Your thoughts on Piracy?

[Majin_You]

Games: 90% of games out there aren't worth the 50-60$. If I can beat the game within 3 days, it's a pirate for me especially if there is no fun multiplayer aspect. Seriously I can't merit a 60$ purchase only to be done with the game in 3 days. If the game deserves the 60$, i'll buy it. Some games that merit its purchase would be GTA4, SF4, Demon's Souls, FFX, Oblivion, etc.

Here's my gripe with this line of reasoning (though please forgive me if I'm attributing an attitude to you that you do not hold):

What makes you think you're entitled to the games, insofar as it is up to you to decide whether or not the game "deserves" your money based on an illegal method of accessing that game? You do NOT have the explicit right to use a piece of software; it is a luxury and should be acquired in the same way any other luxury is acquired. If it turns out that the game didn't strike you as being worth the price you paid, that's just hard cheese. Be more critical with what you want to play and learn how to say "No" to the desire to get every game that even moderately piques your interest; or, try to preview a game through the many channels that Muff mentioned earlier in the thread.

Sorry, but while I can understand that some people have no qualms about software piracy, I see it as depriving someone of an acknowledgment of their hard work, both in the moral sense and in the financial sense.

 

[Deathshot]

The only thing that should be pirated is an out dated version imo.

 

[Prozac]

If you want to know if something is moral or not, ask yourself one question - What would the world be like if everyone did it?

If everyone committed murder, the human race would end. If everyone drove drunk, mass chaos would ensure. Similarly, if everyone pirated games, the gaming industry would collapse, millions of people would lose their jobs and no more games would be created.

That's a tad bit black and white to say.
People that pirate stuff, buy games too.
if everyone in the world pirated and the same percentage of people that did pirate, would also buy the product they just played.
Not only would they make a lot more money, but also become quite well known in the process, which eventually is even better then the money.

No, you can't in anyway compare this to murder or drunk driving.

 

[Synth]

CD: Well, you know what? Screw you guys and your "value". I deserve to be making as much money as I want and that's that! And I don't care what you say, the reason I'm not selling so well lately is obvious - it's the damn internet and its damn pirates and its damn iTunes... well, I have an answer for that. Call my lawyer, it's time to sue, sue, sue! I'll sue everyone! I'll sue YouTube! I'll sue my customers! I'll sue so much I'll be just as famous for my lawyers as I am for my music!

I feel bad for CD companies, who are using their contracts as a means to force labels to sue people. It will be a great day when CDs are basically considered a back-up storage device, and that's it. The music companies should've done less *****ing, and worked more closely and faster with software companies.

I like the fact that Myspace DJs and the like, are taking over the industry. People who independently post their tracks on these sites, and get paid through the sites, to have them downloaded. That's why music seems to be getting so much better and so fast these days. I could use a sofware program to record or mix what CD companies would consider an album, and put it on Myspace for 1.99 a song. I'm not sure about the policy, but I think Myspace would get maybe .15 cents a song (maybe less, maybe more) and I would get the rest. That's not a bad way to make money, without signing my life to some record label.

All these web DJs needs now, is a site that allows people to find them a lot faster, or work like Pandora, where they are associated with similar artists, and have their product on display more.

But yeah, piracy isn't as bad as people make it out to be. There are so many ways to have the piracy itself, promote the actual product. I'm almost convinced that companies are leaking these "cracks" themselves, just as another form of ad revenue. You get what you're after, but it's half the features, an encrypted version, where you can't get addons or patches that improve gameplay and fix bugs, or multiplayer--without using buggy 3rd party programs. (I could be wrong, not sure) And this only makes people want the legit copy even more, with all the features, etc. Same with DVDs, etc. You don't get the total video quality, either.

 

[Tenzo]

Yeah...piracy can be good. )

 

[Majin_You]

Yeah...piracy can be good. )

"Good" and moral are not necessarily synonymous, though.

 

[john_volkov]

I like piracy it's preaty commen here but there are 2 kind of piracy , if you get a game play it and if you like it you buy it, the second kind of piracy it's the one geting a profit for a game , like saling a game for profit , that is piracy if you get a game for free and sell it for profit, if you get a game for free , play it for free , and if you like it or not you buy it or not, that way i can test out games if it runs good on my computer, why sould I pay 25% of my salary to get a game huh , I am that stupid to do that when I can get it for free, Here is a exepler this is the loweest salary here minimum , about 120 Euro , a game about 50 euro , that leaves you with about 70 euro witch you need to eat (hole month about 30 to 50 euro light food), get clouth(about 20 to 40 euro) ,get tikets(about 10 euro) for bus or whatever you need to get to work and not to mantion your bils witch it's around like 50 to 100 euro mouthly , so tell he how do you want people to buy stuff if they don't have any money ?

 

[Majin_You]

the loweest salary here minimum , about 120 Euro , a game about 50 euro , that leaves you with about 70 euro witch you need to eat (hole month about 30 to 50 euro light food), get clouth(about 20 to 40 euro) ,get tikets(about 10 euro) for bus or whatever you need to get to work and not to mantion your bils witch it's around like 50 to 100 euro mouthly , so tell he how do you want people to buy stuff if they don't have any money ?

It's called restraint. Not having enough money to buy yourself luxuries (yes - games are luxuries, not necessities) is never grounds for stealing them. If you can't afford a game that you want right now - and I apologize for sounding callous - that's really just too bad. Save up for it, or wait until the price drops as the game ages. If you still can't afford to fit that purchase into your budget, you should learn to live without it, or try to track down a friend who owns it and is willing to lend it to you for a while.

Again, I find myself running into this sense of entitlement that some gamers seem to have, and I'm afraid I can't understand what makes an otherwise rational person believe that they deserve something for nothing... especially when that something is the product of someone else's hard work.

 

[john_volkov]

If it wasent for piracy the hole money crisis that erupted would have been ever biger then ever because if they had all those money what makes then not buy the hole planet

 

[Renyori]

If it wasent for piracy the hole money crisis that erupted would have been ever biger then ever because if they had all those money what makes then not buy the hole planet

I'm not sure if I comprehended that right but are you saying that video game companies would have bought the entire planet if piracy didn't stop them?

 

[sub]

I think he's saying that if it wasn't for piracy, people would have had to actually spend money on entertainment products instead of money to go towards other things, like paying bills, buying food, etc. This in turn would have made the economic crisis worse?

At least, that's what I got from it. I'm not really sure.

edit: Rereading it another time, I think your interpretation was actually right, Ren. It still doesn't make any sense, though

 

[john_volkov]

I'm not sure if I comprehended that right but are you saying that video game companies would have bought the entire planet if piracy didn't stop them?

That's preaty true, what you realy don't think so huh ?

 

[Renyori]

I don't think they would have bought the planet...

 

[RavenTrunks]

Morals have no place in internet >.>

I pirate what I can why? Because its just an easy way to keep stress off my small budget. If I didnt pirate, I wouldn't have it in the first place. How that affects them is beyond me.

Sure maybe they are shaking their fist at me having it in the first place. But its not like they know it was me in specific. Even if for some reason someone here made us all see the light and put our piracy to a halt. every company would still assume we are still doing it and randomly shake fists...

Also Pirating movies is no different than cable? I pay for cable? Hmm I pay for internet too...

 

[Majin_You]

Also Pirating movies is no different than cable? I pay for cable? Hmm I pay for internet too...

Umm... what? Just because you pay for cable doesn't mean that you have the right to copy/distribute the programming you see on the channels you get.

Similarly, on the internet, just because you pay for access doesn't mean that you have the right to copy/distribute intellectual property that is protected under law.

Morals have no place in internet >.>

Why not? Every other medium has to contend with issues of morality.

 

[Pain]

Again, I find myself running into this sense of entitlement that some gamers seem to have, and I'm afraid I can't understand what makes an otherwise rational person believe that they deserve something for nothing... especially when that something is the product of someone else's hard work.

It's not entitlement, it's rationalization. Perhaps the difference between the two is a small one, but there is a difference.

I'm sure most pirates recognize what they're doing is illiegal. The problem is, the risk of consequense is so low that people simply don't care. The rationalization comes in when people start to make excuses as to why they're doing what they're doing.

Granted the only real difference between pirating and traditional thievery is the loss of a physical product.

Personally, I only really started pirating heavily after I bought dozens of crappy games and was tired of wasting my money. There's that rationalization again.

However, the one actual legitimate reason for pirating I've come across is when a company screws you over with DRM crap, and you can't get your game to work or have a limited number of installations.

 

[sub]

Well, TV shows make money on advertisements. In order to determine what an ad is worth, they need a system to determine how many people are watching a given show. In order to determine how many people are watching a show, they give certain people a box which monitors what TV shows that are watched and then sends this information back to the group in charge of determining ratings, Nielsen. Nielsen then takes this data from this small group of individuals (who know that they are being monitored, but apparently they don't care if that affects the rating system I guess) and then extrapolates it to determine the TV viewing habits of the population as a whole.

If I, someone who does not have a Nielsen box installed in my TV, decide to pirate a TV show instead of watching it, they effectively have no idea that I'm doing this and, considering I would never have bought any of the **** they advertised in the first place, no one is harmed. The TV show still gets the same amount of money and I still won't buy whatever the advertises are selling.

 

[Pain]

Learn some Economics, educate yourself in Fractional Reserve Banking. I suggest Money Masters and Money as Debt, two films you can easily watch streaming online. Once you've come to realise how meaningless, empty of value and pointless money is, see if you really care where your money goes or who has money and who doesn't.

I'll take your money if you don't want it. Just saying.

 

[RavenTrunks]

Umm... what? Just because you pay for cable doesn't mean that you have the right to copy/distribute the programming you see on the channels you get.

Similarly, on the internet, just because you pay for access doesn't mean that you have the right to copy/distribute intellectual property that is protected under law.

Because a legal tool such as a vcr allows such a feature to record off streaming and i don't recall anyone ever being fined for recording anything via vcr.

Why not? Every other medium has to contend with issues of morality.

That was more of a sarcastic thing, and when you can find the kinda **** there is on the internet... morality just gets thrown out the window, with the strangest communities online.

 

[Dokutayuu]

I can't download software/games. It feels too much like stealing. The same applies for any film released within the last 20 or so years. Watching anime online, I'm fine with. It just doesn't feel as bad. Perhaps it doesn't feel like I'm physically taking something.

I am also accepting any money people do not want. I can't pirate driving lessons, so I guess I'll have to pay for them.