Poll: A situation in which piracy is OK? [Read first]

[daydreamerdeluxe]

and ripping a film off of the disc is morally dubious.

I have to ask: why?

The act of ripping a disc itself is perfectly fine, as far as I can tell. However, it's entirely possible to then distribute it to anyone and everyone, and I've had people accuse me of piracy for ripping a DVD to put the film on my iPod. If one person believes something is fine, whilst another person accuses you of being immoral, that's pretty much the definition of "morally dubious"

 

[gibboss28]

Stop trying to justify your actions, if your going to do it just do it.

 

[evilneko]

and ripping a film off of the disc is morally dubious.

I have to ask: why?

The act of ripping a disc itself is perfectly fine, as far as I can tell. However, it's entirely possible to then distribute it to anyone and everyone, and I've had people accuse me of piracy for ripping a DVD to put the film on my iPod. If one person believes something is fine, whilst another person accuses you of being immoral, that's pretty much the definition of "morally dubious"

I'll just have to disagree then. There is absolutely nothing morally or ethically wrong with ripping a DVD, or in converting any type of media to another format.

 

[MordinSolus]

You paid for the game (no five-finger-discount), but altered it so that it goes on something else...Hmm...This is tough...I would say that that's fine.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

My copy of Oblivion became unreadable on Xbox did I get the next copy for free because I had already bought it once? No.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Well, if you're pirating a game that you already own (say, GBA) for the same system (say, again GBA), then yeah, I support that, since it's the same as if you burn yourself a digital copy of a DVD. That, or if it's Touhou, since it's damn near impossible to legitimately get them even in Japan, and ZUN even supports the piracy of the official Touhou games.

But to pirate for a game that you own on a completely different system, erm...
I'm undecided, but leaning more towards a no on this.

 

[Gregg Lonsdale]

In this case the piracy is ethically sound. The reason piracy is normally ethically wrong is because the company that developed the game put in a lot of time, effort and money to make the game for the consumers, and are entitled to reimbursement from the people who play the game (in the form of money). However, no matter how many copies one person buys, you only get one playing experience, and they only had to make it once. So by this definition, piracy would be okay in this case. Now, one could argue that the devs would have had to put in some effort and money to port the game across consoles, making this piracy ethically dubious because they have lost out on money again, though it would be an insignificant amount. So if you really want to be sure, send bethesda $5 in an envelope. It'll probably just go to some mail-room clerk, but at least you made the effort.

 

[Total LOLige]

Pirate it until you've got the dosh to pay for it, sort of like a try before you buy

 

[Versuvius]

I voted option 3

Seriously. Im a piss poor student and while the option to get free not overpriced games, im going to take it. titles i can get on say, GoG i wont pirate. Same for steam if it isnt a ludicrously priced new release. I mean look at bulletstorm. I could pay 40 quid for 7 hours of gameplay (I ran it in that) with no replay value and some crap multiplayer. Or i could pirate it and do it in 7 hours and avoid the multiplayer altogether. Id say thats a win.

 

[Mr. 47]

Heh, tied it up between 'yes' and 'no'.

Unless it is a VERY old game, or a game that you can not get in your current area, and cannnot ship for whatever reason, it is wrong. It's like buying a movie on DVD, then getting a Blu-Ray player, then stealing said movie on Blu-Ray. You already saw it and bought it, but it is still stealing, and is still wrong. :|

 

[Forum_Name]

New code = new product = new purchase.

I'm down with making an archive copy for later, but that's not what you're describing.

Why do you need even to play the game on two console systems?

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Snippety snip.

In my opinion, it's not piracy if you never would have bought the PC version. That's really the only problem with it, if you would have bought it the devs lost a sale, if you never would have bought it, they aren't losing shit. So that's really the question at the end of it. For your story I still say no anyway, though.

 

[conflictofinterests]

So, I present you with a moral dilemma of sorts. Let's say you're awaiting a game that will be released on major consoles (xbox and ps3) and on the PC. Let's call that game Skyrim. You run to buy the copy of the game for your console of choice, due to wanting a cleaner and perhaps more graphically impressive experience while playing (depending on your computer). However you also want the game on your PC, for all the amazing modding and other benefits. You cannot afford to buy the game for both, and are worried that you will not be able to achieve optimal levels of performance if you do buy it for your pc, leaving you short of (game price here) bucks, quid or zimbabwean dollars. SO here's a dilemma. You go out and buy the game for the console of choice (xbox or ps3) and decide to pirate it for the PC. Is this fair and morally right? You have already bought the game, shouldn't you have the choice to get it for free on the PC also? discuss, please.

Why not wait for GOTY edition? There! Problem solved!

 

[TiefBlau]

I think it's the right thing to do, but it's still piracy

 

[Dogstile]

My copy of Oblivion became unreadable on Xbox did I get the next copy for free because I had already bought it once? No.

Legally, you could obtain a backup for your Xbox copy as licenses allow you to do so, as long as its for your own person.

The shop won't let you have it for free, but you can reduce cost a fair amount and it will be legal! How about that! Pretty good eh?

 

[DarthFennec]

Nice post, except for the part I left in your quote.

That's really entitled. You only pay for what you like, and if you don't like it, you pirate it as some sort of a stand against Hollywood?

Please, grace us simple folk with your God like knowledge of what 'deserves' to be paid for, and what doesn't.

So far we have The Expendables movie doesn't deserve to profit, but Scott Pilgrim does...

Please continue. This is fascinating.

It's very simple. As I've said, it's all based on opinion. I didn't like Expendables, so I don't think it deserves my money. Someone else may have liked it and in that case it certainly deserves theirs. I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim, it was entertaining for me, so its creators deserve my support. But if someone goes to Scott Pilgrim and hates it, I don't think they should be made to pay for it. I hope that makes a little more sense. The point of a movie is to entertain. So, we should pay for a movie depending on how entertaining we find it. In the current system, we pay for it depending on how entertaining we think we might find it, or how entertaining we hope it might be, and I see that as a serious flaw in the industry.

It's not that I have some stand against Hollywood, or that I'm `getting back' at them for making bad movies, it's just that it logically makes sense to do this. If something's big at the box office, Hollywood makes more of it. I want more movies that I like. Therefore, it makes sense for me to support the movies I like at the box office, so I get more of them later. It also makes sense to not support movies I don't like, because that will promote less of the same in the future.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

No. Man up and choose between graphics or modding. Beliving you have some sort of esoteric 'right' to the game is one of these weird entitlement complexes gamers seem to be growing everywhere.

I was thinking about this recently, situations in which piracy might be okay. I was largely thinking in terms of movies, but it works alright for games. It is based on a 'normal' response and a 'pirate's' response.

1. You want to see a movie. It is out on DVD but not showing in any movie theatres. Do you.

A. See if it is available for purchase or renting, either locally on online?
B. Pirate it.

If you answered A, congratulations you aren't an entitled dickhead. Why is it that if you asked most people they would respond that their first instinct would be to buy something, but there's this little determined group who are yelling, 'I bought a DVD Player and an HDTV, that means that I have access to all movies by right of my having bought a DVD Player and HDTV.' Just because you own all the consoles doesn't mean you have some sort of right to own the games that come out for them.

Anyway, corollary

2. The movie isn't available. What do you do now?

A. Decide to leave it, live's too short to waste on trying to dig up one movie they couldn't even be bothered to put on DVD.
B. Pirate it.

This is basically the only situation I really think piracy might be okay. The movie or game or books or zoetrope is not available commercially. I still maintain that your average citizen would just say 'fuck it' and move on but then some accounting has to be made for fans being fans. Without fans there might not have been quite a lot of movies or games even made, and supporting the roots of the games we love today is part of what makes gaming great. People still download emulators to play Pokemon Red and Blue because they remember the games from when they were growing up. Or they find versions of Ultima or 101 Dalmations: Spot's London Adventure because they were an integral part of gaming history and they want to experience the mythology.

It's like Star Wars fans, without whom the Star Wars Holiday Special wouldn't still be available. It's a part of the history and the mythology and without the fans it wouldn't still be alive today.

However, Skyrim or Mass Effect 3 or Modern Warfare whatever number are not part of our history yet, they are part of our present and pirating them for any reason instead of buying them is hurting gaming. And if you really were a fan, then you wouldn't do it. Cry about the state of the industry and big business and one pirated game not making that much impact but there are millions who are willing to pay to support the industry they love. Let's face it, if everyone thought the way that pirates did there wouldn't be an industry left.

 

[evilneko]

I wondered when the food strawman would come up.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

My copy of Oblivion became unreadable on Xbox did I get the next copy for free because I had already bought it once? No.

Legally, you could obtain a backup for your Xbox copy as licenses allow you to do so, as long as its for your own person.

The shop won't let you have it for free, but you can reduce cost a fair amount and it will be legal! How about that! Pretty good eh?

Really? I didn't even know that. That is pretty good but still, pirating a copy of a game on a different system just because you bought it for another does not justify piracy.

 

[Korolev]

Legally? No. Morally? Well, if you are going to pirate, I'm assuming you'll probably use Bittorrent. Just being part of the cloud enhances the transfer rate to other pirates. So, unless you set your upload to Zero, then I wouldn't do it.