Poll: Piracy. Good, or bad?

[ace_of_something]

what? Have you ever heard of False dichotomy? It's either perfectly okay or a serious crime and nothing in between? Are you sure there aren't more than two options?

 

[Oolinthu]

There is nothing morally wrong with it. There are economic problems because of pirates.

If you saw a nice car in your neighbors driveway, and you wanted a car like that, and all you had to do was click a button and you would get that car, and your neighbors car would still be in his driveway. What's wrong with that? It's not stealing.

The problem with that is then it's not economically viable to sell cars if no-one pays for them. The auto industry shuts down then when you need a newer car, it doesn't exist.

Except, for the whole car analogy to be accurate, you'd have to assume that
A) each type of car is made by an individual engineer or group of engineers
B) the "auto-industry" doesn't actually manufacture cars, but only aids in their promotion and distribution
C) people will pay to see these engineers build their cars in person, and in fact this is where most engineers make the majority of their money; car sales go mostly to the auto-industry
D) with this new system of car duplication, the auto-industry is at risk of finding itself obsolete, since engineers no longer necessarily need it to promote or distribute their work.

Under such a system, even if no one buys "cars" (which people still do), it is still plenty viable to build cars for a living.

 

[dwightsteel]

What do you think?

Did you ever downloaded a game/movie?

And should "pirates" be punished?

My opinion: Think of it this way: ( i allready mentioned this in another thread)

Lets say you are a box salesman ( developer). I come to your store and buy your box. Then, I take it home, and start making exact copies of that box.

Later i start giving them away for free

What's wrong with that?

Please post your opinion.

Jeez
Is it bad? Yeah. It's stealing. There is no other way to look at it. You're taking something that was meant to be purchased, and getting it for free. You can validate yourself all you want. "The games sucks anyway." "The price tag isn't worth the content." FFS, it's called piracy. Despite all our romantic notions about pirates thanks in big part to Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, no one denies the connotations. The question really should be whether or not you're ok with the fact that you are stealing.

Considering what I've downloaded and who I'm ripping off, I can sleep at night rather comfortably. But I, in no way, delude myself into thinking that what I do is, in any way, justifiable.

 

[-Orgasmatron-]

Guys... Piracy is a crime, and you will be punsished, see below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MM0VO3slK8

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

what? Have you ever heard of False dichotomy? It's either perfectly okay or a serious crime and nothing in between.

Huzzah for fallacious thinking!

On topic: I have downloaded some music by bands that I have wanted to check out but didn't know if I'd actually like their music. I sample an album or whatnot and then buy it if I like it, or delete it if I don't. It's really quite simple. If I cared enough about games to download them for demoing I'd do the same thing. Try it for a while, then delete it if I can't stand it and buy it if it's good. Downloaded games with a good multiplayer component will always be something I pay for.

 

[JoeyTribbiani]

It's bad because it rips off the film crew's hard work and it gives bad quality films to people who buy pirate videos.

 

[TikiShades]

Jeez
Is it bad? Yeah. It's stealing. There is no other way to look at it. You're taking something that was meant to be purchased, and getting it for free. You can validate yourself all you want. "The games sucks anyway." "The price tag isn't worth the content." FFS, it's called piracy. Despite all our romantic notions about pirates thanks in big part to Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, no one denies the connotations. The question really should be whether or not you're ok with the fact that you are stealing.

Considering what I've downloaded and who I'm ripping off, I can sleep at night rather comfortably. But I, in no way, delude myself into thinking that what I do is, in any way, justifiable.

Companies called it piracy. That's like if I called you stupid, and then didn't listen to your argument because "You're called stupid." Companies wanted it to sound bad, so they called it piracy.

And there's so many ways we can look at it.
- What if you already bought it second-handed, and it didn't work like it should have? Should you have to find ANOTHER person to buy it from, knowing you have to waste money on something you already spent money on?
- What if you lost your disc?
- What if your console broke, and you want to play the games you had on a different system?

You can say it is "stealing", but even stealing can be justified.

 

[Xerthach]

In my honest opinion, piracy is nothing more than duplication, often with results that the receiver of software/movie might see as bad. For example, video games with CD-Keys. If you make a copy of that, only one person'd be able to play online at a time. Now, say someone copied a game for his friend, and only one worked online at once. Say they wanted to play together online, there's the motive to actually purchase a legal copy of the game. In my honest, personal opinion, there's a difference between piracy and theft. Piracy is duplicating with most probable dodgy results. Theft is plain stealing.

If you don't want these dodgy results, then buy the game. It's as simple as that.

 

[Agayek]

The way I see it:

If it's either a) too old to be commercially available, or b) you've already bought a copy, then it is perfectly acceptable to download and use it.

Anything else I see as blatant theft.

In my honest opinion, piracy is nothing more than duplication, often with results that the receiver of software/movie might see as bad. For example, video games with CD-Keys. If you make a copy of that, only one person'd be able to play online at a time. Now, say someone copied a game for his friend, and only one worked online at once. Say they wanted to play together online, there's the motive to actually purchase a legal copy of the game. In my honest, personal opinion, there's a difference between piracy and theft. Piracy is duplicating with most probable dodgy results. Theft is plain stealing.

If you don't want these dodgy results, then buy the game. It's as simple as that.

I can hit up a torrent site and download and use a suite of $700 software that works perfectly. How is that not stealing?

 

[jasoncyrus]

Honestly I see nothing wrong with copying things like music and movies. Mostly because they over charge for a lot of thing (£150 it cost my sister in law for a ticket to a robbie williams concert). So they are basically ripping us off first.

Plus they are still making hundreds of millions from cd sales since I still buy music thats worth me buying (like alestorm).

 

[TikiShades]

The way I see it:

If it's either a) too old to be commercially available, or b) you've already bought a copy, then it is perfectly acceptable to download and use it.

Anything else I see as blatant theft.

^

I hate how there was a billion translation keys to English for Mother 3, but they all refused to give you the game to download, saying they don't want to disobey Father Nintendo and do something so sinister as piracy. I mean really, you needed to pirate the game so you could translate it!

 

[Xerthach]

The way I see it:

If it's either a) too old to be commercially available, or b) you've already bought a copy, then it is perfectly acceptable to download and use it.

Anything else I see as blatant theft.

In my honest opinion, piracy is nothing more than duplication, often with results that the receiver of software/movie might see as bad. For example, video games with CD-Keys. If you make a copy of that, only one person'd be able to play online at a time. Now, say someone copied a game for his friend, and only one worked online at once. Say they wanted to play together online, there's the motive to actually purchase a legal copy of the game. In my honest, personal opinion, there's a difference between piracy and theft. Piracy is duplicating with most probable dodgy results. Theft is plain stealing.

If you don't want these dodgy results, then buy the game. It's as simple as that.

I can hit up a torrent site and download and use a suite of $700 software that works perfectly. How is that not stealing?

I agree, that is blatant theft.. But then again, that brings in the whole CD-Key thing.. Or perhaps just do what Steam does? Download the software, and make sure it works only for the first account registered?

EDIT: Software developers should create ways to make SURE that their software isn't pirated.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

Piracy is legal if you do so while wearing an eyepatch with a parrot on your shoulder.

An eyepatch for the parrot is optional.

 

[sneak_copter]

No, pirates are awesome. Pirates should be above the law. Where can I get an eyepatch, cutlass, and a parrot called "Polly" who has a fondness for crackers and sitting gormlessly on people's shoulders?

 

[zauxz]

I can hit up a torrent site and download and use a suite of $700 software that works perfectly. How is that not stealing?

Thats what people get for writing absurd numbers on the pice tags.

 

[RedVelvet]

It all depends on the situation really. If I ever should pirate something, I'll do it with a product from someone that needs to use a frigging golf kart to just get to their mailbox. Or from a company that rackets in loads of money on OP subscriptions or having us pay for DLC that should have already been in the game ...

 

[Rolling Thunder]

And a troll it would seem. Reported.

Zauxz - your point brings up a very valid one: where does piracy end, and competition begin? With Microsoft having an effective monopoly over the world's computer systems, and there being what Smith termed an informal cartel amongst many software developers, what option is there in many cases but to pirate.

 

[Agayek]

I can hit up a torrent site and download and use a suite of $700 software that works perfectly. How is that not stealing?

Thats what people get for writing absurd numbers on the pice tags.

Prices are irrelevant to the matter at hand.

Taking something without paying for it is stealing. How is downloading and using software that the developer charges for, without paying for it, not theft?

The fact of the matter is, you cannot say taking something without paying is not theft, and that's precisely what piracy is.