I have to disagree. Writing things right the first time almost never happens in the real world (and just leads to wasted time trying to think of the perfect method of designing a system). Typically you get 10x-100x improvements by rewriting the correct but slow parts of your code, or redesigning the system to work around the parts that are slow.

Mod parent up. People above pointing out how big their optimization-e-peens are apparently haven't learned the first thing about optimization in the real world.

Even if you're writing a game(and I'm a game dev), there is very little use in writing a sorting algorithm. In fact, I know my boss would give me a big "WTF!?" if I started writing one. The reason? It's going to be less efficient, and also a waste of time that I could use to be doing something that actually moved tasks forward. Now, obviously it is important to understand the various uses of different sorting algorithms, their performance implications etc. But actually knowing how, from memory, to write any particular sorting algorithm is pretty pointless IMO.

Too bad the DMCA isn't a Swedish law.

Well, whether there is or isn't more public domain stuff than not is rather irrelevant. Also irrelevant are the motivations of the TPB.

The fact of the matter is that anything digital has a marginal cost of $0, and thus will be subject to copying regardless of what anyone does. Until people making such items (and I'm a game programmer myself, so I've thought about this quite a bit) learn to monetize their products in a way that accounts for the fact that bits are inherently not-scarce, and thus not based on the economics of physical objects and scarcity, we will continue to have people bitching about copyright infringement.

I mean, yeah, it sucks, and we all still need to make some cash to feed ourselves, but I'd argue that we're doing that now. If you're an independent developer and find your stuff on torrent sites, why not ask the people downloading it why they didn't pay (without being super pissed off about it :P) and make the changes necessary (aside from just giving it away for free, although that could also work, with some other means of monetization tacked on) to include those potential customers too. And if the answer is "Didn't want to pay for it" well, guess what? They wouldn't have bought it any damned way.

It isn't ducking the ethical question. For every copyrighted work that's on TPB, there are many that are public domain. So, are we going to outlaw knives now too, because you can stab a person with one as easily as you can cut a piece of twine with it? How about we start outlawing any object that can be used for ill, regardless of its legitimate purposes. Well, there goes anything blunt, anything pointy....

Do you really want the *AA setting precedent that would allow people to be prosecuted for pointing to a resource on the internet, as if they were hosting that resource themselves?

When did any of the four convicted ever host, download, or upload any copyrighted works? The answer is they didn't. TPB only hosts torrent files, which themselves (typically) aren't copyrighted, and certainly contain no copyrighted materials owned by the corporations represented by the prosecution. The verdict in this case is sheer stupidity and ignorance on the part of the (moron) judge, who willingly handed the prosecution exactly what they REALLY wanted. Not a conviction or settlement from the TPB guys, but a precedent that POINTING TO a resource that may infringe via a technology (torrents, URLs etc.) is itself an infringement. The *AA has been trying to set that precedent ever since they started suing their customers.

I said "most" in my original comment. I also noted there is overlap. Many many many people that play WoW do so almost entirely for the social aspect: because their friends play. They tend not to be gamers in general. I don't think you fall into that category, and are instead just a regular gamer that happens to play WoW, and thus you're likely to buy and play Fallout 3. Also, even regular gamers may not play it for the other reason I stated (assuming they're hardcore lifesucked into WoW), which is that they allot all of their gaming time to WoW (raid groups etc.).