Steam questions

[Niode]

look if there are enough anti-pirates to flood this thread then may i have your attention to show you this.

The Saturn is an out of production system where piracy doesn't equal a potential lost sale, since the goods aren't available to buy from the publisher in the first place. It's not the same as pirating PC games or games from a current system at all. It's still illegal, but the damage done is minimal to zero.

if your morals disagree with piracy then there, you shouldn't even be on a forum where the creator sell piracy tools and encourages them. look you might be thinking; it must be alright since it is just one thing, but in fact we have a whole forum dedicated to hacking systems.

There is nothing illegal about hacking systems. Racketboy sells one modchip, for an obsolete system. That's hardly encouraging piracy, is it?

[wootcube]

I told myself I'd never comment on a piracy thread (they kinda go in circles forever...) but as someone who is just about anti-piracy as you can get, I don't like the fact that people encourage buying ONLY legal copies of games that have been out of production for a long time. I think it hurts the anti-piracy argument because really, buying an expensive copy of an obsolete or rare game virtually has no impact on the original developers or publishers (unless said game has some sort of re-relesase on the market currently).

I'm not trying to call anyone out...feel free to disagree...I just feel like there are better aspects of the whole piracy thing to argue about than old, low print run games with inflated prices.

[flamepanther]

In the U.S. at least, the notorious DMCA is pretty clear about modifying consoles or software. Outside of a few very specific exceptions, any attempt to circumvent a copy protection scheme is illegal. Neither allowing backups nor enabling imported games have been exempted by the Library of Congress yet, although I keep hoping.

Yes, that means hard-modding or soft-modding your Wii to play the Operation Rainfall games in the U.S. is breaking the law (since it involves circumventing encryption that also prevents piracy). I'm curious how that plays into certain moral beliefs of some people.

Personally, I think such a draconian law is much more morally abhorrent than "personal use" piracy (commercial piracy is a whole other beast in my opinion).

@wootcube: There are people who feel that breaking the law is morally wrong, regardless of whether there is any harm done--and evidently regardless of whether the law has merit or is itself morally corrupt. Obviously, I disagree.

[Niode]

In the U.S. at least, the notorious DMCA is pretty clear about modifying consoles or software. Outside of a few very specific exceptions, any attempt to circumvent a copy protection scheme is illegal. Neither allowing backups nor enabling imported games have been exempted by the Library of Congress yet, although I keep hoping.

Yes, that means hard-modding or soft-modding your Wii to play the Operation Rainfall games in the U.S. is breaking the law (since it involves circumventing encryption that also prevents piracy). I'm curious how that plays into certain moral beliefs of some people.

Personally, I think such a draconian law is much more morally abhorrent than "personal use" piracy (commercial piracy is a whole other beast in my opinion).

@wootcube: There are people who feel that breaking the law is morally wrong, regardless of whether there is any harm done--and evidently regardless of whether the law has merit or is itself morally corrupt. Obviously, I disagree.

That's why it means absolutely jack shit in this country and the rest of Europe. Because we're not fucking idiots that bend to the RIAA/MPAA's every beck and call.

[wootcube]

In the U.S. at least, the notorious DMCA is pretty clear about modifying consoles or software. Outside of a few very specific exceptions, any attempt to circumvent a copy protection scheme is illegal. Neither allowing backups nor enabling imported games have been exempted by the Library of Congress yet, although I keep hoping.

Yes, that means hard-modding or soft-modding your Wii to play the Operation Rainfall games in the U.S. is breaking the law (since it involves circumventing encryption that also prevents piracy). I'm curious how that plays into certain moral beliefs of some people.

Personally, I think such a draconian law is much more morally abhorrent than "personal use" piracy (commercial piracy is a whole other beast in my opinion).

@wootcube: There are people who feel that breaking the law is morally wrong, regardless of whether there is any harm done--and evidently regardless of whether the law has merit or is itself morally corrupt. Obviously, I disagree.

That's understandable - I just thought I'd point out it doesn't do much good for the sake of argument. I'd rather see the people actively making a profit on their products be protected, rather than those who choose to let their stuff go off the market

[weasels]

I GUESS NO ONE READ MY COMMENT ON THE FIRST PAGE.

lets not get into a pirate vs. anti-pirate debate here. the post is about steam.

heh, figures....

[MrHealthy]

This topic needs to be dropped. Anti-Piracy advocates always spew out the same arguements, and Pro-Piracy advocates always spew out the same counter arguements. You are not going to change anyones mind on the issue. Its particularly shocking to me that so many are debating against vlame's moral code when he was simply wanting some questions answered about steam so that he could buy a legal copy of the game. Wether or not he continues to play pirated games should be of no concern to you.

So if you would like to have a moral debate on piracy, go make a new thread about it and lets get this thread back on topic.

@vlame: If you still are thinking about buying a steam copy of Batman you should know that steam often has 2 big sales throughout the year with titles getting marked down a considerable amount. If you can wait until around christmas for the winter sale you could pick it up for around $7.50 USD most likely. It may also pop up sooner in a smaller sale. If you have any more questions I will be glad to help.

[Hobie-wan]

This topic needs to be dropped. Anti-Piracy advocates always spew out the same arguements, and Pro-Piracy advocates always spew out the same counter arguements. You are not going to change anyones mind on the issue.

Not necessarily. I'm sure many of us here changed our minds as we got older and more mature.

Its particularly shocking to me that so many are debating against vlame's moral code when he was simply wanting some questions answered about steam so that he could buy a legal copy of the game. Wether or not he continues to play pirated games should be of no concern to you.

Vlame is the one that brought up piracy on the first and second page that got us all riled up at each other. We wouldn't all be talking at brick walls if it hadn't been brought up by Vlame to begin with.

So if you would like to have a moral debate on piracy, go make a new thread about it and lets get this thread back on topic.

@vlame: If you still are thinking about buying a steam copy of Batman you should know that steam often has 2 big sales throughout the year with titles getting marked down a considerable amount. If you can wait until around christmas for the winter sale you could pick it up for around $7.50 USD most likely. It may also pop up sooner in a smaller sale. If you have any more questions I will be glad to help.

The question was answered. Several people still helped despite our group argument and differences of opinion.

[MrHealthy]

Not necessarily. I'm sure many of us here changed our minds as we got older and more mature.

I know people change there minds. My stance on piracy has changed many times. But the fact of the matter is that its not you or anyone else who is doing the changing. Factors that effect wether or not people will change are age, income, location, how well informed they are on the facts, etc. Its almost never a single internet debate that changes minds.

And before you say he could learn facts from the debate, have a look through this thread, no one has given any hard evidence for their cause at all.

Vlame is the one that brought up piracy on the first and second page that got us all riled up at each other. We wouldn't all be talking at brick walls if it hadn't been brought up by Vlame to begin with.

I've brought up piracy before without sparking debate. So have others here. People admitting to piracy on this forum has often been acceptable before. He wasn't trying to rile anyone up, he was just explaining his situation.

The question was answered. Several people still helped despite our group argument and differences of opinion.

The question was answered, yet I still offered advice that was relevant for his consideration. Thats no excuse.

As I said in my previous post, I am not against the debate of this, just against it in this thread. I will not respond further, but if a thread is made or you would like to discuss via private message, I will be happy to do so.

[MrPopo]

Vlame is the one that brought up piracy on the first and second page that got us all riled up at each other. We wouldn't all be talking at brick walls if it hadn't been brought up by Vlame to begin with.

I've brought up piracy before without sparking debate. So have others here. People admitting to piracy on this forum has often been acceptable before. He wasn't trying to rile anyone up, he was just explaining his situation.

Here's the reason we all got riled up:

no i don't live under a rock, i just don't pay money for video games, i usually just get the console and hack it then play burned or emulators.

We've all pirated to some degree. Generally as our incomes go up our pirating goes down. But even at low incomes we were purchasing games (whether used or new). His statement was "I don't pay for video games". And that is what strikes us as bad.