Is is wrong to pirate games during a time of war?

[Trolldor]

Hey, is it wrong to pirate if I actually owned the company but my evil uncle conspired against me and my father's will (as it was a privately owned company) and ousted me from the position through a series of improbable yet nevertheless plausible events?

 

[Frotality]

why? is someone at war? is this directed at non-americans? because besides japan, no one remotely capable of going to war with america makes any games i want (australia? canada? would they dare?).

and...japan kinda has their own problems at the moment; not really ready for war.

...dont tell me poland is making an insane declaration of war! i dont wanna have to pirate witcher 2!

i guess the question extends to any other questionable import practices that often happen in times of war; video game developers dont really provide an important commodity though, its not like nintendo is poised to cause an economical collapse with their absence. if one does has questions to the morality of pirating, they shouldnt change all that much during wartime.

 

[Shirokurou]

Pirating is wrong... period.

When war breaks out, you'll probably be under suspicion by your country for "smuggling digital data of the enemy."

 

[Zaik]

Wrong? The war would be completely irrelevant. I don't think it would be any different than in a time or peace, or a time like now when Western countries just spend all day using old ordinance they were going to have to trash when the next big thing came out to blow up brown people who are crazy enough to run directly at them.

If you're going to bring "International" copyright law into it, you have to keep in mind that the country you live in would have to extradite you to the country they are at war with for you to stand any trial, which is somewhere between silly and LOL.

 

[Penitent]

Okay, now the morality hypotheticals about piracy are just getting silly.

 

[Hader]

Pirating games (anything really) is illegal. No matter what you say to justify it, that is a fact.

 

[badgersprite]

During war you probably shouldn't play games at all, but be in the army or working to sustain the war effort.
And even if that is no the case, then you should still only play your own sides computer games, to be supportive and don't ruin the morale etc.

Are you an American, English or Australian? Are you playing games? Or are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not war-y enough for you? :/

OT:

It's perfectly valid to boycott games. A lot of people boycott goods from countries that are opposed to their moral view or their own rights or interests. Not sure about piracy, though, since chances are your own country would be the "bad guys" in many of those games. Propaganda and such.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Depends. Were you recently impressed [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressment] by the British navy and decide to get back at them by downloading Fable III using their internet?

 

[Risingblade]

All is fair in love and war?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

... international copyright law renders all of your question pointless.

Not really. In the event of war between two nations, the two nations will, as a matter of course, outlaw the importation of products from or exports to the foe. Moreover, international law is utterly meaningless unless some body exists to enforce said law. And, I suspect that were two nations in an official state of war, local police forces wouldn't be bending over backwards to enforce property rights held by the enemy.

 

[Plurralbles]

... international copyright law renders all of your question pointless.

Not really. In the event of war between two nations, the two nations will, as a matter of course, outlaw the importation of products from or exports to the foe. Moreover, international law is utterly meaningless unless some body exists to enforce said law. And, I suspect that were two nations in an official state of war, local police forces wouldn't be bending over backwards to enforce property rights held by the enemy.

*facepalm*

Obviously this is way too fucking complicated.

The entire fucking point of war is to close up borders with the enemy. You're not hurting them in any way stealing their shit because you're already bombing them in their collective faces! if you weren't at war the nations who agreed to the international rules would help the nation hunt for pirates.

Your post almost sounded like you knew all this, but then you talk about local police...

 

[Darth IB]

During war you probably shouldn't play games at all, but be in the army or working to sustain the war effort.
And even if that is no the case, then you should still only play your own sides computer games, to be supportive and don't ruin the morale etc.

Are you an American, English or Australian? Are you playing games? Or are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not war-y enough for you? :/

I'm Swedish; I suppose I was thinking off a more Total war (e.g. WW1-2).

 

[Realitycrash]

Is it wrong to pirate? Full stop.

Edit: Also I'm anti-war, so i'm in favour of playing video games over having a war anyday. People shouldn't be forced to fight in a war anyways.

Somehow, I bet you play videogames that simulate war or warfare, though.

 

[Realitycrash]

During war you probably shouldn't play games at all, but be in the army or working to sustain the war effort.
And even if that is no the case, then you should still only play your own sides computer games, to be supportive and don't ruin the morale etc.

Are you an American, English or Australian? Are you playing games? Or are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not war-y enough for you? :/

I don't consider Iran and Afghanistan "war-y" enough, no. Nor do the US govrnment, btw. They aren't wars "per se" but "extended military conflicts". You have to delcare war to have a war, and the US haven't declared war since..What, WWII? I might be wrong.

 

[badgersprite]

During war you probably shouldn't play games at all, but be in the army or working to sustain the war effort.
And even if that is no the case, then you should still only play your own sides computer games, to be supportive and don't ruin the morale etc.

Are you an American, English or Australian? Are you playing games? Or are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not war-y enough for you? :/

I don't consider Iran and Afghanistan "war-y" enough, no. Nor do the US govrnment, btw. They aren't wars "per se" but "extended military conflicts". You have to delcare war to have a war, and the US haven't declared war since..What, WWII? I might be wrong.

"We are at war and they (the American people) want a comprehensive response. They want us to act as if we are at war and we're going to do that - diplomatically and militarily" - US Secretary of State Colin Powell

 

[RikPandachan]

I was wondering what people thought about pirating games owned by nations your nation was at war with. Would people be in favour of this, and, if so, would this require a Email of Marque or somesuch, to distinguish game piracy from game privateers?

Secondly, would the IP of games be something a nation could demand in war reparations, or take from a defeated enemy?

[small]Possibly the source code of captured games would have to be hidden in a server on some tropical tax haven, or somesuch[/small]

Oh, honey, it's always a time of war.

 

[Mckeown]

During war you probably shouldn't play games at all, but be in the army or working to sustain the war effort.
And even if that is no the case, then you should still only play your own sides computer games, to be supportive and don't ruin the morale etc.

yeah, i've spotted a slight flaw in your argument: so long as the american government has money, there'l be no such thing as peace.
and besides all america does in wars these days is go out to flatten a developing nation and shoot their allies.
no offence to americans, but the goverment is kind of shit, i heard that recently they decided that they couldn't afford to put 7-9 million towards some form of healthcare, but then, that same day, decided to put 10 BILLION dollars towards maintaining the war in iraq.

 

[RikPandachan]

Yes. If America goes to war with Japan, its ALL SQUARE ENIX's fault, and I will pirate thier games to show my patriotisim. Its always the citizens fault, remember.

 

[Mckeown]

Yes. If America goes to war with Japan, its ALL SQUARE ENIX's fault, and I will pirate thier games to show my patriotisim. Its always the citizens fault, remember.

I'd start a war just to stop Square Enix from making games.

And stop them moving on to fun games like Just Cause 2 and abandoning the FF series?!

YES!!! final fantasy has been getting worse and worse as time goes by and from what i've seen, most of SE's latest products have just been awful

During war you probably shouldn't play games at all, but be in the army or working to sustain the war effort.
And even if that is no the case, then you should still only play your own sides computer games, to be supportive and don't ruin the morale etc.

Are you an American, English or Australian? Are you playing games? Or are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not war-y enough for you? :/

I don't consider Iran and Afghanistan "war-y" enough, no. Nor do the US govrnment, btw. They aren't wars "per se" but "extended military conflicts". You have to delcare war to have a war, and the US haven't declared war since..What, WWII? I might be wrong.

if there's soldiers firing guns at each other and vehicles with weapons attatched firing at someone, it's a war. it doesn't matter how big or small the conflict is, if there's more than one country's people in one place and people are dying on both sides, it's war. simple as