What are your opinions on piracy, very controversial online?

I was inspired by Ghost Leader's remark in a thread of, "I'm strictly anti-piracy", which I'm sure he'll clarify here! I must say, nevertheless, that I agree, except when a user is fairly testing a product as practically demo(strations), planning to either purchase the product or dismiss it as /inadequate/. To me, no matter how abstract the essence of code is, the labor costs and skill level mandate necessary profits and creative endeavors should not be purely open-source when the world is financially-oriented.

Why do people insist on 'copying' the 'copies' of a software is right when the ownership is CLEAR with development? Do they not respect the essence of intellectual properties regarding very specific innovations as protection of creative industries? As an analogy: we're not talking about a patent for a word which are indeed free as roots of reality as liberated from private ownership, we're talking about an intricate story, seeded from the focus of many investors.

Maybe people have a mindset as stealing from corporations is acceptable, but the principle does accumulate into noticeable effects and these do have negative effect somewhere, regardless of how victimless the consequences are.

I see nothing wrong with it.

Spoiler:

NiteKrawler wrote:

I see nothing wrong with it.

Spoiler:

Image not working, bro...or was it removed for copyright?

Note: One rule if you want to keep the quality of threads up: don't be a righteous douche if someone doesn't share your opinion!

I'm Neutral. However I only recommend it as a last resort. If you can't buy it because it's not for sale anymore, go for it.

^Would you recommend grand theft auto as a "last resort" to someone in need of a car?

There's not really anything I can clarify, I do not condone nor engage in piracy of copyrighted materials. It's theft no differently than if I walked into your living room and started packing up your stuff. Contrary to what people like these Anonymous clowns like to think, theft is a crime whether you're stealing from "evil" corporations or the penniless sax player on the street corner.

If the holder of the IP decided they wanted to distribute it free of charge, fair enough. But it's that person's property to do with as they please. You think the movie, music, or video game industry would be here today if there was no form of IP protection? You think authors would write books if they couldn't retain legal ownership of their writings? I like to write and I can tell you I'd be royally pissed if someone stole my work and/or profited off it.

I seem to recall a story a while back where a woman downloaded and distributed close to 5,000 songs to people through social media and ended up getting slapped with a fine of well over $1,000,000, though I can't recall her name and a search turns up nothing. Tell me, would you rather pay that or $13.00 for a CD?

The only time I would ever pirate something, is if there's an album or EP released by a producer/band/DJ that's no longer in print and is unavailable to download legally. I've done this quite a few times, as some of the artists I listen to typically don't release their music on physical copies to begin with.

Anything else though - music not falling under the above criteria, and obviously games/movies/software..... yeah, I wouldn't pirate that shit. It's just common courtesy to the artist.

Picture is working for me.

Limey wrote:

Note: One rule if you want to keep the quality of threads up: don't be a righteous douche if someone doesn't share your opinion!

Was this aimed at me? Was I being a righteous douche? What is a righteous douche?

NiteKrawler wrote:

Picture is working for me.

It's not for me, either.

Spoiler:

NiteKrawler wrote:

Picture is working for me.

Limey wrote:

Note: One rule if you want to keep the quality of threads up: don't be a righteous douche if someone doesn't share your opinion!

Was this aimed at me? Was I being a righteous douche? What is a righteous douche?

Nope, bro, that wasn't - sorry for any misunderstanding.


Ghost Leader, that reminds me of, y'know, that advert: "Would you steal a car?, which seems a little extreme in practice, but I can definitely see the general idea as it does take money.

Limey wrote:

NiteKrawler wrote:

Picture is working for me.

Limey wrote:

Note: One rule if you want to keep the quality of threads up: don't be a righteous douche if someone doesn't share your opinion!

Was this aimed at me? Was I being a righteous douche? What is a righteous douche?

Nope, bro, that wasn't - sorry for any misunderstanding.


Ghost Leader, that reminds me of, y'know, that advert: "Would you steal a car?, which seems a little extreme in practice, but I can definitely see the general idea as it does take money.

If I steal $1 from you it is still stealing from you; verses if I steal $100 from you. Either way, the act is the same, no matter the value.

Ghost Leader wrote:

^Would you recommend grand theft auto as a "last resort" to someone in need of a car?

There's not really anything I can clarify, I do not condone nor engage in piracy of copyrighted materials. It's theft no differently than if I walked into your living room and started packing up your stuff. Contrary to what people like these Anonymous clowns like to think, theft is a crime whether you're stealing from "evil" corporations or the penniless sax player on the street corner.

If the holder of the IP decided they wanted to distribute it free of charge, fair enough. But it's that person's property to do with as they please. You think the movie, music, or video game industry would be here today if there was no form of IP protection? You think authors would write books if they couldn't retain legal ownership of their writings? I like to write and I can tell you I'd be royally pissed if someone stole my work and/or profited off it.

I seem to recall a story a while back where a woman downloaded and distributed close to 5,000 songs to people through social media and ended up getting slapped with a fine of well over $1,000,000, though I can't recall her name and a search turns up nothing. Tell me, would you rather pay that or $13.00 for a CD?

No I wouldn't. That's on a different scale. If I were to own a company of my own, as long as I'm still getting some kind of profit, the piracy wouldn't matter too much for me. But one thing, what if it's not available for purchase?

I'll be honest. I'm only 17, but that doesn't mean that I understand every bit of the world as it is today. I have a job of my own, and if I ever do torrent, I experiment. If I like it, then I buy it. It's the very reason I torrented GTA IV and THEN bought it via steam. Instead of paying for it digitally (Sold out on physical) and not being able to get a refund. I gave it a test trial first.

I've got hundreds roms of old games that are next to impossible get anyway. Yes, yes, it's a crime but if I want to play a NES game that doesn't cost me 100€ then I'll have to just download it. Trust me, anything older than a PS1 and anything less popular than a PS2 here are ridiculously pricy. Even the most common NES games are at least 20€ used. Then again, whether I bought those used or just downloaded them would make just about zero bucks to the companies that made them anyway. Modern games (PS1 onwards) I always buy, new and used.

Then there are anime and some foreign movies. Trying to get those here is, well, practically impossible. I buy a DVD box of a series that interests me if I see one. The chances of actually seeing one, though...

As for music, I rarely even listen to any commercial music on my off time anymore. As for regular movies, I download them if I'm not sure I'd like them. If I do, I buy them. I have quite a massive VHS/DVD collection.

I have a pirated 360, wii, ps2, ds, psp. and an original ps3..., the reason: IMPORTS ARE FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!!...


since movies music are released here their prices aren't as high as imported stuff, so when it comes to buying that kind of media i buy them.

Nobudy wrote:

No I wouldn't. That's on a different scale.

Theft is theft. Scale is irrelevant.

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If I were to own a company of my own, as long as I'm still getting some kind of profit, the piracy wouldn't matter too much for me.

And your passiveness would encourage more and more people to steal from you because they'd know you won't pursue the matter. Before long, you're losing money instead of making profit and your company goes bankrupt. What happens then?

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But one thing, what if it's not available for purchase?

Studibaker automobiles are rare and exceedingly expensive. Does that mean it's okay to steal one from someone else?

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I'll be honest. I'm only 17, but that doesn't mean that I understand every bit of the world as it is today. I have a job of my own, and if I ever do torrent, I experiment. If I like it, then I buy it. It's the very reason I torrented GTA IV and THEN bought it via steam. Instead of paying for it digitally (Sold out on physical) and not being able to get a refund. I gave it a test trial first.

You're one of a tiny number of individuals that follow such a model. The majority won't bother buying it even if they do like it.

Like I said, theft is theft. Doesn't matter if it's just a "test trial". I'm not condemning or judging you, I'm just stating cold, hard facts. A prosecutor in a courtroom isn't going to give a damn either way, you'd just be another criminal to slap a ginormous fine or jail time on.

Warning: controversy imminent. I would never pirate anything if I had the money to buy it. But because of the republican fueled inequality in the distribution of our nation's wealth, I don't have the money. I barely have enough money to live comfortably. Meanwhile, most of the people who are being pirated from (huge film stars and musicians) are wallpapering their houses with money because they have so much they don't know what to do with it. That being said, I don't pirate anything. Haven't for a very long time. The way I see it, it is wrong to do it, but I honestly don't care. If someone gets in trouble for it, I won't have pity. They broke the law. Unless of course they pirated a loaf of bread to feed their starving child.

PAULSAMSON wrote:

I have a pirated 360, wii, ps2, ds, psp. and an original ps3..., the reason: IMPORTS ARE FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!!...


since movies music are released here their prices aren't as high as imported stuff, so when it comes to buying that kind of media i buy them.

90% of my games, are pirated. Not by me, but I buy them pirated. Don't have the money for originals. Don't care what anyone else says MUTHAFUCKAAAAS

Ghost Leader wrote:

Quote :

But one thing, what if it's not available for purchase?

Studibaker automobiles are rare and exceedingly expensive. Does that mean it's okay to steal one from someone else?

At least by pirating you are not taking that product away from the person who owns it. I guess the equivalent to this in the car industry is that you build a Stubaker replica yourself and sell or give it away as the real thing.

NiteKrawler wrote:

But because of the republican fueled inequality in the distribution of our nation's wealth, I don't have the money.

I'm a Republican. Explain to me why I'm not rolling in Benjamins and driving a solid gold Ferrari right now.

Mass Distraction wrote:

At least by pirating you are not taking that product away from the person who owns it.

Actually, you are. Capcom owns Resident Evil, Hideo Kojima owns Metal Gear Solid, Katy Perry owns her song "California Gurl", Marvel owns Iron Man, DC owns Batman, etc.. It's legal ownership regardless of the form of the product and stealing that product, regardless of form, is theft.

Strictly speaking, just drawing a picture of a superhero is technically copyright infringement and therefor illegal, but most people are going to realize that no jury would ever make such a conviction because of the sheer lunacy behind the mere thought of pursuing it.

Ghost Leader wrote:

Mass Distraction wrote:

At least by pirating you are not taking that product away from the person who owns it.

Actually, you are. Capcom owns Resident Evil, Hideo Kojima owns Metal Gear Solid, Katy Perry owns her song "California Gurl", Marvel owns Iron Man, DC owns Batman, etc.. It's legal ownership regardless of the form of the product and stealing that product, regardless of form, is theft.

Well, yes, theft but I meant like the difference between a physical, tangible object versus a digital copy of something existing only as data on a hard drive. I wasn't questioning the legality of the matter.

Mass Distraction wrote:

Ghost Leader wrote:

Quote :

But one thing, what if it's not available for purchase?

Studibaker automobiles are rare and exceedingly expensive. Does that mean it's okay to steal one from someone else?

At least by pirating you are not taking that product away from the person who owns it. I guess the equivalent to this in the car industry is that you build a Stubaker replica yourself and sell or give it away as the real thing.

Or what's more likely to happen; someone steals it from a dealership.

Well, since I've pirated a lot of stuff, I can't really say anything bad about it. My belief is that if you put something out there, be it a game, movie, music, etc, don't expect people to not try to pirate it.

Like some people have said, pirating is a good way to test if a product is good or not. If something's truly good, I'll buy it to support the company, if not, well, they should do better next time.

A game that I've always wanted, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, is impossible to find in any store and costs half of your soul to buy it online. I pirated a copy of the game (the company has long since gone under) and I'm not complaining.

Also, I've pirated the majority of my EA stuff. I absolutely refuse to give into EA's money grubbery. I remember the days when a Sims base game cost only about $40, while expansion packs only cost $20 and stuff packs cost $15. Now, expansions cost upwards of $30 and stuff packs $20. It's completely ridiculous and I refuse to support such behavior.

If my unapologetic opinion harms my good standing with certain people, then I'm sorry.

Come to think of it, I buy most of my stuff used. In the end it really doesn't even matter for the company as my money rarely even reaches them

Ghost Leader wrote:

NiteKrawler wrote:

But because of the republican fueled inequality in the distribution of our nation's wealth, I don't have the money.

I'm a Republican. Explain to me why I'm not rolling in Benjamins and driving a solid gold Ferrari right now.

I never said that any republican was rich. Merely that they support an ideal which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Wesker's Fanboy wrote:

I remember the days when a Sims base game cost only about $40, while expansion packs only cost $20 and stuff packs cost $15. Now, expansions cost upwards of $30 and stuff packs $20. It's completely ridiculous and I refuse to support such behavior.

Such price increases are one of the side effects of piracy.

Ghost Leader wrote:

Wesker's Fanboy wrote:

I remember the days when a Sims base game cost only about $40, while expansion packs only cost $20 and stuff packs cost $15. Now, expansions cost upwards of $30 and stuff packs $20. It's completely ridiculous and I refuse to support such behavior.

Such price increases are one of the side effects of piracy.

I don't really think that's the case. EA's been doing it for just about any game they create, then churning out a lot of DLCs for them at astronomical prices. Even for my Sims 3 game for PS3, they have custom content for sale. I remember the days when EA made free to download custom content..

Mostly all that EA is to try to make a buck out of anything. And let's not mention what they actually do to game series that were once great *cough* Dragon Age *cough*.