Poll: Do People Pirate Because it's Free? Or is There Something More to it?

lapan

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Jan 23, 2009
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I mostly pirate games if they are old and only optainable through second hand and ungodly prices.
 

Guitarmasterx7

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Mar 16, 2009
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The only time I'll pirate something is either if
a) it's impossible and/or very hard to buy
or
b) if it's extremely overpriced. For example there's this shaking effect for Sony Vegas which looks pretty cool, but I'm sure as fuck not paying 250 dollars for it.
c) If I've already bought it once but it has a "one PC only" thing bound to the disc or something (EZDrummer)

I don't mind buying things that are accordingly priced. In fact, I prefer to support companies that make products that I like. But if I don't feel that a product is worth the money, I'm definitely not going to spend it, and at that point I don't think that the company is losing anything because at that point I'm not a customer either way.
 

The_Echo

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Mar 18, 2009
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Probably because it's free. That would be my reason, personally. I don't have any kind of income. So if I were to pirate, it would be due to the fact that I'm flat broke.
 

drummond13

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Apr 28, 2008
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XinfiniteX said:
It's because it is free. Pirates don't seem to understand that things cost money to make, therefor you are charged a price to own/use that content that was created. Just because you can't afford something does not give you the right to steal it. I mean I can't afford to buy my own home yet, but that doesn't mean I'm going to start living in your place until I can.
Of course you're not going to live in MY place, because that's an inaccurate analogy for piracy. But let's say you looked at my place, liked my place, and could magically make a copy of my place for your very own without bothering me at all, then THAT would be an appropriate comparison.

So, yes. You CAN stay in my place, if that's what you mean.

Another person said there's no difference between piracy and stealing from a store. Look, folks, I'm not condoning piracy at all, but let's not start flying off the handle and making ridiculous (and inaccurate) points. Stealing from a store means you're taking actual physical items that the store has spent money to obtain in order to sell it to the public. Piracy means that an exact copy of that same item appears on your hard drive. Nobody loses any money on this. There is merely the possibility that a developer might not MAKE as much money because some people copied it instead of giving them money for it.

Is it wrong? Of course it is. In some cases, anyway. It's only wrong if it's something you would have bought had piracy never existed. Which, for most pirates, is a big fat YES.

I'm well off enough that I personally only pirate things I can't actually pay the original developers for. But I'm tired of seeing all these people take the moral high ground. Please, for the love of humanity, shut the @#$% up. Piracy doesn't affect any of the industries nearly as much as people make out.
 

manaman

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Sep 2, 2007
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Craftybonds said:
I don't understand your logic here. books are free through the library, and books are free to pirate. what's the difference? the library doesn't profit off of me renting the book; their budgets are determined by population size, not the rate at which the community rents them. Also, it's called an amazon kindle. you can't exactly rent books for those.
Libraries have long historic roots, libraries where kept by many institutions before there where public libraries, it's about the pursuit of knowledge. Public libraries have the intention of keeping the populations skills up, and enabling them to further their own education. The books are not free. The books are paid for by tax dollars, or donated by the community, and as they wear out they are replaced by tax dollars. It's a community pool for the community.

bojac6 said:
Oh that makes sense. Yeah, old RPG rule books are a pain and super expensive. Especially ones that were never that popular. I spent years trying to find the core rule book for the original Crimson Skies. Ending up getting it of eBay for $40 bucks. Saw another copy a few days later for $150. Really glad it happened in that order, because I would have been so tempted.
Quite a few of those are still available in a digital format, if it isn't then you might want to give whoever currently owns the rights to the book a ring and ask if it is okay for you to obtain a digital copy. Chances are they won't object if they have no more plans with the material. You might note that many game developers have offered old versions of their games that they no longer have plans for as a free download when they are part of a long standing series, or they offer them as cheap downloads through a digital service if demand is high enough to offset the cost of offering it for sale. While you are never going to get a yes from Wizards of the Coast because they want you to buy the current editions, some companies and private holders might not be so strict with source books for games that have all but died out. You could even offer compensation. None of those things are illegal, making a copy of it without permission is illegal.

ChelseaChris said:
however 75% of my film library i have already seen in cinema, or had on dvd before losing it or breaking it. i dont feel theres anything wrong with downloading something you have paid for in a roundabout way before. i know its not ideal but what can you do?
While I don't personally object to people having the ability to change formats of media they buy it is currently illegal to do so without the permission of the copy right holder. They tend to look the other way with CD's and moving the files onto a computer and from there a portable media player, so I can understand the confusion, but it is still up to the copyright holder to say to some extent what you are allowed to do with the media.


OT: For the last time people. Stealing a shirt and downloading a game/CD/movie/etc are not the same. A shirt has an intrinsic value, each unit cost the same to make. A game costs $10 million for that first copy but each copy after that cost 10 cents to stamp on a disc.

No it doesn't make it right, yes a copyright holder should be paid back for the work they did in creating it, but it is not the same as stealing. It's just as bad in it's own way, but not the same as walking down to a store and stealing a shirt. It's copyright violation, illegally making a copy of a copyrighted work. You can have the same violation even if the copyright holder never charged for their product in the first place.
 

dawdarsd

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Aug 16, 2010
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Canid117 said:
Thats the reason for some but many pirates are just dicks.
no not really 80 percent of pirates pirate stuff because the games aren't released in theyr country
 

iLikeHippos

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Jan 19, 2010
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Well, one good reason that my brother streams TV shows and Films is because of one damn good reason.

We can't get the majority of them here. Not in Sweden.
NOT EVEN IF YOU WALK TO THE EFFING STORES! They are, most of the times, unavailable.

If it's out of your reach, yet want it, is it really worth the travel or order over the Internet? My brother said
"Nah. Let's do it, fuck it."

Now, not saying that is an excuse for pirating, but at most times, the things you want aren't in reach. And we're not cheap, not by any means.
If we get the opportunity, we buy the DVD to the Films. (TV shows doesn't cost to watch, so no need)

But I don't know if others rationalize like that... But I suppose not.
If you don't catch the mouse chipping your crackers, he'll continue to do so uncontested.
 

Signa

Noisy Lurker
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Jul 16, 2008
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Zeithri said:
The law of all Piracy stuff is; "If you like it, buy it"
It's sad, too many people ignore that rule. As someone pointed out earlier, piracy can be selfish, but it starts with people who love something and want to share it with as many people as possible. Those people didn't put it up there for you to circumvent paying for it, they put it up so you could eventually buy it and support the people who made something they enjoyed.

I know I for one have spent thousands of dollars in direct proportion to the incoming bandwidth I receive because I don't break rules that don't need to be broken.
 

SpikeFT

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Nov 18, 2009
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well i pira.... "borrow, borrow" for many reasons main one being my country(Romania) is stupid when it comes to prices, service and import only the very very famous ones make it in but the ones i like dont e.g. Blazblue isnt here even for console yet the first one
 

Boris Goodenough

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Jul 15, 2009
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I postulate that if all games/movies were released at the same time around the world, they would see a small drop in privacy.

Some of us have to wait months after initial release for somethings.
 

Silversabre

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Apr 16, 2009
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I know alot of peolpe who pirate everythign and anything, just because they can.
Howveer, I'd liek to think that Alot of the things I pirate, and that soem of my other friends do, is because I'm not going to pay for something that is obviously overpriced. If a game is well made (and I'm not going to loose my right leg trying to find a copy of it) then I happily pay the money. Likewise, if its crap but cheap, I'll buy it.

Problem is, people can make alot of games these days that will only last a person two afternoons and they still expect the price of a best seller for it. Not Happening.

There is the argument that I should rent said game, but the dedicated game rental store in my town closed recently anyway.
 

Counterwise

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May 1, 2010
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Most of today's games are not worth the price that they are asking, and outside the US the prices are even worse. Mirrors Edge was not worth the 80 $ that was asked for it here. Fallout 3 is worth about 40(I got it cheaper).
Why do you want it if its' not worth it? You might ask in a whiny nasal voice.
Cause if it's free, it's worth it.
 

Bato

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Oct 18, 2009
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Most say that people who pirate, and have other reasons, are just trying to make an excuse for free stuff.
And on that note, pretty much everything I pirate I have, or have owned at one point and no longer works, or cannot find anymore.

However recently I have been getting my games through Steam so I no longer have those problems.
Except for movies, and CDs my dad lost. Or is hoarding.
 

Ziadaine_v1legacy

Flamboyant Homosexual
Apr 11, 2009
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For me, it's to save me money on the final product. If I think something is going to be interesting; I'll download it to try it before I consider buying the full game/music album etc.

Plus things in Australia are horrendously over-priced, and most Australian's will agree with me on that.

EDIT: Or N64 ROMS' that I used to own or never got to try because no one was selling them anymore.
 

Sagiterios

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Aug 12, 2009
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Its not really because its free, its because its too expensive. Most pirates dont have $50 to drop on a game or outrageously overpriced movie tickets. IF games sold for 10 to 20 dollars, than they would probably just buy it. It is quite likely that the developers will sell so many more games that they would at least make as much as when they cost $50
 

sirkai007

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Apr 20, 2009
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I've been to multiple concerts and been told by multiple bands to go ahead and pirate their music and spend our money on t-shirts and other things at their merch table. Everyone knows that anything you buy from the concert puts more money in the pockets of the artist than if you buy it from walmart.
 

Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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At least all the music I listen to now-a-days is entirely free (distributed freely by the artist) so I'm good there.

The only thing I pirate on occasion that is straight up illegal is movies (i never pirate games). Mainly because I can download a movie in about 5 minutes and then watch it on my big screen TV with my PS3 or 360's media streaming capabilities.

If I were to run up to the store and rent it it would be at least a 5 minute drive just to get there, and sometimes in the cold Canadian winters when it's ***** black at 5pm and snowstorming out I just want to get in my pyjamas and watch a movie with some hot chocolate.

Is this lazy? Hell yes it's lazy, but that's the only reason I'm doing it; as a convenience. And before any Americans shout at me, netflix isn't in Canada yet.

Furthermore, I watch a lot of movies that are... let's say not in circulation anymore. If anyone knows a store that sells or rents a copy of "Death Bed: The Bed That Eats" within 500km of my house I'd love to know about it.
 

Veylon

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Aug 15, 2008
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The vast majority pirate because it's free and easy.
A few limit their predations to media that's otherwise unavailable.
A few others pirate for philosophical/political/ideological reasons.
 

A Free Man

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May 9, 2010
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Haha I am so sick of these threads with people trying to prove that they are good people when they pirate things. Basically it all comes down to cost and convenience. If you pirate you are doing so because you are either lazy cheap or both. If you justify it by saying that you would not be able to get the product where you live you are just proving that point. You are saying it is too expensive and inconvenient for me to import a copy from overseas so I will just steal one. I am not saying that people who pirate things are bad people, hell, I pirate a game or movie every now and then. But please God stop coming on forums and having a little whine seeking the reassurance of others...