When is pirating ok? (discussion)

[Filipe C Bello dos Santos]

Nice to see people arguing about piracy on a topic about piracy, not the topics about hack or emulation.
As i can see, everyone can find a reason to pirate a game. In my country we do it because 1 game can cost 20, 30% of your income. Even if that is no excuse, we do it because in Brazil everything is overpriced and we do nothing about it, because the only ones that care are too few to make a stand.

But we're arguing about something that make about 50 billions/ year and loses about 20% because of that.
come on, are they loosing for real ? 50 billion is not enough ?

Well, i don't feel that i'm stealing something because i'm not making any profit from it, neither the people who make the game, those are already paid for it. Only companies looses money with piracy, but i bet they're quite nice in their mansions.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Pirating is ALWAYS okay!
*Hugs HDD with questionably illegal downloads.*

This.

 

[Valwin]

Nice to see people arguing about piracy on a topic about piracy, not the topics about hack or emulation.
As i can see, everyone can find a reason to pirate a game. In my country we do it because 1 game can cost 20, 30% of your income. Even if that is no excuse, we do it because in Brazil everything is overpriced and we do nothing about it, because the only ones that care are too few to make a stand.

i love making executes for my illegal act i blame everyone else damn government

why look for excuses just say iam a dirty pirated and i am proud of it

 

[Filipe C Bello dos Santos]

A reason is not an excuse.
I am proud of pirate, i like games, not companies.

 

[prectorian]

Q: When is piracy ok?
A: When you're not making/earning enough money to spend on copy-write materials
(games, software, books, ebooks, movie, etc.), but couldn't wait to enjoy/get a hold of it.
Especially when the price of the original stuff is so ridiculous, that you don't know if you should laugh or cry.

I had no choice but to do so, on the ground of my above respond.
But, as every man would say 'if you could pay less, why spend more'.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

A reason is not an excuse.
I am proud of pirate, i like games, not companies.

That's like saying "I love movies, just not directors."

I can pass off people just admitting they're morally wrong in pirating, but when they say they do it because they "don't like companies", I find it unacceptable. This is someone's job, this is someone's hard work, and you're basically saying "Well I'm not paying for it" because, god forbid, they're part of a large distributor.

 

[Foxi4]

That's like saying "I love movies, just not directors."

I can pass off people just admitting they're morally wrong in pirating, but when they say they do it because they "don't like companies", I find it unacceptable. This is someone's job, this is someone's hard work, and you're basically saying "Well I'm not paying for it" because, god forbid, they're part of a large distributor.

Not to mention that without a big publisher backing a studio, no "big budget" games would see the light of day in the first place - such development is too risky and studios often "sell their souls to the devil" for the sake of developing in acceptable environments and with proper gear.

 

[Augusta]

This would be a lot more interesting if you asked...

1. Religion (or lack there of)
2. Is pirating okay?

These companies make more money than me, therefore I have the RIGHT to steal from them!
HOW DARE THEY CHARGE ME MORE THAN WHAT I'M WILLING TO PAY!?

The amount of justification for piracy in this thread is absolutely ridiculous.

Why do you guys think you're entitled to everything?
If you aren't willing to pay for a game (whether new/used) why do you think you have the right to pirate it?
If you don't agree with the price they see fit, why not just buy it used?

What am I missing here?

 

[Gahars]

There's something I keep reading in this thread, and I don't think it's been disputed. Essentially, it goes, "Games are rip offs. Movie tickets are only $10 bucks, but games can be $50-60. Clearly, this is a scam."

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to redirect you to the department of Bull and Shit, esq.

Comparing the two mediums seems logical and reasonable, but it just doesn't hold up. Films have, by default, a wider audience - anyone can walk into a theater and buy a ticket, while for someone to buy your game, they have to own the right console(s) or have the correct specs on their gaming rig. This whittles down the amount of people who can purchase your product right off the bat. (Franchises like CoD and GTA break records all the time, but keep in mind, they're charged at almost 6-times the amount as a film or a novel - if you were to go by number of sales only, I'm sure they would pale compared to the blockbusters of film).

With movies, there are plenty more opportunities to recoup your budget. First comes the original box office run. After that, there's the sales made from downloads/DVDs/Blu-Rays (which can be boosted by releasing "Special Editions" every now and then). Films also make huge amounts of money from syndication - every time a movie airs on TV, the studio brings in a nice wad of cash. Games, for the most part, don't really have these options. For a lot of games, the money they make upon release is pretty much all they're going to earn.

Plus, when you take inflation into account, game prices have actually gotten cheaper. (This image is just one little demonstration) Crazy, right?

Now, I think you could make the argument that the $60 price point for big name releases is arbitrary. Is it a completely unjustified price gouging scheme? Hardly.

 

[Filipe C Bello dos Santos]

That's like saying "I love movies, just not directors."

I can pass off people just admitting they're morally wrong in pirating, but when they say they do it because they "don't like companies", I find it unacceptable. This is someone's job, this is someone's hard work, and you're basically saying "Well I'm not paying for it" because, god forbid, they're part of a large distributor.

No, that's not what i ment, as i said on previous post, the people involved on game development will get paid the same amount, no matter if the game sells or not. It's more like saying "i don't like the movie industry".

Edit: What risk would have a company that earns 10 billion/ year and loose 10% with piracy ?

 

[Gahars]

No, that's not what i ment, as i said on previous post, the people involved on game development will get paid the same amount, no matter if the game sells or not. It's more like saying "i don't like the movie industry".

The problem is, if the game doesn't sell, they might not get paid again. Job security ain't what it used to be.

 

[sero]

if the game and console corporations aren't going to make money off you REGARDLESS

I would disagree with this assertion. No, you are not directly giving money to the game industry. However, the action of you buying a used game takes that game out of circulation, reducing the supply available to others. That reduces the amount of used games people are able to buy, increasing the likelihood of them going after a new copy of the game.

Furthermore the act of you buying a used game increases the resale value of said game. People are more likely to buy a game (at least somewhat) if there is the eventual opportunity that they can resell it to recoup some of their costs. If you knew you could never sell a game if you hate it (or would only get 10-20% of its value back), you may be less likely to buy new.

So no, you aren't directly giving money to the developers and game manufacturers. However, you are in an indirect way doing so.

 

[Filipe C Bello dos Santos]

They will, (and again, i'm not making any excuses for piracy, just sharing my opinion), if you look the resume of a game artist such as Bem Mathis, you will see that he worked on a lot PS2 and PC games. How piracy is affecting his work, since he get paid by project ?
Not to mention that the PS2 was in production until last month, what was the last title released on ps2 ? why someone buys a console that won't be any new games ? only to download or buy used games.

 

[Foxi4]

Piracy is never "okay" - you "acquire" software which you are not entitled to use, that's the gist of it. Whatever reasons you may come up with, like fighting The Man, poor financial status, negligable losses for the company and what not do not validate piracy - they just make you feel better about yourself, and that makes you a hypocrite.

Either you accept the fact that you're doing something that's considered wrong or you look for poor excuses to validate your illegal activities - there is no alternative. You use media which you're not entitled to use - lots of people had to put hard work into the software and by pirating it, you're not giving them their cut. Now, this is not theft provided you wouldn't buy the media if you didn't have the chance to pirate it - you do not inflict direct losses, nobody's wallet suffers - you're just not giving credit where credit is due.

 

[Nurio]

The piracy discussions are pretty funny when you take into account GBAtemp's original purpose was to distribute roms.

I'm wondering. I can remember GBAtemp having at least a list of releases in the scene. But now I don't see them having this list anymore. Did GBAtemp opt to not show a list of releases anymore? And if so, why?

 

[Filipe C Bello dos Santos]

So, if you bought a guitar, you do not have the right to reproduce any part of any song without accept that you're not playing, you're pirating ?

 

[Foxi4]

So, if you bought a guitar, you do not have the right to reproduce any part of any song without accept that you're not playing, you're pirating ?

If it's not your intellectual property then you cannot play a given song and sell it as yours. You can play the song for yourself according to the principles of Fair Use, but this does not apply to video games - video games are a ready product, playing the guitar is creating your own product based on something else for your own amusement - world of difference right there. Do try to start a band, record some covers and send the single to a publisher, then see what happens.

You know the song but you perform it yourself. Moreover, you don't exactly participate in the distribution of the original content - your song and the song you're imitating are not the same.

Playing someone's song on your guitar is the musical equivalent of playing a game and then programming a similar one yourself - does that sound like pirating content? Not really. That said, if you were to use content ripped directly from the original game, it would be IP theft. If you blatantly copied concepts from the original and sold them as your own, it would be IP theft.

 

[Nurio]

I think there are plenty of cover bands that make money off their cover songs.

 

[Filipe C Bello dos Santos]

So that's what i'm saying, you cannot say that is illegal to download a game. Put them available for download is, because you don't have the right to distribute.

 

[Foxi4]

I think there are plenty of cover bands that make money off their cover songs.

Cover songs need to be licensed though, keep that in mind. There needs to be an agreement between publishers, credit needs to be paid first, unless the song is Public Domain. Nobody makes a cover, signs it with his/her band name and sells it just like that - that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Same with books or movies - any media, really.

So that's what i'm saying, you cannot say that is illegal to download a game. Put them available for download is, because you don't have the right to distribute.

It is illegal to download a game. I can say it quite easily, actually. You do not have the license to use given software, yet you use it. It's not theft, it's illegitimate use.