Beijing Billboard Urges Chinese to Drop the Hammer on Piracy

The billboard probably won't have any effect, but at least their heart is in the right place.  For the most part, I dispise pirating.  I dispise even more that most pirates think they have some legitimate reason for doing it.  "The money isn't going where I think it should go."  "I wasn't planning on buying that game, anyway."  "Hey, everyone is doing it."  Whatever, that's just trying to justify something they know is wrong.  It's no different from shoplifting.  Pirates aren't some romantacised rogues, they're just common thieves.

Still, I think there's at least one scenario where the developers and the government are just wasting money attacking pirates.  In countries or regions where the standard of living is so low, there's no way anyone could buy the games legitimately.  I'm not condoning the actions there, either, I'm just saying that the developers really aren't losing money in those instances, and they shouldn't bother cracking down in those areas.

Haidian District is basically a "college town," so these people have money.  There's no good reason for pirating there.  The billboard is still silly, though.

This billboard would have been better:

Piracy is bad....mmmkay....don't do piracy....mmmkay....if you do piracy that makes you bad....mmmkay

At current rates, I doubt a billboard will do much at all...

If you're using a metaphorical hammer... why not use a bigger one?

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin