To the people who don't pirate: Is life really so bad?

[Anton P. Nym]

To answer the original question; I haven't pirated anything for over twenty years, and I really don't feel any particular lack.

-- Steve

 

[sirdapfrey]

If you had no intention of paying them, yet you take what they made. That's stealing because you took property without being allowed to do so.

What property did I take? The software? No. The person I downloaded from still has his, noone lost their copy of it. The profit? No. They never had my money in the first place, and again - "You can't lose what you don't have". It's like saying you just stole my car. In what way? Well, I'm just assuming you were going to give me your car, and since you didn't, you clearly stole it from me.

Just like they just assume I was going to give them my money, and since I didn't, I clearly stole it from them.

I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't lose what you don't have" excuse. If I copy down your credit card info, you still have your card, so I didn't steal it right? If I then use that information to make purchases, I'm still not wrong because it's not like I took money you actually had right? The point is just because you're not actually taking something from someone doesn't make it right. Grow up and find a better excuse for your criminal activities. Or move somewhere where it's not a crime.

 

[DrX_1030]

I pirate everything from movies to music to games... i like it its easy its cheap and its pretty worthwhile, i see it as a victimless crime. please bear with me. A cd is not worth what people charge you for it, so the argument of buying a cd for the band is pretty stupid, seeing how almost all the money goes to the record companies. I feel i pay the artists of music when i go see them perform live in concert. After all that is were most of the money is made by them, heck if i really like them ill even buy some merch. Movies, well hollywood is in real need of learning this lesson atleast 80% of movies that come out are not eevn worth freaking renting. If a movie is good i will buy it on DVD if not go fuck yourself, i feel personally robbed when i see a piece of shit at the theaters and i was expecting atleast a half decent movie (case in point max payne). The only exeption to this that ive done is the dark knight i saw that movie in theaters and Imax a combined 6 times. I feel i deserve a free bluray copy of that lol. And well games i dont so much pirate anymore, but if i did it would be for the same reason i pirate movies.
I'm not cheap or anything i just feel if im gona pay for something i want to get quality out of it. If not it feels like what ever company i am buying from is stealing from me.

 

[Teachingaddict]

Again I raise point to my first post



Can you prove that pirates are ruining the games/music/film industry

Can you state categorically how much 1 pirate has caused in damages to each of these businesses.....I honestly do not think you can.

 

[BubbleGumSnareDrum]

I onyl pirate games with DRM.
They need to learn their lesson

Why is DRM around in the first place?

Because people pirate, but DRM does not stop the problem. DRM will NEVER, EVER stop anyone from pirating video games or music or movies and all it does it make gaming more difficult for people who buy the games.

I am only a criminal for smoking pot because it's against the law to buy, sell, or possess ganja. I have not harmed anyone and by sheer definition of my existence I am therefore an innocent person who has been turned into a criminal by an unjust law. Same thing with prohibition, same thing with banning guns. If you ban guns the criminals are all still going to have them, but you've forced all your innocent civilians to turn over their weapons.

DrX is absolutely right. I never buy CDs unless I am at a show handing untaxed cash to the band and their crew. Buying CDs through major labels or in retail stores is, to me, a crime against the whole of music.

 

[fenrizz]

If you had no intention of paying them, yet you take what they made. That's stealing because you took property without being allowed to do so.

What property did I take? The software? No. The person I downloaded from still has his, noone lost their copy of it. The profit? No. They never had my money in the first place, and again - "You can't lose what you don't have". It's like saying you just stole my car. In what way? Well, I'm just assuming you were going to give me your car, and since you didn't, you clearly stole it from me.

Just like they just assume I was going to give them my money, and since I didn't, I clearly stole it from them.

I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't lose what you don't have" excuse. If I copy down your credit card info, you still have your card, so I didn't steal it right? If I then use that information to make purchases, I'm still not wrong because it's not like I took money you actually had right? The point is just because you're not actually taking something from someone doesn't make it right. Grow up and find a better excuse for your criminal activities. Or move somewhere where it's not a crime.

This excuse is way better than your atempt to discredit it.
Credit card: THE ORIGINAL OWNER WILL STILL HAVE TO PAY THE BILL!
if you copied some gold on the other hand...

 

[Archaon6044]

A fate well deserved. They just give you demo's with good bits so you would buy a game. And when it turns out to be shit, you already bought it and are stuck with it.

I download a game and if I like it I buy it. Same goes with movies, music and everything else.

this is a man who knows what he's about! listen well to his wise council.

no, i'm not patronising, this is the way to do it! it's what i do

 

[sirdapfrey]

If you had no intention of paying them, yet you take what they made. That's stealing because you took property without being allowed to do so.

What property did I take? The software? No. The person I downloaded from still has his, noone lost their copy of it. The profit? No. They never had my money in the first place, and again - "You can't lose what you don't have". It's like saying you just stole my car. In what way? Well, I'm just assuming you were going to give me your car, and since you didn't, you clearly stole it from me.

Just like they just assume I was going to give them my money, and since I didn't, I clearly stole it from them.

I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't lose what you don't have" excuse. If I copy down your credit card info, you still have your card, so I didn't steal it right? If I then use that information to make purchases, I'm still not wrong because it's not like I took money you actually had right? The point is just because you're not actually taking something from someone doesn't make it right. Grow up and find a better excuse for your criminal activities. Or move somewhere where it's not a crime.

This excuse is way better than your atempt to discredit it.
Credit card: THE ORIGINAL OWNER WILL STILL HAVE TO PAY THE BILL!
if you copied some gold on the other hand...

But you can't lose what you don't have and you never actually had that money.

 

[fenrizz]

If you had no intention of paying them, yet you take what they made. That's stealing because you took property without being allowed to do so.

What property did I take? The software? No. The person I downloaded from still has his, noone lost their copy of it. The profit? No. They never had my money in the first place, and again - "You can't lose what you don't have". It's like saying you just stole my car. In what way? Well, I'm just assuming you were going to give me your car, and since you didn't, you clearly stole it from me.

Just like they just assume I was going to give them my money, and since I didn't, I clearly stole it from them.

I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't lose what you don't have" excuse. If I copy down your credit card info, you still have your card, so I didn't steal it right? If I then use that information to make purchases, I'm still not wrong because it's not like I took money you actually had right? The point is just because you're not actually taking something from someone doesn't make it right. Grow up and find a better excuse for your criminal activities. Or move somewhere where it's not a crime.

This excuse is way better than your atempt to discredit it.
Credit card: THE ORIGINAL OWNER WILL STILL HAVE TO PAY THE BILL!
if you copied some gold on the other hand...

But you can't lose what you don't have and you never actually had that money.

Yes you did. you had an agreement with the bank (or whatever) that you could lend money from them by using one of their personal issue credit cards. you also agreed that should you (or anyone else) ever use this card, you would pay it back with interests. so you lost money.

 

[sirdapfrey]

I onyl pirate games with DRM.
They need to learn their lesson

Why is DRM around in the first place?

Because people pirate, but DRM does not stop the problem. DRM will NEVER, EVER stop anyone from pirating video games or music or movies and all it does it make gaming more difficult for people who buy the games.

I am only a criminal for smoking pot because it's against the law to buy, sell, or possess ganja. I have not harmed anyone and by sheer definition of my existence I am therefore an innocent person who has been turned into a criminal by an unjust law. Same thing with prohibition, same thing with banning guns. If you ban guns the criminals are all still going to have them, but you've forced all your innocent civilians to turn over their weapons.

DrX is absolutely right. I never buy CDs unless I am at a show handing untaxed cash to the band and their crew. Buying CDs through major labels or in retail stores is, to me, a crime against the whole of music.

My point to I3uster was that he's/she's complaining about something that would not be in place if it wasn't for people like him/her, whether it's effective or not.

And as far as your point of buying CDs through normal commercial outlets being a crime against music; it's called capitalism. You don't like it, move to a communist nation.

 

[Archaon6044]

the pirated game has to have come from somewhere, and that somewhere is going to be a purchased copy of the software in question. the money has gone to the publishers and developers.

the pirated copies are just available incarnations of that software that have been made available to the onloine comunity.
money for the software has already changed hands. the only thing being lost is store sales of the software.

 

[JamminOz07]

If something is worth pirating, then it's probably worth paying for IMHO.

I'm no saint, I have pirated in the past, and probably will in the future. Everyone downloads or copies music (for example). If however, a friend burns me a new CD and I really enjoy it, then I'll buy a retail copy for myself. Same goes for DVD's etc.

I just know that if I had spent 100's of my personal hours creating a game, or music or film etc, then I would be totally pi$$ed off if people were stealing that from me. If people liked it enough to want to have it, but not pay for it, then it's just stealing (regardless of if it's a copy of not, that's a funkin ridiculous arguement, of course copying something is stealing).

all that said, it always cracks me up when we hear that the movie industry loses $200 million to piracy every year (or whatever the amount is.) But we also hear that they make 100's of millions of $$$ profits... so they're not ever actually losing money, they're just not making quite as much as they could be

 

[sirdapfrey]

If you had no intention of paying them, yet you take what they made. That's stealing because you took property without being allowed to do so.

What property did I take? The software? No. The person I downloaded from still has his, noone lost their copy of it. The profit? No. They never had my money in the first place, and again - "You can't lose what you don't have". It's like saying you just stole my car. In what way? Well, I'm just assuming you were going to give me your car, and since you didn't, you clearly stole it from me.

Just like they just assume I was going to give them my money, and since I didn't, I clearly stole it from them.

I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't lose what you don't have" excuse. If I copy down your credit card info, you still have your card, so I didn't steal it right? If I then use that information to make purchases, I'm still not wrong because it's not like I took money you actually had right? The point is just because you're not actually taking something from someone doesn't make it right. Grow up and find a better excuse for your criminal activities. Or move somewhere where it's not a crime.

This excuse is way better than your atempt to discredit it.
Credit card: THE ORIGINAL OWNER WILL STILL HAVE TO PAY THE BILL!
if you copied some gold on the other hand...

But you can't lose what you don't have and you never actually had that money.

Yes you did. you had an agreement with the bank (or whatever) that you could lend money from them by using one of their personal issue credit cards. you also agreed that should you (or anyone else) ever use this card, you would pay it back with interests. so you lost money.

But you never had the money in the first place, otherwise you wouldn't be paying anything back to anybody. It's always the same with these discussions. Pirates try to justify themselves with self-righteous indignation but their arguments work for them but not in any other situation (according to said pirates0. Hypocrisy much?

 

[Terramax]

I agree with DrX. If I could play a demo of Farcry 2, and if I enjoyed it enough, it might even be the first game with DRM I'd buy. But the developers won't even let me TRY the game. They just expect me to take a leap, invest £35 without any knowledge as to whether I've enjoy the game or not. Who are they to expect me to take a chance with them if they can't do so with me?

Imagine being expected to pay to watch a film without being able to watch a trailer, or buy a music album without being able to listen to a single? That would be obsured. So why do some here think it's acceptable to be expected to pay up to £39.99/ $49.99/ etc for a game without being able to play it first?

 

[Starnerf]

the pirated game has to have come from somewhere, and that somewhere is going to be a purchased copy of the software in question. the money has gone to the publishers and developers.

the pirated copies are just available incarnations of that software that have been made available to the onloine comunity.
money for the software has already changed hands. the only thing being lost is store sales of the software.

So someone paying for one copy justifies 10,000 people copying it for free?

 

[BubbleGumSnareDrum]

And as far as your point of buying CDs through normal commercial outlets being a crime against music; it's called capitalism. You don't like it, move to a communist nation.

XD capitalism and communism are the only economic systems you guys.

American economics =/= Capitalism. At all.

 

[GenHellspawn]

To me, morals are irrelevant. I mean, what's the point of not pirating? Your local law enforcement probably has bigger problems to deal with (like actual crime), and you won't have to buy games to see if they're good if they don't have demos. If you want to stick your head in the sand and claim moral superiority, then fine. But don't insult people who want to try before they buy.

 

[Zelist]

i love steam, it makes me getting my games easy with next to no drm, its easier then pirating as well and i get tech support.
am i a pirate? im not going to tell you if i am or not, but i buy my video games if they are good.
with all the contraversy of is pirating stealing or not? well what about places like EB games and rogers video and block buster? is renting stealing is buying playing it and then selling it stealing? i mean you got to use the games intelectual property which at the time you owned and then you got to get most of your money back and that money doesn't even goto the developer(stores like this are actually the reason it costs so much for a video game in the first place) but copying a game so people can play it, my thats a bad idea, we need parents to buy 2 copies of the games for there kids, why dont foot ball makers require every kid on the foot ball team buy a foot ball? the video game movie and music industry make me sick, the creation of most video games and movies and music CD's and DVD's is less then $.50 why are we paying $50-60 for them? video games are the only real excusable ones they dont charge $10 to try them out for 2 hours at the cinema, they dont charge you $20-$50 a ticket to play them in a concert hall

 

[fenrizz]

If you had no intention of paying them, yet you take what they made. That's stealing because you took property without being allowed to do so.

What property did I take? The software? No. The person I downloaded from still has his, noone lost their copy of it. The profit? No. They never had my money in the first place, and again - "You can't lose what you don't have". It's like saying you just stole my car. In what way? Well, I'm just assuming you were going to give me your car, and since you didn't, you clearly stole it from me.

Just like they just assume I was going to give them my money, and since I didn't, I clearly stole it from them.

I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't lose what you don't have" excuse. If I copy down your credit card info, you still have your card, so I didn't steal it right? If I then use that information to make purchases, I'm still not wrong because it's not like I took money you actually had right? The point is just because you're not actually taking something from someone doesn't make it right. Grow up and find a better excuse for your criminal activities. Or move somewhere where it's not a crime.

This excuse is way better than your atempt to discredit it.
Credit card: THE ORIGINAL OWNER WILL STILL HAVE TO PAY THE BILL!
if you copied some gold on the other hand...

But you can't lose what you don't have and you never actually had that money.

Yes you did. you had an agreement with the bank (or whatever) that you could lend money from them by using one of their personal issue credit cards. you also agreed that should you (or anyone else) ever use this card, you would pay it back with interests. so you lost money.

But you never had the money in the first place, otherwise you wouldn't be paying anything back to anybody. It's always the same with these discussions. Pirates try to justify themselves with self-righteous indignation but their arguments work for them but not in any other situation (according to said pirates0. Hypocrisy much?

If i do not intend to buy a game, and never would consider it, but still downloaded it, where did the company loose money?
if i bought 25 cd's on average per year before i started downloading music, then started to download an additional 15 cd's (while still purchasing 15 cd's on average per year), where did anyone loose money?
You cannot count the number of pirated copies as an actual loss.

hypocrisy? nah, not really.
the last game i downloaded was Age of Empires II, because i simply could not get hold of it and it has always been one of my favorite games. I recently (a few months ago) found a AoE collectors edition with all the games
i dont download moveis much, music only ocassionally.
I still buy most the stuff i download though, unless it's utter crap.
Tv series? Downloading tons of thoose, but also buy alot of boxed sets

 

[sirdapfrey]

And as far as your point of buying CDs through normal commercial outlets being a crime against music; it's called capitalism. You don't like it, move to a communist nation.

XD capitalism and communism are the only economic systems you guys.

American economics =/= Capitalism. At all.

Once again, you're missing the point. If I had wanted to do a complete breakdown of all possible economic systems, I'd have started another thread. If you want to discuss the topic at hand, great. If you want to argue semantics, I'm done.