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

[Uncompetative]

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 don't pirate software. I consider it theft. You don't consider it theft.

If I follow your argument correctly, then I could do the same as you. Actually, everyone could. If this happened the publishers would not make any profits (they may sell just one copy - the one that went straight on to Pirate Bay). What is wrong with this scenario?

Well, the publisher couldn't carry on like this for very long. It may try bringing in DRM (which everyone hates), or go out of business. Therefore, we'd all do ok for about 18 months and then suddenly no more new games. We would have disincentivized the industry.

Oh wait, you say. It would never get that bad. I am being ridiculous. There are still some people buying games even as some pirate.

Yes, but that means that those people who buy all their games (like me and Erana) are paying more than we would if people like you didn't steal. Games are as expensive as they are because the publishers factor in the cost of piracy. Thanks a lot for that... Hope you get caught.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Well Copied games are a genetic crime against video game society.

 

[gilljoy]

its hardly steeling in my oppinion if im paying for a cable tv subscription, my tv lisence and buy the box sets. i just want to watch heroes for instance early without having to wait for it to be showing in the uk

 

[BladePHF]

I've never stolen a game from anybody. However, people have made copies and given them to me via the internet, to which I am very grateful.

I c wut u did thar. XD

Also, I would like to point out to Uncompetative that DRM is a crock of s---, as it only hurts legal buyers. Pirating goes around DRM. So it's not like DRM is do-or-die for the industry, who could have picked up on that fact and just dropped it altogether, thereby probably wining over scores of pirates in the process. Because there is nothing I like more then rooting in my system32 registry after installing Spore... Fun times...

 

[new_age_reject]

Well I don't have like £30 to spend on a game. So if I d/l, they don't get my money, but I will tell my friends of the game is any good. If I don't d/l, then they still aren't gonna get my money cause I'm not gonna spend like a months worth of money on one game, plus they don't get free advertisement via my recommendations.
I always buy multi-player games however from Steam if they are worth shelling out the cash, but most of the time the games aren't worth the cash.
Also they make out that d/l a pirated game funds the criminals, I don't hand over any money either way so nobody is gaining anything.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

I just...acquire older games that I will either never be able to find or still cost an arm and a leg because of their "age". I don't find anything wrong with emulators of older games, but new games...meh it doesn't really bother me to be honest. Let them have their fun.

 

[Nomad]

It may try bringing in DRM (which everyone hates), or go out of business.

... Yeah, except DRM does nothing to stop piracy. Because, as I said before, pirates get cracked software, meaning without the copyright protection. No copyright protection has ever done more than mildly inconvenience the initial pirates that have to crack the bloody thing. It takes them a week, tops. After that, there's a cracked copy circulating, and no pirates ever need to worry about the copyright protection on that piece of software anymore.

The paying consumers, however, still need to go through all the internet validation and limited amount of installations and crap. Copyright protection is completely useless. It does nothing to stop pirates. It does everything to annoy consumers.

 

[brainfreeze215]

I buy games fairly, same with movies and music, but I always buy music in CD form. Usually a lot cheaper (depending on the artist and the CD) and DRM-Free.

 

[Baonec]

If the original disc breaks I don't see what is wrong with downloading a copy of it, Is life really soo bad that people must constantly hassle people who pirate, do we have nothing better to do as a forum.

 

[Infiniteloop]

If stuff is so old it is no longer in production, torrents are one of the only ways to get it. I started watching The Practice recently. They have a season 1 DVD out (show went from 1997-2004) and hulu only has up to Season 3. I was going to pay to rent or buy, but the content was unavailable. Under the DMCA (Digital Millineum Copyrights Act) I have a right to download it. I'm all for "try before you buy" and demos, samples, etc.. are becoming the norm (slowly).

In the end, if you like a person's work, pay for it. Otherwise they can't keep on making it.


The real piracy is China and similar people who make millions of burned CDs/DVDs and are selling for a profit. Joe Smith DLing a copy of [insert something here] is not hurting the industry. I would even support MPAA and RIAA lawsuits if the money went to the artists--ITS NOT.

 

[Uncompetative]

It may try bringing in DRM (which everyone hates), or go out of business.

... Yeah, except DRM does nothing to stop piracy. Because, as I said before, pirates get cracked software, meaning without the copyright protection. No copyright protection has ever done more than mildly inconvenience the initial pirates that have to crack the bloody thing. It takes them a week, tops. After that, there's a cracked copy circulating, and no pirates ever need to worry about the copyright protection on that piece of software anymore.

The paying consumers, however, still need to go through all the internet validation and limited amount of installations and crap. Copyright protection is completely useless. It does nothing to stop pirates. It does everything to annoy consumers.

I know that DRM & Copy protection can be cracked by pirates, I was complaining that your actions (that you see no fault in) were having a negative impact on fellow gamers:

- making the use of DRM more likely, which they hate
- making them pay more for their games as the market shrank and the publishers had to make back the cost of their investment

I've thought of two more:

- making more (unnecessarily) expensive games make gamers wary of trying offbeat genres
- making publishers risk-averse to marketing original ideas

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I don't pirate because I don't really desire much stuff. I might buy a PC game every 4-6 months or so, the only music I'm intersted in is on vinyl and I don't care enough about films etc to steal them, let alone buy. Thinking about it, I don't even care enough about films to watch them if they are on in front of me...

I would however steal your handbag, television or car. Yes, YOURS!

 

[Estelindis]

I don't pirate and i'm fine. I look at games like any other luxury item, if i can't afford it, then too bad.

On the other hand i will pirate games that are no longer available

This would be roughly how I feel on the topic. If I can't afford a game, then I'll just live without playing it - it's not the end of the world.

If it's good enough for me to play, then the company who made it deserve the money for it. I feel the same way about music and paying artists for their creations.

Perhaps I'm wrong in this, but I don't really see downloading games or music that are no longer available in the shops or secondhand as pirating. However, perhaps this is just semantics. Regardless of what one calls this, I think it's okay.

 

[GordonFawx]

I buy the majority of my games off Steam; I also make a point of not buying heavily DRM'd software (A CD-Key is alright; SecureROM, now that pisses me off) and haven't suffered at all. No good game has come out that incorporates SecureROM or EA's dumbass protection scheme of hurting it's customers.

Nope, I don't pirate and it doesn't hurt a bit.

Although I don't consider downloading now-unavailable software Pirating.

 

[Zelist]

should i drop a Final fantasy 6 rom into the conversation? completly awsome game everyone should play it....umm feel free to spend $200 on a cartrige of it brand new that the developers wont see, i can give you the rom of the copy i own.... but with the digital age ahead of us, the companies really need to jump on the band wagon, and sell everything through steam, if every company releases this way we can track down a copy of final fantasy 6 for $5 iD software has jumped on the steam train with all there old titles, and steam is easier to get then pirated games or from the store, and you dont have to worry about a broken or scratched disk, and the company will still get money for it 10 years down the line if it turned out to be an epic game. Movies and music needs to get on that as well, have the big releases in theatre and then just release it a few days after on torroents that they host and costs you $10, they can still release them on DVD and everything for people that dont have them....but they need to get with how fast information spreads now, i would say at least 90% of canadians have the internet, and 5% of those are the ones that dont have computers

 

[John Tacos]

To the people who dont waste my time:..... Nevermind, nobody will answer.