SvennoJ said:
CladInShadows said:
Yeah, that was the only reason I could think of as well. But honestly that argument doesn't hold much weight with me. I just did a quick search for the Skyward Sword ISO, since I don't remember where I got it from. None of the sites showed a download tally of any kind. I'll admit I didn't spend much time looking, though. So if we're talking about a download tally only visible to the owner of the site, then I suppose the owner would see an additional download from me. So in some miniscule way, I have validated the pirate's existence. Though I doubt I was the "make or break" statistic for any of the Wii or Gamecube games I have downloaded. PS1/PS2 games I always ripped on my own. And I suppose you could also make the argument that I am indirectly supporting piracy by giving one more download for Rawdump, which is the program I use to rip my Wii games today. But people are going to rip and pirate whether or not I download or rip games I have already paid for. I'm a small non-existent drop in the bucket of the piracy world.
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That's an argument everyone can make, until everyone does it and well you see where that is going. That's ofcourse the whole thing with piracy. As long as only a few people do it, it's not a problem. Encouraging more people to download roms, simply by the act of downloading roms, is tipping the scale ever so slightly. You can see, I'm not the make or break statistic, yet you're still just as responsible as all the other ones that are not the make or break statistic by themselves.
As another anolagy. Suppose you use public transport, have a monthly or yearly pass yet decide it's too much trouble to carry it along with you. Is it alright to jump the entry barrier at the station as you paid for it anyway? What about the kids seeing you 'legally' jump the barrier. And what does it hurt anyone if some people don't pay for public transport.
Anyway you probably are a non-existent drop as a legal owner who downloads the occasional copy of owned software. The effect on piracy is likely negligable. Ironically when more people do the 'right' thing, that effect gets bigger :/
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I feel I can make the argument with a little more weight behind it because I'm not actually getting something I didn't pay for. If all I'm doing is giving the impression that piracy is 0.0001% more prominent than it is, then I can sleep at night with that on my conscience.
I think your analogy is placing a much greater weight on my action than is the reality of downloading an ISO. IF there is a download counter (and I'm having a hard time finding any that are visible to the public), then I'm raising it by 1 when there's thousands or 10s of thousands or even 100s of thousands of downloads already occurring. The "damage" you talk about is already done. And it's indirect damage. It's a singular count on a site that is really only going to be accessed by people that are already familiar with (and are considering) piracy. My 1 download isn't doing anything. You can make it into something larger than it is and try and spin it a different way, but it isn't harming the industry.
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