Guy uses a 'Free PS3' fraudulent coupon to get a free PS3

[david]

If I made a program/movie that I charged for, and people were downloading it illegally without paying for it. I would consider that stealing. Internet Piracy = Stealing.

[LiquidSolstice]

Okay okay calm down! I'm just having some fun with this forum :p The truth is that I do believe piracy is wrong. And I will add a point of mine, I see a lot of people complain about how games/music/movies haven't been up to par but then they go on downloading stuff, well if nobody gets paid then of course nobody will bother creating good content. So you can calm down, I was just trying to get a reaction out of people :) I do have a growing blu ray library and looking into a 3DTV for the world cup this summer, I hear Fox Sports World will start broadcasting in 3D.

Ahh, no hard feelings, you just kinda pulled on the wrong string when I was in rage mode :P. 3DTV will be pretty crazy, i won't lie.

[_I am Reptar]

[vladmphoto]

Ahh, no hard feelings, you just kinda pulled on the wrong string when I was in rage mode :p. 3DTV will be pretty crazy, i won't lie.

Ah, sorry about it.....I get weird at night. I knew it was a sensitive topic since it has been more than discussed on Neowin and I was a jerk...

Anyways, about the 3DTV, I dropped into Best Buy the other day to check one out and I really did like it however, the model currently out by Samsung is 2500 for the 40" one but get this, an additional 2 pairs of shutter glasses are $500!! I mean I love my technology as much as the next geek but WOW, it's a tad bit expensive for early adopters. If this catches on, it could potentially be brilliant!

[LiquidSolstice]

Pathetic, way to not read any of the posts in here.

Ah, sorry about it.....I get weird at night. I knew it was a sensitive topic since it has been more than discussed on Neowin and I was a jerk...

Anyways, about the 3DTV, I dropped into Best Buy the other day to check one out and I really did like it however, the model currently out by Samsung is 2500 for the 40" one but get this, an additional 2 pairs of shutter glasses are $500!! I mean I love my technology as much as the next geek but WOW, it's a tad bit expensive for early adopters. If this catches on, it could potentially be brilliant!

No worries, my bad for jumping down your throat. But yeah, early adopters always pay a steep price, but can you imagine when 3D is the norm? I'm not exactly talking hologram status, but when we manage to make sans-glasses 3D displays? I know it's been done but it's nowhere near ready for production, but still, it's the next step we can go now that we've conquered high definition.

[ScottKin]

No I think stealing is when they charge $40+ for a Blu-Ray movie, now that's stealing. It's the same principle as if they one day decided to charge $1000 a month for water because they know people need it so they extort people into paying for it. Same thing with movies and music. Bottom line, people will buy good music and movies and will download the ones that they would have never paid for anyways. I think you're too old to understand so why don't you leave it up to others that do get it, champ.

Wow - lovely response...especially the part of being "too old". You can't reply to the comment with a cogent response, so you then resort to an Ad Hominem attack. I *am* old enough to have seen pretty much everything since even before the first PC, and before you were probably born.

If I didn't relish my "0% Warn" level, young pup, I'd sling your bovine fecal excrement back in your general direction with equal, if not more velocity.

The fact of the matter is that I *do* get it - and I get it that it's illegal to download pirated software, movies, and music.

Perhapse it's is your naivete' that makes you think that those things are OK. Media companies aren't stealing from anyone, because you have the choice of not buying their product.

Since we don't agree, let's just leave it at that.

--ScottKin

[vladmphoto]

Pathetic, way to not read any of the posts in here.

No worries, my bad for jumping down your throat. But yeah, early adopters always pay a steep price, but can you imagine when 3D is the norm? I'm not exactly talking hologram status, but when we manage to make sans-glasses 3D displays? I know it's been done but it's nowhere near ready for production, but still, it's the next step we can go now that we've conquered high definition.

I think 3DTV with glasses is Hollywood getting its foot in the door to bring 3D viewing to our living room and I agree with you that the next step after this is 3DTV without glasses and hopefully 2K and 4K resolutions!

[Astra.Xtreme]

Just to be clear, is downloading illegal, or is sharing illegal? I'm pretty sure the answer is sharing. Nobody has even gotten sued for downloading. Just sharing. There IS a difference.

And don't bother making petty assumptions that I'm a "hyper pirate". I'm just asking a question/making a point. No need to make yourself look like a douchebag. Thanks in advance.

[LiquidSolstice]

Just to be clear, is downloading illegal, or is sharing illegal? I'm pretty sure the answer is sharing. Nobody has even gotten sued for downloading. Just sharing. There IS a difference.

And don't bother making petty assumptions that I'm a "hyper pirate". I'm just asking a question/making a point. No need to make yourself look like a douchebag. Thanks in advance.

Well gee, aren't you the self-secure one.

[CentralDogma]

Just to be clear, is downloading illegal, or is sharing illegal? I'm pretty sure the answer is sharing. Nobody has even gotten sued for downloading. Just sharing. There IS a difference.

And don't bother making petty assumptions that I'm a "hyper pirate". I'm just asking a question/making a point. No need to make yourself look like a douchebag. Thanks in advance.

You can find out yourself! By searching through the cryptic laws that govern intellectual property. Enjoy! ;)

Edit: Wow did this thread derail.

[LiquidSolstice]

Just to be clear, is downloading illegal, or is sharing illegal? I'm pretty sure the answer is sharing. Nobody has even gotten sued for downloading. Just sharing. There IS a difference.

And don't bother making petty assumptions that I'm a "hyper pirate". I'm just asking a question/making a point. No need to make yourself look like a douchebag. Thanks in advance.

Actually, just to be clear, no one is arguing that sharing is illegal. Nice try and being intelligent, please take a number and try again another day.

And that basically kills your entire point, so good job doing exactly what you asked everyone else not to do. @_@

[alfaaqua]

Stealing is a taking away physical property without the consent of the owner. This is a physical loss because the owner no longer has the property and wasn't compensated for it.

When you download copyrighted material, noone gets compensated for it either.

No I think stealing is when they charge $40+ for a Blu-Ray movie, now that's stealing. It's the same principle as if they one day decided to charge $1000 a month for water because they know people need it so they extort people into paying for it. Same thing with movies and music and PS3. Bottom line, people will buy good music and movies and consoles and will download or steal the ones that they would have never paid for anyways. I think you're too old to understand so why don't you leave it up to others that do get it, champ.

Corrected that for you :)

If you had to choose (and it was legal) between paying for good music and downloading good music which would you choose? Exactly my point and makes yours invalid

Those atoms are deposited onto a storage medium of some kind:

Hard Drive - change in magnetism & resistance of a pattern of 1's and 0's deposited onto a magnetic disk

Optical Disc - Lasers burn holes or divvots onto / into a storage medium.

Memory (Flash, etc) - 1's and 0's are written to the device and energy changes are made in transistors.

In essence, bits *are* physical, just like electrons are physical.

--ScottKin

You are correct. :) My atoms example was just to show that they are both very similar. I knew someone would scientifically correct me :p but thank you; You learn something everyday :)

Let me fix that for you:

[Astra.Xtreme]

Actually, just to be clear, no one is arguing that sharing is illegal. Nice try and being intelligent, please take a number and try again another day.

And that basically kills your entire point, so good job doing exactly what you asked everyone else not to do. @_@

Wow aren't you just a bundle of joy... You know there is more to life than being an "tough guy" on the internet, right? :no:

And fyi, you're arrogant comment had nothing to do with what I said in the first place. I simply asked the question if sharing is illegal, or downloading.

You, as well as other people, are flying off the hook about how downloading is the devil and you should be beaten with rocks if you download.

Well I've never seen a lawsuit about somebody JUST downloading. They have all been for sharing music, movies, or whatever.

By all means, prove me wrong. I'd actually be very interested if somebody does. Obviously you couldn't hold back at being an uppity as*hole, so proceed....

[UndergroundWire]

Wow aren't you just a bundle of joy... You know there is more to life than being an "tough guy" on the internet, right? :no:

And fyi, you're arrogant comment had nothing to do with what I said in the first place. I simply asked the question if sharing is illegal, or downloading.

You, as well as other people, are flying off the hook about how downloading is the devil and you should be beaten with rocks if you download.

Well I've never seen a lawsuit about somebody JUST downloading. They have all been for sharing music, movies, or whatever.

By all means, prove me wrong. I'd actually be very interested if somebody does. Obviously you couldn't hold back at being an uppity as*hole, so proceed....

LOL to this entire comment. :D

[LiquidSolstice]

Wow aren't you just a bundle of joy... You know there is more to life than being an "tough guy" on the internet, right? :no:

And fyi, you're arrogant comment had nothing to do with what I said in the first place. I simply asked the question if sharing is illegal, or downloading.

You, as well as other people, are flying off the hook about how downloading is the devil and you should be beaten with rocks if you download.

Well I've never seen a lawsuit about somebody JUST downloading. They have all been for sharing music, movies, or whatever.

By all means, prove me wrong. I'd actually be very interested if somebody does. Obviously you couldn't hold back at being an uppity as*hole, so proceed....

You know, I've gotta thank you, you're giving me one hell of a laugh.

I'm pretty sure by not I've made many subtle references to the fact that I pirate once every so often, and that the way to look at it is that if you pirate, accept that it's wrong and move on, don't pathetically try and defend it.

And yes, you're doing exactly what I ranted about, you're ****ing wordplay. Sharing music that you don't have the rights to distribute counts as piracy, jesus christ. This isn't rocket science you fool.

It's been this way for a long time. Obviously, you aren't very old, this has been going on since VHS tapes. See this warning?

How much more in your face and clear does that have to be? Here, somthing a bit more recent, if VHS tapes blow your mind.

You see child, the internet is chock-full of little kids probably your age as well all thinking that they have to take revenge on the media companies for pricing their stuff any more than $0.00 and feel it's their right and they are entitled to it.

But see, I'm not even TALKING about that. I don't give a flying !@#$ why you download, that's irrelevent. Admit to yourself it's wrong and move on. It's not that difficult. You don't stand there trying to explain to everyone why you smoke to make it look better, do you? No, you just smoke, and you know it's bad, but you do it anyway.

Here, since you want everyone to be the bad guy by claiming "sharing is not illegal"; yes, you're right, sharing certain things is certainly legal. Until you run into things that have copyrights on them that give only once license to use their content at a time.

1. I work super hard to learn all about Visual Basic, and after a few months, am experienced enough to create a video converter to my liking.

2. I decide to put up two versions of it, a free version with limits and a pro version with no limits, and I price it reasonably at $10.

3. Some "we're-just-doing-this-for-educational-purposes" kiddies decide they want to take apart my arguably weak protection.

4. They "share" it on the internet, and pretty soon, my Google results turn out to list my project page on the same page that other results containing the cracked file are listed.

What exactly is legal about that situation? What is right? What is even slightly morally ethical?

That's right, nothing. You little mook. It's so easy to sit there tall on your pedestal and attempt to defend the public who thinks they're all being ripped off and that they're entitled to share whatever they own because they feel it's ok. I challenge you to do something, create some content, and just watch as it flies right out from under your feet.

And I'm not even admitting that I'm purely innocent here. Yes, I have downloaded illegally distributed content before. (silence) You hear that? Oh wait, no, you don't, because I'm not sitting there pathetically trying to justify why I did what I did. Ut would take too long and no one would give a damn anyway.

Oh, thanks for referring to me as the "internet tough guy". I probably do far more with my life outside computers than you ever will. It's pretty clear that in all truth, you just want to be "that guy" who jumps in a conversation with no proof and no substance and expects to be lauded for it. You keep waiting.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Here, since you want everyone to be the bad guy by claiming "sharing is not illegal"; yes, you're right, sharing certain things is certainly legal. Until you run into things that have copyrights on them that give only once license to use their content at a time.

I'm not even going to bother responding to the rest of your post because you are clearly too stupid to spell and read...

Please show me where I said sharing is legal? Yeah that's what I thought.

[Fluxii Media]

Yeah that 4chan site is pretty cruddy... I went on it for a day and I feel like my IQ has dropped. As for this article, this has been around for ages, I've used it before to buy some snacks and soda, nothing serious though! :p

P.s. This is my first reply/post as a Subscriber! No more ads! :D

[Snowl]

What if your not in the US LiquidSolstice?

[LiquidSolstice]

What if your not in the US LiquidSolstice?

Does it make it any more ethical to the poor programmer who spent lots of his time and effort to create that application? :/ This isn't about the legality, it's about the ethics, mate.

[Astra.Xtreme]

*your thoughts and claims*

Well I wasn't going to bother, but I might as well get a few things straight.

Honestly, say what you want, but the fact is that you shot me an uncalled for insult after I asked a simple question. ("gee aren't you self-secure")

You can claim you were joking or whatever, but it was a shallow and stupid thing to say when all I was looking for was a civilized answer/comment.

And every single response after that, you repeatedly insulted me and called me names. Now, I really don't give a sh*t, but you have no right to say I attacked you first.

With that said, will you please stop saying that I claimed that sharing is legal?!? I never ever made such a claim, so why do you keep bringing that up?

Sharing is most definitely illegal, hence why people get sued. Downloading in itself is unethical at most, but that is also besides the point.

I could make a very strong case that piracy actually helps the music industry, etc. There have been plenty of studies done if you're interested more.

The ethics of it is all personal opinion until you share and break the law.

Again, I was totally willing to be calm about this until you attacked me. Moral of the story, you started it, and I'm ending it. That's it.

[LiquidSolstice]

Well I wasn't going to bother, but I might as well get a few things straight.

Good, now that you've stopped downplaying me and actually giving me something to work with, it'll be easier.

Honestly, say what you want, but the fact is that you shot me an uncalled for insult after I asked a simple question. ("gee aren't you self-secure")

You can claim you were joking or whatever, but it was a shallow and stupid thing to say when all I was looking for was a civilized answer/comment.

BAW BAW my bad. I didn't realize you would take it so seriously. Better?

And every single response after that, you repeatedly insulted me and called me names. Now, I really don't give a sh*t, but you have no right to say I attacked you first.

Actually, every single reply after that was just in response to you insulting me, which now is clear why you insulted me because you didn't realize what I said was a joke. But no, I had quite a bit more in each of those replies, if you overlooked the little tidbits where I retorted to your name-calling.

With that said, will you please stop saying that I claimed that sharing is legal?!? I never ever made such a claim, so why do you keep bringing that up?

Sharing is most definitely illegal, hence why people get sued. Downloading in itself is unethical at most, but that is also besides the point.

I could make a very strong case that piracy actually helps the music industry, etc. There have been plenty of studies done if you're interested more.

...Then what in the hell were you trying to say? That sharing and downloading are different? Of course they are....what else are you trying to argue then?

The ethics of it is all personal opinion until you share and break the law.

And you're not breaking the law by obtaining something which should be paid for, as free? There is no opinion in there, that's called fact.

Again, I was totally willing to be calm about this until you attacked me.

Not going to apologize for making what I thought was a simple attempt at sarcastic humor and you taking it the wrong way.

Moral of the story, you started it, and I'm ending it. That's it.

Moral of the story? You're just an elitist. Listen to you. "I'm right and you're wrong and there's nothing you can say otherwise."

I didn't start anything, you still have no idea what you inserted into this thread. This is what you asked, dammit;

Just to be clear, is downloading illegal, or is sharing illegal? I'm pretty sure the answer is sharing. Nobody has even gotten sued for downloading. Just sharing. There IS a difference.

I shall reply once and for all: 'Just to to be clear, no one is arguing about that. Downloading in the sense of clicking ona file and saving it to your computer is not illegal. No-freaking-crap.Downloading a trial version of a program that CNet hosts up is not illegal. Yes, there is a difference between the two, but no, no one was arguing that there wasn't, therefore I'm telling you that question is not being asked right now.'

Is that good enough for you? I hope so. because if you can point out to me where the subject of arguing of downloading was illlegal or if it's sharing that's illegal came up, I'll eat my words. Please. Show me where anyone was arguing that topic.

[s1k3sT]

Just thought I would add my own two cents:

I don't think laws are the same as morals. Sure, it's illegal to pirate, but is it moral? IMO there is nothing wrong with piracy as long as no money is made from it. I don't agree with someone buying a pirated movie to save a few dollars, either learn to pirate yourself or wait for the dvd. I think this is wrong because it deprives the content creator from getting their cut. Now, with most piracy I don't think the content's creator it losing any money. I know a lot of people that pirate everything, but if they had to buy it all they wouldn't buy anything. If it wasn't for piracy I wouldn't know half the bands I do. I also know plenty of people that pirate to get an idea of if the want to buy. Whether the lost sales caused by piracy outnumber the sales created by piracy or not I don't know, and I doubt there would be anyway to prove it either way.

Edit: Just realized what the topic is actually about...

Anyone using these coupons is just asking for trouble.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

thread cleaned

any more bickering will result in thread closure and warns given out.

[LiquidSolstice]

Just thought I would add my own two cents:

I don't think laws are the same as morals. Sure, it's illegal to pirate, but is it moral? IMO there is nothing wrong with piracy as long as no money is made from it. I don't agree with someone buying a pirated movie to save a few dollars, either learn to pirate yourself or wait for the dvd. I think this is wrong because it deprives the content creator from getting their cut. Now, with most piracy I don't think the content's creator it losing any money. I know a lot of people that pirate everything, but if they had to buy it all they wouldn't buy anything. If it wasn't for piracy I wouldn't know half the bands I do. I also know plenty of people that pirate to get an idea of if the want to buy. Whether the lost sales caused by piracy outnumber the sales created by piracy or not I don't know, and I doubt there would be anyway to prove it either way.

Edit: Just realized what the topic is actually about...

Anyone using these coupons is just asking for trouble.

So....because your friends wouldn't buy anything at all if they didn't pirate, that suddenly justifies it? While it's true a content creator isn't "losing" money, he is losing potential profits, because he's losing opportunities to make the money because people are getting the product without paying for it. It's as though you buy a pair of jeans and use them for 2 weeks and then return them because you didn't like them. Sure, you can argue that you didn't want to waste money on something you don't like, but would you really do that in real life? :/

The arguement that "you don't actually know how much money a content creator might or might not have made" only goes so far; if everyone who pirates uses this strategy to defend it, then theoretically, he's absolutely with 100% certainty losing money because if no one is buying the product in the first place and everyone is pirating it, then it's just obvious.

While I'm happy for you that you've found new bands, there are legitimate and licensed ways to find new music (Pandora, Grooveshark, Last.fm, etc), so I'm not sure how much I believe that it's such a great thing.

[CIC]

Some clear answers:

1. The creation, distribution and/or use of counterfeit coupons is illegal.

2. Yes, Individuals have been arrested for these activities over the past few months.

3. At least one manufacturer has decided to suspend all coupons because of the counterfeits, hurting everyone who wanted to use real coupons.

4. We are offering rewards averaging $2,500 per counterfeit coupon for information leading to the successful prosecution of individuals who have created these counterfeits.

More information is available at www.cents-off.com.