Krelias said:
I think that i've led everyone down a wrong path by overstating the less than fortunate financial condition of people in my home country. I wasn't trying to make anyone "feel" for the "poor people" that pirate games cause theý just have no money to buy them. I was just trying to say that when it's coupled with someone's incappacity to buy a game, piracy becomes a victimless crime, something that hurts no one. But that's just me i need to find a rational reason for doing or restrainig myself from doing someting I want to do "just cause it's wrong" doesn't cut it
scobie said:
Krelias said:
So my question is "should someone feel guilty for pirating a software that he or she can't afford ?" since there's really no affected party involved i mean the developer is losing only the chance to sell the product to one more person who wouldn't have aforded it anyway.
As a diehard consequentialist, I find this argument extremely compelling. The logic essentially being: if I don't pirate the game, I don't have the game and the company doesn't have my money. If I pirate the game, then I have the game and the company doesn't have my money. Thus piracy is obviously the right choice.
I would just like to clarify here that I'm not trying to advocate piracy. But I am saying that the argument for piracy under those circumstances seems pretty good from a utilitarian perspective. I have never, however, come across an equalling compelling argument from the other side - all I've seen is people saying "It's just wrong" and dropping the matter. It's not the same as theft, because no-one is actually losing anything. So I'm still on the fence.
LordNue said:
Just because no one gets hurt doesn't make it right.
If it genuinely doesn't hurt anyone, and benefits someone, then to me it's perfectly morally acceptable. As someone who remains undecided on the matter of piracy, would someone care to explain to me, in terms a utilitarian might understand, why piracy is wrong when you're pirating something you wouldn't have bought anyway? Explain to me, essentially, who is being hurt. I'm seriously asking because I want to know what the answer is. Because from my perspective, most of what I see coming from the anti-piracy side is self-righteous posturing, in this case condemning someone who lives in much less fortunate circumstances than most of the people in this thread and telling him "you'll just have to do without, then, won't you?" for no particular reason.
You've got a chance to bring me over to your side. Give it your best shot.
I like this egg scenario people have been throwing around, so I think I'll stick with that for my example. So Mr. Guy has a replicator that can make an exact copy of something, in this case an egg. So he decides he wants to solve world hunger and replicate this egg for people who wouldn't be able to afford eggs, in this case Romania. So he copies a single egg for all of Romania and everyone is happy.
The problem is that anyone who's distributing eggs is now out of a job. But that's ok, because they have an unlimited supply of eggs, right? Well, unfortunately, you can't pay for other things with eggs, such as shelter or heating, as they've now become worthless with the ability to copy them. Suddenly, this starts a trend where other food companies like peanut butter are quickly taken out of business because eggs become
the source of protein as they're so easy to get. That's more people out of jobs who can't afford their houses because all they have ar eggs, a fairly useless product in terms of selling or trading for other good and services. Then, suddenly, someone from Hungry asks Mr. Guy for an egg, because he too is hungry, but really he just doesn't want to go and get a carton of eggs when he can get them for free. Out of kindness, Mr. Guy replicates him some eggs. Soon, everyone in Hungry is saying they can't afford eggs and are asking Mr. Guy for their eggs, regardless of their finacial situation.
You see where I'm going with this? Maybe the copying of a game doesn't effect the developers directly in
your isolated case but the world isn't just that simple. Suddenly the people who are distributing these disks are out of money because they lost those contracts. Other hobby stores that could also
really use the money are losing out because people can just download entertainment for free instead of looking for alternatives to video games. Your actions also reinforce and educate other people on pirating, which then becomes a trend and is seen as morally acceptable. Enough people do this and there goes another gaming company because there are no renewable sources of income to invest into their next blockbuster project. So now you've just destroyed three facets of the economy through pirating and that only furthers the downward spiral of a capitalist economy (which I believe most of the world runs on now) as you truly do need to spend money for the economy to make money. If people start losing jobs, that's less money to spend, which causes more jobs to be lost. Vicious, but true.
Don't get me wrong, I feel for you. Pricing does suck in your country, for sure, but that doesn't mean it's right to start draining the economy because you want a little entertainment through digital means. Be mindful of free works posted on the internet (I hear League of Legends is coming to EU), make sure to take advantage of used games and sales on older titles and just buy that one awesome game for yourself every year.
EDIT:
SyphonX said:
Mcface said:
You can't charge 60 dollars for some people, and 10 for others. Know why? It aint fair to the other guy. You may think stealing software is harmless, but you are literally taking money out of peoples pockets who worked hard on the game. And you dare me? Bro before I started earning a military salary I didn't have shit. I had my buddys old system that I played used games on. I didn't ONCE pirate a game. Grow the fuck up.
Really? Where is the magical world you live in, where your $10 is the same as the $10 in any other given country? You do realize, in some countries, keeping the price at $60 is equivalent to a few hundred bucks, or even much, much more..
Yeah, poor you, it's so not fair that someone doesn't have to pay a hundred dollars more, or the equivalent of their weekly salary, if that.
You tell me to grow the fuck up, when you don't even understand that basic fact. Let me ask you, have you been in another country within your military career? If so, then you've surely had to deal with fluctuations in currency exchange, and realize that your $1 is vastly different in some countries, in one way direction or another, up or down.. ?
It sounds like you're the one who doesn't understand economics. The OP clearly stated that the current exchange from his country's currency still equates to a relevent price in the U.S. and subsequently Canada. His pay is
minimum wage. That would be something akin to working at a McDonalds, though funny enough they pay much higher than minimum wage where I live. So, taking that into account, most people I know that work at a minimum wage job struggle to support themselves and can't afford video games. Sorry, but that's life. It also doesn't state what time period he makes his 350 Euros (again, that's $430 USD) in. I'm more interested in that than anything. So before you go shooting your mouth off, why don't you actually look at what the argument is and the points made within it.