How bad is piracy?

[IMPERIUS]

title

 

Not in terms of "the developers don't get their money" blah blah blah but more in the way of legal problems- how big is the chance of you being caught and getting finned or even going to jail?

In my country, 99% of people do it because I haven't yet heard of anybody having legal issues because of piracy

[minibois]

Depends on where you live. In the Netherlands.. It's kind of legal.

In the US it's less legal, but you're not very likely to get arrested because of it.

[RevoltTrain]

I've never heard of anyone getting arrested for torrenting anything.

[Sauron]

The chance of being caught is very close to 0 if you're a private user. If you're a company however, using pirated software is very likely to get you a very big fine, not jail though afaik.

[Oshino Shinobu]

There's very few arrests of individual pirates, compared to amount of people that pirate. There's a few, but it's normally companies that pirate thousands of copies of software that costs £300+ a licence that get the brunt of it. 

[ItsFTP]

Not very high chance of getting caught, even lower chance of being sued. Even if you were the 1 person in the world to get a letter by your IPS, nothing else will happen apart from your ISP could bottleneck you.

[Oshino Shinobu]

I've never heard of anyone getting arrested for torrenting anything.

Well, Torrenting isn't illegal. I know what you mean, but just a heads up that torrents aren't illegal, it's some of the content that is. 

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

I think the problem is about you sharing/distributing/seeding that stuff when you download using torrent clients, not downloading itself

[JAKEBAB]

Basically not going to get in trouble unless you are selling them. Actually had 2 cops come into my house and walk past a wall of literally 1000 burnt dvd's and they didn't care, pretty sure they do it themselves lol

[RevoltTrain]

Well, Torrenting isn't illegal. I know what you mean, but just a heads up that torrents aren't illegal, it's some of the content that is. 

I meant torrenting pirated media. You knew that though

[KE2012]

If your simply downloading I think its a slap on your wrist over here if caught (you get 3 warning letters before a few grand fine I think) but if your uploading then you wanna make sure you have a big bank account.

[TheMcSame]

Very little as long as you aren't distributing. The laws in the UK aren't really that strict, the most they'll do is send you a letter because they can't do anything about it. Action wont be taken unless you're distributing it or a big company gets involved, even then, I think it's only between you and the company.

[DildorTheDecent]

Basically not going to get in trouble unless you are selling them. Actually had 2 cops come into my house and walk past a wall of literally 1000 burnt dvd's and they didn't care, pretty sure they do it themselves lol

Everybody burns DVDs.

[JAKEBAB]

Everybody burns DVDs.

Exactly, which is pirating and they don't care lol and i don't anymore coz torrents are far easier, i don't have to go to the dvd store lol

[x Relentless Xx]

Considering the guy that ran Pirate Bay went to prison, Extremely Illegal. Pirating is theft, you are stealing software. Its no different than walking into a store and shoplifting, you are just doing it electronically

[s3ns3]

you can download pirated content all you want no legal force care.they target the ppl who host such sites ,not you.  however the only bad thing is the lack of content hence lots of piracy

 

 

Considering the guy that ran Pirate Bay went to prison

see? the guys who run these type of sites are targeted. 

Edited February 14, 2015 by s3ns3

[x Relentless Xx]

you can download pirated content all you want no legal force care.they target the ppl who host such sites ,not you.  however the only bad thing is the lack of content hence lots of piracy

They DO care. They target the people that host the sites so they can stop you from pirating. They dont go for the piraters because theere are way too many of them, so they stop it at the source, your logic is invalid

[SImoHayha]

The reason piracy exists, is for  high prices of games in other countries, games that are censored in other countries so people torrent games in order to play a game.  People just simply want to try a demo of the game and see if they like it, then purchase it.  And I guess in a sense or something like that to rebel against purchasing games from a certain company..lets say like COD which is the same bullshit every damn year and nothing changes.

[SImoHayha]

They DO care. They target the people that host the sites so they can stop you from pirating. They dont go for the piraters because theere are way too many of them, so they stop it at the source, your logic is invalid

People are going to pirate regardless, they'll just fine a new place or wait until they upload it to a different site for the files..

[x Relentless Xx]

The reason piracy exists, is for  high prices of games in other countries, games that are censored in other countries so people torrent games in order to play a game.  People just simply want to try a demo of the game and see if they like it, then purchase it.  And I guess in a sense or something like that to rebel against purchasing games from a certain company..lets say like COD which is the same bullshit every damn year and nothing changes.

<<---so hard right now, because your logic is invalid and completely false

[s3ns3]

They DO care. They target the people that host the sites so they can stop you from pirating. They dont go for the piraters because theere are way too many of them, so they stop it at the source, your logic is invalid

no,they dont

 

Its no different than walking into a store and shoplifting, you are just doing it electronically

no you are wrong.its very but very different and not the same thing at all

[x Relentless Xx]

The simple and blunt fact is; pirating software is stealing, it IS illegal. Its not because of the price of games in different countries, it doesnt make it legal because the feds dont come for you. You are literally stealing software, it is a form of theft, period.

[Blevins]

Its no different than walking into a store and shoplifting, you are just doing it electronically

Not quite. Piracy is not theft, it's counterfeiting. You're making identical copies without the consent of the contents owner. That's not theft. Theft removes it from the owners possession and places it in yours.

 

Every pirated copy of a movie, game, or software  doesn't necessarily mean one copy not sold. A lot of people that pirate software either can't afford to buy it, or just plain wouldn't buy it. 

[x Relentless Xx]

no,they dont

 

no you are wrong.its very but very different and not the same thing at all

please explain how it is different, you walk into a store, put something in your pocket and walk out without paying for it.....stealing

you go to a pirating site (walk into the store), you download the software you are supposed to pay for (put the item in your pocket), you install the software and use it (walk out without paying for it)

 

Seems like the same concept to me, once again, your logic is flawed

[x Relentless Xx]

Not quite. Piracy is not theft, it's counterfeiting.

Counterfeiting is even WORSE than theft, so your logic is flawed as well. SO much flawed logic here