An excuse for Piracy.

[LooK iTz Jinjo]

So today I got into an argument with a friend who labeled me a criminal because I pirate a fair bit of software. I've used up all my usual reasoning on him until so I had to think of something new. It was today that I also downloaded Linkin Park's new album, A Thousand Suns and the only word I can think to describe it is just bad. It's really bad, it has nothing of the Linkin Park of old and even if it wasn't by them it would still be a shitty album. This is what I used in my argument, that if I paid good money for that at a store I would be outraged that I had wasted my hard earned cash. As it is I'm just annoyed that a band I used to quite like has gone so downhill (though that's not new news or anything).

So Escapists, I pose you two questions.
1. What is your excuse for Piracy?
2. What did you think of Linkin Park's new album? It's alright you can say it's bad.

 

[Dana22]

Well legally speaking, you are not a criminal but offender. I think.

And I dont have excuse for piracy.

 

[Starke]

Yeah... that's not really legitimate. It's a riff of the "try it before you buy it" argument, which has no legal basis.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

If you feel you need an excuse to do something then you probably shouldn't be doing it.

 

[zauxz]

Umm, how about. "I don't give two shits about your opinion in this?"

A pretty solid argument.

 

[AhumbleKnight]

The thing about the "try before you buy argument" is that it does hold some moral merit but no legal support. What is interesting is that in some places there is something you can do that gives you the try before you buy option and is legal. You will need to read the actual legislation regarding trade practices for your country but here is the general gist as I understand it: If you buy something that is not what you expected the product to be and you are unhappy with it, then you can return it and get your money back. Most stores have a 'company policy' like no refunds or store credit only. They can say whatever they like here, but when it comes to the law, they can't enforce it. So this is where you can go buy your Likin Park album, take it home, hate it, and take it back and replace it with Muse or get your money back

I am sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong but keep in mind, this is Australia law I am referring to.

 

[Keava]

1. There is no excuse for piracy. And i don't know what kind of music shops you have in your country, but here at least you can go and ask the clerks to let you listen to the whole cd in the shop.

2. Never liked them.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

The only excuse I have for any piracy I'll ever do is if I have to download a copy of NOFX: White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean.
My one excuse? I've bought that album 4 times already, it keeps getting stolen. I've more than paid my dues I'm not paying for it again.

But that still wouldn't really excuse anything. If Fat Wreck Chords or Epitaph wants to sue me over it I have very little legal defense.

Now morally I think it's perfectly acceptable to be able to sample a product before you buy it, and we all know you can't trust the track chosen to be the radio hit to be indicative of the entire album.
There are plenty of legal and legitimate ways to do this however and none of them involve piracy.

As for your second question.
Linkin Park is pretty much a non entity to me, I didn't even know they had a new album.

 

[GRoXERs]

1. Mmm, nope. Piracy has very few legitimate excuses; just about the only morally acceptable one is pirating something after you bought it because the DRM is INSANE *coughassassinscreedcough* and won't let you play something that you paid good money for just because you don't have a reliable internet connection.

2. Linkin Park has never been good. Terrible emo rap layered over weak metal does not good music make.

also:

Well there is one excuse for piracy here in my country. Here most Games, Movies and Albums cost much more!
Australians complain but they have it VERY EASY there.
The average person here gets 300-400 leva (1 euro is 1.94 leva) and the average PC game is 80 leva. 80...
A console game is 120-130... Thats why no sane person buys consoles, get a gaming PC for 1300 leva and game BETTER.
Its unfair with movies too, and most albums.
I do not pirate, but I understand the reasoning.

Ummmm... those are pretty good prices, honestly. I realize that the cost of living and salaries in general are probably lower in Bulgaria, but those prices come out to about $48 for a console game and $31 for a PC game... Which is much cheaper than they are here in the US, much less Australia or the UK.

 

[cold killer pov]

Man something iv just noticed, how many people here seem to be coming over high and mighty as if they have never used torrents. Everyones done it and most people do it, its not like the artists/directors/game makers etc etc dont make enough money.. Gaurenteed me saving that £40 makes a bigger difference to me than if they dont get it... Thats just the truth, although iv never downloaded games tbh, mainly because my laptop cant run half of them and also i prefere owning a hard copy of some things, games are one of them (like the way my game collection looks)

Edit: dont really like linkin park, although i do like re-animation

 

[Bon_Clay]

The way I see it piracy is only a problem collectively. Each individual act of piracy doesn't take anything away (no supply has been taken, only an intangible copy has been made), and if you weren't going to pay for it otherwise they can't even claim they lost a potential sale. Only when it becomes widespread and people stop paying who would have originally does it start destroying their business.

But on the flip side they still own the rights to something and didn't give you permission to enjoy their work yet. And going along with mob mentality is no excuse. There really isn't any legitimate excuse for it that anyone is going to give.

Unfortunately for the businesses that are affected by it, the trend can't really be stopped in any reasonable way. They will just have to adapt so that they are once again offering something people see as worth paying for. The ones that don't compromise at all with the new way things are done since the internet came to prominence will just die out.

 

[Aurgelmir]

So today I got into an argument with a friend who labeled me a criminal because I pirate a fair bit of software. I've used up all my usual reasoning on him until so I had to think of something new. It was today that I also downloaded Linkin Park's new album, A Thousand Suns and the only word I can think to describe it is just bad. It's really bad, it has nothing of the Linkin Park of old and even if it wasn't by them it would still be a shitty album. This is what I used in my argument, that if I paid good money for that at a store I would be outraged that I had wasted my hard earned cash. As it is I'm just annoyed that a band I used to quite like has gone so downhill (though that's not new news or anything).

So Escapists, I pose you two questions.
1. What is your excuse for Piracy?
2. What did you think of Linkin Park's new album? It's alright you can say it's bad.

My question to you though is this:

Would you actually have payed for it if it was good? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Although I use the argument that "it gets people into the game that would maybe never have gotten into it without piracy" I still don't think its a very good argument (Although, Marvel Comics, if you are reading this, You really won a lot by me pirating Civil War.)

Thing is, not a lot of people tend to buy what they pirated, unless they pirate it to get it earlier.

I tend to stop pirating, when I feel the legal offer is better than piracy.
Because in a lot of medium, they ask me to pay more money for a product that is inferior to the pirate copy on the net. But if the legal channels are better, then they have my money

Marvel is a good example of almost making it work. They have their online comic viewer, which is decent, but I still feel it can't compare to CDisplay. (But in this case I pay for the online viewer too )

But after Spotify came (to bad for anyone living outside Spotify regions), I have not pirated any music... becasue I really did not need to.

And that brings me back to your example. Today there are so many ways to find out of an album is good or bad, through legal channels, so why use illegal channels?

*Goes to legally download The new Linkin Park Album*

 

[Lotet]

1. I couldn't get it anywhere else. I'm not a Pirate really, but I would bend my morals if that situation ever came up

2. It's not what I like Linkin' Park for. anyway, I use iTunes so I can get a small segment of any song I think about buying. if you have a credit card or a local store that sells iTunes credit then your just being cheap. that being said I only buy online as a last resort. buying CDs and such is supporting the artists as much as the store owners.

 

[Snotnarok]

I usually pirate when there's no demo for a game, I'd like to see if my PC can run the game and I'd like to see if I like it. Being there's no return policy on games it makes it hard to try it no? So I grab a torrent and try it, if I like it, I buy it. If not why the hell would I keep the damn game on my PC?

To you silly people saying there's no excuse to pirate, there is, and I just said it. If the company wont provide a demo then I'll make my own.

 

[Steppin Razor]

1. Outside of a game no longer being in production, or downloading a copy after yours is wrecked/has ridiculously restrictive DRM, there are no excuses for piracy. And especially don't try to make ridiculous arguments about "try before you buy" when it comes to music. You youtube that shit and check out the songs on there. If you like, you buy the album. If you don't, well, you obviously don't buy the album. Simple, no?

2. I've only heard a few of the songs and I'm not a fan. It's not often that I'll hear something I don't like, and their new album seems to be one of those few times. It's fucking terrible is what it is.

 

[Wintermoot]

1. well its free and games are overpriced
2.I dont listen to linkin park but some of my class mates play What I,ve done to death

 

[Griphphin]

My excuse to piracy would be that I'm sorry I can't get everything for free like other people, but I'm far too paranoid an individual and that does not mesh well with my lack of technical knowledge when it comes to computers. But we can still be friends, I can still pick grapes out of the super market stalls at the produce aisle.
As for Linkin Park's new album, I don't listen to linkin park. I have nothing against it, I just don't get around to listening to much metal that's not in the 60's-80's.

 

[Eldarion]

If you are a real fan, buy the music.