.

PS: theYak - bb_matt has adsl so no Burst-i problems ;)

[TheYak]

oh! well, if he has ADSL then he has no problem!

he was just drunk then...

I was I was drunk last night, then I wouldn't have screamed at the CEO of WBS :)

[Original]

Hey could someone please tell me where i could get hold of thundercat merchandise in South Africa or alternatively where I could get it printed on T-shirts, mugs etc...ASAP


A friends of mine who used to work in a print shop made me some great thundercats merchandise as a present:
- A thundercat t-shirt
- A thundercat mug
- A thundercat baseball cap

They are.... precious to me. :)

[Clipse]

Lol, I was reading that dooms 3 was available on bit torrant about 2 hours after the unofficial release. It was freely downloadable on the net. Just over that time and there where 5000 people pulling the file, 120min!!! Times that by R300. That is R1500000 lost! If any thing the figures there are underestimated. Did I mension that that was 2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no peace without war!!!

Where is any proof of these 5000 people not buying the game when it got released officially? Most people going so far as to leeching unreleased games, would buy it, since these are the hardcore supporters..

The people usually not buying games, would be the arb downloader, getting his hands on a game after the release.

This same example has been proven with the music industry, even tho they still claim they lose money, they actually gain according to alot of research also done regarding p2p music sharing.. since most of the people actually leech then buy, people dont want to buy **** nemore.

[sburrell]

Every Single person in the World is a pirate, you are all breaking copyright law, every single day you surf the internet.... Do you know why? Hyperlinks.... Every single time you click a hyperlink you break copyright law. You are a pirate!

And yes this is true, but does anybody care? no! because it irrelevant. So i dont think any body can point a finger at anyone else and say you have broken the law, cos everyone has. PPL who download music etc, would definatly buy albums etc, if the music industry actually sold them to them at a affordable price. The music Association is basically a glorified Telscum.

[milez_away]

Well, Radiohead purposely leaked "Kid A" on the internet a few months before release. They did not release any radio singles. Despite that they managed to have a simulataneous no 1 spot (based on album sales) on both UK and US charts.

Moral of the story: If it's good, people will pay.

Of course, the flip side was not everybody who downloaded it bought it, but i'm sure they didn't really care.

[stoke]

How to underestimate the extremely powerful meduim of internet marketing.
A song somebody likes will spread to all his/her friends in one day.
Then their friends next day.
Then ...
The speed is so impressive it's unbelievable, and it's exponential.

But no [says distributor xggp], lets put a stop to all this free marketing.
We'd wrather pay for the marketing and overcharge the consumer.
That way our markup is bigger, and we make more moneee.

No - we're not greedy, we support the artists, who are not greedy. LOL.

[doobiwan]

Piracy is all about value at the end of the day.

Full points to the ZA game distributors who've been bring in games between R200-R300, and at the same time as Europe. I think that's fair. Add a decent demo, and why bother pirating?

When you artificially starve a market people will pirate. E.g. delaying ZA releases of movies (I saw finding Nemo in a computer store 3 months before it came on circuit ;) ) As far as music goes, the industry needs to get it's head out of it's bum. Why should we pay R170 for a CD when most DVD's cost less than that a few weeks after release? Compare production costs! I download what I don't know and buy what I like. I NEVER buy locally, it's cheaper to import from Amazon UK.

It's all fat cats wanting to get fatter. Music industry ~= Telkom.

They'll blame anything to keep their margins, with no regards to increasing volumes.

[bin3]

[QUOTE=sburrell]Every Single person in the World is a pirate, you are all breaking copyright law, every single day you surf the internet.... Do you know why? Hyperlinks.... Every single time you click a hyperlink you break copyright law. You are a pirate!

Bull$.

You might be infereing to the long lost case where they tried patenting hyperlinks. Didn't work. Amazon's one-click is probably the closest. Even then, wouldn't the creators of the software be responsible - Why create a browser if the sole and only purpose is to break copyright ? Surely the RIAA or whomever would have gone after MS or NetScape a looooooooong time ago.

Companies pay to host their websites.
You pay to connect to the internet and surf. For some sites you pay extra.

Nowhere there has there been ANY indication of copyright infringement of any kind.

Think of the up and coming artist, making music in his or her garage; mixing with a cheap 16-bit sound-card, and publishing that: Where is the harm in that ? And by cutting out the middle the artist can make way more money. It's just a different business model.

So sorry if I take offense by you implying that every one of the millions of web hits every day is illegal and a copyright infringement - Somehow I seriously doubt that.

[sburrell]

i was not refering to the British Telecoms case in which they do own the original patents to hyperlink technolgys. Evry little piece of information on the internet is copyrighted by the owner who wrote it, everytime you click on a link, you are inadvertantly retrieving that information and breaking one or more copyright laws, all of which would never stand up in a court of law.

[pookfuzz]

Copyright = A copyright is a form of intellectual property that grants its holder the sole legal right to copy their works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, computer program, or industrial design, for a defined period of time.

That’s according to wikipedia, this is quite generic.

So for example if I asked you "Hey you remember that Britney Spears song, the one that goes hit the baby something or the other...". Now if you responded yes you did know the song that possibly makes you a copyright infringer depending on how much you liked the song, you may even remember all the lyrics and the tune from start to finish.

Of course this is a ludicrous example but it does not change the fact that you would have used your brain to make a copy of what you heard. Perhaps in a more Johnny Mnemonic like future people really will get sued for remembering songs.

[eye_suc]

Like MS trying to copyright the word "Windows".

Can you imagine? Your wife tells you to "WASH THE GAWD DARN WINDOWS!!!" and this big black van rocks up in front of your house and slaps a fine on your forehead.

I think its really silly to copyright some of the intellectual property out there. Just because Bill Gates or Purple Pumpernickel thought of it first doesnt make if fair that nobody else may think of it now...

copyright some software, and some patents and movies (they can be expensive), but music? Geez, whos making the money here? If the artist is getting robbed then i will understand, but if we pirate 1000 cd's of Britney, she wont feel it, cause she only gets 10 dollah while record companies rake in 15000 dollah! Score...