Piracy seems to be a problem...

[Rayder]

If you ask me (yeah, I know, nobody asked me), it's the fault of the "powers that be" that piracy is what it is today. THEY are the ones who provided the common person with the ability to soak up free stuff with a button click....the PC and the internet.

Let's see, should I spend my hard-earned money on some game/music/movie, go battle the idiots clogging the aisles and pay over-inflated prices for those products, or sit on my ass and click this button and get it for free? Gee, tough choice.

On a site like this, is there really any need to attempt to validate my actions in any way? I mean, wouldn't we just be preaching to the choir?

I do it because I can. And I don't really care what anyone thinks about that.

'Nuff said.

 

[ZeWarrior]

True but look at Nintendo, they risked a big deal with the Wii but now their stocks are at their highest points ever. People won't keep buying games that are just the same as the previous but only with some polished graphics and a new storyline.

Halo 3 begs to differ.

 

[theorgan]

True but look at Nintendo, they risked a big deal with the Wii but now their stocks are at their highest points ever. People won't keep buying games that are just the same as the previous but only with some polished graphics and a new storyline.

Halo 3 begs to differ.

gotta love the bandwagon. i really hate that fucking game but i have a friend that bought an xbox 360 just for that game cause he heard other friends talking about it all the time.

 

[hollabackitsobi]

Halo 3 added plenty. I don't even have an 360 and I'm not stupid enough to shut my eyes to the Forge and new maps and content and such. Have you ever played Halo? It's an incredible game not just because of the content but also because of the community. It's a blast to frag it up on Halo when you know there will always be someone to play with. Millions, in fact.

 

[ZeWarrior]

Halo 3 didn't add shit. If anything it was worst than Halo 2 or even halo 1. The whole series sucks. The only reason that was keeping me from ever buying an Xbox was to keep people from asking me '' Hey do you have Halo ?!??! '' I hate that game. I hate The whole series.

 

[Talaria]

I often buy DS games as much as I can but when you want to play a game like Phoenix Wright 2 and the pal release isn't till 9 months away (released locally here last month), downloading the rom becomes very tempting rather than buying it in 9 months time. Last year when i didn't have flash card. Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Advance Wars 2 keeped me busy the whole year. It feels weird now with so many games to play so I try and make an effort and buy them. The Pal release date often sways me to download it, then buy it a month or more later which i end up doing as feel the need to support the companies by buying it.

 

[roguetrip]

I don't condone piracy but in gerneral games cost too much, most of my systems are bought new, but a few are even bought 2nd hand (used N64 for 25$, used gamecube for $40), my last new system i bought was a PSTwo (GF bought me my DS new), from there i only bought 2 new games for the PSTwo (GT4 and evil dead: regeneration to be exact), the rest of my 12 or so titles where bought 2nd hand. 80+% of my movie collection is bought 2nd hand. Hell almost all of my PC parts and games have been bought 2nd and even 3rd hand!!

I'm usually only going to buy a game is its 20$ or less (movies 10$ or less!), good luck finding any game that cheap new! I must admit that i can usually wait for items to get that cheap especially when it can only take a few months for it to happen, i don't have the need to keep up with the jones or the need to have it NOW, patience is a virtue for these things.

I will not be hurting the company buy doing this, they are also not seeing profit from me. Now the real problems come from when EVERYONE is doing this, everyone can blame it on something like piracy, but its up to the companies that make media to actually figure out what really needs done, unfortunately instead of trying to see the idea: sell more for less, they hire lawyers, and groups to try to combat the issue which will only drive prices higher which just become a vicious cycle that keeps going around and around!

For many, it just comes down to cost, and a few, it becomes a game or addiction of who has the most and can get it the fastest.

/rant

 

[Taras]

so lets say you were an artist which you are most certainly not. if you wrote a book of poetry. not for aesthetic value but for the sake of monetary gain (how you make a living) and it was posted on the internet. how would you view it? and the use of the word theft or piracy is not subjective. it is a parallel. there is no corruption

I would view it as a gang of free advertising and artists have reported it panning out as such and resulting in additional sales. I would not sit by and blubber about how my (or whomever) legacy business model is over and holler at the youth these days. You likened it to stealing physical object, which it most certainly is not. It's digital procurement.

 

[Lukeage]

do you want someone walking into your home and stealing your tangible video games? same thing when you steal them from the internet. fuck the word piracy. it should be known as theft.


Not even remotely close to the same thing.





you are right actually. cause those who do it are too chicken shit to steal something while not having a computer screen to hide behind. so in that sense you are correct.

This is why I murder the people I steal from so not only do I feel like a man, but I don't feel guilty about taking their stuff (they don't need it once they are dead). Murder, Theft, Copyright Infringement. I dunno why we use these separate terms. It's all 'crime' so they should be viewed exactly the same and all have the same penalty....right?

eye for an eye.

I'm not sure what you are implying here. I have stated that those three crimes can be categorised under one title, so they should have the same penalty. Are you implying that 25+ years jail or execution is suitable for copyright infringement?

To take my example further, I can even prove that murder is stealing. If you kill someone, you have taken their life, something which is not yours to take. If you take something that belongs to someone else without their permission, that is stealing. Therefore, murder = stealing.

Using this type of logic would be great, it would simplify the legal system so much. Other category reductions can include:

Rape = trespassing
Assault = vandalism
Kidnapping = stealing

As you should be able to see, just because things have similar underlying principles doesn't mean they are the same. Stealing and Copyright Infringement are two completely seperate areas of law, and in the US, fall under Criminal law and Civil law respectively, two different types of law.

 

[Yoshimashin]

Damn, I got a lot of responses on this topic. I see how people feel on both ends. I can honestly say I will not stop pirating, but im also not going to bootleg all my games. I purposely left my 360 unmodded so I have a system to look forward to buying games for (and my PS3, but thats not an option yet) , and I dont regret my choice.

Its whatever makes you feel good, I guess.

 

[jimmy j]

I have a simple view on the subject of piracy:

If you like something and can afford to buy it, then piracy is wrong. If you like it, but can't afford to buy it... "Yarr!"

 

[hollabackitsobi]

Halo 3 didn't add shit. If anything it was worst than Halo 2 or even halo 1. The whole series sucks. The only reason that was keeping me from ever buying an Xbox was to keep people from asking me '' Hey do you have Halo ?!??! '' I hate that game. I hate The whole series.

Stop working yourself up dude. You look really stupid having this much hate for an inanimate object.

 

[Hitto]

do you want someone walking into your home and stealing your tangible video games? same thing when you steal them from the internet. fuck the word piracy. it should be known as theft.


It's not stealing because there's still a copy left on the internet. It's possibly costing a sale, but that's hardly theft. Don't corrupt the language.

so lets say you were an artist which you are most certainly not. if you wrote a book of poetry. not for aesthetic value but for the sake of monetary gain (how you make a living) and it was posted on the internet. how would you view it? and the use of the word theft or piracy is not subjective. it is a parallel. there is no corruption

Let's say I am an artist (which I am), and let's say some chinese fucks decided to mass-produce giclée posters from my original works (they fucking did). You think I'd care about some dude keeping JPEGs of my work on his computer and was probably too poor to afford one of my paintings anyway? Or should I be angry at the people who make a PROFIT on my back (they probably still do)?
There's a huge difference between pirating a single copy, which I consider as free publicity, and mass-production of counterfeits, which is what you probably meant to criticise at first.

 

[Veho]

Let's say I am an artist (which I am), and let's say some chinese fucks decided to mass-produce giclée posters from my original works (they fucking did). You think I'd care about some dude keeping JPEGs of my work on his computer and was probably too poor to afford one of my paintings anyway? Or should I be angry at the people who make a PROFIT on my back (they probably still do)?
There's a huge difference between pirating a single copy, which I consider as free publicity, and mass-production of counterfeits, which is what you probably meant to criticise at first.

Finally someone who realizes the real crime of piracy as opposed to a few ROM kiddies downloading games they probably wouldn't have bough in the first place. I've said so in so many "piracy" threads I can probably type the whole post in my sleep. People downloading games (music/movies) are nothing compared to the factories in China hammering tens out thousands of fake cartridges (CDs, DVDs) a day. They are actually stealing away the customers who were willing to buy legal copies of games or music. They are literally stealing away actual money from the publishers, authors, developers, and everyone involved in making a game (movie, album, painting, what have you). That's piracy. What we do is nothing. Negligible. The entire population of GBATEMP, downloading ROMs by boatload, with knife, fork and shovel, can be comfortably shrugged off compared to the real, actual, intellectual-property-theft, profiteering pirates. We wouldn't buy those games anyway, and the ones we would, we end up buying as "collectors' editions" anyway.

 

[EmeraldEx]

I know people who have bought a DS, who never would have if they didn't have flash carts.

So, Nintendo made money from that, selling a DS that never would have sold.

 

[rest0re]

i do buy games sometimes. i have this funny "collecting" attitude now. i wanna collect games because i wanna show i'm not stealing piratehippie

 

[Brouhaha]

Let's say I am an artist (which I am), and let's say some chinese fucks decided to mass-produce giclée posters from my original works (they fucking did). You think I'd care about some dude keeping JPEGs of my work on his computer and was probably too poor to afford one of my paintings anyway? Or should I be angry at the people who make a PROFIT on my back (they probably still do)?
There's a huge difference between pirating a single copy, which I consider as free publicity, and mass-production of counterfeits, which is what you probably meant to criticise at first.

I make a living from the software industry, and that's exactly how I feel on the matter

.

 

[ZeWarrior]

Halo 3 didn't add shit. If anything it was worst than Halo 2 or even halo 1. The whole series sucks. The only reason that was keeping me from ever buying an Xbox was to keep people from asking me '' Hey do you have Halo ?!??! '' I hate that game. I hate The whole series.


Stop working yourself up dude. You look really stupid having this much hate for an inanimate object.

It's not that much hatred. I just don't like the idiots who think if you have an Xbox you must have halo >_>