Educate me about piracy

[Veret]

I hate to pimp my own writing; it makes me feel like such a tool. But I did a piece early last year about piracy [http://intelligentgames.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/a-piratical-interlude/] that's very relevant and addresses most of the arguments in this thread in as balanced a manner as I could manage.

Yes, I'm a shameless traffic whore. Cast your stones at me. But then go read the article (and the comments, for more interesting discussion).

Dendio, about your friend's public admission: There's nothing anybody can do about it. Suing him for saying he pirated something is a violation of free speech. Suing him for actually pirating something requires proof, and proof requires a lot more than a casual admission. Suing in general requires time, money, and lawyers, and is rarely worth the effort to squeeze some poor kid who can't keep his mouth shut.

 

[Darkmantle]

It isn't allowed and I'm pretty certain that it's illegal in Canada.

However, pirates are not the easiest bunch to catch. Get one, and there's a million billion trillion gazi... a lot of others right behind him. It makes your chances of getting caught pretty damned small, though not quite infinitesimally so. The best thing to do is threaten and show everyone that you can actually catch one. "Hey, everyone, this is what we'll do if we catch you"! But even that doesn't deter people because, hey, none of their buddies are getting caught.

I'm pretty sure pirating was completely legal in Canada up until last year. and even now the law is still so new and untested that it might fall. Apparently the law did not recognize the copying of files as theft, because no physical damage was done.

I'm not joking, I looked it up one day

Huh. I did not know that. I wasn't 100% certain, but I was 95% certain that piracy was just as illegal in Canada as it was here in the good ol' US of A.

Well think about it, has there been any cases where someone sued a pirate in Canada? all those stories are almost exclusively USA

 

[dave1004]

Piracy may not aid the industry, and it's generally only done by scums, but sometimes things are pirated just to try before you buy.

See, I didn't know if Skyrim would run on my PC. So, I downloaded it and played it. It worked great, so I ordered a copy on Amazon. I now have a legit copy. I played a pirated Terraria version for a bit, and then it went on a 75% sale, and I bought it.

Now, I do steal anime. Hell, watching a T.V show online is basically pirating; - Anime selections are limited to buy, and when you do buy it, the price is insane. I saw a special edition box set go up to 72,000 Yen. I do buy the shows when they're available to me, but I have other things to spend my money on.

I don't believe that pirates are good, but they're not evil either. As long as it's a "Try before you buy", then it's good. Note however, that I am NOT promoting Piracy. There are a few good websites that will tell you if you can run a game/program, but they're not 100% reliable.

I was going to post another paragraph, but then I took an arrow to the knee...

 

[Harlief]

Piracy is a market force which has produced some fantastic business models, most notably Steam.
Steam has discovered that the best way to combat piracy is to offer reasonable prices, great customer service, community support, automatic and universal game updates spelling the end to compatibility issues when playing online, great anti-cheat measures and HASSLE FREE DRM.

And yet piracy continues because companies continue to offer bad customer service, expensive DLC, pain in the ass DRM, etc.

At this stage, a good deal of piracy (in my experience) is a protest against companies who produce games which provide WORSE service for people who buy legitimate versions of their games than the gaming experience they could have got from a pirated copy of the same game.

The big companies can complain all they want that piracy is decreasing their sales: the fact is that their terrible customer service and mistreatment of their paying customers is driving piracy.

Tl;dr: I used to pirate all my games and now I have over 100 games on Steam because the customer service is better than piracy.

 

[Rack]

One of the important things we have to notice in this particular area is that while Piracy may cost games and movie companies something, it costs the economy almost nothing. If Piracy were effectively eliminated it might gain the software industry a few billion dollars. But that money would all come out of other industries. If someone buys a $60 game they would otherwise have pirated that money has to come from somewhere. A few movie tickets, a meal out, a few drinks at a bar but somewhere.

 

[JET1971]

At this stage, a good deal of piracy (in my experience) is a protest against companies who produce games which provide WORSE service for people who buy legitimate versions of their games than the gaming experience they could have got from a pirated copy of the same game.

The big companies can complain all they want that piracy is decreasing their sales: the fact is that their terrible customer service and mistreatment of their paying customers is driving piracy.

*cough*UBI*cough*SOFT

I dont condone piracy to get free shit, but piracy does serve some purposes for consumers. but for companies like Ubi?? eff them. quit with the draconian DRM and I may return as a customer, until then i will spend my money on your competitor. Not saying I am doing what you said in the quote....

 

[Zoe Castillo]

---

 

[Yellowbeard]

Im not going to pretend to speak for anyone else but I buy almost every game I torrent . In the past I downloaded games to see if they can run on my pc. now I use it as a demo to see if the game is worth buying .

I've done this recently. I didn't think Bioshock would run on my computer, but a cracked copy proved that it would. I played 90% of the way through it before getting bored and taking a break, but later I bought it on Steam. I downloaded Prince of Persia: Sands of Time to see what all the hype was about. Finished it, bought it on Steam again. Downloaded Portal for the same reason; bought the Orange Box.

It's having the legit product conveniently available and, above all, reasonably priced that makes me actually happy to pay for it afterward.

 

[Durgiun]

it annoys me for the smaller studios who need the revenue. steal from EA and it might not even register, steal from a small indy studio and it does hurt them

THIS

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh...I can understand the argument that piracy isn't hurting the games people if you weren't going to buy the game whether you pirated it or not.

But, you've still got no reason to do it. It's not like you absolutely need the latest copy of whatever, you're only doing it cause you want to and you're pretty sure you can get away with it. If some magic way to stop piracy without affecting anything else popped up tomorrow, hardly any pirates are going to be legitimately worse off in any real way.

...

Why is it called piracy, though? To make it sound cool?

 

[JesterRaiin]

Why do countries allow pirating?

That's why Mr. USA.
http://i.imgur.com/Y1ND9.jpg

 

[Thaluikhain]

i think it also should be noted that the people purchasing the game are the ones being given the finger by pirates because of its nature as premium good. Its the status thing of being able to buy nice stuff for yourself, and that others haven't removes its value.

Which is a shame, but your always going to have cheapskates and thieves in this world. Can't stop them all.

Game as status symbols? What's the term, "conspicious consumption"?

I hadn't thought of that...is that a big thing? Surely they are meant to be played an enjoyed, not stuck on a mantlepiece and bragged over?

It's certainly gives a new spin to the complaints that game X is overpriced and rubbish.

 

[nbamaniac]

I used to complain about pirating too. Then I took an arrow in the knee.

 

[daystogo90]

I have used pirate bay for a long time...to get music,movie's and games...I have stopped now because the thrill is gone...I used to do it cause it gave me a rush...I was breaking the law and making money selling movies..I also had so many cd's stolen from me through the years that I could never buy all the music I had...but now I just itunes the songs I want and netflix movies and wait tell movies come out to redbox...I live in the states and never once got caught downloading..but I also knew what to do and what programs to get to protect my self..maybe I just grew up and that is why I quit.

 

[Ranorak]

Downloading music and videos in legal in the netherlands.
We pay a tax on our blank CD's and DVD's to compensate.

Video games and other software, as well as uploads are still illegal.
This is partly due to the idea that a buyer of something that is not illegal by default, can't be blamed.
A copied movies is not illegal by default unlike i.e. Hard drugs.