OT- Data Theft

[Sanjuro]

Continuing the discussion from another thread... on the subject of torrent streaming sites, etc.
I've never used them; not for movies, books or music. I'm not sure if this implies morality on my part, or just an unwillingness to compromise my firewall. As for rpg material, I doubt cd sales are making anyone at FarFuture rich: I'm glad the material is available, and the price is not excessive. With any low-volume stuff, it is probably an individual who is being ripped off, not some faceless corporation.

[LT. Ox]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

Continuing the discussion from another thread... on the subject of torrent streaming sites, etc.
I've never used them; not for movies, books or music. I'm not sure if this implies morality on my part, or just an unwillingness to compromise my firewall. As for rpg material, I doubt cd sales are making anyone at FarFuture rich: I'm glad the material is available, and the price is not excessive. With any low-volume stuff, it is probably an individual who is being ripped off, not some faceless corporation.

I hope my purchase of three in the last couple of months helps, had to replace all my old 2000 stuff and catch up to 2013 Now about traveler dern I got to go back to work!!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Even if the CD-ROMs from FFE had been a bit more expensive I still would have bought them but for purely selfish reasons - I wanted copies because my main books were getting worn out from use!
Having digital copies made life easier and it was a big bonus to have them all on the one disk rather than multiple pdfs.

I had been given some scanned copies of 1st Ed. modules from friends many years ago (before they were available from DrivethruRPG) and some people took great care with scanning them while others obviously didn't give much thought to doing it properly. Ultimately I never used them because I preferred the original copies I had (this is partly a fondness for books over ebooks and partly some nostalgia from when RPGs were in their heyday and partly an obsessive desire to possess all the material in its published format).

As for the legal side of things, I truly believe that the smaller RPG companies get royally screwed by the torrenting of their products. The big companies really don't make that much of a loss from it but they need to protect their IP so they'll smash the malefactors to the fullest extent of the law - look at how the corporate music business has punished people for possessing unauthorized copies of songs (bringing suites against 12yr olds comes to mind).

Unfortunately the smaller companies can't afford to be so vengeful and not from simply a legal or financial standpoint - if they get a rep for doing such things, their popularity could take a nosedive and the fans might desert them, the kiss of death for a small business in a niche market. So they're damned if they do and damned if they don't and in a number of cases it's because the person torrenting the product was being a cheap-ass-son-of-a-bitch or they believe themselves to be some sort of "warrior for free information" - I'll bet none of them would work for free so why the hell do they expect the RPG companies to do so?

I get a bit hot under the collar about this topic because in my view, if a small company can't make any money because some dickhead is torrenting all their product and giving it away free, then that company will probably collapse and never make any more product. And I'll admit to being selfish, I want those companies to keep making product because I want the product and having been raised in Australia where we believe in the egalitarian attitude, I see it as nothing less than "fair payment for fair work".

[.45cultist]

I've been hitting DriveThruRPG. And FGU for Aftermath! games.

[Cdnwolf]

Windows 10 and Torrent sites are at war with each other.

Even before Microsoft's updated Privacy Statement and Services Agreement kicked in on August 1, privacy advocates from the European Digital Rights group warned the new privacy policy was "bad news for privacy." Then Windows 10 default settings proved to be skewed toward spying on users by default. The fact that users are opted in unless they take steps to opt out is so bad for privacy that people who do not normally bother to read Microsoft's Services EULA (end-use license agreement) started doing so.

Some news sites warned that if you use Windows 10 then Microsoft's EULA could allow the company to disable counterfeit games and illegal hardware. The portion (7b) that freaked folks out states:

We may automatically check your version of the software, which is necessary to provide the Services and download software updates or configuration changes, without charging you, to update, enhance and further develop the Services, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.

As that blew across the digital wires, Microsoft responded to "Windows 10 built-in piracy kill switch" accusations by claiming its EULA had always given it the power to remotely disable pirated games on PCs. reports torrent sites to

[StainlessSteelCynic]

My concern with this is, Microsoft don't really give a good god-damn if you torrent software but they are very concerned with making money. Win10 appears to be aimed more at forcing people to use Microsoft products or those products that suffered through the acceptance process with Microsoft (MS).

For example, I use an image viewer called IrfanView, it's a great piece of software and it craps all over every one of the Windows image viewers and it also has some of the functionality seen in MS Paint. The "company" that developed it aren't a company at all but a single individual who doesn't necessarily have the resources to comply with MS's licencing demands. He offers the programme for free and just asks for donations as a way to pay him for his work.

It's entirely possible that his programme will not be allowed to run on later versions of Windows software. So I would be forced to use whatever crap MS vomits up or an image viewer made by one of the companies that resigned themselves to conforming to the MS licencing contract.
So I'm not actually getting any choice in what I want to run on my own computer - this is the real concern with MS, their desire to stop piracy isn't nearly as strong as their desire to force customers to use MS products.

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

Windows 10 and Torrent sites are at war with each other.

Even before Microsoft's updated Privacy Statement and Services Agreement kicked in on August 1, privacy advocates from the European Digital Rights group warned the new privacy policy was "bad news for privacy." Then Windows 10 default settings proved to be skewed toward spying on users by default. The fact that users are opted in unless they take steps to opt out is so bad for privacy that people who do not normally bother to read Microsoft's Services EULA (end-use license agreement) started doing so.

Some news sites warned that if you use Windows 10 then Microsoft's EULA could allow the company to disable counterfeit games and illegal hardware. The portion (7b) that freaked folks out states:

We may automatically check your version of the software, which is necessary to provide the Services and download software updates or configuration changes, without charging you, to update, enhance and further develop the Services, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.

As that blew across the digital wires, Microsoft responded to "Windows 10 built-in piracy kill switch" accusations by claiming its EULA had always given it the power to remotely disable pirated games on PCs. reports torrent sites to