Do you agree or disagree with digital piracy

[Cad6500]

The problem is companies don't make it available to all countries, or make it available months or even years later. 1 example is Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Nick really advertised it here, but I never saw it aired here, so in that case, I would agree (although I watched it online :P). Music and games are a different story, since they are easy to get, so I won't pirate those anymore...

[origx36]

i think music piracy is importrent,but not good

 

beacuse:

pepole that pirate songs and like theme will maybe buy the album at some point or they will go to the artist's show

 

 

i think the cost of album is to high,but i still buy theme B)

 

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video games piracy is a tricky one

 

downloading pireted indie games : never :angry: 

 

but those AAA titles that cost 60$ , i used to pirate allot of those,beacuse i dont have the money to go and buy 60$ games,

i now pirate much less

basicly only movies
 

[looney]

The op asked you opinion, not whether you pirate or not.

 

Remember its against the code of conduct to admit to pirating.

(I always just vaguely suggest...)

[PBaines]

I love downloading things for free ;)

[origx36]

The op asked you opinion, not whether you pirate or not.

 

Remember its against the code of conduct to admit to pirating.

(I always just vaguely suggest...)

 

i belive its better to admit you pirate

and not to lie about it

[looney]

i belive its better to admit you pirate

and not to lie about it

not lying, just not admitting.

OP only asks for you opinion on the subject. 

 

CoC does not allow you to say "I pirate because I cant afford it" but you can say "I believe its oke to download if you cant afford it" because that's not directly admitting to piracy  :P

[Samdb]

We pay a ridiculous amount for TV and streaming services, often they don't have what I want to watch, so I do what I need to do to access the content.

[EChondo]

Pirating should only be an option when you can't get the content otherwise.

 

Music not available or don't know if you'll like it? Pirate it.

 

TV shows not available? Pirate it, not your fault your cable companies are idiots.

 

Movies not available? Pirate it, not your fault Hollywood is beyond stupid to think other countries would buy their crappy movies.

 

Games don't have a demo? Pirate the full thing. Like it? Buy it. If a game isn't available to purchase, pirate it. Not your fault Game publishers or Government are being incompetent and not allowing your region to be able to buy the game.

 

Software expensive/not available? Pirate it or not, that's up to you. See if you actually like it, demo it, then save up and buy it.

 

^My views.

[FabulousOtter]

So, a little back story about my position:

I do pirate, but only when the thing I’m downloading is unavailable to purchase or just isn't feasible for me to purchase a full license for. I’m a university student studying for my masters degree in game art. The tools that I need (hardware and software) end up costing me well over a full years tuition fee - which thanks to Mr Clegg is now ridiculous (£9,000/$14,000). That said though, companies such as Autodesk have come out saying they don’t mind students obtaining copies of their software because we eventually end up being employed by a studio who then buys licenses in bulk. That makes me feel a little better about it.

 

As for games, films and music I generally don’t because of the platforms that are now available:

 

- Steam – easy as ever to purchase and download a game, usually with a huge discount not found elsewhere. Nice and simple library makes it convenient having everything in one place. No messing around with compatibility issues and cracks.
- Netflix – easy to stream at a reasonable quality, no limit of films and TV shows per month for less than the price of a dvd.
- Spotify – unlimited high quality streaming of almost any song you can think of for less than an album. Allows ‘offline’ modes and automatic synchronisation with your phone.

 

Notice a trend? Convenience

 

 

As for my opinion to whether I agree with piracy or not, it kind of depends what it is and the circumstances of the person doing it. For things like the three above, I don't agree with... especially for video games. For example: I bought Skyrim on launch when it was around £35 (the typical price for a new 'big' game on steam). That £35 has given me hundreds of hours worth of entertainment. When we compare that to a movie, the cost for maybe two and a half hours starts to seem quite silly. I'm not saying that that is a good enough reason to pirate a movie or album though, but I don't think it would hurt dropping the prices a tad.

 

With the whole argument of "Oh, I'll pirate it - then if I like it, I'll buy it", no... you probably won't. Read reviews, watch gameplay on YouTube, it doesn't take much to find out whether you will like something before you buy it anymore, piracy isn't an excuse. 

 

 

If the game, film, album or whatever isn't available for you to either download or buy a physical copy that isn't secondhand, I'm fine with. The company looses nothing by you pirating it.

[CornOnJacob]

    I don't believe in pirating things 99% of the time. The only thing I've pirated in recent memory was a song that I could not buy legally.*AHEM* There is a certain situation in which, although piracy is illegal and against the CoC, and having of course never pirated anything in my life ever, I might be able to condone it. *AHEM*

    I found the song on youtube, but it was not available on bandcamp, etc. I checked iTunes, and it was only available in the UK. At that point, I can't buy it legally and I consider that a distribution problem. I was willing to pay for it, but I couldn't.

    On a side note, I think buying used games from Gamestop is worse than pirating them. Buying used from them not only does not help the game developers, but it takes away 95% of the money I would have spent if it were a new copy. That money could go towards supporting other game devs.

[mr moose]

remember:

[Canoas]

It's dependent on many factors really.

1. Can you afford it?

2. Do you want to support it?

3. Does the developer need your money?

 

If you can't afford it then there's really no choice. If you want to support it then you should pay for it, but if the developer isn't starving and there are other games to support then you must choose who gets your money.

I only buy games when I know I'll really like them or after I've played them. For example, after playing Path of Exile and Warframe for over 50 hours I put some money into the game to show support, even thought I didn't play much after. For music I'll pay only if they're still small and I'll usually never pay for movies/series unless I feel like they reaaaaaaally deserve it and they're not super rich.

[_ASSASSIN_]

Or the Netherlands (where I live), or Spain, or even Canada when downloading music is legal.

 

For me it's 100% legal to download music, tv-series and movies.

Software is something stupid like you can download the ISO but your not allowed to download the key or illegally activate the ISO

ah

[ygohome]

I was about to vote but then I realized I did not really understand the question.

 

If I vote that "I agree with digital piracy", does that mean I agree with digital piracy prevention?  Or does it mean I agree that digital piracy is okay?

 

I'm thinking too deeply about the question.  ha

 

 

To be clear, I believe it is not "okay" to download or upload/distribute pirated digital content.  "Piracy" meaning illegal digital content (ie bootleg copies on any media) etc.  Common sense stuff.

 

I do not agree with DRM content, like from iTunes.  Because then I'd have to remove the DRM to be able to use that purchased content on my home XBMC server, etc.  It is a hassle, but I understand why it is there... to try prevent digital piracy.

[FabulousOtter]

I was about to vote but then I realized I did not really understand the question.

 

If I vote that "I agree with digital piracy", does that mean I agree with digital piracy prevention?  Or does it mean I agree that digital piracy is okay?

 

If you vote 'I agree with digital piracy' it means you're ok with people pirating

[R4STABAN]

This thread is saturated with criminals

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

I don't pirate my games but do rearch about it if it has crappy DRM issues before spending anything on it. If it has some, I just don't buy it as that will hurt those devs where it counts- their wallets. If I go about pirating it, that will just give some dev another excuse to put some crappy DRM on it which will ruin it for everyone. While I do not mind online activations, when the dev puts something like hourly checks [as it was for HAWXs 2] which will ruin the game, I simply won't buy it.

 

In terms of music, I just download free music from Bandcamp which is legal, or I go about getting game soundtracks from Humble Bundles and for movies, I don't watch any as they are boring, but if I do I just rent them. If you can rent them at a low price, then why pirate them?

 

I hope my view helps you with your research!

[OddlyShapedTree]

It depends on the price and how worth it is for me. Because as a producer you can't expect people to overpay for something they can so easily get for free. 

[Esivo]

I pirate stuff yes. 

"Sharing is caring", right? Anyhow nowdays I only pirate movies, I stopped doing that with games after I discovered Steam (well after the early Steam days disappointments I came back when it got stable) and I have bought every game I ever pirated, in the past, I think by now, and I'm pretty sure more than 1 copy.

[ericlee30]

This is how I can some up the way I feel. If the world just stay's a greed bucket, then Piracy will always be around and the more all the companies worry about them self's, the more people will pirate stuff. The greedy corporate companies do it to them self's and only have them self's to blame.

[LAwLz]

I "agree somewhat" with piracy. I don't think it should be legal, but I think the distribution system these big companies use should be redesigned and I think the punishment should be far lower than they are. If you get caught now you can be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is just pantsu-on-head retarded.

 

Here is a very long and detailed post I wrote about a year ago on why piracy isn't bad, and how it actually helps a lot of people (as well as lots of quotes from content creators who think piracy is good).

 

I've seen quite a bit of "piracy is terrible, you're stealing and breaking the law" videos/posts as of late. Since I don't have anything better to do while banned from /g/ I thought I'd give my 2 cent on piracy.

 

First of all, I believe the whole "piracy is stealing" idea is completely untrue and wrong. Pirating does not remove anything from the original owner. If I steal something, I physically remove something from the owner, such as money or any other physical object (for example a figure, a laptop or a keyboard). When someone pirates something, the person makes an identical copy of the file, while leaving the original intact.
Markus "Notch" Persson (creator of Minecraft) once said:
"If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world".
And that sums it up pretty well. So no, pirating and stealing are two different things.

Another thing which often gets brought up is that each instance of pirating is a lost sale. This is not true at all. A lot of people pirate for example games in order to try them out. A lot of games these days puts heavy emphasis on the multiplayer aspect of the game, which is something you in most cases can not experience on a pirated copy. So a lot of people pirate the game, tries the single player and then maybe buys the game. If they aren't satisfied with the game then they won't buy it. If they weren't satisfied with it then they wouldn't have bought the game to begin with (because of for example bad reviews).
One of the first pirated games I played were Quake 3 Arena. My neighbor gave it to me on a CD he had burned for me. This was back in the early 2000. Without him, I most likely would not have gotten into Quake. Him pirating the game indirectly made me buy all Quake games when they were released on Steam.

As for movies/TV shows/comics, piracy can actually help boost sales. I like anime a lot, and most of the shows I watch are never even released outside of Japan. The only way for me to see these shows are through pirating fansubs. So I got 2 alternatives. I could do nothing, or I could pirate the shows. The first alternative does not do anything at all. The second one not only gives me the ability to enjoy the shows that I like, but it can also encourage the studio/company behind the show to release their products outside of Japan. If they see that people outside of Japan are interested in their show, they might release it in those countries.
There is a manga called "It's not my fault that I am not popular" which quite recently became very popular because of piracy. The manga is about a very socially awkward girl who tries to become more popular. It has been heavily pirated even since someone decided to translate it into English, but it is still selling very well. It even managed to get to number 10 in sales one week, beating series like Rozen Maiden, Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist. The author himself have recognized that he owns part of his success to the people over at 4chan who mostly pirates the comic.

. He thinks that people who pirate his movies helps spreading his message, and I really agree with him. Borrowing a DVD from a friend is not illegal, yet you get access to the content without paying anything, nor does Michael Moore get any money. It's basically the same as pirating the movie.

The whole "

" is just plan wrong. Even if piracy had a big negative effect, it wouldn't cause for example sound engineers for the movie to get fired. The worst thing which could happen is that the actor/actress won't get paid 12.5 million dollars per movie. Maybe just 10 million dollars per movie. The fact is that both total gross revenues have increased and box office receipts have DOUBLED in the last 15 years. From 52,8 billion dollars (1995) to a whipping 104.4 billion dollars (2009). Not only that, but executives gets paid more than ever as well.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker said in a commentary that:
"South Park was one of the first shows to get downloaded on the Internet, and be alike all over the place and everyone getting it for free over the Internet. And it didn't hurt us at all. It actually helped us so much."
They also bring up the whole "piracy is not always a lost sale" which I talked about earlier.


Neil Gaiman, the English author who has won multiple awards for his creations, is pro-piracy. He made an experiment about piracy. He took the book "American Gods", a book which has won multiple awards such as a Hugo Award, and he put it up for free for a whole month. Guess what happened when his book was available for free, on the publisher's website. The sales on his other books went up by 300%.
Here is a video he made afterwards which mentions this experiment, and a few other experiments he has made.
Here is a video where he talks about this experiment, as well as a few other observations he has made.

What he means is that when someone pirates his books, it's like if someone borrowed a copy of his book, which is basically free publicity, and can lead to more sales.

When it comes to music, piracy is not really that bad either. Alex Day is pretty famous on Youtube. He makes music and put the songs up on his website for free. Yet his single "Forever Your" managed to get to number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and it sold over 50,000 copies. Why did people buy the song when they could listen to it for free? Because they wanted to support Alex, and they liked the song. Putting the song out for free gave him a huge amount of publicity.

Here is a quote about his thoughts on piracy (full article can be found here):
"If any musicians, videomakers or creators of other types of media preach about how vital it is to legally purchase things and support their field of industry, I deem them narrow-minded. File-sharing is just a product of technological change. You can either fight it, or adapt. And I think fighting it is a bit pointless.

So my way of adapting is that I stream all my music on my website for free. If you want to own it, I’d appreciate you paying for it (and I put a lot of effort into making physical products that I hope you consider worth the money you’d be spending on them), but if you want a ‘try before you buy’, you can listen online as much as you like and decide whether you would like to invest in owning the media or supporting me so you can hear more."

Joss Stone, a singer, will agree with me that piracy isn't that bad. She said in an interview that:
"I think that we should share. It's OK. If one person buys it it's totally cool. Burn it up, share it with your friends, I don't care. I don't care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show and have a great time listening to the live show it is totally cool."
The full interview can be found

.
I think her answer is great, and I fully agree with her point. Not only that, but I believe that piracy could potentially increase the amount of money she makes. If more people hear her music, more people will go to her live performance. I went to Sonisphere 2 years ago and listened to bands such as Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Slayer, Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper (to name a few), and I have never bought a CD from any of these bands. I went there because I wanted to see them perform live. I had listened to lots of their songs before, in some instances not legally. However, the point is that if I had not heard their songs before, I wouldn't have gone there.


So my point is that piracy is not a bad thing. It can often help people not only spread their message, but it can also help boost sales. It is not destroying the industry, nor do people lose jobs because of it. At least not in the same way as companies try to picture it.

The real problem is that companies are trying to stick with an outdated business model. The Internet is a great tool for making money, but a lot of companies still try use the old and outdated things like TV and DVD sales, as their only income source. I am not saying that they should put out their stuff on the web for free, but they could do things such as launch services such as Nexflix outside of the US. I believe that one of the big reasons people pirate is not to avoid having to pay for it. It's because it is so convenient to pirate. Instead of having to drive to the store, stand in a queue, drive back home, watch an hour of "don't pirate this", look through the commercials even though you've already paid for the movie, and then watch the movie, you can just press a download button and then watch the movie maybe an hour or so later. Without commercials, without annoying "don't pirate this" messages, in great quality, and you can easy watch it on other devices as well.

Steam is a great example of an awesome service. It gives you access to a huge library of games. It is easy to pay for things, the prices are usually great, and it is very convenient. You get all your games saved in a single place, you can login to your account on multiple computers. Hell, you can even install Steam on an external hard drive, take it with you and then plug it into a random computer and play your games from there.
I am not a huge "gamer". I play a few games once in a while, but I have bought 25 games on Steam, and I only started using it maybe 2 years ago. In these last two years I have bought about as many games as I've done during the other 17 years of my life.

So yeah. If any big company is reading this, here is my suggestion to you. If you want to stop piracy (even though it's not IMO a big deal) then make services which are better and more convenient than pirating. Steam, Netflix, Spotify are great examples. Try to replicate what they do and you won't have as much problems with piracy, and the customers will be happier as well.

 

 

If you're interested in some real stats (like how much "less" the movie industry makes even with all this piracy, compared to 15 years ago when it was far less common) and what some intelligent content creators think of piracy then I highly recommend you read it. I have linked to all the sources and citations as well, so you can doublecheck it if you want. Well worth reading if you think that piracy is horrible and it's bad to do it, if I do say so myself.

[WanderingFool]

I pirate songs because i can't find the albums, or i want FLAC files

Movies because 2 hour "movie" should not be priced at 15$ per ticket

Games because 60$ is too much, 45 is reasonable.

Windows i pirate because for a software that almost everyone has, it shouldn't be expesive as it is.

I own a original copy of win 7, but i will have no issue pirating it for my family, i got mine for free

i buy games for cheap, and movies is just BS.

Personally I think Windows is actually quite cheap.  You only have to purchase it once, and it usually lasts 5 - 10 years.  If you think at how much work needs to go into supporting windows it is a real good value.

In terms of the Movie one, if you want you could just wait until it comes out on blu-ray :p

 

Firts of all, like I said, downloading software is NOT legal here.

 

Second, we do pay for the content when we download it (sort of)

There is a tax on all data carriers (flash drives, HDD, DVD's, MP3 players, tablets, etc, etc) the mony coming from that tax is distributed to content creators.

 

Its impossible to stop piracy, but this way they still get some money from the pirates (thought studies have proven that pirates spend a lot more on media than non pirates)

It is impossible to stop piracy, I will admit that but using the tax as justification isn't right either.  At least in Canada it isn't "illegal" for music (it is a torte, civil suit offense so sort of illegal) but the taxes on things such as CD's aren't properly distributed to the content creators.  Most of the time those tax dollars aren't even seen by some smaller content creators.

 

 

To the creator of this poll here is my view (voted Somewhat):

When it comes to games, I pirate ones that I already own (either to bypass the DRM stuff, or in the case of older games I don't want to damage the cartridge...plus it is better on emulators)

Movies - I pirate those which I own

TV Shows - All tv shows I watch...with that said I pay for cable which contains those shows.  As my digital box is usually left on and tuned to the channels anyways it isn't much of a loss for them

   A few exceptions where I downloaded a show that wasn't running anymore just to see if it was good (Browncoats unite anyone?) but if it was good I would purchase the boxset

Games - Also when I can't get ahold of them anymore (SNES, N64)

Software - Use to pirate a few things (most of which I ended up buying because I used the products)

[mr moose]

SNIP

 

Oh the trouble when personal views clash with law.  Regardless of whether we/they/you/me think it is stealing or not, the law in some countries refers to Intellectual property as being an ownable commodity. If you use that commodity without permission (which usually costs $) then you are stealing the right to use said material. There is no definition in law that restricts theft to a physical material possession. In fact there are examples where items in games (which are virtual items) are considered personal property and as such they have a value in real world currency which means they can be stolen.

 

Here's a really big read by the NZ Law review:

 

http://www.laws.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/17_2_354_374.pdf

[DirkaFat]

If I don't have the money to buy something, I would save up, maybe put higher priority on the product, etc. After all, you can't expect to afford everything.

[CoffeeBlack]

You're question is very vague. Agree with what? That it's bad or good? Right or wrong? specificity