Can we ban confessed pirates and modders?

[The_vagabond7]

axumblade said:

The_vagabond7 said:
Should we ban people who buy used games too? Should we ban people who turn in their used games to gamestop, or sell them on e-bay? What about people renting games? These people hurt the industry as well, demonstrably more than pirates even. Publishers and developers loathe gamestop, back when renting first started various videogame companies tried to sue blockbuster (and failed). 2nd hand sales and rentals may be legal but they are a massive drain on companies, they are parasites the same as pirates.

Maybe we should ban gamestop employees too, and anybody with an E-bay profile, just to make sure they don't advocate their parasitic ways and poison the minds of good upright supporters such as ourselves. Won't somebody think of the children?

You know...there is a difference between those things and piracy. Renting a game or buying games is giving back to the economy. There is a difference in that and downloading a game illegally. Starcraft is talking about pirates who basically come on here and brag about stealing the games. I completely agree with Starcraft on this issue. Piracy may not have killed the Dreamcast completely but it sure as hell didn't help it. Same goes for the PSP.

It gives back to the economy, but not to the publishers/developers. When you buy used games, that money you're putting into the economy is just going into the pockets of the CEOs of gamestop. Starcrafts beef isn't that pirates hurt the overall economy of Japan/US, it's that it's not benefitting the people putting out our games. Publishers hate gamestop, and their parasitic nature. Supporting their behavior hurts the industry but helps gamestop. Which from an ethical standpoint isn't much different than hurting the publisher but benefiting the gamer (who will then use the money he saved to put into the economy in some other form, but that doesn't make it somehow better). Legality does not equate morality.