In the spirit of reflecting on the year in piracy, let's take a moment to recognize the Scene and it's resilience in light of law enforcement. They've been going strong for almost 30 years now with hardly any arrests of any real scale.

While governments are devoting all their time and effort to catch DDOS spammers and Lulzsec, the official release scene puts out games (with cracks!) and movies weeks before theyre released. TV shows are even more impressive; you can download most any primetime show before its even aired on the west coast. All of this for free, and released in true commercial quality, yet they get nothing but the satisfaction of beating their fellow release groups for their hours invested and risks taken.

Yes, they are pirates. No, they should not be idealized or rationalized. But they are resilient and a force that, seemingly cannot, be reconned with.