Piracy

[jackfaire]

A video game company that runs an online video game made changes that took away some features that all players liked. The features were also being used to pirate their game. The changes were made to prevent this.

Players like my friend feel that their saying that was calling all players pirates. Now he plans on pirating the game in spite.

I am sorry if I am upset with a company I stop doing business with them I don't steal from them.

[BroomJockey]

I am sorry if I am upset with a company I stop doing business with them I don't steal from them.

It's not stealing. It's copyright infringement. Completely different laws and punishments. Conflating the two does not serve the complex issues surrounding piracy.

That out of the way, I'll admit to pirating... lesse... 2, maybe 3 games. Why? Because 1, I knew it was going to suck. Hard. And I was right! Very right. I played it for about 20 minutes. I am NOT paying $50 for a game I'm playing for 20 minutes. And since it was a PC game, no returns. So I pirated it since I couldn't rent it. Another, I'd bought a copy for my XBox, since the company didn't feel compelled to release the PC version at the same time. When they finally did release the PC version, I nabbed it, and shelved my XBox version. Basically, I version-shifted my purchase.

But I won't pirate a console game, I'll rent it. And I won't pirate a PC game I know I'll like. I'll buy it. But to pirate a game as punishment? Eh, I can see the logic. "Why deprive myself of something I enjoy to punish the practices of a company, when I can still punish them AND enjoy something?" Doesn't mean I approve though. If the product's still worth playing, it's probably still worth paying for.

[gremcint]

I'll post more on it later but I think that this video raises some points:
(warning swearing)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-mt4..._pc_games_flv/

[Flyndaran]

It's sad that today's youth feels so entitled to things that they outrank even the owners.

[Arcade Man D]

It's sad that today's youth feels so entitled to things that they outrank even the owners.

It's sad that owners decide to use potentially destructive DRM software like SecuROM (which causes countless problems with CD drives and with people who use Daemon Tools or copies of their retail CDs for legitimate purposes, like failing drives or scratched discs, which is a fair use as shown by Supreme Court ruling precedent) to screw over their paying customers.

I buy my games, but anything with SecuROM gives me a huge headache getting it to work.

[gremcint]

Here's the thing you can't just talk about piracy as a whole, there are a number of different issues.

Example TV Shows. It is ok find for me to record tv shows but it's not ok for me to download the same episode. It is ok for me to use TIVO to not only record it for me but remove the commercials so I never see them but it's not ok for me to download the show. I've paid for the cable or Satellite that the show came on so I've already paid for them so why can't I download the show? Add to that the free shows that are on the internet and over the airwaves. I really don't have a problem with downloading tv shows.

Computer games. If it doesn't work you can't return it, even if you match the requirements exactly it may not work. The computer games may decide that because of software or hardware you already have on your system that it doesn't want to work. Further I own a game already and technically I am allowed to make a backup of it but every method of making a backup is supposedly against the rules and a lot of time you can't even use that backup. I'm not even allowed to format shift my games to my harddrive where I like to have them a lot of the time so I really don't buy computer games at all. I will download them if they look interesting to see if they work but for the most part I stay away.

Console games are what I buy most of the time because you have a pretty good shot of them working, I don't pirate these and I'm not in support of pirating any modern games, I don't see how playing nes roms harms anyone, before anyone points out remakes or downloads, I like playing these on a computer, start selling them on a computer and maybe I'll pay.

Movies, If it's been aired on a channel I get then I don't have too much of a problem downloading them but aside from that I will download a movie to see if it is worth buying, I have a lot of movies and do my best to buy the ones I like.

Book and comics: the only ones I'd say to download would be the one that are out of copyright, not that that stops me.

Music. if it's ever been given away for free (radio, download, listen on a website) then ok, but to take that even further we in Canada actually have a tax on recordable media that goes to copyright holders and it has held up in court that this counts as paying for downloaded music so quite frankly I have no problem whatsoever downloading music, though I rarely do this as I don't listen to much music.

Software: I don't think it's ok to download except to replace your software that's been lost. I do think that companies limit what you can do with your software too much though (xp activations).

What needs to happen is more companies to wake up and realize the internet exists and that people are not being lazy or being thieves they are just going for product they want how they want. These business models can work and are being tried everywhere, Kindle, Itunes, Netflicks, Hulu, Steam and more are all doing this and making sales.

The real main issue is the big companies lying to us about the issues and how the American Government lets a private organisation illegally obtain evidence and not throw them out of the courtroom when they do this and also let them sue for 6 figures over downloading a few songs. All this will do is to bankrupt a potential customer and guarantee they will never sell anything to them.

By the way the best way to lower illegal downloads is to stop making shitty products, The Dark Knight earned more money than any movie in a long time and it did that for one main reason: IT WAS GOOD. It was worth going to see, it was worth paying for, If these companies would stop just slapping labels on pieces of crap and marketing them as related to series when they aren't then maybe more people would be willing to pay for them, you've been lying to us for years and putting a shine on a turd and telling us it's gold for far too long.

I'm not talking about DRM or similar things very much because the video I linked covers a lot of my views.

[Mr Slugger]

By the way the best way to lower illegal downloads is to stop making shitty products

Totally agree. I rip movies and music all the time. Most of the music I own, and is down in my basement. A portion of my movies I own, and they're down there as well. I prefer downloaded material because I store them on hard drives that are down in the basement. My kids have ruined many movies that I legitimately bought. So it they can't touch them, but can watch them through the computer, or appletv then I'm happy. I mean sure a hard drive will fail, but that's why you have raid drives.

As far as piracy on my part. I won't pay for things I've already bought. For instance I own cassettes. I'm not buying the CDs. I legally purchased the music years ago so I'm not spending the money again. Especially since yes some of these CDs suck except for a couple of songs. And I'll always buy a good album, but I won't buy a suck album for a eh song that I know is just a song of the moment. And on movies I won't buy Disney's Bambie 15: Bambie in New York (Sounds like a porno). Dark Knight, perfect example bought it.

[gremcint]

also when did downloading files and raiding ships become the same thing.

[Flyndaran]

Here's the thing you can't just talk about piracy as a whole, there are a number of different issues.

...snip...

Wow. That's a whole lot of excuses for stealing intellectual property.
You do not have the right to copy something I own the rights to, whether it's out of print, or shitty. It isn't yours.

also when did downloading files and raiding ships become the same thing.

They simply wanted to add a concise way of saying, "stealing intellectual property" without so many dry words.

[Rapscallion]

One of the webcomics I read (User Friendly) covered this - music execs were talking and complaining about how people wanted to illegally copy their stuff. A junior exec piped up and pointed out the obvious - with the Carribbean movies and Internet phenomena around, they'd decided to use the name the Internet considered to be the coolest thing since sliced ninjas.

It worked far better in comic strip form...

Rapscallion

[gremcint]

Wow. That's a whole lot of excuses for stealing intellectual property.
You do not have the right to copy something I own the rights to, whether it's out of print, or shitty. It isn't yours.

First of all it's not a lot of excuses it's me talking about specific circumstances and separate issues. Second of all COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS NOT THEFT.

Let me summarize my statements.

TV Shows: If I paid for it alreay I have a right to a copy of it. I am just choosing to enjoy on my computer instead of my tv.

Computer games: I pointed out some issues with what the companies are doing but I outright said I basically don't download computer games aside from downloading to try to see if Iwant to buy them.

Console games: OK I admit the old nintendo games are still under copyright but aside from those I don't download console games.

Movies: see tv shows.

Books and Comics: I didn't say out of print I said out of copyright like homer or dracula or something. Yeah I know comics haven't been around long enough for that but I group them together.

Software: you know what I was pretty clear here so I'll just leave it there.

Music: According to the Canadian Courts I've already paid for them and I'll leave it at that.

Now I never said it was ok to download something because it was shitty, I never said that at all, nowhere did I say that, if I said that please go back and point out where I did.

[Nyoibo]

You do not have the right to copy something I own the rights to, whether it's out of print, or shitty. It isn't yours.

Actually, depending on what it is and if I paid for it, yes I would, I would not however have the rights to distribute it or try to pass it off as my own.

[jackfaire]

but aside from that I will download a movie to see if it is worth buying, I have a lot of movies and do my best to buy the ones I like.

That implies the "if it is shitty I don't then go buy it" I don't know if that is what you were trying to say but that is where he was getting the "if it's shitty" thing.

[gremcint]

Ok I can see where you get that, but let me put this way: If I don't like a book I can return it to the store and the same things applies to anything not on a disk so if I buy a movie I'm stuck with it unless I sell it at a loss to a second hand store. The only way I can return a movie is if it is still in it's wrapping. So what if I were to buy the movie, don't open it, download the movie watch it and decide whether or not to keep it? Either way I would delete the download, so if that is ok then why not save myself some time and just download the movie and go from there?

[jackfaire]

I have Netflix if I want to know if a movie is good I add it to my queue and watch it.

My dad always had the same philosophy rent then if you like you buy.