Stolen Pixels #20: Not All Change is Progress

[meatloaf231]

Hey quick question - am I a pirate if I purchase the game but crack it? I mean, I'm only getting rid of the BS DRM, so am I half-pirate?

Come on, I'm only taking the loaded gun away from my suicidal game.

You are Chaotic Good, not a half-pirate.

 

[illiterate]

Free copying and distribution of games costs talented people jobs. Right or wrong, the developers are the last to turn a profit on a game. A pirated game comes directly out of their pocket.

Prove it.

Plenty of sales come from pirates who liked something enough to go honest. Just ask microsoft.

There is also piracy from those who aren't able to legally obtain something where they are. While I'm not saying they have the right to do so, I'm not sure how it hurts the developer.

I believe reactions to piracy are costing much more in sales. It certainly cost EA my 50 bucks.

Who else remembers Maxis' unreadable yellow sheet to play original SimCity? It was supposed to be impossible to photocopy. They were happy to send you a black and white one if you said you couldn't read the original. Not proud of this, but I did play a copied version of that game. I was 10, it came from my aunt.

 

[JazzX]

Its different in that you are granted use for private, non-exhibition viewing of the movie.

How? Your friends are not paying, you did not get permission to show it to them, and online sharing isn't making money so the whole theatre arguement falls apart.

The whole point I was trying to make is that you don't need to get permission to show it to your friends. You are given that right with your Rental/Purchase of the DVD. That's the whole "private, non-exhibition" clause.

The point where it goes from having friends over and watching the movie (totally legal, completely within your rights), to exhibition of the film (not legal, violates the copyright holders rights) is very subtle and complex. Its entirely possible to violate that part without charging anyone for watching, but including it was the easiest way to illustrate my point.

By that logic counterfeiting isn't stealing.

It isn't.
Its fraud.

And none of what we're discussing is stealing either. Its copyright infringement. The two aren't the same except in really abstract terms.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Hey quick question - am I a pirate if I purchase the game but crack it? I mean, I'm only getting rid of the BS DRM, so am I half-pirate?

Come on, I'm only taking the loaded gun away from my suicidal game.

You are Chaotic Good, not a half-pirate.

Cool, I'm like Robin Hood! Except I'm giving to the rich and robbing myself >_<

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

The point where it goes from having friends over and watching the movie (totally legal, completely within your rights), to exhibition of the film (not legal, violates the copyright holders rights) is very subtle and complex. Its entirely possible to violate that part without charging anyone for watching, but including it was the easiest way to illustrate my point

I think we can agree then.

 

[Akafrank]

The irony it seems is that if an EA exec wanted to justify putting DRM on their product, if they wanted evidence that people don't seem to regard stealing their product as stealing, they need look no further than this thread.

Supporting piracy is supporting DRMs.

 

[likalaruku]

True, true.....

 

[lwm3398]

Um... I have this game, and I have opened it more than three times without any of this stuff happening. I haven't had to buy it again, or reinstall it, or pirate anything. What?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

I don't see how having CD keys is a problem... security things like this help people keep their jobs and it also discourages people from just buying one copy of the game and installing it on every computer they can find.

 

[ProGrasTiNation]

Before Stolen Pixels I never knew EA was that Evil (as a console Gamer I only see the evil of releasing the same dang game 1200 times under different titles), but now my ignorance has been uplifted, I feel that EA should Drop Dead!

E.A is the top dog of evil...yearly patches sold as games..lol

 

[Skeleon]

Spore? Nice one.
Somehow I doubt the horned creature's look at the end is coincidental.