Toggle sidebar

When is pirating ok? (discussion)

  • Thread starter Thread starter guyver2k
  • Start date Start date
  • Views Views 66,230
  • Replies Replies 779
Rydian said:
Hell, one of the oldest game systems used cassettes for game data, so people found they could just copy them like audio ones and have a copy of the game.
Click to expand...
Those were actually the Golden Days of "computing and gaming" in Poland - every bigger city and town had their own tiny conventions where people exchanged or copied FDD's and cassettes or modded their systems on the fly, attending those was pretty awesome and a weekly must. The trend continued through CD-based systems but began to die out with the latest two generations - now only the biggest cities have conventions like this, fortunately I live near one such city, but the meetings themselves are nowhere near their old splendor.
 
Since discussing why piracy is immoral or why it isn't, let's all agree that those who do it aren't going to stop and that nothing can be done to prevent it from happening? It's a lost cause.
 
Because 48k is all you ever need...


38217003.png
 
the_randomizer said:
Since discussing why piracy is immoral or why it isn't, let's all agree that those who do it aren't going to stop and that nothing can be done to prevent it from happening? It's a lost cause.
Click to expand...

This is a needlessly defeatist view.

Of course something can be done about it - make the pirates a better offer. Offer a service that's both legitimate and convenient and people will be more than happy to abide by the law. Steam, Netflix, and Spotify are all great examples of this policy in action across three different mediums.

It's anything but hopeless - companies just need to approach the problem differently.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JulietStMoon and Rydian
Gahars said:
This is a needlessly defeatist view.

Of course something can be done about it - make the pirates a better offer. Offer a service that's both legitimate and convenient and people will be more than happy to abide by the law. Steam, Netflix, and Spotify are all great examples of this policy in action across three different mediums.

It's anything but hopeless - companies just need to approach the problem differently.
Click to expand...

Which clearly isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Steam, Netflix, etc are good solutions, I won't deny that, but piracy is so widespread, it will take one helluva act to undo the damage. First things first, abolish or rewite the DMCA to be less ambiguous. As for companies that try to curtail it, they should, you know not make legit users suffer by implementing invasive DRM (see: all DRM is invasive) . If they think DRM/AP helps with sales....they're wrong, it only encourages legit customers to circumvent said protection so they can use the product they legally purchased. DRM is not the way of the future.
 
the_randomizer said:
Which clearly isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Steam, Netflix, etc are good solutions, I won't deny that, but piracy is so widespread, it will take one helluva act to undo the damage. First things first, abolish or rewite the DMCA to be less ambiguous.
Click to expand...

Some aspects of IP rights and maybe some aspects of data retention aside I do not see the DMCA stopping companies from considering and implementing alternative monetisation models. Indeed many game developers and publishers are actively pursuing such models.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Qtis and Gahars
Sorry for the bump, but I never did get the chance to put my input in.
Personally I am not 100% sure how I feel about piracy. What I mean is, I morally see it as wrong, why? Because you are downloading a song, software, video, ect ect, that you didn't pay for. This doesn't make it theft since you are just taking a copy, but it's still something that was taken without proper exchange of currency or trade.
But at the same time I see little to no harm downloading something like an N64 rom or songs from singers who are long dead, because often times no one is gaining or losing anything from them since they lost their value when that system/artist/ect died.

And to branch this off more, I do see hacking you system as 100% ok, as long as you are doing it for the right reasons. Like say I hacked my xbox to play my backups. I'm not distributing them, I just ripping them to my hard drive so I don't damage the disks playing them. I see nothing wrong in that, you are copying the games you paid for to the system you paid for. And if you are just running homebrews, then you are supporting small devs who normally wouldn't get any attention. But if you just do it to play backed up games you pirated, I see a problem in that.

This is just my personal take on this subject. Quite honestly it doesn't mean I will claim I never pirated a current game before because that would be a lie, I've done it countless times in the past nor am I am going to preach to those who do because it's their life not mine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: the_randomizer and JulietStMoon
I think pirating is fine. The companies still make money from the many people who pay and I get what I want with my pirate discount card. That's my opinion, I wont try to force it onto you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gamewitch
The Catboy said:
Sorry for the bump, but I never did get the chance to put my input in.
Personally I am not 100% sure how I feel about piracy. What I mean is, I morally see it as wrong, why? Because you are downloading a song, software, video, ect ect, that you didn't pay for. This doesn't make it theft since you are just taking a copy, but it's still something that was taken without proper exchange of currency or trade.
But at the same time I see little to no harm downloading something like an N64 rom or songs from singers who are long dead, because often times no one is gaining or losing anything from them since they lost their value when that system/artist/ect died.

And to branch this off more, I do see hacking you system as 100% ok, as long as you are doing it for the right reasons. Like say I hacked my xbox to play my backups. I'm not distributing them, I just ripping them to my hard drive so I don't damage the disks playing them. I see nothing wrong in that, you are copying the games you paid for to the system you paid for. And if you are just running homebrews, then you are supporting small devs who normally wouldn't get any attention. But if you just do it to play backed up games you pirated, I see a problem in that.

This is just my personal take on this subject. Quite honestly it doesn't mean I will claim I never pirated a current game before because that would be a lie, I've done it countless times in the past nor am I am going to preach to those who do because it's their life not mine.
Click to expand...


Likewise, I hacked my Wii primarily to back up all my Wii and Gamecube games because it's helluva lot easier to access them all in one place. As for legacy games, same deal, N64, most Snes, Genesis/Megadrive games are no longer being sold by the companies. In all honesty, I don't feel bad for having those on my Wii as well. Songs, movies, PC games I don't pirate because I don't trust torrents or torrent clients.
 
By the laws of the land pirating is never ok, but since many of us live in places where many of the laws don't make sense I say go for it.
 
This is one of those topics that people RARELY budge on. I read some to amuse myself but have seen enough of these threads to know it is a stalemate. Seen both sides, have gone back and forth with it, etc. It is amusing to read though, very amusing.
 
I didn't read all the posts up to 39 BUT ill answer the topic.

I think pirating is OKAY when theres a game (EarthBound, Atari Games etc) that you can't get in the stores or anything so you just download it. Unless you want to spent 200 dollars getting it, be my guest.
 
I have an interesting bit for this. I'm not saying its Good but I do it. I feel if you make a small donation to the company then there shouldn't be much of a problem. Sort of a pay what you can, or what you think its worth. Sort of like bidding, but you always win I guess?
 

Site & Scene News

Go to forum More news

Popular threads in this forum

My mother passed away

Anyone else living life drug free?

Bricks and Minifigs Theories?

When you set up your OS, what do you do to optimise it for yourself?

Finally found the right platform for my SNES homebrew games: goodbye Canva, hello Medium!

What do you want to know about life in another country?