Piracy is theft. I do it all the time. It's pretty awesome.
Why is it okay? I don't think doing something means that I think it's okay. Clearly there's something immoral happening; you're using a product which requires you to pay the company that made the product first, yet you never paid anything for it.
Why do I do it anyways?
It gives me something I want.
It saves me money.
There are no direct consequences for me.
A very similar scenario is the looting that occurs during a riot. As soon as enough people start stealing things, normally honest people say "Hey, if there are so many people doing this, then I can also steal whatever I want and I won't be singled out for punishment." Then everyone joins in.
Just because you enjoy doing something and can make up a few really questionable justifications doesn't make it any better. If you pirate, you're stealing, and you should at least be able to admit that.
If I hack a digital copy of a game so I don't have to buy it, am I stealing? The answer to all of this is yes. Now change me hacking to having someone else hack it and give me the finished result. We are both guilty of stealing.
If someone buys a game, and then edits it, and makes a copy and gives it to someone else for free, they are not stealing; nor is the person receiving the game.
That is actually an interesting prospect. There is no real analogy to making a copy of something to compare to digital objects. If we ever have the technology to duplicate furniture, the furniture stores would be out of business, and the only way to keep them alive is to make laws against the duplication of that material.
However, the editing is classified as illegal unless the company provides an OGL.
Software theft: unauthorized duplication and/or use of computer software. This usually means unauthorized copying, either by individuals for use by themselves or their friends or by companies who then sell the illegal copies to users. Many kinds of software protection have been invented to try to reduce software theft but, with sufficient effort, it is always possible to bypass or "crack" the protection, and software protection is often annoying for legitimate users. ... Because copying software is easy, some think that it is less wrong than, say, stealing it from a shop. In fact, both deprive software producers of income.
I realized where this discussion went wrong, though; we are no longer directly discussing piracy, but rather the legitimacy of Intellectual property.
Yeah, IP is the real issue. Piracy is just one part of IP.
Whatever, I still won't pirate as long as it's illegal, and if it was legal I'd still probably buy games to support the devs.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
I 'pirate' not because I feel like it, I do it for very good non selfish reasons.
- I live on Food Stamps and Financial Aid for college. - I cannot find employment no matter how hard I search (Bad fucking area I tell ya) - I feel that my lack of being able to purchase the game for a corporate price, but not viewing the product because I am unable to, is a wrongdoing to the hard work of others who designed their game, who got paid, but are unable to infact view their art. Yes I will refer to a video game as art as long as it has a good fucking story line. Else its rubbish and no matter how 'good' you make it look, its just sugar coated shit. - AT&T Graced me with unlimited bandwidth, imma use it.
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- I feel that my lack of being able to purchase the game for a corporate price, but not viewing the product because I am unable to, is a wrongdoing to the hard work of others who designed their game, who got paid, but are unable to infact view their art. Yes I will refer to a video game as art as long as it has a good fucking story line. Else its rubbish and no matter how 'good' you make it look, its just sugar coated shit.
I agree that video games can be viewed as art. The primary reason they make this art is so the game sells, and stealing the game is going against that reason. There are also many other ways to view their art, such as watching sample videos (or if they released a demo, you can play that).
I know several people here pirate games (UU, MZ, iskatu, nude, rockz (IIRC)). How do you justify this theft to yourselves?
I think we've already established that this isn't justifiable. Lock please? Any justification that anyone tries to make is going to be ripped apart by the holy angels of SEN.
Are you acquiring something? Yes, a game. Did you get permission to take it? No, the company did not give me permission to take it. You are stealing.
The game is bought by pirate A. The game company gives permission for him to buy this. He then sends a copy to pirate B. Pirate A gives his permission to pirate B to have that duplicate, so pirate B does have permission. Add in a torrent and you have acquiring of games, with permission, which is then not stealing.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
Are you acquiring something? Yes, a game. Did you get permission to take it? No, the company did not give me permission to take it. You are stealing.
The game is bought by pirate A. The game company gives permission for him to buy this. He then sends a copy to pirate B. Pirate A gives his permission to pirate B to have that duplicate, so pirate B does have permission. Add in a torrent and you have acquiring of games, with permission, which is then not stealing.
Pirate A can't give the permission to use a duplicate to Pirate B, therefore it is stealing. On top of that, Pirate B would not have permission to spread the duplicate as well, therefore it is also stealing.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 25 2011, 11:58 pm by DevliN.
Are you acquiring something? Yes, a game. Did you get permission to take it? No, the company did not give me permission to take it. You are stealing.
The game is bought by pirate A. The game company gives permission for him to buy this. He then sends a copy to pirate B. Pirate A gives his permission to pirate B to have that duplicate, so pirate B does have permission. Add in a torrent and you have acquiring of games, with permission, which is then not stealing.
Pirate A can't give the permission to use a duplicate to Pirate B, therefore it is stealing. On top of that, Pirate B would not have permission to spread the duplicate as well, therefore it is also stealing.
He doesn't have permission from the company, but he doesn't need it. Microsoft can't stop you from giving your xbox to a friend; while the analogy isn't 100%, it holds in that when you buy a console you own it and can break it, hack it, or give it away, same as with games.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
Actually he does need the permission. Giving an Xbox to a friend is letting the friend borrow it or giving it as a gift. If someone made a duplicate Xbox, that would be the issue.
Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jun 26 2011, 1:07 am by DevliN.
Actually he does need the permission. Giving an Xbox to a friend is letting the friend borrow it or giving it as a gift. If someone made a duplicate Xbox, that would be the issue.
I'm questioning whether it SHOULD be an issue, making a duplicate xbox. Or duplicate game or duplicate anything. Currently it's illegal; SHOULD it be illegal?
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
Well as a gift or something. But duplicating it? that's illegal. Duplicating the product legally e.g. a factory requires the permission of the company.
Duplicating for personal use, I support, as you shouldn't have to buy a separate copy to use (in my case) videos at a cabin without worrying about brining them back and fourth... or buy another liscence to use the same program on a different computer (tho it's different if separate people will mainly be using the duplicated copy)
This could be construed as removing potential profit (but again, who would really buy the copy if they couldn't get it for free?) so it forms another gray area
Duplicating the product legally e.g. a factory requires the permission of the company.
Does it? So third party controllers require the consent of the company before constructing the controller? If I created my own controller using spare hardware I had, would it be illegal to use it / sell it?
I'm genuinely asking, because I don't know the specific legalities of your claim.
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