Warez

Petros

Thief IV
Joined
19 May 2003
Messages
3,038
I recently got banned from a forum for talking about playing on a private WoW server. Server emulation, while a violation of the TOU, have never been established as actually being illegal. Nobody has ever been fined and nobody has ever gone to prison over it (actual code theft aside).

People at the site discuss doing things that are a heck of a lot more illegal on that website. Drugs, prostitution, violent assault, theft, sex with minors all come and go without a whiff of a ban over the subject matter.

It's not just that site in particular, though; it's all over the internet. You can't so much as mention that you played Joust on your Atari 2600 emulator without a OMG WAREZ flamewar on most tech-related websites.

Why do you think warez (or even discussion of emulation) is such a hot button issue while other more obvious and illegal things simply get ignored?
 
Ignorance

Plain and simple.
Some site admins are so afraid that their site will get shut down from talking about warez or piracy. It's just the same if I were to explain to you how to pick a door lock. It's not hard, and you can pick most locks in under a minute. Once good at it, less then 10 seconds. But we are getting off track.

I dont think talking about it is bad, while you may think it's good or bad to support piracy, you have to face the facts, it will always be here.
Give them the big FU and take your discussion to another place.
 
I do think the other forums over reacted, considering some of the other stuff that seems to be discussed over there.

I personally think people take a more relaxed view of warez now (ie now it's okay to talk about it, so don't go posting links now :p ) but before if you even mentioned the word people got all uptight.

P.S. Love the avatar Petros.
 
you said warez.. i say we ban petros... ;)
 
tsk tsk.. no swearing either :) LOL :p
 
Bogus copies of a Crysis beta showed up "around town" today. They are all fake.... except for the copy I have of course. :)
 
If you do, I won't share screenshots from my "Beta Tester WINK WINK" copies of Fallout 3 and World of Warcraft 2.

heh.. i'm a simcity fan.... and css.... and....... er.... waiting for field ops. ;)
 
I am going to ban everyone.

Petros, on a serious note, you are welcome to come around here more often. We are cool, sort of.
 
Drugs, prostitution, violent assault, theft, sex with minors all come and go without a whiff of a ban over the subject matter.

I believe it to be everyone has become so afraid of "the man" (ie. MPAA, RIAA, ect.) that seem to push for crazy fines and jail sentences that in alot of cases far exceed those of other crimes. Also "the man" is out trolling the internet on the look-out for people committing this type of crime FAR more then any of the crimes you listed above. By allowing this type of content the forum/sites owners/moderators stand the chance of getting in far more trouble and drawing far more attention then talking about any of your above mentioned crimes.
 
I'm getting the feeling that it's just one of those "old evils" that stick in people's minds long after they were no longer considered horrible and wrong. Sometimes our minds are very selective and don't look at the big picture on certain issues. (Politics, religion, and brand fanboyism comes to mind).

One of the most popular no-cd sites on the internet has their servers in Tampa, Florida. They have been around for as long as I can remember and they never get harassed.

The only thing recently I can think of in regard to people getting in trouble for copy circumvention was the Xbox Live modded firmware bans that was on digg a few weeks ago. It was basically just a terms of use violation; nobody's going to jail over it.
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

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