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EliteStance on 15 January 2008
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NJ5 said:
EliteStance said:
NJ5 said:
EliteStance said:
It's simple. Piracy is theft.

I don't want to defend pirates here, but let's discuss things as they are, not as they aren't:

theft 1 a: the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it b: an unlawful taking (as by embezzlement or burglary) of property

Piracy may be many things, including some bad ones, but it doesn't imply theft.

As an example, theft would be breaking into a company's facilities and stealing all their source code and developed assets (models, textures, etc). In that case, you would have actually deprived them of their property. In the context of a game the theft is considered to be from the developer and publisher who own the game.

 


Theft now covers IP and intangible assets. When you pirate you are stealing the code. So let's be clear here - pirating a game is theft and is legally seen as such.

 


So this is about semantics and definitions which got changed to specifically cover something? It seems to me like you were evoking theft as a way to get an emotional response which is traditionally associated with the definition of theft I pasted above.

You even referred to examples such as stealing a TV or food. Correct me if I'm wrong.


I'm not trying to get an emotion response (sounds a but Blade Runner that) - I'm pointing out that downloading and using illegally obtained code is theft - whether its game code or the code for a piece of software for a business (so for example I could open a store and download a stolen code for a POS (point of sale) appliction rather than purchasing one.  Or get a hacked copy of Office rather than buy one.

 

The TV mention was specifically (unless I quoted wrong person in which case appologies) to make a clear point regarding the fact that developers feel the theft of their code as much as anyone would if their property was stolen.  IP and ideas is now seen as much something that can be stolen as physical goods.

 I guess my final point would be for me this isn't about needing a specific law to tell me what to do.  As soon as their was digital media I didn't need legal changes to make it clear that copying it without permission is wrong (effectively stealing) I can see that clearly without being told.

If I did seem emotional it's because I often get depressed at how often people show they are happy to be dishonest rather than honest and will field all manner of excuses to justify their behaviour.

I work in software industry (not games) and if our software was hacked, put on the web and downloaded by others I can assure that I (and everyone in the company) would see everyone involved, from the hackers to the downloaders, as stealing our work.