An excuse for Piracy.

[WittyInfidel]

My logic follows thus:

If you need to stop and come up for an excuse for it, you shouldn't be doing it. You know you shouldn't be doing it. You know it is not acceptable. You just had to stop and think of a way to rationalize it away.

If you know you shouldn't be doing it, don't do it. If/when you get caught, face the consequences of it. It's not like you didn't know it was coming.

I don't know, trying to rationalize in such a manner strikes me a lying, and I hate liars with a dark, consuming hatred.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

So today I got into an argument with a friend who labeled me a criminal because I pirate a fair bit of software. I've used up all my usual reasoning on him until so I had to think of something new. It was today that I also downloaded Linkin Park's new album, A Thousand Suns and the only word I can think to describe it is just bad. It's really bad, it has nothing of the Linkin Park of old and even if it wasn't by them it would still be a shitty album. This is what I used in my argument, that if I paid good money for that at a store I would be outraged that I had wasted my hard earned cash. As it is I'm just annoyed that a band I used to quite like has gone so downhill (though that's not new news or anything).

So Escapists, I pose you two questions.
1. What is your excuse for Piracy?
2. What did you think of Linkin Park's new album? It's alright you can say it's bad.

Piracy has no excuse. You're just either too lazy to go to the sotre like a normal human being, or you refuse to pay money like another human being. If the album was good, you still pirated it, and you stilled paid no money for it.

I doubt you'd walk up to the store and say "Well I downloaded this a few days ago, and WOW is it goo, here's the money for my part" and walk away.

If you buy a PS3 game, you don't know what you're getting except by reviews. Do the same with your music

 

[XelaisPWN]

Honestly, there is no excuse for piracy. Piracy is just wrong. If someone went out of their way to spend a lot of money and time for the sake of entertainment, don't you think they should get that investment back, plus profit? Yeah, it's true, they do anyway, but piracy still makes me feel bad.

I'm not trying to make anyone ashamed, in fact, I've participated in my share of piracy. Nobody's perfect, and sometimes when I'm scrapped for cash I get desperate. But I don't feel good about torrenting anything, with a few exceptions. When Trent Renzor uploaded some NIN tracks to TPB, I thought that was awesome.

By the way, I don't care for Linkin Park, and most of the industrial metal craze. I don't really see the appeal.

 

[havass]

No excuse. Other than 'I have no money to afford everysingle shit I want'. And I think that's not valid. Heh. I feel that i'm obliged to pirate TV shows, though. They don't show it over here and I want to watch it, so...

 

[ragestreet]

1. I don't need an excuse to do things I find fun.
2. I don't really like Linkin Park all that much.

 

[XelaisPWN]

Legally, there is no excuse. Honestly, I've heard some musicians outright say to steal their music if you don't have it already (Tally Hall, Streetlight Manifesto, Renard) because that's a good way to spread it. But legally it doesn't matter what they said personally. It's against the law and that's that. Technically it makes no sense, but that's not what anyone cares about.

This I can get behind. I torrented Slash for this reason, also for bonus tracks not available in the US. But they're about to be released in the US anyway, I'll have to buy them off of Zune or something.

 

[Kserijaro]

I don't pay for crappy games. Most games are crap.All new games are uber recycled crap. The ones I would like to buy are long before pulled of the sale list.

 

[deathandtaxes]

My logic follows thus:

If you need to stop and come up for an excuse for it, you shouldn't be doing it. You know you shouldn't be doing it. You know it is not acceptable. You just had to stop and think of a way to rationalize it away.

If you know you shouldn't be doing it, don't do it. If/when you get caught, face the consequences of it. It's not like you didn't know it was coming.

I don't know, trying to rationalize in such a manner strikes me a lying, and I hate liars with a dark, consuming hatred.

So if you were say homosexual in Saudi-Arabi your saying you wouldn't have the same issues and fears about being with your lover and instead try and rationalise them away?

Fear of doing something which is against the law and has possible repercussions is not a yard stick for morality, suggesting that it is so is rather disgusting.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

I'm a dirt poor college student who survives on about one meal a day. Pirated movies are just about the only thing keeping me sane. I think of it as involuntary charitable aid. =P

Also: making a living through doing something you love is a privilege. I don't think artists (particularly mainstream musicians, actors, directors) should make any more money than say, a garbageman or cashier, who work shit jobs for a fraction of the pay.

 

[WittyInfidel]

My logic follows thus:

If you need to stop and come up for an excuse for it, you shouldn't be doing it. You know you shouldn't be doing it. You know it is not acceptable. You just had to stop and think of a way to rationalize it away.

If you know you shouldn't be doing it, don't do it. If/when you get caught, face the consequences of it. It's not like you didn't know it was coming.

I don't know, trying to rationalize in such a manner strikes me a lying, and I hate liars with a dark, consuming hatred.

So if you were say homosexual in Saudi-Arabi your saying you wouldn't have the same issues and fears about being with your lover and instead try and rationalise them away?

Fear of doing something which is against the law and has possible repercussions is not a yard stick for morality, suggesting that it is so is rather disgusting.

I'm sorry, I'm still trying to see what this has to do with piracy...

oh...wait...I see.

Is this a butt-pirate joke? Bad form, really. You should be ashamed.


OT: If you cannot be who you are where you are, then leave your current surroundings for something else. And before you say that they cannot, I do indeed know many Saudi people here in the states.

 

[Levethian]

I shed more cash as a result of being able to test digital media. I only answer because we have been asked, not because I have a guilty conscience.

Posters desperate to preach an absolute stance ("Pirates are all evil thieves" or "I pirate and I don't care") seem to be, thankfully, the minority.

 

[The Stonker]

Well. I download games to see if they work for my computer because canyourunit.com can't diagnose mine.
So I download it, I play it and if my computer handles it then I go out and buy it.
I don't have the cash to buy each and every single game which I fancy, I will want to see if it's well worth the money.

 

[Kenko]

1. I pirate games from bigger corporations because they usually overhype and never deliver. I dont want to spend money on shitgames. Thus I test them, If I really like them I buy them.

2. Limping Pork sux, mightve liked them back when I was an angsty teen in highschool but thats about it.

 

[Hashime]

I refuse to make excuses for anything, either I did it or I didn't. To me excuses show a lack of confidence. If you mess up admit it.

 

[Cartman2nd]

replace it with Muse or get your money back

All you need to know

 

[zHellas]

So Escapists, I pose you two questions.
1. What is your excuse for Piracy?
2. What did you think of Linkin Park's new album? It's alright you can say it's bad.

1.) I only download things for free whenever I cannot buy them or find them anywhere else.

2.) Won't listen to it. Hated Minutes to Midnight.

 

[HassEsser]

1. I wouldn't buy it in the first place, so there is absolutely no loss to the publisher or developer. And, that whole notion that "piracy is equivalent to stealing" is close-minded and ignorant; me downloading it for free changed literally 0 things, I am not taking a physical object from a person who owns it in the first place, no, I am changing the sequence of characters in my HDD to look like how it would look if I had a legitimate copy. And the argument that "you didn't have the money isn't an excuse" is just as close-minded and ignorant, who the fuck are you? You can't expect us to save up money to buy a product we aren't even sure about, and what if it turns out to be utter shit (case in point, OP), we wasted our hard earned and SCARCE money that could have gone towards something much better. Had we first downloaded a few things, we'd have had a better idea on what to buy. Piracy is means to give the most deserving developer a proper sum.

2. I have always hated Linkin Park, so I am gonna insta-label the new album as "Shitty"


Also, piracy is NOT against the law; downloading copyrighted material is within the law, allowing others means to download copyrighted material is not.

 

[Dorian6]

I pirate every single Metallica album out of spite.

 

[SnipErlite]

I'm a dirt poor college student who survives on about one meal a day. Pirated movies are just about the only thing keeping me sane. I think of it as involuntary charitable aid. =P

I think that's going to be my excuse for the next few years >.> Games and everything are just so damn expensive and students don't have any money...

That said, I don't think I'd really ever pirate a full game. It seems so much more morally reprehensible when compared to music and I don't know why. Perhaps because it's a whole lot easier? I really don't know :S

 

[deathandtaxes]

My logic follows thus:

If you need to stop and come up for an excuse for it, you shouldn't be doing it. You know you shouldn't be doing it. You know it is not acceptable. You just had to stop and think of a way to rationalize it away.

If you know you shouldn't be doing it, don't do it. If/when you get caught, face the consequences of it. It's not like you didn't know it was coming.

I don't know, trying to rationalize in such a manner strikes me a lying, and I hate liars with a dark, consuming hatred.

So if you were say homosexual in Saudi-Arabi your saying you wouldn't have the same issues and fears about being with your lover and instead try and rationalise them away?

Fear of doing something which is against the law and has possible repercussions is not a yard stick for morality, suggesting that it is so is rather disgusting.

I'm sorry, I'm still trying to see what this has to do with piracy...

oh...wait...I see.

Is this a butt-pirate joke? Bad form, really. You should be ashamed.


OT: If you cannot be who you are where you are, then leave your current surroundings for something else. And before you say that they cannot, I do indeed know many Saudi people here in the states.

Actually no I don't know that particular derogatory term for a homosexual male...or at least I didn't until you mentioned it and I checked urban dictionary.

What did this have to do with copyright infringement I was pointing out that the fear response regarding breaking the law has nothing to do with the morality of the law. There are many Saudi's in the US and there are plenty who would rather simply have some innate human rights in their own country but I guess that would just be too much to ask.

If you don't find discussion of moral and ethical issues interesting perhaps you should find other more scholarly pursuits may I suggest playing hungry hungry hippos.