Justifying Pirating

[Theo Samaritan]

You bought it. You would be downloading another copy of it. In Europe - or at least in the UK - you have the right to have a digital backup of any piece of software you own. This means that you would not be pirating it, just grabbing a backup.

The issue comes in when you use torrents, as its a give/take system, you will inevitably be giving data to those who have not bought the game, and as such you are "assisting in the act of piracy" as the lawyers would say.

And please, do go into the issue with steam, as maybe we as the melting pot of gaming ambivalence could fix the issue and save you the hassle.

 

[Lukeje]

Ever copy a page out of a library book or textbook? Ever copy most or all of a text? Congrats-you're the literary equivalent of a pirate.

This is 100% legal for the educational purposes, aslong as you keep the copies to yourself. It is not piracy.

Nope. You can copy a 'substantial amount' for private use. This is usually not the whole or most of a book.

"Anybody can copy an 'insubstantial amount'. This is not defined in law, but almost certainly precludes anything materially useful by itself. A single copy of a 'substantial amount' may be copied under fair dealing for private study or for research for a non-commercial purpose, and the generally accepted upper limits of what constitutes a substantial amount that can be copied within 'fair dealing' is as follows:

One photocopy of one article in a serial publication or in a set of conference proceedings or in a collective work (other than a poem, short story or other literary work in a collection of such works);
One photocopy of one complete chapter from a book;
One photocopy of one case report from a law report;
Up to 5% of a physical volume of any of the above (which may be greater than one article, chapter or report, or may include extracts from more than one such article, chapter or report);
One short story or poem in a collective work, up to ten pages in length.
Any more than this is not fair dealing. Nor is it fair dealing to copy, say, one article from a book or journal on one occasion and another article from the same book or journal on another occasion. Note also that introductory and similar matter (title pages, contents lists, bibliographies, notes) are not excluded: in a single work they are part of the work and count for decisions on the amount and whether the extracts are separate or not; in a compilation or a critical edition they are separate works."

Source: http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/copy/copyright#1-1

 

[Chicago Ted]

I just pirated my first game tonight and I feel my reason is completely justified. I am getting Fallout 2 and I see pirating it perfectly fine because finding an actual copy of the game is near impossible to do for me. The guy at EB Games even SUGGESTED I torrent it because he knew he'd not get a copy. So I feel that if I can't find an older/rarer game that I want to play but am unable to that pirating it is justifiable. I mean, after all, if it was available I would be paying for it.

 

[Shotgunbunny]

OP: Downloading a game off the internet you already own isn't pirating....it's perfectly legal.

But honestly, look at it like this:
A random new game costs me 40-50 euro's.
2 evenings of going out with my friends cost just as much.
I reckon I can get more time out of going out with the same amount of money then I could get out of that 1 game, so why should I?
I only buy the games that I really like, preferably a collector's edition.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

I have never been for pirating of games but I have experienced a situation where I think I would be justified in pirating a game off the internet.

I recently bough Empire Total War (disc, not through Steam) on the fourth of March and ever since then I have not been able to install the game because there is something wrong with Steam (I don't want to get into details because that would make this post way too long).

So I have owned this game for almost nine days and I haven't played a single second of my game. Creative Assembly has been unresponsive to the issue and lets just say fuck Steam, Steam can go to hell. So now I am considering, for the first time in my life, pirating the game. I feel I am not really stealing since I bought the game and this way I can play it whenever I want without the permission of CA or Steam. That is what I am most frustrated about. CA is using Steam as some sort of DRM but Steam is soo intrusive that I feel like I don't even own the game. It is like I bought a glorified rental.

Anyway I'd like to get some thoughts and opinions on this. Also I would like to say fuck Steam or have I said that already?

hey, if you payed like, £20-£30 for a game that doesn't work, you have full right to pirate it.

 

[Wargamer]

All shall adhere to the One True Law, as dictated by the Kollege of Khaos;

Do What Thou Wilt, If It Harm None.

Sit down and think; does your act of Piracy really take money from someone? For example, Do I listen to Disturbed? Occasionally. Do I like some of their songs? Yes. Enough to pay for them? No. Therefore, am I a potential customer? No.

We have established Disturbed cannot make money from me. Do they lose money, therefore, if I Pirate their music? No. There was none to be had to begin with.

In the case of the OP, he has paid for the game... how he plays is no business of theirs, so he can pirate the damn thing to hell and back with moral impunity, if he's pirating it for his own use.

 

[DrDeath3191]

Well, you already own the game, so I see no problem with it.