I hate when people waste their time and try to convince others that downloading is "bad". Who cares? It doesn't affect you. Move on, let it be. Not everyone has the same concerns or beliefs.
Downloading isn't the same as shoplifting because when you shoplift, you're actually preventing that store from selling that copy to someone else. When you download, there isn't a lack of something to sell.
It's all based off the assumption that you had intended on purchasing 100% of everything you download, which is something frequently overlooked when discussing "piracy". If you didn't plan on buying it to begin with, then it's moot, really.
There's just so many flaws when trying to compare downloading to physical theft. Ok, fine, so go rent it. Copy the rental. You aren't stealing at that point because you paid your $5 for the game and the video store already paid the lump sum to rent it out to others. How often does one person rent the SAME game? So there ya go... tricky, isn't it? That's the difference between copyright infringement and physical theft. Think about it.
Just like the college kid that gets $200 a month from his parents for food and whatnot but downloads $3,000 of music, movies, and games each month. Yeah, because we ALL know that kid woulda bought $3,000 worth of entertainment otherwise
It's really not that big of a deal.. if you don't like it, then don't do it, and leave it at that. There's no need to waste post after post trying to convince the other side that your opinion is the right one.The fact is that there are those who choose to download and those who choose to buy. Right now, there are exponentially MORE of the latter than the former, so don't worry about it. Why go off on some moral crusade about it? They won't stop making games, game prices won't go up, so on .. so forth.
Now, back to Halo 2...