CFW and Piracy. What do you think about them?

[Dr_Faustus]

- ¿Do you use CFW?
Absolutely, on various devices.

- ¿Do you think CFW is wrong?
Not at all! I own the hardware, I deserve to use it to my means.

- ¿Do you think piracy is wrong?
Depends on the scenario, if its a small dev/team I would feel more against the measure, but if its a huge studio thats probably making more money ripping people and kids off than they would ever lose any then I would not feel against that. Also depends on the availability of the media and if its being edited/censored in your area, making the original harder to get a hold of without the means of piracy. Its a complicated issue sure, but at the end of the day if I enjoy something greatly I have no problem giving money to those who made it.

- ¿Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?
Yes. Most of my use case with CFW is unlocking additional functions and mods that I could not do in the stock OS. Plus I just like having full control of my hardware. All of this has nothing to do with the ability to pirate media or not. Hell, I remember back in the day when people would mod their DVD players and game consoles just so they can play media that was region locked. Legit media, but was locked by the hardware. This is why mods and CFW got popular over time, the means to pirate just made the deal sweeter for those wanting to do that.

People want and deserve to have full unrestricted control of their hardware. Restricting them for the sake of gains for the company is just anti-consumer and treats them like braindead children with deep pockets. Everyone should have the right to do everything they can do with their hardware and software, if they want to that is.

 

[SuicideNotes]

Do you use CFW?
Yeah on anything & Everything, 3ds Psp,Tablet,Xbox

Do you think CFW is wrong?
No I like the idea of having More controll over my devices,I hate stock

Do you think piracy is wrong?
No I think Piracy Is Amazing, I have severe social angsiaty,I cant even go out, and i have alot of other problems so life for me is miserable.Heres the thing Game companys take the piss with prices, take nintendo full price for 3ds games years later, and the other rip off tactics for dlc, These people make money either way, If you have barly enough mony to survive aswell so id say its justifyed.

Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?
Well from what ive seen most people who want cfw is for piracy thats from what ive seen, So i cant speculate for everyone.
But i dont know why it matters, I ve seen on discord people asking about cias and whatnot and imediatly told "oh buy that game i wont help you with piracy" or theyle respond i use cfw because i have kids and i need extra backup options incase my games get damged.....that really pisses me off, people rip and upload stuff anyway so why not make use of it. ps sorry about the late reply and spelling

 

[Marc_LFD]

Do you use CFW?

Yes, on my DS Lite, 3DS XL, PS3 and Vita. Wish I could use a CFW of sorts on my 360, but the 360 is already open enough as it is with the OFW (listen to background music, make game backups, play demos downloaded on PC to 360, use game saves from other users, etc)

Do you think CFW is wrong?

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo do because they don't want you to have free access to more features.

Do you think piracy is wrong?

No, it's awesome.

Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?

The option is there, but you don't have to.

 

[MicroNut99]

Yes.
No.
No.
Yes.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Do you use CFW?

Yes, I've used CFW since the WRT54G router days, then on my PSP and many other devices after that. If it counts as CFW I replaced my Xbox's dashboard with XBMC back in the day also!

I think it's great been able to make a device do more than what was originally intended.

Do you think CFW is wrong?

No, as per above I think its great been able to do more with a device than the manufacturer intended.

Do you think piracy is wrong?

I think the answer to that is complex, obviously if you like something then you should support the people who created that if possible. However piracy is important for game preservation, especially these days when even if you buy the game on disc or cartridge you don't get the finished game and often have to download a day 1 update before you can even play the game.

I don't think piracy is nearly as bigger problem as its made out to be, everyone I knew growing up who pirated games now buys them. So are most pirates kids who cant afford the game and would never be able to purchase the game anyway? Probably many other pirates live in countries where the game would simply be unaffordable, so again would never buy it anyway.

Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?

Yes, most CFW's don't even allow piracy by default.

 

[KimotoAkitoCCP]

- ¿Do you use CFW?
-No, cuz im justa scaredy cat and afraid of bricking my ONLY Old 2DS.
- ¿Do you think CFW is wrong?
-It depends in what your using it for.
- ¿Do you think piracy is wrong?
-Yes, and no, like i said , it depends.
- ¿Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?
-I don't know how to awnser that..

 

[Tempesto]

1. Do you use CFW?
Yeah, I use it on my PSP and 3ds.
2. Do you think CFW is wrong?
No.
3. Do you think piracy is wrong?
I grew up in a family that pirated and burned hundreds, if not thousands, of DVDs. Hell, even back in 6th grade, I was pirating tons of games for OpenEmu on our school issued Macs. However, indie games are a big no no for me. Nintendo or Sega isn't going to lose millions if I pirate [insert random game] from, let's say, 2003 which can't be found on any modern storefronts, like Steam. Plus, piracy, in rare cases, is almost necessary if a game had such a limited release or is just way too costly (i.e, Kuon).
4. Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?
Yes. As InsaneNutter said, some CFW don't allow pirated games by default, like the Switch and 3DS; you need either some sort of patch or program to install them.

 

[The Catboy]

- Do you use CFW? I do, having a CFW installed on my systems is something I pride myself in doing.
- Do you think CFW is wrong? Nope, I bought my systems and I can do whatever I want with them
- Do you think piracy is wrong? Not really. There are plenty of good reasons to pirate and I don't care what someone's reason is
- Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy? I can see where the idea comes from but I do think it's wrong to say that they are connected. As someone who enjoys fucking about with my stuff, I do most of my hacking for research purposes. I know not everyone is the same but I also know plenty of people who hack their shit for non-piracy reasons, like removing region-locking for games they've imported to software exploit both to help the community and even to help the company.

 

[sombrerosonic]

- ¿Do you use CFW? Yes
- ¿Do you think CFW is wrong? Nope
- ¿Do you think piracy is wrong? Yes and no, Why would i pirate a new game? That hurts the devs. I only pirate games for consoles that are abandoned by the devs and the company who
- ¿Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy? Nope cant have one without the other

 

[Maximumbeans]

1. Do you use CFW?
Yep, recently installed on my N3DS.
2. Do you think CFW is wrong?
Not even remotely.
3. Do you think piracy is wrong?
I think it depends, and it's very easy to practice moral relativism with piracy. I think pirating games and never paying for them, even brand-new games from small studios, is wrong. I think pirating SNES ROMs so that you can play them on an emulator isn't wrong in the slightest. It really depends on the context.
4. Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?
I suppose you can install CFW without pirating games, but then the process kind of relies on hijacking Nintendo systems so in a sense they're irrevocably linked.

 

[mrgone]

- ¿Do you use CFW?
YES
- ¿Do you think CFW is wrong?
NO
- ¿Do you think piracy is wrong?
Wrong if one could buy the games, but doesn't.
Gray area if not yet part of the working class, i.e. pupils/children/students
- ¿Do you think is wrong to automatically relate CFW with piracy?
No, because emulation is basically also piracy

 

[LainaGabranth]

CFW and piracy are inseparably linked, and if I own a video game but my copy is damaged in some way, or I lost my arbitrary CD key, I as a consumer should have the right to continue to play the product either offline or without any multiplayer function whatsoever irregardless of what a bunch of cock mongling corporate lapdogs pay our senators to think.

Piracy is fine, and I think people shouldn't be such pussies about it. Big deal, someone stole a game. They can buy it down the line to make up for the sale, or in the case of DLC practices like Payday 2's, they'll become customers who steadily buy DLC if the game is good enough. More devs should make demos to alleviate this problem.

South America for example notoriously pirated arcade games (well, they notoriously pirate games in general but especially arcade games in the early days of gaming) and made so many changes and advancements to said games that we likely wouldn't have had revisions like Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, one of the most popular fighting games in Capcom's lineup, had piracy just never happened. Games like World of Warcraft are entirely playable at every possible version, from Vanilla, to TBC, all the way up to Cataclysm in near entire states (With WOD, Legion, BFA, and Shadowlands in heavily alpha states but still playable on pirated private server repacks), and even pre-alpha stuff! Piracy is hand in hand with preservation, and without it, we wouldn't have the millions upon millions of games that required dongles, stupid code discs, cd keys, and so on from the Amiga, Commodore, and ZX Spectrum eras of gaming, either.

Many of the games you have today were likely inspired by some games that were only playable through pirated copies and no-cd cracks. Need for Speed Carbon, a game I physically own on my goddamn shelf literally 3 inches from this monitor, is unplayable on modern Windows 10 and 11 installations without the use of a no-CD crack, due to problems with the DRM. This is just one of like, hundreds upon hundreds of games that use SafeDisc and SecuROM that are unplayable in the modern era without, you guessed it, piracy.

So yes, piracy is fucking awesome, and I'm tired of pretending otherwise. If you're some Nintendo ring-licking fanboy who thinks piracy of a gamecube game is comparable to 9/11'ing their headquarters, don't even reply to my post, you have nothing of value to say on the subject.