I was gonna post this in Ahmad's thread about piracy, but then I realized nothing good would come of it. By that, I mean replies from people who for all I know are ten years old and don't know shit about shit. So I'm posting it here.

On behalf of all good-hearted pirates everywhere: don't let this kid be our spokesperson. I pirate when there's no alternatives in obtaining old games/movies/etc. I pirate when the corporation behind the product is just as much scum as I am. I pirate when I'm not sure if a game will run well on my computer. Right now I pirate because I can't afford shit; I have a text file on my desktop with all the things I've pirated because I'm poor; when I get money I'll either buy the product or send money to who deserves it. I never pirate from indie developers, as I am comparably taking more from them than I am from the bigger names. I pirate programs I need for college such as Autodesk Maya, because their prices are ridiculous, and because they don't get their money from people like me, they get it from schools and businesses around the world who don't do any research and just assume all the free alternatives are kid's toys, and so they buy it in bulk. It's even crazier when you see how unglodly poor my college is.

In regards to pirating full games that are downloadable: it is theft and despicable and if no plans are made to pay for or later purchase the product, then you deserve punishment. But, it's not as bad as stealing a physical copy from a store. In the store, you are also stealing a disk, a manual, a case, and possibly more than that, all of which will cause a hit to not only the maker's sales, but to the sales of the store; not to mention the cost that goes into producing the physical products.

A big factor is that -- like anything -- it's not a black and white issue. Most pirates are big piles of nutty shit, probably, but to lump them all together and brand them as evil the moment they utter the word "pirate" makes you just as bad as you think they are.

For the record, I never feel good about pirating. If I had a job I would pirate almost nothing, and if I had a decent job I would pirate nothing at all. Well, except Maya, because that three-and-a-half thousand dollar product isn't worth two year's financial aid.