Another Zeropaid sourced post, but this is an interesting one for everyone; a developer has recently asked the internet why they are pirating his games, and asked for confidential responces detailing reasons, so he can try and change things. It's turned out that, as expected, a lot of it is down to cost, although there have been some suprises; like people downloading as they do not know if the game is worth buying, and finally the big ol evil DRM. It makes an interesting read, so check it out here

An RIAA backed comic which is being distributed in schools and the like is scaring children into not filesharing in their later life by saying that they will face jail time if they do share copyrighted files. Not only is this an unfair way to do things, forcing fear upon children, but it is in fact a blatent lie; only the very very big inital distributors of material have ever gone to jail; as the majority of cases have been started by the RIAA rather than the state.

Shape up, RIAA.

Peter Moore, once the head of xBox, Dreamcast, and now leading EA Sports, has condemned the action of publishers suing their fans who download games. He says although it is most definitely stealing, the answer is not to punish; but to make games which cannot be experienced properly unless bought (ie, perminant online connections). Referencing the music industry, he goes on to talk about how demanding money from consumers just makes people even less likely to buy your product.

Thumbs up to Peter Moore.

AFACT has published a new report claiming that australian heroin sellers are making millions of dollars by moving into internet piracy, and then funneling all their profits from it into drug production. So in effect, by downloading films, you are supporting the heroin trade, in the same way as if you were buying the stuff.... Riiiight...

Seems all a bit off even before they start talking about biker gangs doesn't it? Absolute propaganda from the Australian anti piracy setups, as they go on to class bittorrent as "Piracy technology", ignoring all the legimate distribution deals the original company has founded...

Via news.

note: sorry about the lack of posts, have been celebrating good exam results :)

After losing it's case against Tanya Andersen, the RIAA has been trying to worm it's way out of paying the money she spent defending and countering her case, a grand total of $107,951. It's a very good day for the public; shows that the RIAA cannot just mess around accusing anyone and get away with it, and this is just the tip of the iceberg; Andersen plans to sue for damages for malicious prosecution, and I'll bet you she will walk away with a big settlement!

Good on her.

As reported, The Pirate Bay was blocked in Italy recently...and when something is blocked, you'd expect a very low number of people to be able to get around the block. In fact, the complete opposite has happened; TPB has shown statistics that 5% more italians are visiting the site, despite the block, completely defeating the object of the whole facade in the first place.

Good job authorities.

The Pirate Bay, the world's most notorious torrent tracker has been blocked by a set of ISPs in Italy. Unsuprisingly, TPB have come back with a quick responce of changing the IPs of the servers, and reccomending users use an alternative URL, labaia.org, to access the site. Of course, it's nothing without the wit of the site owners, who said they expect this from "facist countries", but not Itlay, refering in jest to Italy's checkered political past.