Firstly the usual problem with torrents is the fact that once you get enough of the torrent in or once it completes it begins to seed the file back out into the wild… I could be wrong but this is likely what got you as myself a warning from your ISP.

I admit I frequently download illegal copies of music and movies. The reasons are that if I buy them most of my money isn't going to be spent on the artists self but on the second parties which only leech the artist.

I should also note that there are certain limits, some bands ask too much money to perform when in fact they aren't even worth it. An artists work (IMO) should be something that was made with and for fun only. Starting to ask money for every crappy note you play is asking for trouble if you aren't talented enough, it's artistic suicide. This, unless you can offort it if you already have a well-established position in the entertainment sector.

As a musician myself (should I also use stand-up comedian for the few shows I did?) I never asked money to perform. The only conditions I had was good working sound material (which most of the time was mine) and free consumption during the act. I had quite some succes but in the end never wanted to achieve a breaktrough. Why didn't I want a breaktrough? I felt happy with the situation, I could do my own thing, decide what I should play or do without some asshole leeching me on the back telling how or what to do. I've never and still not regret that choice.

I have a large collection of "Abandonware", which are games (quite literally) past their "sell-by date".

Mostly old PC DOS games (I use DosBox and other virtual machines), but also Commodore Amiga (WinUAE is a solid emulator, the Unix edition E-UAE [the Egalitarian Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator, lol] is somewhat lacking though - though WinUAE runs well on Wine).

ScummVM is also good, although I do still have legal copies of every LucasArts SCUMM adventure game made (call me a nerd, lol).


Yes, most of these games look like piles of shit in 2009, but there are some little enhancements (such as the hq2x/hq3x/hq4x pixellation-busting graphical filters) which reduce the eyesore component well for many games.

Some old games have also had fan patches which add real 3D acceleration. Notably Doom 1 and 2, Quake (the original GLQuake fucked up the lighting), Frontier: Elite II (and its sequel First Encounters), and possibly many more.


Has anyone gotten into serious legal do-dos for online piracy?
I knew a guy at my university back in the day who got busted for downloading around 10,000 songs on Kazaa over the university's "ResNet" system.
The other students were shitting themselves.

I admit I frequently download illegal copies of music and movies. The reasons are that if I buy them most of my money isn't going to be spent on the artists self but on the second parties which only leech the artist.

So when you download that ripped TV show instead of waiting for it to re-air or be broadcast legally on the web. You just participated in the erosion of the cast and crews salaries, most of which would have been paid by advertisements and broadcast fees.

Also to note. Royalties do not go to the MPAA. The MPAA makes it's money by suing you lol. It also makes money when we pay to get a rating for our movie (PG, R etc) and other things.

Now if you get caught stealing then the MPAA comes after you. This is out of the control of any studio. The money they collect, is theirs and we are still out. But its just the way it works.

Firstly the usual problem with torrents is the fact that once you get enough of the torrent in or once it completes it begins to seed the file back out into the wild… I could be wrong but this is likely what got you as myself a warning from your ISP.

Encrypt your outgoing packets. You may still get a warning for traffic usage, but the content of what you're sharing should remain obscure.