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posted by
Dopefish
on Friday February 21 2014, @01:30PM
from the mpaa-and-riaa-can't-touch-this dept.
from the mpaa-and-riaa-can't-touch-this dept.
Fluffeh writes:
"The Digital Citizens Alliance has posted a new report estimating that the 'top warez/pirate sites' generate $227 million dollars in ad revenue each year in which a portion of the cash comes from businesses such as Amazon, McDonalds and Xfinity.
TorrentFreak has an interesting write-up on the report going through the numbers nicely and breaking it down. Based on an estimate of the operating costs, torrent sites are also believed to be the most profitable, with profit margins up to 94.1%. It has to be noted, however, that ad revenue is often the only source of income for torrent sites, where direct download hubs and streaming sites have secondary revenue streams through subscriptions and affiliate deals."
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Warez Sites Generate $227 Million in Ad Revenue
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Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind
the tree."
-- Russell Long
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday February 21 2014, @06:17PM
Heh, I never held him in much regard. It takes far less effort to reach up and grab a piece of low-hanging fruit from a tree than it does to grab a piece of fruit from the bin at the grocery store and then walk to the register, get out your cash/card, and pay. It takes no more effort for me to reach up and grab that fruit than it does for someone to take it from my hand as a gift.
"Free" means "gratis", a price of zero. If they're giving hamburgers away at McDonalds, it takes gasoline to get there but the burger is free.
What "there's no such thing as a free lunch" refers to accurately is "never trust a salesman". If a salesman offers you a free lunch, you'll wind up as his customer if he's any good.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Funny) by davester666 on Friday February 21 2014, @07:04PM
Or you will wake up the next morning wondering how you wound up in an alley, where your wallet is, and why your ass is sore.
(Score: 1) by naubol on Friday February 21 2014, @09:19PM
You have to find the fruit tree, you have to walk to it, you have to possibly fight other animals (ie other people) for it, you have to inspect it for quality (fruit in the wild can go bad, can be eaten out by worms, etc), and you have to wait for it to be in season. With the grocery store, I am reasonably certain the fruit will be there when I get there, and there is no sense of indecision or insecurity about this. If you know where the fruit tree is because you planted it there, cultivated it, and tended it, it isn't wild and it took effort to put it there.
If this all sounds like so much hair splitting, it isn't. The point is a consistent, quality food supply that is easy to get doesn't grow on trees. The spirit of the argument is still there.
It is kinda specious to point out the environmental downsides of the grocery store but not wild fruit.
I agree with your point about salesmen though.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 21 2014, @09:34PM
No. I'm referring to a tree in my own front yard, a tree I control but did not have to buy. I do not have to fight over the fruit... well, the squirrels did beat me to most of the fruit last year but it didn't cost me anything, not even effort.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @10:00PM
Well that depends; how literal do you want to get with it? What is "cost"? if you are talking about monetary cost, sure there are plenty of free things out there. If you wish to count time as money, then no even the fruit you pick up in your yard isn't free. Do you sell the fruit? if so then you have now LOST money because that was potential profit.
I understand what you are getting at, but you tried to invalidate the idea that there is no "free lunch", which is simply not entirely true.
In this instance (someone "installing an update" to watch GoT) the cost was a lesson learned and cost of a computer repairman to fix their machine. Also, probably some embarrassment.
We just need to define our terms.
(Score: 1) by naubol on Saturday February 22 2014, @05:59PM
Because of property, guess you had to buy the property, eh? Guess you had to work for that money, unless you're in finance.