Piracy is not so bad

[Betamax001]

I wouldn't pirate new games because you have to mod the consoles. If I could pirate Dreamcast games (Stupid DVD drive being not working right) I would because no one gets any money any more because its used and developers get no money for 10 year old out of print copies of Street Fighter III.

Also if people get up in arms about piracy because developers get no money, then what about used games at places like GameStop?

[zarathstra]

By pirating a game instead of buying it, you are in fact stealing, at least if its a current run game being published. You may not have been planning to purchase the game, but here's the thing: you got to play it anyway.

In normal situations, you either buy the game and get to play it, and the developer is compensated, or you choose not to buy the game, and don't get to play it. You've created yourself a third option, where the people who spent years of their lives and millions of dollars creating this game got absolutely nothing from you, but you got to enjoy their game anyway. They may not have lost any money in the sense that you weren't planning to give them any anyway, but they did lose money in the sense that you got to enjoy the fruits of their labor for free.

Its the same as sneaking into a movie theater without paying, or going to Borders and reading a whole book without buying it. These people labored over their work and put it up for sale, and you've decided to enjoy it without paying them anything.

[Haoie]

The nation of Somalia wholeheartedly agrees.

[Ack]

The nation of Somalia wholeheartedly agrees.

Look, Somalia is really just ahead of its time. They figured out that eventually, no matter what, we're all going to end up in some kind of Mad Max post-apocalyptic wasteland. Somalia's just getting into it early.

[Inazuma]

By pirating a game instead of buying it, you are in fact stealing, at least if its a current run game being published. You may not have been planning to purchase the game, but here's the thing: you got to play it anyway.

In normal situations, you either buy the game and get to play it, and the developer is compensated, or you choose not to buy the game, and don't get to play it. You've created yourself a third option, where the people who spent years of their lives and millions of dollars creating this game got absolutely nothing from you, but you got to enjoy their game anyway. They may not have lost any money in the sense that you weren't planning to give them any anyway, but they did lose money in the sense that you got to enjoy the fruits of their labor for free.

Its the same as sneaking into a movie theater without paying, or going to Borders and reading a whole book without buying it. These people labored over their work and put it up for sale, and you've decided to enjoy it without paying them anything.

You guys just don't get it. If it was impossible for me to pirate Spore, I still would not buy it. Playing it for free does not steal money from the people who worked on it. Piracy is only bad if it deters someone from normally buying something.

God forbid I go to a friend's house and listen to their music, watch their movies and play their games. That would make me a huge thief, right? I try to live my life morally by not harming others. If you live your life by laws only, that doesn't automatically make you a good person. There are many harmful things you can do that are not illegal and many good things you can do that are illegal. Generally speaking, following laws is a good idea since they are usually correct but you have to consider each situation before deciding on what's right and wrong.

[pepharytheworm]

How can you honestly say one way or the other that you wouldn't purchase it if you couldn't pirate. You could say most likely or probably. How can you compare borrowing is totally different someone bought that copy so they recieved their money. Same goes for used products at one time that product was new and they made there money and the owner has a right to sell because they paid for that right. I hope one day you come up with something great, astounding and then patent it. Then someone uses your patent to make money and the courts find in favor of them because its not a physical item so its not hurting anyone. You didn't lose any money you already had but you lost the possibility of money. Like I said I pirate old games but I just can't understand how you can't see that pirating is not a good thing. What if everyone felt like you do? Do you think any company would make money? Please define stealing in your own words maybe that would help others understand why you feel the way you do.

[zarathstra]

By pirating a game instead of buying it, you are in fact stealing, at least if its a current run game being published. You may not have been planning to purchase the game, but here's the thing: you got to play it anyway.

In normal situations, you either buy the game and get to play it, and the developer is compensated, or you choose not to buy the game, and don't get to play it. You've created yourself a third option, where the people who spent years of their lives and millions of dollars creating this game got absolutely nothing from you, but you got to enjoy their game anyway. They may not have lost any money in the sense that you weren't planning to give them any anyway, but they did lose money in the sense that you got to enjoy the fruits of their labor for free.

Its the same as sneaking into a movie theater without paying, or going to Borders and reading a whole book without buying it. These people labored over their work and put it up for sale, and you've decided to enjoy it without paying them anything.

You guys just don't get it. If it was impossible for me to pirate Spore, I still would not buy it. Playing it for free does not steal money from the people who worked on it. Piracy is only bad if it deters someone from normally buying something.

God forbid I go to a friend's house and listen to their music, watch their movies and play their games. That would make me a huge thief, right? I try to live my life morally by not harming others. If you live your life by laws only, that doesn't automatically make you a good person. There are many harmful things you can do that are not illegal and many good things you can do that are illegal. Generally speaking, following laws is a good idea since they are usually correct but you have to consider each situation before deciding on what's right and wrong.

So what you're saying is that you took something without paying for it, but that's okay, because you were never planning to pay for it in the first place?

People think of digital information differently from physical objects because its so easy to make a copy, but you wouldn't take anyone seriously if they claimed that stealing a diamond ring wasn't wrong because they were never planning to buy one in the first place, would you? That is your defense, in a nutshell.

If you don't buy something, or borrow it temporarily, or have it given to you, then you don't get to use it and remain on the moral high ground.

[vash23n]

The nation of Somalia wholeheartedly agrees.

Look, Somalia is really just ahead of its time. They figured out that eventually, no matter what, we're all going to end up in some kind of Mad Max post-apocalyptic wasteland. Somalia's just getting into it early.

I love this response... and this whole cyclic argument .

I was going to ask about how far peoples' sticking it to the man mind-frame extends. We have had a lot of posts about politics and such and other posts about cops and authority in general; there are a lot of people who hate cops and politicians and authority in general. Just wondering if there is any crossover. Like some of these people are against piracy, which would be weird to me - to be all against corporate/political greed, but so intense about buying games and music or acquiring them legally. I guess you could argue that you are standing up for the developers rights and such and it is not the same as supporting corporations.

This is just a thought that popped into my head, by the way, and I am not for one side or the other although I have stated my personal actions previously. I am also suspicious that I may have misused a semicolon above... and possibly a dash... and two ellipses. Maybe not the dash. Is a dash two hyphens or a hyphen two dashes? I forget. I know one is to separate two thoughts and the other is two conjoin two different words to make a new word.

[Inazuma]

How can you honestly say one way or the other that you wouldn't purchase it if you couldn't pirate. You could say most likely or probably. How can you compare borrowing is totally different someone bought that copy so they recieved their money. Same goes for used products at one time that product was new and they made there money and the owner has a right to sell because they paid for that right. I hope one day you come up with something great, astounding and then patent it. Then someone uses your patent to make money and the courts find in favor of them because its not a physical item so its not hurting anyone. You didn't lose any money you already had but you lost the possibility of money. Like I said I pirate old games but I just can't understand how you can't see that pirating is not a good thing. What if everyone felt like you do? Do you think any company would make money? Please define stealing in your own words maybe that would help others understand why you feel the way you do.

I would not purchase it if I couldn't pirate it. I can say that because I know it's true. I am not lying. If I was lying, then I would be wrong and my particular case of piracy would be harming the game creators, thus it would be prevent them from earning money they would have normally gotten.

The example you gave of someone illegally using my patents to make money would harm me, therefore it would be wrong. If there is no harm being done to me, why would I care? You can smoke a cigarette in your home right now and it won't harm me because I am far away, but if you smoke a cigarette right next to me, I would get upset because the second hand smoke would harm me. Get it?

If everyone thought like me, we wouldn't even have laws because there would be no need for them. Also, we would happily pay for and support the products that we felt were good and worth the money. I spend a ton of money on video games that I want to support. There is no way for me to pirate 'download only' games or DLC (as far as I know) so I simply do not play them in any way. I've even turned down offers to play friends' legit copies of 'download only' games. I own a PS3 and a Wii but I have never purchased a single game or piece of DLC over the internet for them. Nor have I pirated any of it. You can accuse me of lying but I'm really not. For the games that come on cartridge or DVD and they aren't ruined with DRM or ads or censorship, I always choose to buy a legit copy.

Define stealing in my own words? No, that's not how I think. I agree with the actual reality since I'm all about the truth.

"to take the property of another wrongfully"

There is no "taking" with piracy since the original stays untouched and in the hands of the owner. Also notice it says "wrongfully", not "illegally" since there is a difference between those two words. Slavery used to be legal. Gays are not able to legally get married in the state of California today. Laws aren't perfect.

[Inazuma]

So what you're saying is that you took something without paying for it, but that's okay, because you were never planning to pay for it in the first place?

People think of digital information differently from physical objects because its so easy to make a copy, but you wouldn't take anyone seriously if they claimed that stealing a diamond ring wasn't wrong because they were never planning to buy one in the first place, would you? That is your defense, in a nutshell.

If you don't buy something, or borrow it temporarily, or have it given to you, then you don't get to use it and remain on the moral high ground.

I must sound like a broken record. If you are harming others, it's wrong. Stealing a diamond ring will always harm others because they won't have their diamond ring anymore. Your intentions or desire to purchase the ring legitly or not cannot change that.

If piracy ends up hurting someone, however that may be, then it is wrong. All I am saying is, given the right situation, it is possible for piracy to exist and not be harming anyone. Only in that case, would it be ok.