If everybody pirated, the gaming industry would cease to exist.

Honestly, it depends what kind of piracy you are talking about...

Recent tuff that's just unfait to the people doing it, especially if you can find a game at rebate prices for like 5 to 20$... this is like waitress tip level pricing!

Now, I have been a broke teen/studant before, so I get that people pirate some stuff, sometimes you just don't have that money and for digital goods using a pirate copy of a game/operating system/movie/music...well it's the only choice.

I would even go as far as saying that in a way for professional software this is "good" as it trains you on using it (I.E. if nobody pirated Photoshop and MS Office Gimp and Open Office would be a million times more popular, even in the enterprise, just because this would be what people *know* and the software is free to distribute... same would got for Linux on the desktop).

Now the problem for software companies is when their enterprise clients start pirating their wares, this is why there are audits, and it makes sense, if you are to use the software to earn money, why whould they not get compensation for their work?

For entertainment, in a way the big blockbuster industry, or the smaller creators, get their creation known... people talk about it and a certain amount of people will buy the original... however DRM and such are necessary so that casual copies do not proliferate too much and people just consider your product "free".

For the older games, well I use emulators and there is no way I would have access to all those old arcade games that are in MAME, or the whole library of every consoles from the Atari 2600 to the Dreamcast!.. this is a great way to study how gaming evolved, even if I have a collection of physical releases, emulation is a must, if only to save some room.

What if you had a method of making an exact copy of his car? without any contact with his original or taking from his car or taking from anyone else who had the same car? Would that be okay then to give his car to someone who couldn't ever hope to afford it, or should that person work harder and walk until they can afford the thing they otherwise could have access to if they were richer? Even if in reality some people just would never be able to afford those things.

No I wouldn't do it because that would be weird. I changed a lot though. I started buying more games and I mostly pirate old games. It's not right, I know it. If you feel it's bullshit then that's okay too, if it makes you mad then give me a virtual slap in the face, whatever makes you feel good.

Defensive mode off.

Which I find hilarious because streaming and downloading is the same thing. But you're right it depends on your legal jurisdiction. For instance

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/11649188/Could-you-be-fined-for-illegally-streaming-movies-or-TV-shows.html

If he can't afford it, then he shouldn't get it. It's that simple.
Why would he need a billionaire's car anyways, when there are far more cheaper cars available on the market? It's not like there is only one car, and only rich people can afford it. If he really wants that one, he has to work for it. Mark Cuban did the same, so why shouldn't it apply to anyone else?
And the car manufacturer is still losing money, so it isn't without any consequences. If everyone just copied cars, what do you think will happen to the car manufacturers?

And that's the same reason why people shouldn't pirate. You aren't forced to buy that games that cost 60 euros, there are far more cheaper games available if you can't afford that. Or just wait for a while until there's a discount or something, or just buy budget games. For example, Steam is full of cheap games. You don't have to make a lot of money to afford it.

It's mostly video games that annoy me because you're cheating the devs and publishers out of up to $60. The devs spent two+ years of their lives on this single project, putting countless hours, and tons of money into it. I feel that we really do owe them. For music, I don't feel as bad with pirating, although I don't do it, because music prices are honestly pretty stupid.

"buhu its immoral"

:)

So many perfect, pure-hearted good guys in this thread.

You could also argue that releasing a limited edition is to drive up the value as a collector's item. In this case that doesn't really matter as it is the figurine which is the collector's item, not the attached dlc. (Well maybe for some people it does matter, it will somewhat diminish the value of the collector's item)
Will digital items ever be collectable? As in sold at an auction.

Justified crime can be defended in some cases. But Amiibos are not a survival need.
It's a weird mentality, I want it, so I must be able to have it.

Is that where we're going in the digital age? Nothing is special anymore, everyone can have everything.
Not that I'm against that, yet there is a huge world of collectors that beg to differ.

Well, they actually do care. The problem is that it's hard to track down on piracy to hold accounatbility. If they didn't care they never would have created spotify, it wouldn't have been necessary. That is a great way to cut down on piracy, there are others as well. Legitimately for music, piracy isn't necessary anymore cause there are so many legit avenues to listen.

The only country that I can really think of that is more or less welcoming piracy and copyright infringment is China. They go ahead and make near replicas of many things then sell them to their people. Even when the companies try to fight against it judges are like, 'nah, not the same at all' so it went nowhere. Beyond that, many countries, at least first world countries have had piracy lawsuits, but generally it's only the big ones you hear about.

Just because a cop does something doesn't make it right. There can often be an abuse of power and people are still people.

It's possible that your authority might not care, but are you willing to do what I said even so?