This isn't directed to anyone in particular, but in general to the Internets, but can we just summarize the next 8 pages of messages as:
-- "They never would have bought it."
-- "It's still theft. Would you steal DVDs out of a store?"
-- "It's not a physical product, so the analogy breaks down. No one is hurt."
-- "I'm a publisher, and I am hurt by those real lost sales."
-- "Repeat, they never would have bought it."
-- "We can never know how many would have been real sales."
-- "I just sample, so it's free advertising."
-- Then several lines of conversation balloon about business keeping up with the 21st century, what is the definition of "stealing", does anyone know if piracy actually helps or hurt sales/nope no one knows for sure, how dare you condone theft, etc. etc.
-- Moderator warnings
-- More people presenting the same points as above but in different words to avoid moderator hammer.
-- Moderator bans and thread closing.
So now that we've covered all the topics that appear in
every single thread that ever touches on the issue of piracy, how about some original discussion and/or discussion of this particular case without just re-re-re-re-hashing the same arguments as above? It's obvious that the two sides haven't been convinced by the arguments above and I imagine Morrus has limited hard drive space and bandwidth for recycled debates, so maybe let's just agree that all of the above has now been stated and skip over it this time, eh?
Just a suggestion, take it or ignore as you like.