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Forums - General - What is your stance on piracy?

DavidF said:
Piracy is stealing, that's all. There is no difference between downloading a movie and stealing someone's property.

 Minus you know, denying someone the use of said property. Don't let reality get in the way of your moronic statements.

 

I am completely against using arms to board a ship, steel cargo, threaten the lives of innocents, and damage personal property. If you meant copyright infringement, say that next time. Calling that copyright infringement is the equivalent of calling trespassing declaring war. 



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I pirate quite a few movies games, ect and dont feel one bit bad. In reality anything I have pirated is something that I would only rent. I feel like I am taking busness from gamefly and netflix.I have 100's of pirated movies, many which I have not even watched once, but if someone wants to see it when they are around its there. I have hundreds of bootleg XBOX 1 games, and few I have actually played more than to test to see if the DVDR works.

I do own real game/movies and I actually spend time playing them. The bootlegs are just free rentals to me. I know its illegal but I dont feel remorse.

 I dont even think I have ever beat a pirated game.



Getting an XBOX One for me is like being in a bad relationship but staying together because we have kids. XBone we have 20000+ achievement points, 2+ years of XBL Gold and 20000+ MS points. I think its best we stay together if only for the MS points.

Nintendo Treehouse is what happens when a publisher is confident and proud of its games and doesn't need to show CGI lies for five minutes.

-Jim Sterling

Username2324 said:
Pirating games is dumb, it can be so difficult and in the end is usually easier to just buy the game.

Pirating movies, and tv shows and what not, isn't as bad, I mean paying $50-$100 for ONE season of a TV show, thats ridiculous, and then after paying $10 to go see a movie in theaters and then another $20-$30 to get it months later on disc, seems like a rip off.

Why is price a justification for the degree of piracy? Looking on Amazon, one season of Lost is around $40. $40 for approximately 16 hours (plus any extras) of show. There are MANY games that offer less than 16 hours of gameplay. Just because you percive the value of a game to be more doesn't mean everyone else thinks the same.



I've tried pirating a couple of games and its gone horribly wrong, so to me its not worth the trouble, and for me I like to have the physical game.

But like I said, paying to see it once, and then later paying to own it, just doesnt work, and since I don't usually look at bonus features its a waste.

Honestly, what really is the difference between pirating something, and borrowing it from a friend? I mean you could just find friends with the movies and music you want and rip them to your computer, and borrow the games til you beat them.

So either way, it doesnt seem like a big deal to me



Username2324 said:
Honestly, what really is the difference between pirating something, and borrowing it from a friend? I mean you could just find friends with the movies and music you want and rip them to your computer, and borrow the games til you beat them.


I believe the key word here is "honest".

 



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No, borrowing a CD from a friend (even without copying it) could, thanks to the very loose language applied to to copyrigth warnings, be illegal. Have you read the warning that is going to be put on CDs and DVDs soon (or has already, I don't buy the things often because I wouldn't use them much)?

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

Unauthorized distribution? Catch that? That means without the RIAA's consent you cannot even technically loan your CD out to a friend, not that anyone is going to stop you. The video game companies actually spent a whole heck of a lot of money suing people to stop used game sales in the mid-90s. Thankfully common sense prevailed and we aren't forced to pay full price for everything we buy, because if we were then the companies would have even less incentive to lower their prices.

And god forbid you want to play it in a club or party, because the RIAA can sue you if you didn't get permission to do that. And you won't get off for it, either, if they actually decide to go after you for it. So if you own a restaraunt you MUST pay someone to let you play music if you want that sort of atmosphere, or face the possibility of prosecution.

If anyone has ever worked at a video rental store (or did so during the VHS years, DVD may have changed things), they'll probably tell you that they pay 3-4 times as much for the same product the rest of us get just so they can rent it out.

But the most amusing part of it all is that games, music, and movies would not stop being made even if pirates were influential enough to crash all three of those industries. Never in a million years. Either the companies would change (purely digital distribution, to maintain control) or they'd simply collapse and be replaced by independents that work on smaller scales to create more unique and innovative products. They'd also make more money than they ever have before on a per-unit sold basis (musicians get almost nothing from CD sales and live off of concert and merchandise sales) except in teh most extreme cases. People would still make the products because some people do love their jobs, they just wouldn't be fed to us as a stream of mindless trash that cost too much money for too little entertainment.

Artists, programmers, actors and such wouldn't be out of a job if their respective industries collapsed. The suits who take the lion's share of the profit would be, though. They'd have to do something productive, instead of signing musicians to contracts that put them into debt while their on top of the world (see TLC after making the Waterfalls video), or contracts that take 50% of the income they earn (like anyone who got a job because of American Idol), or contracts that take the actual copyrights away from the creator and give them to the company. The RIAA is the worst, obviously, because they are dirty, rotten theives from top to bottom that leech off of people with actual talent and bleed them dry, but the RIAA isn't alone in this.



You do not have the right to never be offended.

I accept piracy as long as does not require any modification of the original hardware, in other words I only accept paracy through software and only buy games that I feel deserve to be bought, the rest can just bee free.



I think its ok to download a television program, but not an entire season or series.. movies are  somewhat different I'll download a DivX if I can't wait for the DVD. Pirated software has always been problematic and I've known people who were developers and I just couldn't pirate software.

As far as music, if its on a major label I will pirate it.

 



I think it's okay to pirate:
- PC games that are no longer sold
- PC games that are still being sold
- ROMs from old consoles
- DS Games
- Music (MP3s)
- Movies and TV episodes (XViDs and/or DVD ISOs)
- Application software
- Operating systems
- eBooks
- Online services (games, Usenet, etc.)

I think it's not okay to pirate:
- Wii games (and I'm sticking with this stance until I buy a mod. chip)

Yes, I'm pretty tolerant.



anything not in production is fine.

for new things, i dont like piracy. on the other hand i have a severe dislike for the things that companies do to stop piracy. if say a game doesnt let regular buyers (bioshock) play, then it deserves no sales.



my pillars of gaming: kh, naughty dog, insomniac, ssb, gow, ff

i officially boycott boycotts.  crap.