Poll: Pirating

[fenrizz]

I mostly download TV series that they have not started, or are currently not airing here in Norway.
Some movies in the past, but since I got myself a PS3 I've only bought Blu Ray's.

Don't download music, as I got an extensive CD collection, and listen to other stuff on youtube if needed.
I rarely download games, only if they are old and not available in stores.
And no, I will not pay full price for a 10 year old game. Ever.

Also, I boycott every game with nasty DRM solutions. And no, I don't download the either.

 

[dont_blink]

if i like an album that i pirate, i buy it.
i pirate movies to watch them once, or stream them, because neither of the video rental shops in my hometown have anything i want to watch.

also, if i really like a movie i'll buy it.

though i wont buy music from people who are anti-pirate. like lily allen, a guilty pleasure of mine, i was going to buy an album of hers that i downloaded a few weeks earlier, and that morning i read an article about her moaning about pirates.
well if she doesn't appreciate my custom...

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

An argument of this nature is a dangerous road to take. At the purest level you are indeed correct - if I steal your car I gain and you lose something tangible. When you steal intellictual property, in many cases you the only thing lost is the intangible idea of a reward. The trouble is, when you start splitting hairs like this your argument is seen, at best, as a flimsy rationalization designed to shield you from admitting to yourself that your theft of an album through some P2P network is somehow "less bad" than walking into a store and stealing the CD.

If you apply your very argument to another type of crime, you may see the problem. If I beat another person to death with my bare hands, I could rightly be called a murderer. If I instead shoot them with a gun is it somehow better? After all, I didn't do the killing - it was a bullet. If you start making strange distinctions such as yours you are forced to make convoluted jumps in logic that only serve to make YOU feel better about your crimes; nobody else will be taken in by them.

Don't try to antagonize me. Just because I disagree with you does not make me a criminal. Besides, beating someone to dead and shooting someone to dead ARE two different kind of murders with a same kind of conclusion: the victim dies. Piratism and bulgary are two different kinds of theivery with two different kinds of conclusions: In the later one, the victim loses material possession and in the former one he/she doesn't.

If intellectual property is really that valuable, then all the libraries are committing crimes every minute. Alright, that metaphor doesn't apply in this case, since the libraries are not companies made to make profit, but you get the idea. Just because there are libraries doesn't mean that all the bookshops are out of bussines.

You'll note that I, never once, attacked you for holding an opinion nor implied your opinion made you a criminal. Instead, I pointed out what I percieve to be errors in your argument. What does and does not make one a criminal is a point unworthy of argument - all one needs to do is commit a crime to earn the classification.

The trouble with your logic as I see it, is that you attempt to imply because a person does not lose something tangible because of IP violations it is something other than theft. Yes, under the traditional interpretation, a theft generally involves the loss of something real to go with the gain, but it seems clear enough from my vantage point that the bit about gain is just as important as the bit about loss.

Of course, you do have an interesting point that I've often considered. There are plenty of places where I can go and effectively do the same exact thing as piracy and yet it is entirely legal. I can purchase games through the used market, I can rent a video from a store, I can read a book from a library. In each case I experience the media in question and yet the person who produced the product gains nothing. People rarely complain about such things and yet, I can't help but feel if I owned any IP actually worthy of being compensated for I would stand staunchly against such nonsense. The trouble is, this creates the very double standard you allude to. Not only are IP laws nearly impossible to understand they are full of contradictions that make determining right from wrong nearly impossible in some cases.

 

[ntnimara]

I dont understand why someone would do this. A person can work for years on a product and some person comes along and just gets it for free ? Thats not fair to anybody and you can argue that its is.

and a person can work for years and never buy it.. in some areas of the world (round E.Europe and Balkans for ex).. people are true wage slaves.. entertainment is something we can't afford.. yet we get indoctrinated with the same western consumerist thirst

still.. when you boil it down.. pirating is theft of one sort or other.. or is it sharing without permission? (is there a difference?)

 

[Virus0015]

Well I have looted a fair few container ships in the gulf of Aden with... oh you mean that kind of piracy!

Never have (unless you count listening to music on youtube to see if it is worth buying), and never will. It is no different to stealing, and I would not shoplift in real life so why would I do it online? I don't like people's excuses saying that they can't afford it etc. Weather they like it or not people worked very hard to make that product, how would you like it if someone gets a cut of your job salary for no reason? Piracy will undoubtedly boil down to making people redundant, and affect the lowest of the low on that job tier. There is no justification for media piracy, if you deem it good enough to use then you respect the owners term's of use, for without them you wouldn't even be able to buy it.

 

[Lullabye]

I dont understand why someone would do this. A person can work for years on a product and some person comes along and just gets it for free ? Thats not fair to anybody and you can argue that its is.

and a person can work for years and never buy it.. in some areas of the world (round E.Europe and Balkans for ex).. people are true wage slaves.. entertainment is something we can't afford.. yet we get indoctrinated with the same western consumerist thirst

still.. when you boil it down.. pirating is theft of one sort or other.. or is it sharing without permission? (is there a difference?)

Really it just depends on the situation. I have a friend who developes software for certain games(like second life.....dont play it ever) and I asked him how he felt when people tried to download his stuff for free. He said he loved it, it was like free advertising of his product. He still did all he could to prevent it, but in the end, it was all about getting his product out there, not making money. Games are art, and dev's are artists.....best analogy I can come up with...
OFFT:wtf is wrong with you people? 6 pages and no pirate song of any sort? well Im gonna fix that!
[youtube=n2d4W-ixLRQ

 

[vrbtny]

I only get stuff like the Fire emblems which weren't released over here....

 

[kekeekekenee]

lol this is a poll created by the system man, they're gonna sue us.

YARRRR

 

[Virus0015]

I only pirate from people who can afford it.

How the hell do you know who can afford it?

 

[Crimsader]

I pirate only music that I can't find in any music store.

 

[Nemorov]

I personally feel like pirating keeps the prices of big media companies in check. It forces them to price competitively and make their resources readily available, so that it's just easier to get it legally. I think we all win then.

If there's no option to pirate, no fear in the back of the media giant's head, then they can charge whatever they like and make it scarce to get.

 

[Motiv_]

Like I said in the last 3 threads in the past month there have been on the exact same subject, I treat torrents like a demo. If you like the movie, buy the DVD. If you like the music, buy the CD or buy it off Itunes. If you like the game, then buy it over steam or actually buy a CD.

For example, Band of Brothers. I torrented the first episode, watched it, loved it, and went out and bought the entire first season. And I don't have a single bad thought in the world.