I will tell you why I pirate software/music, and I don't give a rip what any of you say about it. Here goes...
Music:
I am sick and god damned tired of going down to Tower Records and buying a CD full of SHIT songs and one or two good ones for $20. Most musicians these days make a couple (or maybe even just one) headline song that is actually GOOD, then they fill the CD with "contractual obigation" music. Shit they threw together in a day or two so they could fill up the CD and get paid.
The record companies still refuse to let us purchase songs individually, so until that day comes, I will spend as little money as possible. Maybe when they do start selling songs individually from a CD, the artists will actually WORK HARDER TO MAKE GOOD MUSIC instead of contractual filler crap songs. Most CD's are barely worth the plastic they are printed on, let alone $20. How many times did you pay full price for a CD only to find out it sucked hardcore. This last Limp Bizkit album comes to mind.
One other reason I don't give a crap about ripping off music is that the price of manufacturing CD's has gone WAY, WAY down from when they first came out, yet the price to the consumer has never gone down, and in many cases it has actually gone up. The HUGE CORPORATE PRICKS that run the recording companies make most of that money, basically stealing from US and the Artists themselves.
Games:
This is along similar lines, but after I have tried software, I will usually purchase it. Especially games. If I find they are worth the $50, I will buy them. Most of the time they are not. They are so over-priced and over-hyped these days that I have no problem using them for free to try them out. Hopefully the game has a demo so I dont have to use warez. Take SOF2 for example. Thank god it had a demo because it sucked so bad I would have been livid if I had actually spent $50 on that game. Clearly the creators of this game needed to churn out something to make a bit of extra money. Well, they aren't getting any of mine with a game like that. I have purchased the games I thought were actually worth the money. Quake(1,2,3) Tribes(1,2) Half Life, Unreal, and a few others. I have paid for them and a few of them I have purchased a more than once. I will continue to do so. I also have no problem paying for other software (apps) if the price is reasonable.
Bottom line is, I have been on the net since 1992, and I have been ripped off WAY too many times by the Recording and Software industries. Now the technology is in place for me to get some of that money back and I have NO problem doing it. When THEY get honest, so will I.
As for leaked games/demos, I don't mind looking at them, but I am also smart enough to know when a game is obsiouly NOT FINISHED. Some of you may recall the leaked Q3 version way back in the day. It barely even ran, but still I was thrilled to check it out, and I did not feel the need to condemn id and talk about what a POS it was. That would be just rediculous. Those of you who are ripping on this leaked demo are probably hovering around the 75 IQ range anyway. Who cares what you think.
Now all you people who want to *pretend* you never have warez software on your machines will rip on me. Don't waste your breath. I could care less and I will not respond.