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[ChairmanPoo]

Buying a bootleg movie/game costs 1-2 dollars (or more/less depending on where you live). Getting a internet connection and computer good enough to download a game/movie in a few hours-1 day is much more expensive. And buying the game/movie legally is 10 times more expensive then buying it illegally (if you can even find it where you live) so buying it illegally is the best option.

Nonsense. If you don't have a computer in the first place what's the point of buying a bootleg?

[Derekristow]

Buying a bootleg movie/game costs 1-2 dollars (or more/less depending on where you live). Getting a internet connection and computer good enough to download a game/movie in a few hours-1 day is much more expensive. And buying the game/movie legally is 10 times more expensive then buying it illegally (if you can even find it where you live) so buying it illegally is the best option.

Nonsense. If you don't have a computer in the first place what's the point of buying a bootleg?

If you only have a DVD player, or the internet is not widely available in your area/country.  In most developed countries, it makes no sense whatsoever.

[lemon10]

Buying a bootleg movie/game costs 1-2 dollars (or more/less depending on where you live). Getting a internet connection and computer good enough to download a game/movie in a few hours-1 day is much more expensive. And buying the game/movie legally is 10 times more expensive then buying it illegally (if you can even find it where you live) so buying it illegally is the best option.

Nonsense. If you don't have a computer in the first place what's the point of buying a bootleg?

If you only have a DVD player, or the internet is not widely available in your area/country.  In most developed countries, it makes no sense whatsoever.

In undeveloped contries, people are likely to A) be non computer savvy (so you don't know where/how to pirate software) and/or B) be unable to afford broadband, or more likely not have any broadband provider in your area, and if you have a dialup and are downloading a 6 gig game at 5kb a second it will take ~14 days of having your internet on full time (clogging up your phoneline and costing a lot of money). On the flipside you can get a game/movie for much cheaper and quicker if you just go to the mall and buy a bootleg game/movie.
Yeah, in developed countries they don't have any due to the fact that law enforcement will stop them and because people won't buy them.

[ChairmanPoo]

In undeveloped contries, people are likely to A) be non computer savvy (so you don't know where/how to pirate software)

Ah, come on. My 8 year old cousin knows how to pirate software. It's not like it requires a high level of savvyness. Also, this has no bearing with what I said

B) be unable to afford broadband, or more likely not have any broadband provider in your area, and if you have a dialup and are downloading a 6 gig game at 5kb a second it will take ~14 days of having your internet on full time (clogging up your phoneline and costing a lot of money).

Not that many games are 5 gb big, and you can download 2-3gb on dialup without much trouble and without clogging your connection too much. Sure, it wont be near-instant instant gratification as with broadband, but it can be done.

Furthermore, if they can't afford broadband, chances are they don't have a top-notch computer exactly, making the whole "5gb game" point moot. If the best thing that runs in your old piece of junk is starcraft, the download size of, say, Assasins Creed, is irrelevant.

Yeah, in developed countries they don't have any due to the fact that law enforcement will stop them and because people won't buy them.

Hmm, actually, there were bootleggers around, till recently. There might still be, for all I know, never was too interested in them. They sold cds and the like for around 1€.

[olemars]

It's a crime.

Where you steal stuff.

What is your issue?

Here's what US law says about criminal copyright infringement. It's probably among the most severe in the world, the only thing I believe to be universally criminal due to international treaties is making a financial gain from copyright infringement.

§ 506. Criminal offenses

(a) Criminal Infringement. —

(1) In general. — Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed —

(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or

(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.

So in the US it's a crime to pirate a movie if you do it past a certain limit, the base act itself isn't a crime as such. Outside this it's civil litigation only (which of course can ruin your life just as easily).

What's amusing is that the maximum penalty for commiting criminal software piracy is the same as for being a crew member on a pirate ship.

In some countries, like Spain it's explicitly legal to make copies of something you own and giving it to friends and family.

[G-Flex]

In undeveloped contries, people are likely to A) be non computer savvy (so you don't know where/how to pirate software)

Ah, come on. My 8 year old cousin knows how to pirate software. It's not like it requires a high level of savvyness.

A lot of eight-year-olds in developed countries are much, much more savvy than people in undeveloped countries who might not even have computers in the first place.

Not that many games are 5 gb big, and you can download 2-3gb on dialup without much trouble and without clogging your connection too much. Sure, it wont be near-instant instant gratification as with broadband, but it can be done.

A lot of people would rather spend two dollars than wait however many days it would take to download a few gigabytes on broadband. Also, we aren't just talking about games here; piracy of things like movies is pretty big in some countries, and for good reason.

It's a crime.

Where you steal stuff.

What is your issue?

As other people have stated, no, it is not necessarily a criminal offense. Also, you don't know what "steal" means, unless you're defining it so broadly that you might as well not use the word at all.

[Sensei]

The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (“PROTECT IP Act”)

Just thought I'd say, how much time do you think they spent coming up with that?

[Angel Of Death]

Maybe a day or two.

[Starver]

I spent at least half an hour over my previous suggestion of countering it with the "Contrived Rubrics Involving Magniloquently Inscribed Nonsensical Acronymic Labels" Act, but did anyone comment?

[freeformschooler]

I spent at least half an hour over my previous suggestion of countering it with the "Contrived Rubrics Involving Magniloquently Inscribed Nonsensical Acronymic Labels" Act, but did anyone comment?

Unless it's not what you meant, you must realize that unless it's for an internet argument, if you spend over half and hour writing a single post, the population of people that are likely to read and then comment on it will dwindle significantly.

[Starver]

Unless it's not what you meant, you must realize that unless it's for an internet argument, if you spend over half and hour writing a single post, the population of people that are likely to read and then comment on it will dwindle significantly.

Communicating At Really Effusive Forums Using Lexicon Levity You Could Rally And Form The Entertainingest Dispatch!

(No, really, wasn't looking for credit, just saying as how they probably spent longer, and had more people involved, in getting the "PROTECT" concept up and running. )

[Sensei]

Who Harangues You?

[Starver]

Brother, Every Citizen Asks Universally Searching Enquiries...

[edit:With the benefit(?) of a night's sleep, I decided I should have gone with "Uncomfortably" after all.]

[Bohandas]

The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (“PROTECT IP Act”)

Just thought I'd say, how much time do you think they spent coming up with that?

And more importantly, I wanna know if its SUPPOSED to be ironic...

[Aklyon]

The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (“PROTECT IP Act”)

Just thought I'd say, how much time do you think they spent coming up with that?

And more importantly, I wanna know if its SUPPOSED to be ironic...

They were probably being serious, sadly.