When is pirating ok? (discussion)

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He learned English via bad translation patches... They don't teach English in schools in Puerto Rico.
I don't think he's ever learned English at all... however, criticizing a country because of his actions is very prejudiced and simply impolite.
It's the same thing as people saying all americans are lazy, fat and inbred (which is not my opinion, let it be clear)

Also, schools don't have to teach English. It's a very useful tool in the global culture we live in, but it's not God's special language.
 
I wouldn't shell out 60 bucks in a game either, especially when you know the production cost is at least two times lower.

What? What is this you speak of? Name me one game that it cost a company 2/3 of the price they sell it for to make.
On topic: Till the copyright expires, which will never happen.
 
I just read through the 4 pages since my last post in this thread. Random thought time.

Some of you have atrocious grammar. I'm not perfect, but holy fucksticks.

People have no clue what they are talking about, and calling anyone who disagrees with them "idiots". Yes, typical thread seeking intelligent debate on the internet.

I want some tacos.

Someone said that piracy is stealing the profit a dev could have made from the game. Actually, it would be more reducing the possible profit made. However, since there's no way to tell how much profit the game would of made without piracy, this is mostly a moot point.

It seems the majority agree that piracy is wrong, but easier than tracking down legitimate copies is some cases (Region locks, availability, price, general lack of moral fortitude, it's Wednesday, etc...).
 
Some of you have atrocious grammar. I'm not perfect, but holy fucksticks.
Somebody made a fake valwin translator thing. I can't find the link right now, though.

People have no clue what they are talking about, and calling anyone who disagrees with them "idiots". Yes, typical thread seeking intelligent debate on the internet.
"It's what I was told while I was raised, so it's obviously true otherwise I wouldn't have been told it. You disagree with my upbringing? Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."

I want some tacos.
I ate some tacos! The Doritos tacos are pleasantly delicious. The shell's not always-hard like you'd expect, it has the normal Taco Bell hard taco shell properties.

Someone said that piracy is stealing the profit a dev could have made from the game. Actually, it would be more reducing the possible profit made. However, since there's no way to tell how much profit the game would of made without piracy, this is mostly a moot point.
Courts/judged have said as much too.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...llegal-downloads-dont-equal-17000-lost-sales/
But, you know, that's actual legal people talking so people don't hear it, they instead hear the propaganda.

Interesting info, propaganda can lie all it wants. It's not false advertising if you're not advertising a product or a service, and it's not libel (written/recorded form of slander) if it's not targeting an individual or officially-recognized group. I even saw the vice president of the US give a speech where he said that piracy was like breaking into a shop and taking things, and suddenly all the lawyer's blogs on the internet lit up with "WTF, doesn't somebody proofred his speeches first?"

It seems the majority agree that piracy is wrong, but easier than tracking down legitimate copies is some cases (Region locks, availability, price, general lack of moral fortitude, it's Wednesday, etc...).
For some people it even depends on the system. I rarely pirate PC games anymore (Steam convert here), but I download DS ROMs by the dozen (except for Pokemon).
 
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The developers don't really care if a few nerds pirate video games. They just try their hardest to stop the average person from doing it. They can do that easily with firmware updates. Thank God for pirates. If it wasn't for them I would've never have been able to play Love Plus in English.
 
I can't resist adding a few thoughts.

In my opinion, the effect of piracy is negotiable and it depends on the individual. It sounds like an oxymoron, but I think that a certain level of ethical principal should still apply to software piracy.

What do I mean? For example, I think most could agree there's extremely little harm in pirating "abandonware". The publisher/developer has already stopped production and they're no longer making money on it. In these situations, you're forced to purchase the game used and that money never ends up supporting the original developer and publisher. At best, you might be able to argue that a used purchase has an indirectly positive impact on the industry. Perhaps, through specific channels, that purchase might help that game shop secure more space to sell more products. I suspect that it would be a rare situation.

Now, it could be suggested that pirating software as a "trial" is also harmful. I think it's somewhat debatable. What's the alternative? Let's imagine a world without piracy. You're interested in buying game A or game B. You only have enough money for one. You choose game A because it looks better only to discover that it's garbage and game B is superior. Too late! Now the same scenario with piracy could play out in two ways. So, you pirate both game A and game B. You could either realize that game B is better and purchase that, or you simply decide not to purchase either. I hope that more people would choose to purchase the games that they like when they can afford it. If so, with piracy, the better product gets financial support and the customer wasn't "tricked" into purchasing a bad product with better marketing. The impact depends on the person.

Most importantly, as pointed out several times, the quantity of pirated media does not directly correlate to the number of lost sales. A good example are the college students that the RIAA loves to target. We're talking about struggling college kids here. They likely have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans while working a minimum wage or part-time job. They can't afford to buy a thousand albums; but they can certainly download them. It's a ridiculous suggestion that each download was a lost sale.

The people that do create a problem are the ones that refuse to purchase any media at all (even when they have the funds for it). I know a couple people that have openly pledged that they will never buy another song or movie or whatever. That is a problem and those people should take more responsibility in understanding that the hard working people creating the media they enjoy deserve compensation. They deserve it because they earned your satisfaction and because they need to be encouraged to make more great products.

In short, I think piracy is fine as long as you still purchase the products you love when the money for it is available.


Now, after having said all that, I think the real problem is greedy publishers. They get upset that people download a movie when they're charging $15 for a movie ticket and $40 for a Blu-ray. They charge $60 for a game that eventually sells (brand new) for $20. They especially love to sell you a $60 game and charge you more for DLC. Look at Sim 3 on Steam. The game is 4 years old and it costs $449.84 to buy everything digital! That's beyond insane.

To top it off, they have those special editions for $100 to $150 with $5 worth of mostly junk. Then you have companies like Capcom who like to re-release the same game over and over with minor changes every time. Just like the movie industry that releases new editions every year with a little bit more content added each time. They happily sell the same product to the same customers multiple times.

Who are the real thieves here?

Anyway, I only buy brand new games/movies/music. Unless it's out of print and I have no choice but to buy used. For a long time, I bought all the major games when they first came out at full price. That includes a lot of overpriced special editions. I'm done with it, though. Now I just put games in my Amazon wish list until they drop to a price that I'm willing to pay for it. It's pretty satisfying to purchase a brand new special edition game at $40 when it originally sold for $150.

Frankly, I feel like most people are pirating because they can't afford not to! I am hoping that one day the publishers will get wise and realize that pirating isn't the problem... their pricing and business model is.
 
To top it off, they have those special editions for $100 to $150 with $5 worth of mostly junk.

About that, I paid 100 bucks for a special edition of Borderlands 2 on the PS3. It came with a map, stickers, game, DLC stuff and a Marcus Bobblehead toy. I go on ebay, that Marcus Bobblehead is going for around 35 bucks. Then the artbook is going for around 40 bucks as well.
 
About that, I paid 100 bucks for a special edition of Borderlands 2 on the PS3. It came with a map, stickers, game, DLC stuff and a Marcus Bobblehead toy. I go on ebay, that Marcus Bobblehead is going for around 35 bucks. Then the artbook is going for around 40 bucks as well.
There's a few rare special editions that are decent. Mostly, they come with cheap junk that was clearly thrown together at minimal cost. Look at the Fallout 3 Pipboy clock, the Batman Batarang, the Tron cycle, the list goes on. The point is that, even if people are buying a bobblehead and artbook at those silly prices, it doesn't cost that much to make. Digital content in particular costs them nothing.

I mean, games honestly are overpriced at $60. Even still, the Borderlands 2 special edition added an additional $40 to manufacture 4 stickers, a mini art book, and a plastic bobblehead. Seriously, at best, we're talking an extra $10 for them to make this stuff.

But I can also say it's risky to wait on a special edition if you want them. Certain games will have special edition stock available for years. Some will sell out.
 
If one takes any file on a computer as raw data in terms of bits/bytes, i.e. every file consists of combinations of bytes 00->FF, technically any file can be reproduced on a computer.
If one makes a program to generate every file that a computer can make (i.e. every 1 byte file, every 2 byte file, every 3 byte file, etc.), technically speaking as unlikely as it is every form of media can be generated in the fashion. Any computer can simply generate every file possible, including all media.

This file generator can technically produce every game ever made.

As games are generally copyrighted, I presume in a sense that the 'file' or 'files' that constitute the game are recognized as collaborative efforts by the people that made the game.

I suppose it can be a question of copyrighting computer files / byte sequences. If one makes a game, and copyrights the file (e.g DS ROM), it could mean that the file out of all files a computer can produce is 'copyrighted', and thus requires permission by the party that copyrighted the file to use it. i.e. If one produces this file with the file generator mentioned above, it would technically be 'copyrighted' and require permission to store it on your media.

On one hand, if seems fair that if I were to make a game and copyright the game (and perhaps file), anyone who wants to possess this file would have to pay for this. Anyone reproducing (and distributing) without paying for this file would be in possession of a 'copyrighted file', and is thus owning the file without having permission. Providing one buys to right to own this file, and presuming it is limited to one copy, it would mean that only one copy of the file may be allowed on a media, and duplicating it to another folder on your hard drive would break this agreement.. :)

On the other, as a computer can technically produce any file possible, it may not be fair to copyright files to begin with :D
 
your stealing the damn game you enjoying the experience without monetary exchange how do i need to spell it for you if you steal fine ok but a least say your stealing
The argument is if I swap a game with a friend or borrow a mates game I am still enjoying the experience without monetary exchange.
 
I pirate because I'm a dirty thief.



pirate_zps7d6c2019.gif
 
About that, I paid 100 bucks for a special edition of Borderlands 2 on the PS3. It came with a map, stickers, game, DLC stuff and a Marcus Bobblehead toy. I go on ebay, that Marcus Bobblehead is going for around 35 bucks. Then the artbook is going for around 40 bucks as well.
Special editions I can understand the high price but I use Photoshop for school and guess what it costs $250 and I should pay for that just because I need it for school? Lol hell no, thats just bullshit to pay the same price for a mid range phone or a new game console just for a piece of software. I'm better off pirating it and use that money for other things.
 
Let me tell you another fact then... For developers to develop games there must be a console first. Do you want me to remind you what happened to SEGA? I won't buy a console that can't be hacked and pirated and as me multiple million other people wont... If you take a look in history consoles that are most successful are the ones that are easily hacked ;)
 
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Let me tell you another fact then... For developers to develop games there must be a console first. Do you want me to remind you what happened to SEGA? I won't buy a console that can't be hacked and pirated and as me multiple million other people wont... If you take a look in history consoles that are most successful are the ones that are easily hacked ;)
This is not true at all. Do not take PS1 and PS2 as a rule.

Wii and DS sold tons of games and we need no DS game to play roms and the most sold wii game (excluding wii sports) was Mario Kart, and that game do not lead to any hack.

I may add that Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, etc aways put some tiny or negative profit margin on their consoles to recover this later with the games.

Edit: I'm not saying that I disagree with piracy. I like it, made me save money and play games that I would never buy. Besides that, the game devs are much more rich than me :p
 
Let me tell you another fact then... For developers to develop games there must be a console first. Do you want me to remind you what happened to SEGA? I won't buy a console that can't be hacked and pirated and as me multiple million other people wont... If you take a look in history consoles that are most successful are the ones that are easily hacked ;)

+_2acc5a8841f8752904d37f90a8014829.png


:dry:
 
There's a few rare special editions that are decent. Mostly, they come with cheap junk that was clearly thrown together at minimal cost. Look at the Fallout 3 Pipboy clock, the Batman Batarang, the Tron cycle, the list goes on. The point is that, even if people are buying a bobblehead and artbook at those silly prices, it doesn't cost that much to make. Digital content in particular costs them nothing.

I mean, games honestly are overpriced at $60. Even still, the Borderlands 2 special edition added an additional $40 to manufacture 4 stickers, a mini art book, and a plastic bobblehead. Seriously, at best, we're talking an extra $10 for them to make this stuff.

But I can also say it's risky to wait on a special edition if you want them. Certain games will have special edition stock available for years. Some will sell out.

Bioshock 2 comes to mind. It was $100 when it first came out for the special edition. I think I paid 5 bucks for a sealed copy from Best Buy not too long ago for one.
 
This is not true at all. Do not take PS1 and PS2 as a rule.

Wii and DS sold tons of games and we need no DS game to play roms and the most sold wii game (excluding wii sports) was Mario Kart, and that game do not lead to any hack.

I may add that Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, etc aways put some tiny or negative profit margin on their consoles to recover this later with the games.

Edit: I'm not saying that I disagree with piracy. I like it, made me save money and play games that I would never buy. Besides that, the game devs are much more rich than me :p

Watch out... we have a funny guy here :)
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Lol i didn't mean that only that games that lead to a hack are selling... I said that consumers will buy consoles that are easy to hack. They wont buy a console that cant be hacked... At least the majority of them. And this is a fact that developers and companies should count in their plans.
 

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