Do you agree or disagree with digital piracy

[ghostly65]

I don't do it myself anymore just because I don't feel right pirating something. That being said I never pay $60 for a game (which is the only thing I pirated) becuase I think that is simply too much. If buying a console game I buy used and if buying a pc game I wait until there is a sale. I have nothing against people who pirate except people like a friend of mine who would pirate things because he claimed to not have any money yet he bought an alienware laptop then too me it is an issue but if someone legitimately couldn't buy something then I don't care

[DirkaFat]

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

I think he means agree as in support/condone/participate.

[DirkaFat]

I don't do it myself anymore just because I don't feel right pirating something. That being said I never pay $60 for a game (which is the only thing I pirated) becuase I think that is simply too much. If buying a console game I buy used and if buying a pc game I wait until there is a sale. I have nothing against people who pirate except people like a friend of mine who would pirate things because he claimed to not have any money yet he bought an alienware laptop then too me it is an issue but if someone legitimately couldn't buy something then I don't care

Yeah, but it's expected that someone can't afford everything. They could save up, perhaps. Wait.

 

Edit: "only thing you pirated" Are you saying you pirated one $60 game, or you're going to continue pirating $60 games?

[ghostly65]

Yeah, but it's expected that someone can't afford everything. They could save up, perhaps. Wait.

This is very true. I do that now and just wait it won't kill me not to have that new game right now. I don't agree with the act of piracy but I won't hold it against someone if they choose to do it.

[Whiskers]

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.

 

I've got to say, I wholeheartedly disagree with this.

 

Games are a curious thing. They are not simply a static and predetermined video - they're interactive. This, in my opinion, makes video games by far the entertainment medium with the absolute highest degree of potential for providing thrilling, gripping and engaging experiences for consumers.The problem is, that immersive nature of a game is subjective and can't be entirely quantified. Some of my favourite games which I have grown to love playing were entirely uninteresting to me from trailers and gameplay footage - but when I got the opportunity to actually PLAY the game, and experience what was happening for myself... everything clicked into place and I was sucked in.

 

Many game developers overlook playable demos or time-limited trials for whatever reasons, and go on to condemn piracy. Trouble is, they're causing the problem themselves by not providing gamers with a sufficient way of testing their games to determine their worth.

 

Expecting us to judge a game based purely on a non-playable, pre-rendered and typically unrealistic trailer is akin to expecting an audiophile to judge a new album solely based upon its album art - it's only part of the contributing experience, and not even the most important one.

[Beskamir]

95% of the things I pirate, I have either no way to watch it on TV/On demand/ Netflix, or it costs entirely way to much.  

 

Majority of those can be fixed too lol

yeah piracy is usaully a distribution problem and if the company (*cough* Time Warner and EA *cough*) creates it then I'm terribly sorry to say that they deserve to get their content pirated...

[Beskamir]

I am conducting a poll that is open to anyone and everyone it is for my latest legal studies assignment and my topic is digital piracy

 

The poll is not compulsory but it would help significantly

 

thankyou

I think most of the posts in this thread will do your homework for you :P

[Langdon]

Personally I'm one for the pirate it to try, then buy it if you like it. This is something I mostly do with music.

Sometimes I'll find a band and love them at first, but a two or three months later I can't stand them. If I had bought their albums already, that'd be a big waste of money for me. 

For games also, before you buy a game you'll have no idea what the gameplay is like. You could of course watch play throughs of the game but it's not the same experience as actually playing it.

Most piraters earn far less than what AAA game producers and famous musicians earn. After seeing a few charts, music sales has not decreased significantly at all, the loss of a few hundred million is only a small slice of what they actually earn.

 

Also I remember pirating shows by taking a VCR and recording them to a VHS tape from the TV. Also taking cassette tapes and recording them off the radio. Pirating is not new and has not exploded despite what the industry says.

[ygohome]

very curious...

 

To those voting "agree", and if prosecuted, would your defense be much the same as what you've posted in this thread?

[Whiskers]

very curious...

 

To those voting "agree", and if prosecuted, would your defense be much the same as what you've posted in this thread?

 

Saying that you agree with piracy doesn't automatically mean you are a pirate though. ;)

[Cacao]

Here are the reasons to why I pirate certain things:

 

a) It's not illegal here, so in the eyes of the law I'm not doing anything wrong.

b ) I have no way of buying english movies or TV shows.

c) If I want to try out a game before I spend 60$ on it (if I like it, I buy it)

d) For ridiculously overpriced software, has anyone here actually bought sony vegas?

 

I understand why editing software costs so much, but if they would make the cost 1/10th of what it is now (so sony vegas would be like 60$) then A LOOOOOOT more people would buy it. 

[ygohome]

Saying that you agree with piracy doesn't automatically mean you are a pirate though. ;)

 

 

ha, good answer.

 

Hypothetically though, if prosecuted, I wonder how many of these posts would actually work as a defense.

[Whiskers]

 

ha, good answer.

 

Hypothetically though, if prosecuted, I wonder how many of these posts would actually work as a defense.

 

 

Good question. I suppose it would depend upon how badly the prosecutors want to take you down. And how good your lawyer is...

[Lays]

Yes it's very legal as long as you are no the one who is trying to live by creating stuff and selling it, right? -.-.

 

You think that a programist who spent 10 years learning how to code will be happy that you downloaded his game because publisher set -in your opinion- too high price tag? Games or movies or music or books or tv-series ARE FREAKIN LUXURY ITEM.

 

NOT FOR POOR PEOPLE.

CANT AFFORD IT? NOT FOR YOU.

 

dont shield yourself with "but it's too expensive" or "I wouldnt get it otherwise anyway". Yes, you wouldnt get it, and what? Would you die because of that? No. It's not necessary and it's not other peoples job to give you luxury items.

 

make something digital & useful and then try to sell it, you will see how hard it is to actually sell a product in the world of people who "wouldn't buy it otherwise anyway".

 

 

so your saying sony vegas being 900$-1200$ is ok? lol

 

Making something digital and useful, if it truly is useful, AND AFFORDABLE, people will buy it. 

[Whiskers]

Yes it's very legal as long as you are no the one who is trying to live by creating stuff and selling it, right? -.-.

 

You think that a programist who spent 10 years learning how to code will be happy that you downloaded his game because publisher set -in your opinion- too high price tag? Games or movies or music or books or tv-series ARE FREAKIN LUXURY ITEM.

 

NOT FOR POOR PEOPLE.

CANT AFFORD IT? NOT FOR YOU.

 

dont shield yourself with "but it's too expensive" or "I wouldnt get it otherwise anyway". Yes, you wouldnt get it, and what? Would you die because of that? No. It's not necessary and it's not other peoples job to give you luxury items.

 

make something digital & useful and then try to sell it, you will see how hard it is to actually sell a product in the world of people who "wouldn't buy it otherwise anyway".

 

And what of those who wish to become a graphic designer, 3D animator, architect or video producer? Should they just forget what they want to do with their life on the basis that the overpriced suite of programs necessary for them to learn and practice with is just 'NOT FOR THEM'?

[nukem]

Music - Pirate

Movies - Pirate (simply cos i dont like having disks, andd there is no netflix in aus

TV -  Pirate (Australian TV sucks at getting new content quick and the quality sucks).

Apps - Pirate / (and if i use them regularly and the price is fair) then ill Purchase

Games - Purchase (steam only)

[xx-Grim-One-xx]

I have been a "pirate" since before it was pirating, back then we were just called hackers. I havent, and will not support ANY form of corporate mainstream "media" whether it be movies, music, TV, or software. I do however, support indie groups/artists/game makers, and will donate what i see as reasonable for the product.

[szewei]

I have been pirating the day I learnt to use the computer....

Red alert 2 was the first and now I have 150gb collection an an external hard drive

[xx-Grim-One-xx]

@ Dravic, Using your logic, EVERYTHING except food, water, and shelter would be considered a luxury, because you wouldn't die as long as you have those 3 things. You also don't HAVE to pay for those 3 things, what your paying for is the convenience of having them at your disposal, which is a "luxury", and therefore, not needed. Just because you CAN create something, doesn't guarantee that you will or should get paid for it. Please put some more thought into your argument and get back to us. Until then, i'll be downloading Elysium and We're the Millers.......oh wait, they're already done, so i guess i'll be watching them and not wasting my money on the ridiculously priced theater tickets and 300% marked up junk food they sell. Sorry bout your luck.

[DeViLzzz]

I stopped pirating when I realized I would be setting a bad example for my children. The thing is though is pirating even illegal yet in Canada ?

[xBlizzDevious]

Digital privacy is an interesting topic. Personally, I think that bodies like the Police/Other Law enforcement institutions should be able to have access to your information IF THEY NEED IT. But I don't feel that they should be able to just charge in and demand everybody's data as they are now.

 

Basically, I think that digital privacy is something that should be regarded a bit more than it is now. I mean, just a few years ago, you were fairly safe to go on the internet. Nowadays, probably every keystroke is monitored if you're even plugged in to an online network. It's ridiculous.

[Tommy]

95% of the things I pirate, I have either no way to watch it on TV/On demand/ Netflix, or it costs entirely way to much.  

 

Majority of those can be fixed too lol

Exactly. For £5 a month I can watch unlimited Futurama, Breaking Bad, American Dad and more, yet to get those on DVD would cost WAY over that.

[PaulC1]

I feel that a lot of people's perspective on pirating is "Why not?" Because let's face it, it's so easy to pirate stuff with practically no consequences and with things like blu-rays costing £20 a movie...why not? That being said I don't approve of pirating games, especially indie games, I mean you could pirate a Disney movie and they'll be fine, they make millions off of things like merchandise and theme parks, one pirated movie isn't going to effect them but a small indie developer obviously doesn't have those other ways to produce money so they just rely on game sales and since indie games don't usually cost that much it shouldn't hurt the wallet too much, and hey, who knows, maybe if enough people buy that game it could lead on and turn in to an amazing and huge franchise. So as for the question? I somewhat agree.

[Nicktrance]

I wouldn't say I agree, but I most definitely understand. Most of the times I do it it's because of availability problems. Where I live there is no Netflix, no HBO, no AMC etc. and even if there were I'd have to pay way too much and get a thousand extra channels I don't need.

 

I also understand that most people who pirate only pirate because they can't buy the game in the first place for some reason or another (usually financial reasons or because they're too young to have a credit card and parents would never allow paying for games), therefore the only option is to pirate it or not play it. It's not like they're increasing server load so they're really not causing any damage to anyone.

 

Of course there are quite a few people who pirate because they simply don't want to pay even though they are able to and somehow believe game developers do not deserve any money for software, those I definitely disagree with and hate.

[Toby]

I agree. Digital piracy isn't wrong - it's simply the name we give to the natural function of the internet (the freedom and dissemination of information) when applied to content attached to a payment system that's not fit for purpose.

 

There are a few realities that you need to take into account...

 

- We took our real-world payment system, with its mechanics and its ethics and applied it to a medium that's completely different (the digital space of the internet), expecting it to work...

 

- Pretty much all digital content is now available for free (via "piracy").

 

- In a system where content is infinitely reproducible with no material cost, supply and demand collapses and value becomes largely subjective.

 

Yes it's very legal as long as you are no the one who is trying to live by creating stuff and selling it, right? -.-.

 

You think that a programist who spent 10 years learning how to code will be happy that you downloaded his game because publisher set -in your opinion- too high price tag? Games or movies or music or books or tv-series ARE FREAKIN LUXURY ITEM.

 

NOT FOR POOR PEOPLE.

CANT AFFORD IT? NOT FOR YOU.

 

dont shield yourself with "but it's too expensive" or "I wouldnt get it otherwise anyway". Yes, you wouldnt get it, and what? Would you die because of that? No. It's not necessary and it's not other peoples job to give you luxury items.

 

make something digital & useful and then try to sell it, you will see how hard it is to actually sell a product in the world of people who "wouldn't buy it otherwise anyway".

 

And the final reality...As a content creator, what benefit do I get from "CANT AFFORD IT? NOT FOR YOU"? People have a choice to buy, pirate or go without. Obviously it benefits me more if they buy than if they pirate, but it also benefits me more if they pirate than if they go without. If they pirate they might buy the expansion, or the follow-up, or the prequel, or the album, or recommend it to their friends who recommend it to their friends and some of them might buy it. If however they don't pirate it and just go without...What do I get as the content creator? Nothing.

 

The idea that people denying themselves digital content is somehow morally superior to piracy is ridiculous, because that decision is detrimental to everyone involved by comparison.

 

...

 

So, the result of these realities is that piracy is better than nothing, value is subjective and if anyone disagrees with the set price, they can get it for free instead. Solution? Two things...

 

1: Allow people to pay what they feel content is worth. If you set something at $30, then you're missing out on all those people who would be willing to pay between $1 and $29, but you're also missing out on everyone who would pay more than $30 (as we see people doing with the Humble Indie Bundles).

 

2: Start encouraging people to pay what they feel that content is worth. Trying to hammer "don't pirate, buy it instead!" into peoples' heads as a moral choice will never work, because it's not logical and it's not moral in context to reality. If however you encourage people to pay for the value they've gotten out of something - when they're able - then you most definitely have the logical and moral high-ground. All the arguments of "if the content creators aren't paid, they can't continue to make content" suddenly hold water, where currently they don't.

 

 

very curious...

 

To those voting "agree", and if prosecuted, would your defense be much the same as what you've posted in this thread?

 

I can't imagine "the law is wrong" works very well as a defense in court, even when you're right. I'd use it as a last resort, not as my first option.