All criminals justify their crimes to themselves.
Example. Bank robbers are stealing from the government, not the people who have money at the bank (as those people will all be reimbursed), because the government is running a war they perceive to be unjust. So there. A bank robber can rationalize their crime better than some loser in his basement on piratebay. How easy is that.
Can Piracy be Justified
YES.
With conditions:- If it has DRM.
- It requires you to be online to play it and the game saves are stored in their server, not your hard drive.
- If it you can't sell or give away the game when you are done.
- If no-one makes a profit, as in, you didn't pay for it.
@trophyhunter said:
" only if your an asshole "You don't pirate games, but you're an asshole :/
So you only pirate games if they created safegaurds to prevent piracy? Talk about eating your own tail. Hey thanks for making the experience shittier for legit consumers. By targeting games with safeguards specifically you're telling publishers they need to either give up on PC games altogether or have even more strict safeguards.
No not really even though your just making a copy and there not really loosing money (well if you wernt gonna buy it anyway) thats still theft
With games.... i dont really think its justified.. since if your have a modded console, your obviously doing it to get free games.
however my justification for music is..trying out new things is hard with music since everyone has different taste.. so download it and if u dont like it.. delete it.. if u do go out and buy there album or get it off itunes or w/e.
What's so wrong about Steam?" I have about 4 games out there on recent release that I refuse to buy because they all require me to register it with Steam and I will not do that. "
The only reason piracy can be justified is if, imo, the game is not being sold anymore by the original publisher. For example, downloading old ROMs.
Depends how strict you are, since they are so many loopholes with the internet now. Don't feel like buying music? You can torrent it, or heck, stream the music off youtube!
What also gets into gray areas are using emulators for old games that are not even put into production anymore, because the company may not even exist!
Not really. I mean, I'm a hypocrite since I'll do it anyway, but...
As for the whole, "Pirating is okay if it has ridiculous DRM", you could still buy the game and then download a crack, unless you really don't want to support bad DRM practices.
I pirate things because I otherwise wouldn't be able to afford anything. I get ~$30 at my birthday and Christmas time, if I'm lucky, which can't even buy a new PC game. At least if I pirate I can actually play more than 2-3 different games.
Nope, there are plenty of free games that you can get legally even though they worse quality than the ones you should be paying for. Same thing applies to music, we have youtube, pandora or whatever other music streaming service that there really isn't a need to download music other than you know the music already and like it enough to have a copy of, which you should of course then pay for.
For all those that think 60 is too much for a game, then start renting.
" @oldschool said:It was there in my post. You do not own the game (yes, I know you don't own "the game", but you should own the physical copy of it) and therefore, you are nit buying it, you are renting it. If that is the case, I am not paying $100 to rent a game. If I want to sell it when I am finished, then that should be my right. Name me other products that you never own when you buy (not rent or lease) it? Finished your book? Give it back to the publisher. Getting a new car? Give the old one back to the car manufacturer. Want a new television? Give the old one back to the manufacturer. It is a crock and no industry can justify that.What's so wrong about Steam?"" I have about 4 games out there on recent release that I refuse to buy because they all require me to register it with Steam and I will not do that. "
If they want to ensure that only the legitimate game is being played, then make it that the game disc has to be in the machine. They made their profit when they sold you the game. How dare they then dictate what you do with the product you "bought". What happens after you buy it is none of their business. If they didn't make their profit when they sold it to you, then that is their problem, not mine. A CD key should be the only security it needs, as in, it won't play unless you use it. What criminals do is not my concern. That is a matter for the police.
People also need to understand the concept of loss. If someone pirates a game, the loss to the company is simply the retail value of the game at most. If the pirate never intended to buy it, then there is no loss at all. Fine, hosting it is illegal as it it makes it available to all, but again, that is a police matter and is the problem of the site creator. Companies should never get big payouts for n individual that pirates a game. At best the company should get back the value of the game. As for breaking the law, that is a matter for the courts and any fine should be much like shoplifting, as in commensurate with the value of the crime. These payouts to companies are obscene and worse than any individual piracy matter. I am constantly appalled by the forelock tugging of so many here in gaming world to the propaganda by the game companies.
How about this?
If you pirate games, I hope you get cancer and go to the fraud or stealing ring of hell.
You people are the reason for all the DRM and what not. You people ruined it for yourselves and everyone else.
I tried, but found it to be disappointing." @oldschool: Go fuck yourself buddy. "
How about stop being a corporate stooge?
@trophyhunter said:
In your case, you have created a whole lot of new ways :-)" @oldschool: there is more than one way to be an asshole my boy "
Although, it appears I may be called an asshole a whole lot of times on this thread. Boo hoo, it's breaking my heart.
@trophyhunter said:
" How about this?If you pirate games, I hope you get cancer and go to the fraud or stealing ring of hell. You people are the reason for all the DRM and what not. You people ruined it for yourselves and everyone else. "Oooh, you are an asshole :/
Pirates didn't cause DRM. Stupid distributors who are bad at business did. They failed to tackle the problem in a positive way and are now reaping what they sow. Piracy in music has been around since the 70s and yet, people still make music. Go figure. Piracy is the most overstated propaganda nonsense, on par with reasons to go to war, and just as stupid and vile.
" @LeetBalla said:Well if you pirate games you are a horrible person." @oldschool: Go fuck yourself buddy. "I tried, but found it to be disappointing.
How about stop being a corporate stooge?
@trophyhunter said:" @oldschool: there is more than one way to be an asshole my boy "In your case, you have created a whole lot of new ways :-) Although, it appears I may be called an asshole a whole lot of times on this thread. Boo hoo, it's breaking my heart. "
Why don't you just steal everything and rape a few people while your at it?
no.
it should be obvious no!
It doesn't even matter if it does or doesn't harm the software publisher/developer! NO!
If they want you to pay to use their software it doesn't matter if you "weren't gonna buy it otherwise" or whatever! If you didn't pay for it, they don't want you using it. They are in their rights to choose how they want people to use their software. If they are selling it in such a way that gives you full rights over the software once you buy it... then great! Do whatever!
HOWEVER. If you click "I agree to the licensing terms" and in those terms it contractually states that you do not have full rights over this software, that it is in fact theirs, that you in fact must pay to use this software... WELL THAT IS A CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION.
Society does not work without these! If they put something into their software that is bad, that harms them, you still don't have the right to perform illegal things! They are illegal things, you are violating the software publisher/developer's rights.
" @cjmabry said:" @oldschool said:It was there in my post. You do not own the game (yes, I know you don't own "the game", but you should own the physical copy of it) and therefore, you are nit buying it, you are renting it. If that is the case, I am not paying $100 to rent a game. If I want to sell it when I am finished, then that should be my right. Name me other products that you never own when you buy (not rent or lease) it? Finished your book? Give it back to the publisher. Getting a new car? Give the old one back to the car manufacturer. Want a new television? Give the old one back to the manufacturer. It is a crock and no industry can justify that. If they want to ensure that only the legitimate game is being played, then make it that the game disc has to be in the machine. They made their profit when they sold you the game. How dare they then dictate what you do with the product you "bought". What happens after you buy it is none of their business. If they didn't make their profit when they sold it to you, then that is their problem, not mine. A CD key should be the only security it needs, as in, it won't play unless you use it. What criminals do is not my concern. That is a matter for the police. People also need to understand the concept of loss. If someone pirates a game, the loss to the company is simply the retail value of the game at most. If the pirate never intended to buy it, then there is no loss at all. Fine, hosting it is illegal as it it makes it available to all, but again, that is a police matter and is the problem of the site creator. Companies should never get big payouts for n individual that pirates a game. At best the company should get back the value of the game. As for breaking the law, that is a matter for the courts and any fine should be much like shoplifting, as in commensurate with the value of the crime. These payouts to companies are obscene and worse than any individual piracy matter. I am constantly appalled by the forelock tugging of so many here in gaming world to the propaganda by the game companies. "What's so wrong about Steam?"" I have about 4 games out there on recent release that I refuse to buy because they all require me to register it with Steam and I will not do that. "
Of course there's a loss if someone pirates a game, not in the same way as swiping a copy from a store, but still. If 100,000 people pirate a game, it reduces the overall demand for the game. If you pirate a game, you obviously have at least some interest in the game. Maybe not $50 worth, or even $30, but say you'd buy the game for $20. You pirating the game robs the company of a potential sale when the game reaches that price.
Also, you can't really believe that last bit about people who get caught paying only the price of the game... come on dude.
" @trophyhunter said:Thanks, I will. Perhaps I will start at your home. Where do you live? :/Well if you pirate games you are a horrible person. Why don't you just steal everything and rape a few people while your at it? "" @oldschool: there is more than one way to be an asshole my boy "In your case, you have created a whole lot of new ways :-) Although, it appears I may be called an asshole a whole lot of times on this thread. Boo hoo, it's breaking my heart. "
@ThatFrood said:
" no.Those licensing agreements are not legally enforceable. They are just spin to scare you. If I want to make a copy of a game I own, then I can - legally. I can make a back-up copy no matter what the agreement says. If you want to be a prefect and tow the corporate line, good for you, but you are not right. The law also enshrines that you can sell what you bought - fair use. Are you prepared to have console games follow the same path? Are you advocating that a console game is linked directly to your console? This is what will happen if you lay down, with you arse up and pants down to the corporations. That forelock tugging just saddens me.
it should be obvious no!
It doesn't even matter if it does or doesn't harm the software publisher/developer! NO!
If they want you to pay to use their software it doesn't matter if you "weren't gonna buy it otherwise" or whatever! If you didn't pay for it, they don't want you using it. They are in their rights to choose how they want people to use their software. If they are selling it in such a way that gives you full rights over the software once you buy it... then great! Do whatever!
HOWEVER. If you click "I agree to the licensing terms" and in those terms it contractually states that you do not have full rights over this software, that it is in fact theirs, that you in fact must pay to use this software... WELL THAT IS A CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION.
Society does not work without these! If they put something into their software that is bad, that harms them, you still don't have the right to perform illegal things! They are illegal things, you are violating the software publisher/developer's rights. "
An item is only worth as much as its purchaser will pay for it. Unfortunately games these days (particularly in Australia) are priced too high for no reason. Piracy is essentially people refusing to pay for games. Prices come down to reasonable levels and I think piracy will drop off dramatically.
@ryanwho said:" If there's a piece of influential media that does harm, I'd say that pirating it to gain familiarity with the arguments used and develop criticism would be justified. "
" All criminals justify their crimes to themselves. Especially people who pirate Rapelay. Total freaks. "
" @trophyhunter said:bay city Michigan and I fucking dare you." @trophyhunter said:Thanks, I will. Perhaps I will start at your home. Where do you live? :/Well if you pirate games you are a horrible person. Why don't you just steal everything and rape a few people while your at it? "" @oldschool: there is more than one way to be an asshole my boy "In your case, you have created a whole lot of new ways :-) Although, it appears I may be called an asshole a whole lot of times on this thread. Boo hoo, it's breaking my heart. "
" @oldschool said:" @trophyhunter said:bay city Michigan and I fucking dare you. "" @trophyhunter said:Thanks, I will. Perhaps I will start at your home. Where do you live? :/Well if you pirate games you are a horrible person. Why don't you just steal everything and rape a few people while your at it? "" @oldschool: there is more than one way to be an asshole my boy "In your case, you have created a whole lot of new ways :-) Although, it appears I may be called an asshole a whole lot of times on this thread. Boo hoo, it's breaking my heart. "
im all for enjoying people comparing e-peen's but you two should probably chill out
" Of course there's a loss if someone pirates a game, not in the same way as swiping a copy from a store, but still. If 100,000 people pirate a game, it reduces the overall demand for the game. If you pirate a game, you obviously have at least some interest in the game. Maybe not $50 worth, or even $30, but say you'd buy the game for $20. You pirating the game robs the company of a potential sale when the game reaches that price.There is no loss. How do you not get that? I wasn't going to buy a copy. The company was not going to get any money from me. Therefore, if I pirated it - no loss. The criminal act of pirating is a completely different matter and is only of consequence between you, the police and the courts - nothing else. And yes, I do believe the last part. That is all the company deserves. Why should a company profit from my criminal act? If that was the case, it is an open invitation for them to "let" piracy, so they can sue as many individuals as possible and profit from criminal activity. You can't see that? You do the crime and you do the time. As for a civil case between you and the company, again, they have to prove loss - where is that? Their beef is with the site creator who is allowing downloads - not me or any individual.Also, you can't really believe that last bit about people who get caught paying only the price of the game... come on dude."
This."
YES.
With conditions:
- If it has DRM.
- It requires you to be online to play it and the game saves are stored in their server, not your hard drive.
- If it you can't sell or give away the game when you are done.
- If no-one makes a profit, as in, you didn't pay for it.
Just because there is a law, does not make it justified and many bad laws exist or have been repealed. I have never downloaded a pirated game in my life and I have been given a copy of Oblivion, which I then bought anyway. I believe they should have better security on the games, but not DRM, so you actually own the game (meaning you cab give away or sell) and they should stop treating consumers as the enemy. Perhaps better incentives would help, you know, like giving people a reason to buy it (online bonuses for example) instead of pissing the consumer off. I have about 4 games out there on recent release that I refuse to buy because they all require me to register it with Steam and I will not do that. Consequently, they have given me good reason to give careful consideration to the "non profit" games market. When the games are eventually very cheap (about 25% of current release price). then I will buy it.
@trophyhunter said:" only if your an asshole "You don't pirate games, but you're an asshole :/ "
@ChristianCastillo: "Stealing" is a term strictly defined by the law. Where I live, downloading games isn't illegal, so I guess it isn't stealing. I imagine you're one of the many, "if the government says it's good/bad for me, then it's good/bad for me," people.
I just find it pretty ironic that many people who rail against game piracy go ahead and pirate both movies and music, as if that is any different than pirating games.
" An item is only worth as much as its purchaser will pay for it. Unfortunately games these days (particularly in Australia) are priced too high for no reason. Piracy is essentially people refusing to pay for games. Prices come down to reasonable levels and I think piracy will drop off dramatically. "I think that is a bit of a baseless idea. No price can beat the option of downloading the product for free (plus the minor hassle of bypassing any DRM). For reference, check out the piracy of iPhone apps. The average range of a iPhone app price is $1-2, yet there definitely is an iPhone piracy scene.
" @trophyhunter said:Actually Ryax, neither one of us is being the slightest bit serious with each other. TH and I are having our own sideline of fun. We do it all the time. Now if you don't mind, I am off to Michigan for a bit of fun :/" @oldschool said:im all for enjoying people comparing e-peen's but you two should probably chill out "" @trophyhunter said:bay city Michigan and I fucking dare you. "" @trophyhunter said:Thanks, I will. Perhaps I will start at your home. Where do you live? :/Well if you pirate games you are a horrible person. Why don't you just steal everything and rape a few people while your at it? "" @oldschool: there is more than one way to be an asshole my boy "In your case, you have created a whole lot of new ways :-) Although, it appears I may be called an asshole a whole lot of times on this thread. Boo hoo, it's breaking my heart. "
Piracy can be justified by the fact that P2P torrenting is freakin' sharing. I fear the day it becomes a crime to play a console game splitscreen because your friends don't have copies.
Maybe if developers want to prevent people from pirating games, they should develop more effective DRM measures. Like what EA does with premium DLC for new copies, and Steam's digital download service. I'm more likely to buy a game when A) There's a premium incentive to buy the game or it has persistent online multiplayer, and B) When it's on sale.
" @trophyhunter said:well your the real ass now" @Ryax: you don't know who either myself or oldschool are do you? "i couldnt care less. "
Having discussed this at length with a philosophical friend- yes, piracy can be justified. Because piracy doesn't deprive the producer of a good of their product in any literal sense, piracy can be justified in a case where under no conditions would you buy the game. If you are considering pirating Mirror's Edge because it is 50 dollars, but would buy it if it was $5, you cannot be justified on this model. If you are considering pirating it, but even if it was 1 dollar you wouldn't buy it, then you are justified in pirating it. Provided you do not deprive the developer of a sale, the act of piracy hurts no one.
In fact, it's preferable to have more people playing your game (even justified pirates) than having less people. The more people that play a game the stronger the community around the game is, and the more likely that they will buy any sequels.
The problem is the publishers,
DRM = Publisher's fault
Dev's Low Income = Publishers
Now for statistics:
MW2 cost $50 million to produce.
7 million copies minimum were sold.
Solely covering production costs Actvision would only have to charge $7.14,
At $70 the game need only have sold 715,000 copies.
Profits:$440 million (IRRELEVANT)
The point is that the profits DON'T go to the dev team,
Production costs INCLUDES their wages.
there are 440 MILLION dollars to be divided, dev team won't see a penny of it, they are nearly payed almost nothing as it is,
And then Activision accuses (Them not making a profit) on piracy, split $440Million among the 5,000 people Activision hires (including janitors) is a decent some for each.
Activision fired the people behind IA (from here on the Infernal Affairs (Internal Affairs Pun (good movie too)) department of Activision (Activision from here on Activisia (Menstrual pattern (aiding) yoghurt)) before paying them royalties
WHO ARE THE THIEVES?
" Piracy can be justified by the fact that P2P torrenting is freakin' sharing. I fear the day it becomes a crime to play a console game splitscreen because your friends don't have copies. "That's the second sloppiest rationalization I've heard in this thread, right behind Christonce.
" Piracy can be justified by the fact that P2P torrenting is freakin' sharing. I fear the day it becomes a crime to play a console game splitscreen because your friends don't have copies. Maybe if developers want to prevent people from pirating games, they should develop more effective DRM measures. Like what EA does with premium DLC for new copies, and Steam's digital download service. I'm more likely to buy a game when A) There's a premium incentive to buy the game or it has persistent online multiplayer, and B) When it's on sale. "That is dumbest thing I've ever heard. Do you write for MSNBC or something?
" Having discussed this at length with a philosophical friend- yes, piracy can be justified. Because piracy doesn't deprive the producer of a good of their product in any literal sense, piracy can be justified in a case where under no conditions would you buy the game. If you are considering pirating Mirror's Edge because it is 50 dollars, but would buy it if it was $5, you cannot be justified on this model. If you are considering pirating it, but even if it was 1 dollar you wouldn't buy it, then you are justified in pirating it. Provided you do not deprive the developer of a sale, the act of piracy hurts no one. In fact, it's preferable to have more people playing your game (even justified pirates) than having less people. The more people that play a game the stronger the community around the game is, and the more likely that they will buy any sequels. "Very much my line of argument and I agree, even if your Dubya avatar disturbs me greatly :/
When games come out that do not have horrific drm and trust their consumers, I reward it, I buy it. I do my best to get others to do so as well.
When a game is sold with a bunch of stupid bullcrap attached to it, I probably don't buy it! This is because there is a load of bullcrap attached to it.
But I respect the company's decision to put that bullcrap there. It is their product, after all. I don't decide how it is distributed. The fact of the matter is that when I buy that product I have to understand what I am buying. Am I buying full rights to it? Or am I just being "loaned" the software?
The person who is releasing the product has the power to decide how it is used, at least in theory. Due to the nature of digital technology, however, this is very difficult to implement in practice. Nevertheless, I try to respect the decision of the person who created the product.
I really like valve products because they are so easily moddable and pc friendly. I don't like MW2, because it is so un-conducive to that. Guess which games I own? Valve games. I don't own modern warfare. Simply put, just the core gameplay it has is not enough to make me buy it, however the source engine and all of the mods that go with it are more than enough to make me purchase a valve game. That was smart, on their part. I support that, I buy their product.
What I don't do is selfishly and immaturely shout "no I don't like that!" and circumvent a game designer/publisher to get what I want. They don't want me to, that's their stupid decision.
This is the same reason I don't buy mac products. They don't want me to mess with their crap? Fine, I'm not going to. I'm just going to get an android phone and use windows. I'm not gonna kick over my chair and flip a table over, maybe throw some food in Steve Jobs face because I don't like his business practice.
These stupid drm practices and software limitations will end when people can start to trust their consumers, trust that they will respect their software and how they chose to distribute it. The solution isn't to pirate and hack more, it is to pirate and hack less. When that happens, these idiotic measures used to combat the spoiled and the immature will end.
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