to sum up "piracy vs theft" after reading a whole page of it on this thread...
Owner is referring the owner of the IP/or any person(s) who make $$$ from from them (devs and publishers pretty much, also includes resellers [Walmart,Bestbuy,etc] as they make a profit per sale also)
Theft =
the original item was stolen (owner loses $$$ from the item being taken as they need a replacement)
Piracy =
a copy was made of the original (owner loses no money but was never informed or payed for one)
selling a Pirated item
owner loses no $$$ (but does not make any $$$ either, thus a "lost sale" as the person selling the pirated copy made $$$ and not the owner)
now to the debatable part-----
downloading a pirated copy of a game that's new enough to be sold in stores, and other places where the devs make money from sales (inc.fan translations,hacks)(not inc ones distributed via difference patching utilities)
(owner loses no $$$, but does not make $$$ either, BUT, not all are "lost sales", hardcore pirates never buy any games thus a sale would of never occurred, and people who "try before they buy" are NOT "lost sales" as they buy the games later to support the devs.
--People who play fan translations/hacks can support the devs by buying the original if possible. if not possible, its not a "lost sale" as there would be no way to buy them in such a way that the devs make $$$ from the purchase.
---Problem 1 occurs here,
Anti-piracy groups group "try before they buy" people as lost sales, which would exaggerate losses from piracy as those people actually paid for it later and they group hardcore pirates as "lost sales" also despite the fact that they would of never paid for the game in the first place or even played it if piracy was not a option.
downloading a pirated copy of a game,or a fan translation\hack of any kind (not inc ones distributed via difference patching utilities) of games not sold 1ST hand by the owner anymore
--Problem 2 occurs here,
since the only way to get these games would be 2nd hand or pirating, the owner makes no $$$ either way as 2nd hand purchases are essentially the same as piracy $$$ wise as the owner makes no $$$ in most cases. this is why rumors of Anti Secondhand technologies are floating around. some devs want 2nd hand purchases eliminated as they make no $$$ and the developer "Lionhead" went as far as saying as much
http://www.destructoid.com/lionhead-used-games-worse-than-piracy-201343.phtml -- relates to new games , but still points out pirating vs buying a game 2nd hand, which is the only way to get some older games.
-- I do not think this is immoral as the dev would make no $$$ either way. especially for games made by now defunct devs. its not like Acclaim will have a "lost sale" if you download Re-Volt.
some people refer to these games as abandonware, although some games like Doom and Quake are "mislabeled" as such even when you can buy them (although overpriced) right from ID Software.
I doubt BANDAI would even care (or lose $$$ from a "lost sale") if you downloaded a rom of "Stadium Events" to see what its about without spending ~$10000+ on a used copy that BANDAI would get no $$$ from buying anyway.
---my opinion based on the above
crappy games not worth buying:
for games that actually suck, I do not think that's immoral. you can do that with physical items then why not games?. is it wrong if I buy a cheap TV and it sucks so i return it?,
so why is not buying a game in the first place. it would be like if you made a clone of the TV and tried it and decided not to buy the actual TV. no "lost sale" and its actually cheaper as nothing gets returned and marked as defective when not, etc. and costs them and/or the retailer $$$ like a actual product return does. having opened new games returnable would most likely solve(with cost to $$$ like normal returns) a lot of the try before you buy people as they could return a game if it sucks, same as how they would return that crappy TV they bought if it sucked.
---some hardcore pirates would abuse this for free games, but that's unavoidable and not many would as games would not be pre-cracked like "scene" releases usually are.
hardcore pirates:
these people play the games for free and wont buy games that are worth supporting the devs over, but nobody loses $$$ as the owner spent no $$$ to get you the game, as most people use file sharing sites,P2P/torrent, which the devs do not need to maintain. I think this is immoral.
try before you buy:
I do not consider this immoral if you do your part later and buy the game 1ST HAND to support the dev. No, GameStop 2nd hand purchases do not count as the dev makes no $$$ from the purchase a majority of the time. 0% of the time if you buy used from a individual from eBay,etc. 2nd hand purchases are good for legality purposes as its legal to own a second hand copy.
downloading stuff you own physically:
Not Immoral in ANY WAY, you paid for the original so why is it bad to download a copy if your original is bad, defective, broken,etc. you should never need to purchase the same exact thing twice because of actions resulting in the original not working or are just preserving the original, not sealed of course. laws shaped by greedy corporations made this Illegal, not morality or fairness.
selling it after does not count.
selling it means you make $$$ and keep it (immoral and not fair for people who don't do this)
keeping a sealed copy and playing a downloaded one (its not fair that you keep yours sealed while us others are not just so you can resell it for more $$$) BUT its not as bad as you at least supported the dev tho.
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There, I think I covered a majority of bases with this. the feedback and resulting flame wars should be interesting to read no doubt.
