Poll: Piracy: Your thoughts?

[MalevolentJim]

I think Pirating games is wrong but i don't care about pirating cd's.Its only the record companies (and Metallica) that are stressed about piracy because as the middle men they aren't getting any money from the cd's.The bands shouldn't care once people are listening to their music.
And as for movies?

Certain compaines don't deserve money for the films they release into the cinema and DVD
E.g Dragonball Evolution.

But most movies i'd rather watch on my tv or see in the cinema.

 

[samsprinkle]

The Crimson red Permanent Insurance FTW

 

[kriv]

piracy huh? I'm not exactly for it, but I'm definitely not against it either. Here's something interesting www.helpmestudyproperly.com/piracy.html

 

[Avatar Roku]

Piracy is a selfish and immature thing to do. I agree with ago iterum, if there's an old game that's not being made any more etc then sure, download it. However, the pillocks who download games then use excuses such as 'it doesn't deserve my money' or 'it costs too much' should seriously have something handed to them. If you aren't willing to pay for it you shouldn't have it in the first place. In my view piracy is no better than theft. In fact, that's exactly what it is, its theft but since your stealing from a company most people seem to think its ok.

I agree, but I think there are a few situations where it's okay. For example, if you bought the game but don't want to deal with the DRM, pirate away. If you bought it and lost the disk, Pirate away.

 

[Marcus [email protected]]

For me it's not a matter of piracy so much as the problem with courts deciding international law
Piracy is legal in Sweden, but is illegal in America. The majority of the suits (~79%) were brought
up by American Companies
Therefore American law is now applicable outside America

 

[MrNades]

For me it mostely depends on what I'm pirating.
I do it for music all the time but i won't do it for like big shit like full length games like starcraft.

 

[lonercs]

I'm not a pirate, I'm a ninja. However, downloading all my music to my IPod for free is very nice and I'm not stopping. You can pay money for movies and music and I'll just download for free.

 

[Red Right Hand]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Piracy!

 

[Flying Dagger]

i only ever pirated games because steam refused to accept my debit card. if they aren't going to let me pay for it, that isn't going to stop me playing it.

only ever did it twice though

 

[Evilbunny]

I don't pirate games, but I do pirate music and movies. I am fully aware that what I'm doing is morally wrong, but I do it anyway. Maybe if I were hurting somebody other than a large company I'd feel worse.

 

[Nelo_Angelo]

I approve privacy. because i hate starforce, securerom etc.

 

[ragestreet]

I don't pirate new games. Mostly because my comp is crap and can't run most of them.
I pirate movies if I get bored enough.
I pirate music every chance I get.
I wish there was a new word for it.

 

[Pigletdude]

hahah, i'm LOVING this! Everybody is trying to justify pirating all kinds of forms of entertainment, i'm not saying its completely unethical, but at its most simple form, it is just plain stealing someone else's hard work.

 

[xXGeckoXx]

I pirate movies.

I pirate songs.

I do not pirate games.

But that is only because I am not a PC gamer.

So thank god for the industry that I use the xbox 360 for my gaming.

hahah, i'm LOVING this! Everybody is trying to justify pirating all kinds of forms of entertainment, i'm not saying its completely unethical, but at its most simple form, it is just plain stealing someone else's hard work.

I'm fine with stealing. Absolutely happy with that.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Ill pirate realy old songz off limewire, or porn cause you cant justify buying that

 

[Spyre2000]

This is much in the same way as you are allowed to make backup copies of software for personal use as in simply put them on other disk but they are not in "use" on some other machine. Or at least that's how it use to be as last I heard on that issue they were actually criminalizing that, in fact I heard a law they were trying to pass pretty much made it a felony to make a mixed tape and give it to your significant other. Don't know if it ever passed.

But just shows the lengths of stupidity they are going to in order to fight piracy and since most people cloud the issue with insults aimed at either the pirates or the large companies rather then addressing the real issue.

There is an article here on escapist which I'll link below and in it the author equates DRM being like getting strip searched every time you leave Wal-Mart to be sure you didn't steal anything. And I think this is right on target. Companies think nothing of treating all their customers as potential criminals by limiting access to software they paid for or requiring them to prove they purchased it by going online for some form of validation or online connection to use the software.

This is all leading more and more to the inevitable day when all your software is directly linked to your online account with a supposedly justified monthly fee because of the cost of maintaining the servers. And where if you say or doing anything that upsets the company they can simply revoke all access to your software and your official shut down. EA recently admitted they could already do this with some of their games being tied to the same name as your forum account. Though they "claim" they would never do this (yea right!). It's like the old saying goes, "Power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absolutely." I forget who said it or the exact words but there is another saying that goes something like this, "Tyranny of corporations is just as dangerous as Tyranny of governments."

If you don't think companies will bring that kind of power to bear in an attempt to silence decentors go watch the movie "The Insider". The Tobacco companies put pressure on 60 minutes not air the special which exposed they were trying to make cigarettes more adictive and so they weren't going to until it was leaked that their journalistic integrity had been compromised so they aired it to save face. Censorship on the net is popping up all over the net with profit as the prime motivation and that's just as bad as if it were being done for ideological reasons. And they are using piracy as an excuse to do it. Go watch this video about the coming end to youtube as we know it, and ironically it's on youtube . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V025E_b5I4g&feature=related
Also watch this one on the who Viacom & Youtube incident if you weren't already aware of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJbCWJNQUYI&feature=related

 

[Kirra]

I pirate stuff quite often but only because games in my country are released a month or maybe even a year after the release date. If the game was good i will buy it (I still haven't opened my copy of Bioshock, only played with my pirated copy.) if it was not then i probably won't even finish it. Also i have no way to pay for games that you can only buy over the internet since i don't even have a bank account.

Oh and games don't take long to download usually just 1 hour.

 

[GruntOwner]

I pirate if It's unavailable or if the legal method of acquisition absurd. One particular band I was unable to find tracks for, them being small in France and me living in the middle of nowhere in a realm where only mainstream is available. The likes of Amazon for downloads and shizz are not an ideal solution given the amount of time required due my bandwidth not being worth the money. I don't pirate games unless they're old. Painfully, impossible to find in the shops, old.

 

[Wicky_42]

I feel fine pirating TV - I mean, some services offer TV for free after it shows, so why shouldn't I be able to watch it when I want? Also with shows that are released later here, or even not at all - my source of anime, Heroes and BSG (seriously, why should the US get to see it before everywhere else?) If even the owning companies are fine with putting the files up for download, why shouldn't I stream it at my leisure? What's more, why should hulu discriminate against me just because I don't live in the UK? The internet's international, dipshits - wake up and get with the next millennium.

Games is a different matter in many ways though - TV makes all its money through advertising n contracts n what-not, whilst games rely on each sale for their revenue. However, by not releasing good demos, skimping on quality gameplay and story, releasing incomplete software (patch it to make it playable? I think not sir), and introducing frustrating or draconian anti-piracy measures the industry is scoring an own-goal.

I was fine with CD Keys, I was fine with having to register the key to play online. I was fine with Steam (unobtrusive, auto update, works even offline). However, DoW 2 requiring a Windows Live ID AND Steam?! And only working if I have an internet connection??! Empire TW installing through Steam even though I went out and bought the box? Limited installs of my legitimately purchased software? All of which could be circumvented by finding pirated software?

I haven't yet pirated and kept a game because of these measures, but a pirated Spore saved me a ton of cash on a shallow, short-lived game. I'm inclined to pirate Mirror's Edge because they didn't see fit to release a PC demo and people are conflicted on whether it's any good or not, and it's apparently a very short game (6 hrs for £30?! I think not...)

 

[vxicepickxv]

Pretty much the only reason I pirate anything is because it's not available at the time, and I plan to pick it up later, or delete it. I actually pirated an old PS1 game just because I don't want to pay 100 dollars for it, when a possible replacement for the PSP is on the horizon.

I've pirated a few CDs because I couldn't get them at the time, and when they later came in the mail, I deleted them from my computer, and the put them onto my PC, DRM free. Go figure.