On the positive side, apparently one of the most prominent GOG-focused piracy sites has gone offline or "underground" or whatever, based on some posts I saw a few days ago on /v/ (who liked the site :p).

The site is going private. Wonder if they will charge for invites.

Guys, c'mon. You really should stop now...
I bet the last thing that BreOl72 wanted was to provide another platform for discussing sources.
Do that on Reddit or "v/" or whatever if you must.

Sorry, wasn't trying to start anything. I'll shut up.

I agree, there should be at least one mandatory purchase, or as I suggested in another thread, a welcome forum where new members can post, but cannot access the main forum sections, where help is available, unless vouched for by a full member.

That said, I guess there might be some who have bought The Witcher etc at another store, and have come to GOG for help. But those could be provable with some of GOG Connect if at Steam for instance.

While I kind of agree with much of what you wrote, it really wouldn't take much for these folk to grab a bunch of free games to their account, demos even etc, and so be overlooked. In fact, that might be their response if challenged.

So really, we should pushing GOG to make purchasing at least one game, mandatory.
I'll let someone else create that Community Wishlist if they want, if there isn't one already.
I'll certainly vote for it, if they advise back here.

It never ceases to amaze me when regular users worry about piracy so much.

It's an issue for corporations now, not for us.

Gabe Newell said Piracy was a distribution/support/convenience/service problem. People are willing to pay if it isn't annoying to purchase and get your game working, and didn't cost too much.

I think it's more corporate attempted control, where they want to erase all their old games, you can't keep their games, and if you want to play you have to purchase the newest version of their game. It feels more like a Panzi scheme.

I bet you 100%, it wouldn't be a huge problem at all if copyright was shorter, and corporations didn't see it as them creating things they own forever and can sell forever. If content was say 20 year copyrighted, sure people would buy it out the gate, and then some people would wait. But the huge library of stuff going public domain means a lot more public domain stuff would probably be gone after by people who have less purchasing power.

Just because something went public domain doesn't mean you won't see physical media. But i bet it would be cheaper to produce and purchase series and movies, the 5 cents it costs per disc of DVD while Blueray is probably 20 cents. So instead of selling for $20 (or $5 at Walmart discount bin) they reduce to $2 and $4, still profitable for distribution and can include extra stuff that wasn't available otherwise, usually behind the scenes interviews and things, and would let people build collections, as well as special versions, The Matrix DVD, but with cellshading to look like anime edition! for those that really want it, or upscaling, or raising to 60fps via the latest and best frame interpolation technology.

Dumping stolen goods out a window and yelling to everyone who gathers to collect that they should pay for what they keep is still not legal.

Do you mean shorter copyright as in 20 years after authors death or 20 years in general for all artistic protection?

Pretty much this.

10 years, and a Use it or Lose It clause.

20 years period.

Copyright is 'to give ownership for a limited time to encourage the creation of arts works and sciences' before it goes public domain. You should have it long enough that making it is worth it, not own it forever.

Do you need 100 years to make a profit? Do you need 70 years after you die to make a profit?

Both are 'no'. Certainly a number of movies don't always break even when at the cinema, but eventual movie sales over 10 years usually covers it.

And who knows, maybe copyright can be renewed (like patents), where you can go another 20 years if you give 25% of lifetime profits (or sales) from said property as a fee which goes towards the national debt? (making it harder and hard to hold on to indefinitely as it grows year after year, never going down).

Lastly books, DVD's, bluerays, everything goes out of print after about 4 years anyways, and they sell you what's been printed/made to that point.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. If you don't take it out and use it, it's going to rust.


I would like to thank Darvond, and everyone else in this thread, for finally giving me the opportunity to make that refrence.

You weigh your judgement based on evidence. For instance yesterday's piracy-supporter: 0 games owned, brand-new account, no other activity in the profile, asking weird questions which don't normally apply to GOG's offline installers. It stank of either a clever bot or someone who is trying to get free support for a stolen game.

The fact the user immediately lashed out at me pointing out to another user that the OP owned 0 games and claimed I "provoked them" only solidifies they weren't the real deal.

BreOl72 isn't asking you to judge only on a 0 games profile. It's a big red flag, but not the only bit of evidence you should be looking for. Just do some due diligence before you offer brand-new accounts game advice, that's all. And besides, if the community makes a whoopsie and doesn't give support to a legit user, the user could use the official support channel to solve their problem. *shrug*