A rather insalubrious piracy advert from 1990

[Commie_User]

Let me get this straight: A young lad takes out his attitude problem on a teacher he dislikes by squealing to the cops about him turning a blind eye to software copying.

I think this reveals a lot about a corporate mentality which seems to focus less on scrupulocity and more with having your own way. If you go to work for any centralised company you'll discover this in the way they relate to their employees.

I suppose in FAST's eyes the teacher got what was coming to him at the hands of a righteous young avenger, but I reckon their poster child could have easily grassed up the teacher for any other reason just to hit out at him. You can see it in the kid's face. Thus the point is ruined and you end up feeling sorry for the teacher, much as you felt sorry for the street trader in another advert when the same spiteful kid complained about the games not being to his liking.

Anyone else noticed this?

[merman]

There was a lot of controversy at the time, I remember several stories of friendships ruined and schoolkids "shopping" their mates for piracy.

[Tonka]

Yeah - I did 16 months hard labour in Borstal when the fuzz found a pirate copy of 'Jet Set Willy' under my matress.

If I ever see that Dave 'Big ears' Perkins again, I'm gonna ask for my Quickshot II joystick back off him. Dobbing bastard! AND he snogged my girlfriend...

*edit* Ahahaha! Just noticed the name of the image!

[Commie_User]

Some things never change, only the sophistication of the technology:

http://www.debatepolitics.com/europe/60 ... loads.html



I used to think the likes of FAST had a point when they would say that bedroom copiers took away half or most of a programmers' income. But what little worry I had vanished when I found out big companies like Ocean cheated their struggling programmers out of much more money through underpaying them. In other words, if piracy ceased overnight on all those overpriced games the programmers would have scarcely noticed.

(I saw pie charts in a magazine once which were estimated breakdowns, one pie chart per big company, of where all the money went per game production. I noticed 5 or 10% were wages for the programming teams, with more even being spent on the tape inlays and cases. Boardroom wages by far took up some of the largest percentages, with about 20-40% from company to company. Things have changed little today.)

[Analog-X64]

You wanna see Anti-Piracy adverts and go on a 90's Time Trip?

Watch this first: from the 90's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

Here is the new version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCyvw4w_yk

[Infamous]

I see the price has gone up now too..

[Vosla]

We had a bunch of brown-nosers at school who tried that stunt with reporting copies.
They were beaten up and their gear destroyed.
Not that I am very fond of software piracy but I hate denunciation - a far worse crime.
It was used to blackmail people and to blame others. Blackmailing is grounds for flogging, followed by neutering with a dull blade.

That kid in the advert is a prime candidate for a good thrashing - dirty snatch!

[LMan]

How went that police advert in "Running Man"? Something along these lines: "And remember kids: this week, you'll receive a bonus if you report a relative!"

[Chukkzter]

They would have better invested in a comic explaining why you shouldn't do it then one that shows the kids being a telltale is a respected social class... also, show me any teacher who does not break copyrights at some point in their career. XD

[Razmo]

What I still find "funny" is, that many a person who were doing software piracy, and even cracking software in the old days, have now become saints who tell people to stop making piracy (many times because they now earn a living themselves making software/music etc... go figure). Many say "I've grown up, and now I know it's wrong!" ... they tend to excuse their own doings with the fact that they were "just kids", but at the same time they lift the finger of morality against today's youth for doing exactly the same "innocent crime".

As long as there is a method for COPYING (not stealing... it will NEVER be stealing, "just" a chance, that you ruin another persons chance of a POSSIBLE future income), then It'll be done... it would be the same with any other product that you could make a potential copy of. Could you make a machine that copied an object, we would see the same thing happen to everything else. When resources CAN be cloned, they WILL be cloned.

It'll never stop... the "saints" will still do their own share of piracy behind their double morality. I see this adherence to antipiracy whereever I go on the internet, but as soon as I see people live in the real world, and you talk to them, I've not found ONE SINGLE PERSON, who did not have an illegal copy of something, or would not want to give/recieve one if asked. How come there is this HUGE difference officially and privately? ... tabboo perhaps?, and fright of getting caught or pointed at with the finger of morality? ... surely.

I think that the music, film and litterature bussiness should just try to move on, and accept, that the way they earned their money before, has to be changed, instead of whining their arses of over something they cannot control anyway. Any type of bussiness are forced to chance strategies when their bussiness methods no longer work, so why should it be any different with the entertainment industry?

Now they've tried to fight for copyright laws since the 80's, and they've won nothing... sometimes life just change, and there is nothing you can do about it. Yes... the world is evil, now what are they going to do about it? It's with piracy as it is with prostitution; It's disgusting, unfair and against the law, but every social class in the world still use it "beneath the surface"... it's considered "ok", as long as nobody knows about it.

I'd say: GET USED TO IT!

PS. I know I'll get my share of beating for saying this, but I'm just telling the truth, even if it might be unwelcome...

[Condor]

As for my country (and similar or almost the same things are all over the Balkan) piracy is present, however I haven't heard that anyone in Montenegro got arrested for selling piracy software or music or movies, which we can stilll buy on the streets (mainly movies & music dvd compilactions etc...)

Only companies had problems with non legit software.

And thanks to torrents & other share websiteds we can download eveything.

Balkan = Heaven for pirates.