“Everything you find on this page is for educational and entertainment purposes! Nothing on this page is illegal the way it is. If you use this page for anything other than educational or entertainment purposes, I am not held responsible for your actions or anything as a result of this page. Misuse could result in breaking the law so use at YOUR OWN RISK!!!”
— actual disclaimer from a “warez” (piracy) Web site
Hello from the deck of the Jolly Roger. I was in a perfectly respectable shopping mall in suburban Bangkok yesterday, full of expensive bed sheets and plush towels and shiny Sony Handicams. It could have been a Bay or Eaton’s back in Canada.
But then somebody asked me if I had “been up to the fourth floor?” A quick trip on the escalator took me into a parallel shopping universe of small stalls with names like Smart Brain, Deluxe Computer and CD Paradise. It was a paradise or a hell, depending on your point of view. Spread out at each booth were hundreds of CDs, video CDs and CD-ROMs, some mislabelled (“Mytt” for “Myst”) but all containing the genuine article, sort of. The going price for a Playstation