Trashing the PC is a developer's right in the case of piracy, lesson learned to the young ones who have pirated these sims.  It's a hard lesson, and I don't know if it's a legal option.  Developers should just make sure their products can't work unless purchased and licensed to a specific PC.  It can be done, it's done by big companies all the time.  But the coding is an added mass to the product and I know developers don't want that.  It's an honesty act, like riding the light rail in Phoenix.  You purchase a card or not to get on the train.  I found the same true in Europe.  You just do what is right.

John

Don't know if trashing the PC is legal or not, but it sure might be fun, especially if the pirate's PC locks up with a screen saying "THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!"   

51 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Don't know if trashing the PC is legal or not, but it sure might be fun, especially if the pirate's PC locks up with a screen saying "THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!"   

Or: GOTCHA! YOU THIEVING B*S*A*D! 

 

 

Just noticed your sig: "What's it doing now?" The times I hear this cry from my wife about her PC!

1 hour ago, Cactus521 said:

Trashing the PC is a developer's right in the case of piracy,

If you walk on my lawn do I get to vandalize your house? If you steal my lawn mower do I get to beat you up?

The law takes a very dim view to what you advocate, and any software author that did this immediately opens themselves up to all sorts of lawsuits.

Luke

I am not advocating it, I am not in that position vs. a payware developer.  But I know some have done this.  Is it right?  Well, is it right to steal?  It is probably too strong of a punishment for piracy but pirates have to be careful because some developers are getting fed up with the taking of their intellectual property.  The governments are weak on cybercrime, they try to investigate but the pirates are insidious in their intentions and try to work around all corners.  Most of these pirates come out of Africa and they are very skilled at attacking developers.  It's a war.

Look, we have all recorded movies onto a VCR, DVD or computer.  No one is perfect.  But in the world of software development, the hard work that goes into coding software for medical, retail, hospitality, legal systems needs to be protected.  People demand from us "ease of use" and we work hard to do it, we have to protect our product from being stolen just like one would protect a car on a dealers lot.  I am glad to have retired from all of this.  The stress over the years took its toll.

John

1 hour ago, Cactus521 said:

But I know some have done this.  Is it right?

No.

2 hours ago, Luke said:

If you walk on my lawn do I get to vandalize your house? If you steal my lawn mower do I get to beat you up?

The law takes a very dim view to what you advocate, and any software author that did this immediately opens themselves up to all sorts of lawsuits.

Luke

But there's never a cop around when you need one!

3 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

Look, we have all recorded movies onto a VCR, DVD or computer.

Quite the generalization to make to say that we've all done it, really.

Can't say I haven't known anyone who hasn't recorded a show from a VCR, at least in my generation.

John

7 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

Can't say I haven't known anyone who hasn't recorded a show from a VCR, at least in my generation.

I don't watch TV or movies, so there's that.

On 9/1/2017 at 2:23 PM, HighBypass said:

Don't know if trashing the PC is legal or not, but it sure might be fun, especially if the pirate's PC locks up with a screen saying "THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!"   

Problem with trashing a PC deals with who owns it.  If a parent owns a PC, or a grandparent and is unaware that a child has pirated software, the third party software developer has punished them unfairly.  High end commercial software usually has more benign protection built into it, more effort goes in to protecting the software.  Other developers protect based on machine config, which is what I believe Microsoft does.  Pirated software also often bundles malware or viruses into their downloads, manifested by a bunch of pop-ups or a bunch of unneeded and damaging software added into the computer and virtually impossible to remove.  It's a game of russian roulette I would never play, plus other than being a simmer and computer card player, I am not into games.  For office I run Openoffice, a good substitute given the price of Office.

It's certainly a hot topic, always has been.  The best option is to support our payware developers who have worked hard to stay in business over the years.  I'm not saying buy everything but certainly pay for what you desire to enhance the sims.

John

True fact John! I too run Open Office. 

I let out a sigh when I went on you tube to surf for videos of PMDG 's 747: As soon as I began typing, the search box was coming up with PMDG QOTS II free download etc. etc. 

True fact John! I too run Open Office. 

I let out a sigh when I went on you tube to surf for videos of PMDG 's 747: As soon as I began typing, the search box was coming up with PMDG QOTS II free download etc. etc. 

 

Kevin - if you lived in the UK you'd have a devil of a time proving to the authorities that you don't watch TV when you own a laptop/PC. Over here we have TV licensing - there's an annual fee to be paid to the BBC for watching TV on any device capable of doing so I believe - only if you're watching BBC or iPlayer (their catchup broadcasts)- you don't need a licence for all the other channels no doubt because they generate revenue from advertising unlike the BBC which never has.

3000 miles separated by a common language and stupid laws eh? :D 

Edited September 3, 20178 yr by HighBypass

23 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Kevin - if you lived in the UK you'd have a devil of a time proving to the authorities that you don't watch TV when you own a laptop/PC. Over here we have TV licensing - there's an annual fee to be paid to the BBC for watching TV on any device capable of doing so I believe - only if you're watching BBC or iPlayer (their catchup broadcasts)- you don't need a licence for all the other channels no doubt because they generate revenue from advertising unlike the BBC which never has.

3000 miles separated by a common language and stupid laws eh? :D 

I guess they consider YouTube as TV then? That's insane. I do put up my fair share of YouTube videos, but I can hardly call that TV. Very few people would want to watch me fly a plane anyhow.

2 hours ago, Captain Kevin said:

I guess they consider YouTube as TV then?

You need a licence to watch (or record) live TV (ie any linear TV channel - whether the programmes themselves are live or recorded), whether you do that through a traditional TV set in the corner of the living room, on a laptop with a TV tuner card or stream it over the Internet (through any service). You also need a licence to watch BBC iPlayer (the BBC's 'catch up' service).

Basically, it's now about what you watch rather than what device you watch it on. You can watch as many YouTube videos as you want, but what you can't do without a TV licence is watch a TV channel through YouTube as it goes out.

On 03/09/2017 at 10:13 AM, HighBypass said:

only if you're watching BBC

Nope - any linear TV channel, not just the BBC. Even if you only watch ITV live through the Internet, you still need a licence.

Radio is free though! ;)