My thoughts on Semi-Piracy

[Plazorn]

Hi guys, I have come to the conclusion that not ALL piracy is bad. Downloading games off of the internet is illegal, however already owning the game justifies it. For an example, if you buy Virtual Console games on the 3DS eShop, if you owned another 3DS with the same account, you could download the same digital games you purchased on the other one free of charge. I believe the same goes for piracy, if you download a game you already own off of the internet, it is essentially the same concept. Unless Ninty has been doing illegal things the whole time! What are your thoughts?

 

[Maximumbeans]

Honestly game piracy is a really grey area when you get into all the possible scenarios and contexts it can pertain to. I don't think a uniform stance on it is the right way to think, like with most things, and there are some scenarios it feels wrong whereas in others it's completely harmless.

If you're pirating a brand-new game that a dev team sweated over then I feel that's wrong. There's the argument that people who pirate the game were never going to buy it anyway, but I don't think that absolves the action or makes it neutral. People should be paid for their work...within reason.

What kind of reason, though? Well, on the other end of the scale, I feel like downloading ROMs for games that aren't even sold through first-party retailers anymore is completely victimless. Short of hunting down the developers of those games (or their surviving relatives) and physically giving them money, there is no way to reward their work anymore. There is no moral victory in spending ridiculous amounts of cash buying the official kit on eBay just so I can...what? Play the game 'legally'? Why? The money for an N64 and Pokemon Stadium cartridge won't ever reach Nintendo's pockets unless they start selling them themselves.

But then I could be called a hypocrite because I condemn people who pirate new games in lieu of paying for them, yet my argument for pirating older titles largely hinges on the fact that I don't want to pay for the proper equipment.

It's tricky. I don't think there's any clear cut answers. There's another argument to be made for games that are made in pursuit of a love of gaming, and games made with little effort and/or ad nauseum for profit. Is one justifiable to pirate over the other? I'd say so, but others believe in the letter of the law.

 

[aoikurayami]

Is "semi piracy" a newage swag *cool kidz* term for

a) "I download a game that company x is not willing to make available on the current gen platform for no discernible reason"

or

b)

The version "available" on current gen platforms is
* so horrible and feature incomplete
* a flippin Cloud version
that it is better to be a yarhar cultivater than to deal with that one


?

If yes: Jus a sec: I gotta buy some of that delicious popcorn and get my cool shades

If no: Insert * @FAST6191 is not impressed 1 page long reasoning how this thread could be improved*

 

[Plazorn]

My reason for this thread is that I was seeing if it was justifiable to pirate PC versions of PS4/PS5 games I already own, in case I were to get a Steam Deck. Is it 'legal'?

 

[Deleted member 301661]

My reason for this thread is that I was seeing if it was justifiable to pirate PC versions of PS4/PS5 games I already own, in case I were to get a Steam Deck. Is it 'legal'?

Depends on where you live.

 

[LoggerMan]

I bet a lot of pirates spend a lot more on gaming than the average person, or even the average gamer. We aren't just pirates, we are hardcore gaming fans.

 

[AncientBoi]

Arrrrrrrrrrgh Matey! What's this talk about Piracy?

Is there any Rum about mate?

 

[Plazorn]

Depends on where you live.

America

 

[xoINARIox]

My reason for this thread is that I was seeing if it was justifiable to pirate PC versions of PS4/PS5 games I already own, in case I were to get a Steam Deck. Is it 'legal'?

Well whether you do it or not is your thing . . . .
But if it is only a question of whether it is justified to obtain a version of a game on another platform illegally . . . . . then the answer is obviously no.

 

[Deleted member 301661]

America

I can only account for the netherlands, though it might not be forever, you've got the right to have your personal backup.
This backup needs to be from your original (matching checksums), you need to be able to have the original to compare, and it's not for digital downloads.
You may not decrypt in any way (so using a modded console is still illigal in most cases).
You must use legal tools for running your backup and for ripping the original.
Since in many cases you can't rip the original without illegal console mod, tools or decryption most backups are still illegal.
That said, one is innocent until proven guilty.

 

[Taleweaver]

Unless Ninty has been doing illegal things the whole time!

This is a weird sentence. It's not that terms of use can never be illegal in a country, but I'm certain that at least none of the big three(or Google or valve) are going to set up a terms of use that goes against the regional laws. It's just that those laws don't take your rights as a consumer to the degree where you can just download extra copies off the internet,regardless of whether it's justifiable or not.

 

[DEMONGreninjaPG]

ehhh idk

 

[godreborn]

My reason for this thread is that I was seeing if it was justifiable to pirate PC versions of PS4/PS5 games I already own, in case I were to get a Steam Deck. Is it 'legal'?

Probably not on other platforms, but that doesn't stop people from doing it. I sometimes install ps4 versions of games on my exploited ps4 that I own on the ps5 or switch. Don't really care. it's more for posterity though. I don't play any games on my ps4.

 

[chaos82231]

What if I got access to a huge library via family share on steam, but use a personal workaround to be able to play the games I got through family share whenever I want? Seems like a grey area, but it's technically not piracy.

 

[spectral]

It's not semi piracy it's piracy. The morals can vary in your scenario but the law doesn't (The specifics do country to country). Nintendo letting you redownload to other devices is not the same as they are the one's who own the rights so they are free to do whatever they like with the games.

 

[Technicmaster0]

Well, on the other end of the scale, I feel like downloading ROMs for games that aren't even sold through first-party retailers anymore is completely victimless. Short of hunting down the developers of those games (or their surviving relatives) and physically giving them money, there is no way to reward their work anymore. There is no moral victory in spending ridiculous amounts of cash buying the official kit on eBay just so I can...what? Play the game 'legally'? Why? The money for an N64 and Pokemon Stadium cartridge won't ever reach Nintendo's pockets unless they start selling them themselves.

I don't think that this is a valid argument in the current times. First of all, we don't know if/when a game gets rereleased. We get new compilations all the time. Who would have guessed that you can buy the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Gameboy and GBA castle vania games in 2 collections a few years ago? Disney rereleased some of their nes, snes, mega drive and gameboy games etc. Who knows which games will get such a collection next? We will get a teenage mutant ninja turtles collection at the end of the month.
Secondly, this argument is often used for nintendo games in general where it isn't true. Old Nintendo games are still beeing sold through nintendo switch online and the 3ds and wii u virtual console. It may not be in a way that the customer wants, but many of the old nintendo games can still be bought or rented today.

 

[Cyan]

My reason for this thread is that I was seeing if it was justifiable to pirate PC versions of PS4/PS5 games I already own, in case I were to get a Steam Deck. Is it 'legal'?

if it's the same game and platform you already bought it from... maybe it could be justifiable, same game, same account, same platform. (even if it's not justifiable if you have 2 console and the game is tied to the console instead of a user account, you are supposed to buy it again)
If it's another platform, and the game is not crossbuy and you are supposed to buy it again on that plateform to play it, then no, you are supposed to buy it again.
The devs worked on making that platform compatible, they paid for the SDK and to be allowed to release their game on it. it's not the same "binary".


I would find it "justifiable" (not legal), in case you buy the game but you can't install it. for example, your console is banned !
you still buy it officially to send money to the devs, and get the game elsewhere (or on official servers) to install it yourself. it's the exact same game's version/platform it was intended for, and you bought it specifically for that combo.
OR
the official server closed (like Wii shop for 2 months) without notice, you don't know if it'll open back (it did) and you can't download and install your bought game using official methods.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

I don't think that this is a valid argument in the current times. First of all, we don't know if/when a game gets rereleased. We get new compilations all the time. Who would have guessed that you can buy the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Gameboy and GBA castle vania games in 2 collections a few years ago? Disney rereleased some of their nes, snes, mega drive and gameboy games etc. Who knows which games will get such a collection next? We will get a teenage mutant ninja turtles collection at the end of the month.

While its great to say that TMNTC might be a great example of a collection that can be released with good intent and goals, its an unfortunate reality that most of this you can't say that for shit like Sonic Origins or even Nintendo's Mario 3D Collection which put little effort into the collection while trying to sell it to you at a much higher price. Then you get the wonderful shit like Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy: Definitive Edition which did the wonderful practice of scrubbing all classic versions off of Steam to push this out and it becoming a massive shitstorm of awful remastering. The same also happened to Warcraft 3 as well with reforged.

The only surefire to stop these games from being ruined and lost is to pirate and preserve. Because its sure as shit that they don't care about these games when they want to George Lucas this shit in the worst way possible for the intent of profit among all else.

Secondly, this argument is often used for nintendo games in general where it isn't true. Old Nintendo games are still beeing sold through nintendo switch online and the 3ds and wii u virtual console. It may not be in a way that the customer wants, but many of the old nintendo games can still be bought or rented today.

For one, these games are not so much sold anymore as they are "accessible" via paying an online subscription for the privilege of playing a few of those games. Pay even more to play some N64 and Genesis games. You do not keep these games if you decide to cancel the service.

As for VC? That never came over to the Switch, and the WiiU/3DS are already on its way out in terms of usability and accessing their market. Its even less viable now than it would be to just grab an NES and some games, which considering the time difference between the two consoles just shows how ass backwards this system really is with preservation and game accessibility. Nintendo does not care for its past unless they can find a way to milk it out of its fans each and every time they can. Otherwise in a sensible world the VC shit would be attached to your Nintendo account and not your hardware, keeping the games you purchased throughout whichever consoles they release in the future. Hell the other companies can do this, so why not them? Also I am pretty sure digital content is still in fact tied to hardware with the Switch as well. They don't want you to keep their games forever, they want to keep charging you for those classics over and over again for as long as they can until they can no longer profit from it anymore. And that's if they even care to bother with all games. (STILL WAITING FOR MOTHER 3 IN THE US HERE!)


In short, no. Don't rely on Nintendo having your back or making the classics accessible to you because you bought it the 10th time on a different platform. It's not a sustainable concept. Also do not rely on the belief that publishers want to make the classics available when they can try to shit out crappy remasters and half-baked collections at high cost but with worse coding than the original games had. If anything Piracy needs to be encouraged more because we are reaching a point in the industry that games have become as shitty and broken/awful as they were prior to the original video game crash of 1983. The only difference now is that these companies still get money regardless of how shit their games are because dumbasses keep buying them and being caught off guard that the game that was advertised in pre-rendered trailers was not in fact the game they bought. The industry needs to fall apart again so it can learn from itself and be better than it was before.

 

[Kopimist]

My reason for this thread is that I was seeing if it was justifiable to pirate PC versions of PS4/PS5 games I already own, in case I were to get a Steam Deck. Is it 'legal'?

Generally speaking that's a hard no in terms of legality. Of course some countries have really lax copyright laws so maybe somewhere the laws haven't caught up yet, it might be technically legal????

Dumping your own games is legal in many countries for backup/archival purposes but that doesn't give you the green light to download it off the net.

Morally speaking though, that really depends on how you feel about it.

 

[Kopimist]

-snip- phone double posted