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Forums - PC Discussion - Why is there so much negativity toward piracy?

 

Have you ever pirated anything?

Yes 124 73.37%
 
No 45 26.63%
 
Total:169
ganoncrotch said:
LuckyTrouble said:
Logic:

People assume piracy is some huge detriment to the entertainment industry as a whole. They picture millions of dollars being lost to those pesky pirates who chose to duplicate the product freely rather than pay for the original legitimately. They say that pirates are stealing and are taking sales away from developers. Of course, all of this ignores some pretty basic concepts.

1) Piracy is not theft. Theft is taking the original so that nobody else can use it any longer. Piracy is duplicating a product, maintaining the original, and taking a copy. Nothing is ultimately lost because nothing is actually taken except copied code. With that in mind, we're at the first level of why piracy is not lost sales.

2) People tend to assume that every pirated copy means one lost sale. What this doesn't acknowledge is that somebody who commonly pirates likely had no intention of buying the product to begin with. It isn't a lost sale if there was never intent to purchase. That's logic used to justify harsh DRM policies that people seem to think deter pirates. Having been a part of a couple of game system piracy scenes, I can safely say that a dedicated pirate will wait months for any anti-piracy efforts to be broken just so that they won't have to spend the money if they need to. In the end, all DRM really hurts is the people who legitimately purchase a game, being forced into an always online state or otherwise.

3) Piracy accounts for an exceptionally small percent of people. Such a small amount that even if every person who pirated a game purchased a physical copy instead, it would hardly impact sales. It would be hard to argue that anybody would notice the boost. Piracy is an insiginifcant part of the game and software industry that people are just really desperate to act as if it's something bigger because there is a lot of legal money in treating it that way.

In the end, piracy is blown way out of proportion and is used to justify terrible DRM policies by those that don't understand that it is completely and utterly pointless.

 

Not to mention those who are financially struggling and don't really have the money to buy any sort of entertainment, like to the point where they simply don't have money to spend on a dvd of frozen for their kids... would you rather that person sits there thinking about how shit their life is or that they download a torrent and escape for a while? All the while becoming a statistic of some magic money that they had in their wallets that should have went to Disney.

 

That is some serious bullshit. A person has enough money to own a computer and pay for a halfway decent internet connection, i.e. the essential equipment for digital piracy, but is going to cry poor to justify pirating rather than purchasing legally? You people don't even know what poor is. Actual poor people don't have computers and they don't have DVD players on which they can even view pirated content on disc, for which they would have to pay $1. Isn't that a laugh? the people who can afford the computer and internet connection get to pirate Frozen for their kids for free. The actual poor people, if they have a DVD player, have to pay the pirates $1 to be able to get Frozen for their kids. Even the pirates screw over the truly poor. 

It would be such a joke this whole not really poor people crying poor to justify piracy if it wasn't so damned ignorant of what real poverty is. People who have computers but can't afford to buy a movie or game legitimately are just prioritising their spending differntly. Besides, they don't need to buy Frozen on new release, they can buy a back catalogue movie for $3 legitimately. Or here's a thought, they can watch regular free to air TV.



“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Jimi Hendrix

 

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DivinePaladin said:
You pay for Spotify, which effectively steals from musicians by not paying them nearly as much as they publicly claim, if anything at all. In my eyes that's worse than piracy because you're paying somebody else to essentially pirate for you.

Generally I only pirate if I don't think my laptop can definitely run the game at hand. Then if it works well enough I buy it. There are cases where I'll pirate to see if I like something, be it music or a game, and then I'll buy it to support the creator's work if I do enjoy it.

That is simply untrue. If an artist doesn't want their music played on spotify then spotify cannot play their music (though it's normally the artist's record label who makes that decision, with exceptions for megastars like Taylor Swift, so if there's a criminal here it's the record label who owns the artists arse not spotify). Spotify needs the permission of the copyright holder. If you have the permission of the copyright holder then by definition you are not pirating. 



“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Jimi Hendrix

 

FragilE^ said:
"buhu its immoral"

:)

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


I never knew there were that many in the world :)



Currently own:

 

  • Ps4

 

Currently playing: Witcher 3, Walking Dead S1/2, GTA5, Dying Light, Tomb Raider Remaster, MGS Ground Zeros

DivinePaladin said:
You pay for Spotify, which effectively steals from musicians by not paying them nearly as much as they publicly claim, if anything at all. In my eyes that's worse than piracy because you're paying somebody else to essentially pirate for you.

Generally I only pirate if I don't think my laptop can definitely run the game at hand. Then if it works well enough I buy it. There are cases where I'll pirate to see if I like something, be it music or a game, and then I'll buy it to support the creator's work if I do enjoy it.


So, are you saying Spotify is pirating?

 

Because if so then millions of people should be arrested.



Currently own:

 

  • Ps4

 

Currently playing: Witcher 3, Walking Dead S1/2, GTA5, Dying Light, Tomb Raider Remaster, MGS Ground Zeros

For me personally, my issue with piracy has less of the fact that the individual did not pay for it, but more the fact that the same individual could potentially give others the same source of entertainment; affecting sales should that song be a cult hit.

This issue was also evident during the 4th generation of consoles, as the Genesis was notorious for piracy. Doing such affected many devs. and pubs.; ultimately costing SEGA development talent; regardless of size.


In terms of PC Gaming, the issue is amplified due to the immensely enormous install base. Say that a big game is a couple of days away and pirates get their hands on it. They could easily give away codes to play the full game without payment. However, this is the crux of the issue; hacking the coding of the entire game. This not only renders the game unplayable for many, but can also have catastrophic consequences.


At the end of the day, pirating isn't just theft in nature. It could potentially lead to more problems for that dev. and pub. in the long haul.



" It has never been about acknowledgement when you achieve something. When you are acknowledged, then and only then can you achieve something. Always have your friends first to achieve your goals later." - OnlyForDisplay

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binary solo said:
DivinePaladin said:
You pay for Spotify, which effectively steals from musicians by not paying them nearly as much as they publicly claim, if anything at all. In my eyes that's worse than piracy because you're paying somebody else to essentially pirate for you.

Generally I only pirate if I don't think my laptop can definitely run the game at hand. Then if it works well enough I buy it. There are cases where I'll pirate to see if I like something, be it music or a game, and then I'll buy it to support the creator's work if I do enjoy it.

That is simply untrue. If an artist doesn't want their music played on spotify then spotify cannot play their music (though it's normally the artist's record label who makes that decision, with exceptions for megastars like Taylor Swift, so if there's a criminal here it's the record label who owns the artists arse not spotify). Spotify needs the permission of the copyright holder. If you have the permission of the copyright holder then by definition you are not pirating. 

You missed the word "essentially." "Essentially" as in the artist makes nothing when he/she is promised money through the contract. You're correct that the label normally has the say here, but even then it's been apparently a common occurrence that the label sees very little of it either. Spotify is a lawsuit waiting to happen right now. 



You should check out my YouTube channel, The Golden Bolt!  I review all types of video games, both classic and modern, and I also give short flyover reviews of the free games each month on PlayStation Plus to tell you if they're worth downloading.  After all, the games may be free, but your time is valuable!

LOL I am really holding myself back from just flaiming this OP. This like some guy going "I don't get it, if I steal just one cheap TV from Best Buy they won't notice!"

Yeah no sh!t but if everyone behaved like you the world would collapse. I wonder why we think low of you...



Prediction for console Lifetime sales:

Wii:100-120 million, PS3:80-110 million, 360:70-100 million

[Prediction Made 11/5/2009]

3DS: 65m, PSV: 22m, Wii U: 18-22m, PS4: 80-120m, X1: 35-55m

I gauruntee the PS5 comes out after only 5-6 years after the launch of the PS4.

[Prediction Made 6/18/2014]

Golden rule: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Would you be fine with others pirating your copyrighted property (thus you not being able to make any money on your hard earned work)? If not, then don't pirate.

If so? Too bad. You were not given permission by the creative forces who made that product to pirate it.

I don't really care if people pirate, just don't try to convince yourself or others that what you're doing is right. Just grow up and recognize that in at least that one aspect you are being a bad person.



Ruler said:
Moonhero said:
It is theft. People who steal are nothing more than worthless thugs. I have never stolen anything in my life. It is wrong, period.


so you never used emulators for example? like on adroid? thats piracy too

No. I do not. I am no thief.



Ask stefl1504 for a sig, even if you don't need one.

Azuren said:


"I wasn't going to buy it anyway" is an awful excuse. It doesn't matter if you were or not. A thief never intends to pay for something. And you're still taking one or more people's hard work and not giving them their due for it. 

 

Argue the semantics of it all you want: It's thievery, it's wrong, and your ISP should drop you for it. 

Yeah, yeah, cry me a river.

Just today I downloaded 6 cartoons for my kids, I certainly wasn't going to pay €60-70 for them.

Yesterday I downloaded about a dozen music albums for me and my wife to listen, €150 saved and the music sounds the same for free.

Tomorrow I'll probably download a few movies that we can watch.

It's halfway through a month, I did some 150GB of downloading. Sure, it's thievery, it's wrong, it's only €20 per month and worth every cent, and my ISP just upgraded my speed so I can download even faster. I just love the digital era.