That, plus the fact that there is absolutely NO way to get them all. It's like prostitution or dope: as soon as you take out one crook, two more show up in their place.

Besdies the fact that it isn't illegal in the countries these sites are open in, they do provide great things like subbed anime episodes and so on. Even game patches sometimes need to be torrented, like the latest Company of Hero patch.

Ya, if you look at China and the problems blocking material they've had... that's easy mode compared to what you propose.

Shut down the piracy sites.

Excellent idea.  While we're at it we should shut down all the sites that offend people.  Personally I find all religious sites intolerable - those get to go first.  No one will object to that, they're offensive!

These sites are illegal, so the government should shut them down.

No, they're not illegal, and no the government shouldn't shut them down.  The government should stay the hell out of regulating the internet, let alone shutting down individual sites.  Your argument that the sites are illegal is retarded, and you're an idiot for making the argument.  What they're *doing* might be construed as aiding copyright infringment, but that's a civil matter not a criminal one.

Plus, with less piracy, publishers wouldn't have to punish legitimate custormers with crap DRM. Everybody wins, expect pirates, and those bastards dont count.

Oh, they'd still put it in.  You can't ever completely remove piracy without locking down the hardware (and even that doesn't always help), so there's always going to be a problem.

Some people are evil, and should be punished, but people like you who think they should impose their will on others are worse than the pirates.

As other have said, "shut 'em down" ain't gonna happen. Those sites are hosted in countries where it isn't illegal. You could try blocking access from the USA - that might stop some. Most folks who go to these types of sites would quickly discover the workarounds.

DRM: unless it's "DRM-lite", it does far more to annoy the legitimate consumer that it ever does to dissuade the thief. Stardock's GOO is very interesting to me. Still waiting to read the nuts and bolts details, but it does sound promising.

In the long run, I'd say that the best solution is to price the product low enough that developers make the greatest return on their investment (by selling more product) while obviating the desire to pirate the product.

I think that's the key for all types of software. For example, look at music - CDs have no DRM, but were priced too high. That led to the advent of Napster, which led to...

15 years ago, a new release CD cost $15-20 retail. That was expensive, and the record companies just didn't get it. They lost a major opportunity. If a CD cost $5-10, there would be very little theft - it just wouldn't be worth the inconvenience.

That is same thing that the video/game distributors need to get their minds around. Yes, the medium and the distribution methods will evolve, but greatest rewards will go to those who create the most innovative methods of getting the product into the user's hands at a reasonable price.

Sure there are those that wouldn't pay no matter what. They will never be a market.

there's so many things wrong with this idea...one being, exactly under whose jurisdiction are the web sites? what if the torrent site is hosted on a failover cluster on servers in different countries(kind of a theoretical there but still)? its the plague of the internet. it isnt really anywhere. there is no central hub even(just a network of routers on steroids).

also, posting the game itself isn't particularly illegal. using that torrent when you don't have a license to the software is.

like sins?

Simple...

1-- Find the source of the "activity"

2-- Storm the place with web police swat agents and electronic freaks.

3-- Trace the brain behind the stuff.

4-- Arrest THAT one person.

5-- Lock him/her in a jail.

6-- Put a PC in the cell.

7-- C:\_ dos prompt blinking all day long for weeks.

It's torturing the mind but if they don't understand, they never will.

Some sites will take down listings when notified. The "hardcore" ones though would only laugh at you for trying.

The problem is that it's really hard to tell the die-hard true believers from well-intentioned users, and if you don't fight the die-hards then they might start being able to make their views law (such as it is on the internet ).  I'm all for ending piracy, but not if it comes at the cost of anonymity or freedom.

There is another level of piracy (which, ironically, is "laughed at by 'hardcore' anti-pirates") which is a matter of "try before you buy". There are tons of people who actually does this (hardcore anti-pirates may wish to slap themselves in the face to actually believe this, but yes, it's true). Me, I don't download games I can get a demo for, or music I can listen to on youtube/spotify or similar services. But there are times when you can't get any sample of the work you're interested in. You may have seen a good review of it, or heard the name being mentioned somewhere. (Like the "similar artists" feature on last.fm.) Then I'm all for piracy, as this ONLY increases the chances of the end-user actually buying the game/album/whatever, as very few people buy something they know nothing first-hand about.

So, to be blunt, it's kinda stupid to just see it as "ooh, every pirated copy of a certain piece IS a lost sale", because simply, it isn't. It's like seeing everything in black and white, and sure - if the world truly was black and white, it'd probably be well and great to look at everything that way. Now that the world is more of a gray-scale (no wait, it's really colorful! ^^) that view of the world is pretty worthless.

Of course, same thing goes when flipping the coin; piracy isn't all good and well, as there are several people that just download and share a lot just because it's free. IF, however, they wouldn't have bought the pieces at all, no matter if they would've downloaded it or not, this doesn't matter, actually; as no property has been lost, and the revenue generated on the piece has not been decreased.

So please, people - open your eyes a bit, and realize that it isn't just a simple matter of right and wrong, or black and white. That goes for both anti-pirates and pirates, you should look over the matter, and actually see what you're doing and what the 'other side' is doing, and why they're doing it. Understanding a matter is far more important than being fanatically pro- or con- it.

And laws are built around the same problem, they are not case-to-case unique, as this would be impossible to manage (imagine a law book without any definitive rules at all...), and since piracy isn't theft (NO, NO and NO, it isn't, because no property is lost whatsoever, and as said, it's not a guaranteed revenue loss. And since the companies doesn't provide the files and server space/internet connections, the files cost nothing directly for the companies.) it's not as simple as a theft case.

Actually, many countries have been a little quick to judge cases like these, and create laws for them, just because of the aforementioned - it isn't black and white, and because the downside to the 'crime' can be absolutely zero (very few other crimes have that, it often negatively influences someone) it should probably be investigated further before laws and rules are made to restrict or control it.

Back to piracy and alternatives anyway; as mentioned in an earlier post one thing that can (and probably will be the most effective method) decrease piracy is to provide content to people at prices that actually fit what a certain piece is worth. Selling games at online stores - EA Store, Stardock Impulse, Steam, iTunes, etc. - at the same rates as the piece costs in a 'physical' store is absolutely ridiculous, as the costs are drastically reduced for the distributor when using an online service provider, compared to a 'physical' store. (That is, if the online service provider does not have ridiculous charging rates, but most doesn't, for the sake of competitiveness.) We're talking about many things being cheaper or even removed from the costs in the comparison; store revenues (more middle-hands reduces the income in the end ofc.), manual/leaflet printing, disc creation (both previous posts include materials for this, which needs are also removed when using an online distr. system), shipping and handling everywhere, etc. etc. etc. The costs are generally MUCH lower when using an online distribution system, yet many of them retain the prices used in physical shops. There are, of course, marketing and market controlling reasons for this. (Distributors want to sell the physical copies, of course.) But as long as the alternatives aren't more reasonably priced, considering costs and expenses, the companies cannot effectively combat piracy, no matter the laws, threats, maffia methods etc. they tend to come up with.

And as some last words; the Internet can't be controlled, and to large extent shouldn't be, as people, countries and cultures are so vastly different from eachother, and what's allowed and popular in one place may be frowned upon, or even illegal, in others. If the Internet was to be controlled you'd affect too many people for the Internet to be a viable source for basically anything anymore, as nearly all things on it offends someone.

I don't understand the premise here. Why would you want to shut down software piracy ? Copying allows unlimited supply. Digital information is fundamentally different from physical goods in that there's almost no cost to copy it. Why make so much effort and try to put shackles on it ? To delude ourselves and think it's physical property ? It's not.  Selling software and anything that can be accurately represented in digital formats just doesn't make sense. Not from economic point of view, not from moral point of view. Easy file sharing is empowerment. Why should people pay for copies of what is trivial to reproduce ? In the end, what's important is recovering the research costs, because software development is like research and not like a factory. People should focus on getting payment for development costs, not for plastic discs.

If you're a game developer, for example, you should think what your actual business is. Is it selling plastic discs, or making games ?  Is it carriages that people want, or transport ? If it's transport, you should probably switch to automobiles.

I'm delighted with the raise of the internet and computing in general. I'd say it's a major change at least as big as print or steam engine. Things are changing rapidly. New business models are emerging. For some insight on copyright and ways to recover development costs, read this (by former Bullfrog lead designer)

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

Today's pirates don't see anything wrong with sharing files. This trend increases in younger generations. And guess what, they're going to vote. They're going to change laws they perceive as absurd.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070521/015928.shtml

It's interesting to note that the Industrail Revolution only started once James Watt's patent on steam engine expired.

http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/against.htm

As for the original post, that would achieve little and mostly force people underground. Even if possible. Encourage darknets. Darknets are hidden networks in internet that appear to be something else, look like ordinary traffic. People have been using P2P software for years. There are many, many ways to share files and more coming. In the end, are people for government, or government of the people ? Piracy isn't strictly good or bad. It's inevitable.