Poll: Is Piracy Really That Bad?

[Ruwrak]

I dunno. If demo's were released the piracy would be less.
And to be honest, people who pirate a game and -enjoy- playing it and think it's a good game and don't buy it, I wonder why?

Obviously you are entertained by it, people put work in it for the majority of a year *if not longer*. And if you can't afford all the games, wait a bit till they either drop in price or you are in the position to buy it.

But I guess some people are just morally convinced it's their right to download games from the net, just as much as some people are morally convinced games should be bought at all times under all circumstances.

I can see the point on both sides actually, still I prefer to buy my games.
I like owning it, supporting the industry when they release a good game and not buy games that are downright horrible (in my opinion anyway. Alice is an example of this.)

So is piracy good or bad? I don't know. Technically it's stealing entertainment like as if you would be tapping someone's tv-cable or stealing a book from the bookstore. On the other hand, I guess I can see the benefit of downloading for demo purposes (if there is no demo released anyway.) which brings me to the following. What happened to demo's? Seriously. One of the best ways to get a crowd behind your game is with a demo.

Sidestepping back into topic: I rather not be forced with all sorts of DRM's or Internet connection required all the time to play / keycode passphrases and all that type of junk. So I rather buy the games and hope they decide to nock off (at least) the Internet Connection requirements on some games (Assassins Creed II was just... a pain with my laptop as the connection kept dropping.. Crappy provider so there's one problem.)

SO myeah. It's not inherently good or evil, nor is the situation black or white enough to say a clear judgement about it that can be stated as an univeral rule.

 

[ElPatron]

At the time of my post that sentence was a bit ambiguous to me and thought you were making some kind of connection between piracy of recent and old titles, meaning that companies would use ALL torrent downloads (illegal or not) to justify their DRM.

But I guess some people are just morally convinced it's their right to download games from the net

I kindly invite you to read some comments in The Pirate Bay.

There are usually people annoying the file uploader because something is not working and ruin the comments section with their posts. Many TPB users encourage those impatient downloaders to just buy the game. Of course, this doesn't apply to the AAA games that get 8s and 7s because reviewers are stuck in a 4 grade scale.



It's funny how TPB could be legitimately be used for legal purposes only (I like to download Linux distros from there) but 2/3 of the accounts were created to whine about pirated games.

 

[newwiseman]

In the absence of hard data for modern video game piracy I will say yes it is very bad. For all media in general no not really, every report that has been published in the last two years that is actually credible has stated as fact the the copyrighted industries are continuing grow and sell very well, giving credence to the idea that piracy spreads interest.

Even in the countries where piracy isn't punished often, if at all *cough China, the copyright industries are growing. Hollyweird and the recording industry will always make the pirates out to be the scum of the earth but I think South Park summed it up best when Kyle said something along the lines of "it's going to happen, but I'm just happy so many people like my work."

Modern internet piracy is just the latest in a long line of "villains" that are going to kill the industry. Sheet Music producers said records would put them out of business and thus deserved a cut of their profits, they tried to crack down on people singing songs that they didn't have the sheet music for, and didn't want people making their own copies (they even had a congressman say in the future people will not be able to sing because we will not need to thanks to records).

Record producers said radio would kill their business, and again when cassette tape came out because they could record the song off the radio.

It's very strange that for the last 100+ years all this "piracy" has taken place people keep making music and profits. Internet piracy is just the first one that can be tracked down and punished.

The real enemies out there are the bootleggers who sell pirated works, when a sale actually occurs so has a theft, and the indie games have proven any sale even if only 1$ is better than no sale.

On a side note does anyone want to borrow my VHS copy of "Don't Copy That Floppy"? (a movie from the early 90's given to schools telling kids not to make copies of games on floppy disk, stating if they don't people will stop making games)

 

[CrystalShadow]

I don't really know. I'm against piracy as a whole, altough I think the measures the industry takes to deal with it are counterproductive and they frequently seem to make arguments based on flawed premises (Lost revenue? Really? How unrealistic are you being to say that every pirated copy is equivalent in value to one lost sale. At full price no less! - That's insane. If there was no piracy whatsoever I can guarantee you wouldn't make extra revenue equal to every single pirated copy.)

However, I'm seriously opposed to the whole IP thing (Intellectual property is a flawed concept - It encourages the thought that someone 'owns' an idea, which is unhealthy).

Copyright laws carry a seriously heavy burden. And piracy is the 'easy' argument here.
The damage copyright does to our collective culture and artistic freedom is immense, and shouldn't be underestimated.

That's why original copyright laws were an agreement designed to balance out the benefit to society as a whole for having free and unrestricted access to someone's work, against the need to provide some compensation to the creators so they'll actually bother to release their work into the public domain.

You don't 'own' your creations. You never did. You entered into an agreement with society that we'll give you the legal power to control what people do with it (for a limited period of time), in exchange for you giving your work to the public.

That was what copyright was about. Yet that's been twisted beyond all recognition.

We should not have copyright terms that last in excess of 140 years or more! that's damaging to society. Damaging to culture, and makes the sole any only focus profit, at the expense of everything else.

At the same time, piracy does harm everyone as well. Because the less financial compensation there is for creating something and releasing it to the public, the less likely anyone is to want to do so.

So my thoughts on the matter are this:
Piracy of anything recent = very bad.

However, things like abandonware and old media and software are much more of a grey area to me.
I might even go so far as to say anything over 25 years old should be pirated by as many people as possible, in protest to the total perversion of it's principles that copyright law has become.

 

[Compatriot Block]

I disagree with pirating in pretty much all context.

The WORST possible thing any pirate can do (and I know people personally who have pulled this) is make fun of the "morons" who actually pay for games.

"Oh you idiot, who actually pays for Minecraft? I pirated that like any sane person would."

Well fuck you, hypothetical pirate. If people like me didn't actually pay for these games, then there would be no more games for you to pirate.

That is the real reason I can't stand the idea of pirating. A pirate is freeloading off paying customers' work, and enjoying the fruits of others' support.

 

[JET1971]

I pirated every game I own that didnt have a demo, and I own well over 500 titles. I wont put my money down on a game unless i can try it out first. If the game is crap I delete the copy and move on. If I like what I am seeing I buy it. I dont like the idea of buying a $50-$60 game and not know if its good or not and I dont trust reviews to have the same opinion as me. is that a bad thing?

 

[sean360h]

I tend to buy the game then get a crack for it no DRM and everybody is happy i used to be a hardcore pirate but what i have found is that the hardcore pirate is becoming the hardcore purchaser
granted i still pirate things i see to be shit eg bands i kinda like but not enough to put my money were my mouth is or most modern music

 

[somonels]

I was bored, so I made this post.

1) It's illegal.

Yes.

2) It takes money away from the company producing the game.

If the pirate would buy the game otherwise, yes, but in reality a lot, if not most, pirates would not be willing to legally buy the game.

3) Very unfair to the people who purchased the game legally.

Oh boy.
You are either talking about the DRM components that would still exist to a certain degree, or you are claiming that it is unfair that others can steal and get it for free, while you had to pay for yours.

4) Could subject minors to content their parents/guardians wouldn't want them exposed too.

This is the internet. go to the search bar and type in "porno", "Bieber", "Kardashian", "Republicans." Unless the parents are more knowledgeable with computers and willing to invest more time than a determined youngster, they won't be able to stop him, not to mention everything their parents do not have direct control over.

Have you ever lent a game? At least three out of four statements you made also apply to this action.

 

[Winterfel]

There is one occasion and one only where I pirate:
The game is simply too old, it's no longer in production and I can't find any second hand way to obtain it, it simply does not leave me with much in the way of choices.
Then comes the question why there isn't an entire section on steam(for example) for out-of-production-games, I mean I have no trouble hunting down an old movie or book, but finding a game that has been out of production for about 1-2 years is a bloody nightmare.
How foolish of me, let's instead spend a retarded amount of time on useless DRM to promote piracy.
Developers and publishers are missing out on so much..

 

[Dr Pussymagnet]

It doesn't matter what anyone says to try to justify pirating. To me, it's just a simple matter of theft.

You didn't pay for it, so don't fucking take it.

how you cant steal that which does not really exist, Its my opinion that when it comes to protecting digital IP you cant do it, not that it should not be done but that its is actually impossible to do so due to the nature of data itself. You can talk about morality until your blue in the face but people that pirate will probably always do so because they obviously have no moral issues with doing so, any loss that occurs because of this would be dead weight loss and a reality of selling somthing that has an unlimited quantity.

It's not a matter of losing opportunities to sell a product because someone pirated a game, I get that there's no actual, physical thing being stolen.

It's just a simple, basic matter of taking something you didn't pay for, physical or digital.

 

[Coldster]

Going to summarize my statements from before, so: Yes, it is bad, anyone who says differently is ignorant, childish, and most likely a pirate themselves. It is one of the most selfish acts in the modern world, and it does only bad, no good. Of course, this only applies to pirating modern games, not old games that you can't get anymore.

 

[Ascarus]

3) No DRM

i am opposed to piracy as i consider it stealing, but what other players do is their business. i understand both sides of the argument, but i do chuckle when players who i know pirate games whine about DRM but fail to connect that they perpetuate that DRM policy with the very piracy they are partaking in.

 

[Snotnarok]

In a world where game demos are rare or non-existant and system requirements flat out lie to you it's almost needed to have the option to use 'alternative methods'. If it wasn't for the alt method, I'd never have played and ultimately bought Bad Company 2, I didn't know if my system could run it, and I didn't know what to expect considering a lot of mix things I was hearing. I tried it and within 15 minutes I was like, shit this game is great, and I bought it. There's no demo, it's not like I can return it either if things aren't working either.

In the end, no harm was done and I got to both test the game and find out it was amazing. Now I'm not sure who said this but it made me laugh "What if you don't like the game? You just keep it and play it then?" If I don't like the game why the hell would I keep it??

Is Piracy good? No, but I know for a fact 90% of the time the only way to demo the game is to do 'use an alternate method'. Is that good? Hell no, it's stupid and they should put out a god damn demo, or not lie about the requirements.

Lying about Requirements: I bought Black Ops, my processor could easily handle it according to the requirements, turns out I couldn't play it at any setting above 10fps. They said they would fix it, well they did, 6 months or so later. That's not really fair now is it? Mass Effect 2, says it supports dual core processors, you can play the game but without the third party patch (Mass Affinity) it takes upward of 2 minutes to load just the captains quarters, more for larger maps obviously. This is literally to do with dual core processors as the creator says. Bioware never fixed it and never linked anyone to said fix. If I didn't find out about the patch I would have never even bothered playing the game. However because of a number of things I got the C.E. edition.

So say what you want about it, I've bought games because of 'alt methods'. The only game I didn't buy was Oblivion...because I just didn't really like it, I wound up just watching my friend play his 360 version. But again, there's no bloody demo.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Bit of curiousity here, how is iTunes for movies and TV?

Because I know my buying of DVDs has slowed hugely when I realised what an awful deal I was getting compared to digital online versions.

you get a digital copy of , say a TV episode, and there's no trailers, no unskippable piracy warning, no seven different 'look at me' animations from the publishers, production companies, etc, just the damn thing you want to see.

I'd be happy to build up a digital library on iTunes if it's on a par with say, Steam, where I've got everything easily accessible, without DRM, and without a bunch of crap needlessly chained onto it.

I think the biggest problem with the movie industry isn't that people don't want to pay for it, it's that they don't want to wade thru 10 minutes of unskippable BS every time they choose to view what they paid for, and then lose it if there's an unfortunate scratch to the disc. I corrupt my steam folder, I just DL it all again free.

As the writer of Father Ted and IT crowd said, to move ahead in the current market, make your content 'better than the free stuff pirates get'.

 

[evilneko]

Piracy--as in the casual kind, your average torrent user--is not nearly as bad as the industries makes it out to be. Hell there's been more than one study showing pirates buy more media than er...non-pirates. The E/BSA/MPAA/RIAA's claims are ridiculous. Sure, piracy causes them loss. This is undeniable. Their inflated claims as to the extent of said losses? Not so much.

And then of course, there's the anime industry, which owes its very existence to piracy. Probably why they're also the most lenient.

Long, long ago on this lovely now mostly-forgotten thing called Usenet, a wise man once said, "Don't worry when they pirate your app. Worry when they don't."