File-Sharing Habits Unhindered by Criminal Crackdown

[IamLEAM1983]

Take Diablo III. People who bought the game had to deal with Error 37 and Error 3006 for the first couple of days. People who pirated it got to play it there and then because the crackers managed to create a sort of dummy server for pirated copies to use, or something along those lines.

Except that this dummy server doesn't exist yet. Plenty of P2P sites offer the contents of the preload or of the Collector's Edition, but there's no working crack or server emulation available at the moment.

So pirates physically have the game, yes - but they can't play it. Not yet, at any rate.

 

[RandV80]

So here's something to consider:

Governments are elected to represent and forward the will and interest of the people on a national and international scale. The head of state is a representative, put forward to advance the best interests of the country and its people.

Those people do not think filesharing is a crime. That much is plain to see.

Those who do see it as a crime are the publishing corporations, who make their money from selling someone else's product.

This is simply a case of the growing privatisation and corporatisation of first-world governments. In an ideal world, crimes would be that which the populace considers a crime. Murder - taking a life is universally agreed to be a Bad Thing. Theft - taking someone else's property is considered poor form at best. No matter the perspective of the publishers, the populace as a whole does not consider intangible ideas and agreements that 'I'm the only one allowed to distribute this for x years' as Things that can be stolen. It's a case of the business world of potential-earnings and profit-forecasts trying to overlap into the everyday world of cash-in-the-wallet and physical items. The vast majority of people simple do not agree with that world.

However, the controllers of the majority of the world's wealth do.

This is pretty much the problem in a nutshell. A post above yours outlines how it's mostly the 'evil corporations' that are making the profits of these pirated works, not the content creators. But even faceless evil corporations deserve to make some money as well, the real problem is the entirely disproportional position of influence they have over our elected officials in creating new legislation.

Or to be more specific, the power they have over American legislation, and what happens in America tends to set the bar elsewhere. As a Canadian I don't mean to bash our neighbours to the south, but I've come to understand the underlying principle that the good ol United States of America runs on: what's best for USA business is in the long run what's best for the USA and it's people, so therefore their own individual rights and liberties plus the sovereignty of other nations can take a back seat. And media entertainment is a prime American export and vital nationals business.

One of the better examples you could probably make as to why the situation with copyright is unfortunate is to consider Star Trek: TNG technology in a modern business setting. Captain Jean-Luc Picard would never be able to say to the computer "tea; earl gray; hot" and get his tea, because if he could the Tetley Tea corporation would go out of business and/or whichever mega corp owns them would see their profit margins hurt. So the moment replicator technology started to become reality they'd have lobbied the governments to declare unsolicited use of the tech as theft and therefore illegal, unless it's an authorized version that's attached to your credit card so that they can charge you for your otherwise free cup of tea and maintain there profits. And lets not even get started on those dreaded Holodeck things!

 

[Alterego-X]

The way I see it, the most spectacular implication of the whole issue is, that if most people don't see piracy as immoral, then the inversion must also be true; most people don't think that copyright should be 'a right'.

(Or at least the idea ability to limit the creation of copies for personal usage, shouldn't be a right. Other than that, people still don't want to see other copyright infringements, sch as plagiarism, or counterfeits.)

After all, who says that distributors, publishers, or even artists, are entitled to force their backwards business model on us? The copyright industry itself, that's who. Pirates are "stealing" what is theirs, but there is no objective justification for why it is theirs to begin with. Intellectual property is not an objective fact of life the same way as physical property is.

The way it is written, just keeps reminding us of that. Why is it theft to copy a 69 year old corpse's book, but perfectly fine to copy a 71 year old one's? Why is copying a paragraph from a book "fair use", but copying a movie scene on youtube is violating the publisher's "rights"?

Copyright is not something that inherently needs to be as it is. It's just an arbitarily drawn legal fiction invented in the 18th century, because at the time, it was the most practical way to support book publishers. (and censor them. Even back then, controlling media was an important feature of copyright).

If that old system can no longer be be enforced, and it doesn't work for protecting the industry, who is to say that artists still have a right to try and enforce it anyays?

 

[Fractral]

One of the better examples you could probably make as to why the situation with copyright is unfortunate is to consider Star Trek: TNG technology in a modern business setting. Captain Jean-Luc Picard would never be able to say to the computer "tea; earl gray; hot" and get his tea, because if he could the Tetley Tea corporation would go out of business and/or whichever mega corp owns them would see their profit margins hurt. So the moment replicator technology started to become reality they'd have lobbied the governments to declare unsolicited use of the tech as theft and therefore illegal, unless it's an authorized version that's attached to your credit card so that they can charge you for your otherwise free cup of tea and maintain there profits. And lets not even get started on those dreaded Holodeck things!

This is something that really annoys me. Its the idea that the human race will never progress because that progression is scary to the people in charge of the human race, so they stop it, so that it never happens. That replicator would be amazing technology, but anyone who tries to make one will get sued off their arse. I read a book once where this girl had the power to heal people with her voice, but because all the music companies were joined with pharmaceutical companies, no-one would publish her songs. Seems quite appropriate to the times we're in.

So yeah, while I don't endorse piracy, I find it hard to feel angry at people who do pirate; indeed, I end up feeling as though they're the ones who are helping us to advance, at least in the technological field.

 

[wwmcfar]

I don't feel one bit bad for pirating anything and I won't be made to by the government, corporations or the people around me.

I pirate movies, games and music but I also buy them as I have a Steam account with over 300 games on it and a large DVD collection. People who pirate are some of the largest consumers of legally acquired media and punishing them hurts the customer base of the entertainment industry.

If there was no way to pirate I would't buy any more than I already do.

 

[Da Orky Man]

How come no one ever complains about libraries? If there were legally-protected stores that rented out games for free, with the publisher/devs being paid for exactly one copy, yet hundreds of people would play it and finish it, there'd be a huge outcry.

 

[Da Orky Man]

On top of all that, it's only in America where tipping is taken as a matter of course.

Everywhere else in the world, tips are earned, rather than expected. A tip is a reward to the person serving, for above-average service that you think deserves extra recognition. A waiter doing their job (anywhere but the US) gets paid by their employer for doing their job. No more, no less. If they get exemplary service or go out of their way to help, their customers might leave a tip as a personal 'thank you'.

Expecting this as an almost legal requirement is a peculiarly American thing.

Having never been anywhere but the US... and slightly Canada, I can't say what it is like elsewhere, but yeah I find myself tipping at least 15 percent even if bad service lol

Extending this to games, that's kind of why EA and the like can get away with what they do: Because everyone keeps giving them money for subpar (even horrendous) service.

So, yeah.

In order to get waiters/waitresses to get better, it's best to not tip for bad service, 10% (in the US) for average service, and higher for better service.

In other countries, only tip for exceptional service, since they get better pay to begin with than in the US.

At least, from what I understand.

And you would be entirely correct. In the UK, you only ever tip if you got truly excellent service. Waiters here do earn enough to live off, and don't have to rely on tips just to eat.

I would not be popular in America, would I?

 

[Belated]

You outlaw something tons of people want to do, and it's just going to grow and grow. Just think back to Prohibition. Now if you don't want to make piracy legal, I can understand that. But quit fighting it. The efforts to combat piracy both by the game developers and by the government are just making it more efficient, thus turning it into the better, preferable service. You can't defeat pirates with the law. You have to think of them like a business and beat them competitively.

Besides, math has already proved [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114537-File-sharing-Remains-Legal-In-Switzerland] that piracy doesn't actually cause serious profit damage. At least not among the games industry. I could make a case for the anime industry personally, but that's beside the point. I'm not saying piracy is right. I'm saying the effects of it are WAY overblown. And the punishments for it are way too harsh.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

As one bright fellow in the comments points out:

We need to reiterate, that by changing the law, it is the content industry that is creating the piracy they claim to be fighting.

Basically, they get the laws they want which make formerly legal activities criminal. Then they whine even louder that they need even stronger laws to stop the ever growing piracy "threat". Restoring copyright law to it original duration; will nearly abolish piracy.

That is the way the content industry works... "oh no, technology or other things we don't like are eating our profits, let's abolish them!" and then "criminals, the lot of you!"

People renting music and software? People bypassing DRM? Mickey Mouse going public domain? People taping live concerts? Downloading a song to listen to without any commercial interests? Impossibru! To the lobby machine! And let's add some more years in jail too!

You know that quote you put there rings true to a very recent "issue" facing the industry... the evil works of 2nd Hand Sales!

It's just as bad... nay "Worse [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-17-lionhead-pre-owned-worse-than-pc-piracy]" then Piracy. It's Piracy MkII.

I use to be completely on the side of the industry no more then a year a go. But this nonsense has made me re-evaluate my stance. When I was old enough to know better, I was under the presumption that Piracy was bad and Torrent Sites were dens of evil, but I was sure my collection of second hand games and consoles (I ain't Richie Rich here) was completely fine and that I was still an honest consumer.

Now they want to make me a criminal in retrospect (or at the least, morally wrong)? SCEW THAT WAD OF CRAP! That was an honest business practice and a valid choice for honest consumers... I refuse to think that what I did was harming the industry (that expanded exponentially mind you) over those years.

The industry is a bloated mess of self-interest and greed. Everything they do is for their gain... not ours or the passionate developers. It's men in suits who see's figures and potential to make those figures better.

They don't want stability which is the only scenario where Piracy as a concept could possibly end, they want to add more Zeros to their Bank Accounts.

Next topic: Marijuana, and why we shouldn't give a fuck.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Really doesn't help that the internet evolved amongst a climate created by the children of those who used blank VHS tapes and cassettes to have, at their convenience, all kinds of movies, television shows, TV specials, and radio songs that were freely given, but apparently not freely taken. It also grew along side the personal computer, which needed easy and efficient ways of transferring data from one computer to the next for both professional and personal use, and in the process of creating CDs and DVDs for more robust storage, we started using them for movies and games. The ideas transferred, as was a common practice of ethics-less taking from freely supplied sources (for what ethics are involved if someone puts out a buffet for all to eat from, and you take a small portion for yourself, leaving plenty for others?), and when everything came to the internet, it was still free, still available to everyone else, and still capable of being taken.

Hard to stop something that you're founded on.

 

[Johnson McGee]

Most people don't feel bad about stealing from villains and when the RIAA sues a college student millions for sharing 30 songs or EA buys out and guts multiple well-liked developers they paint themselves as quite villainous.

 

[wwmcfar]

You stupid asshole, that's not the same thing at all. Drug dealers supply a product that there is a demand for, plain and simple. Drugs cause no ill effects except to the user (at least, they wouldn't if they weren't criminalized). Pirating causes lost income for the people who create whatever's being pirated.

Pirating is ethically wrong, but I do it in certain cases because, as I said, it's easy and I can get away with it. I don't condemn people for pirating, but I hate it when people use some bullshit rationalization to justify their pirating.

Torrenting sites make money off pirating, that is a whole new level of ethical and criminal wrongness. If people are able to make them stop somehow, then that's a good thing, because we'll all be forced to pay for our games/movies/music, myself included.

You're assuming that a pirate would have actually spent their money on that product if there was no alternative but as has been proven time and time again a pirated copy doesn't equal a lost sale.

No one who participates in a crime has the moral high ground to condemn those who do the same. You just used being broke as justification but call them unethical and criminal.

You're a hypocrite and you're just as bad as any unrepentant pirate except you're too much of a coward to defend the very services you patronize and contribute to.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I'm sure all for three people are surprised by this

 

[Zydrate]

They spend more money fighting piracy then they would make if piracy didnt exist >.>;
Its quite sad really. Perhaps they should look into making CHEAPER games.

Games cost less > Less Profits lost when game is pirated > More people can afford. Look at minecraft. It was made for nothing, in a mans free time, using Java. Its now one of the most popular games of all time, constantly talked about, and spans several platforms, bringing in STUPID piles of money.

Minecraft was pirated. You can go download a copy right now. Why was this not an issue? Because the game cost nearly nothing to produce, nearly nothing to purchase, and is an amazing value for (what is now) $26. It was cheaper then that for most of its production, but it STILL sells like hotcakes. I mean, nearly 6 million sales? And another million+ on the console?

Most pirates are pirates because they feel, "$60 is to much", "Im broke", or "Its not Worth it, and i wasnt going to purchase it". Eliminate 2 of them right from the start by making games cheaper. They have the ability to. Digital distribution cuts out nearly all distribution costs other then servers.

I think they really dont want piracy to be gone. >.>; They just want to be in control of the user base. DRM, policies that let them monitor what you do and have on your PC. Its not about fighting piracy, its more about keeping the consumer in line and under control then fighting piracy.

This is mostly my logic. I'd buy things if I had the money. But because I don't...
When I get a job I'll start paying for digital media, no problem. Until then.
I still want a legit copy of Minecraft so I can play online. Despite me having downloaded it, I will -still- pay for it in the future.
Games still get my money.

Overall, it's an interesting thing to witness, because a bad economy, from the beginning of time, notes a rise in crime.

 

[Woodsey]

You won't crack out piracy, and the only way you'll crack down on it without enraging your customers is to make your services functional and efficient.

For instance: all the money likely spent on lobbying to get Megaupload taken down could have gone to making a website that plays videos (and ADVERTS) outside of the fucking US.