Gaming piracy

[propane]

Thoughts? Have you been involved in it? Do you still do it? What do you think of it?

 

[Dark_Lite]

It's illegal obviously.

Every time I've tried to do it, my internet connection is a piece of junk and I don't feel like trying to do it. I've only tried to do it about once or twice, and not even for games I was really interested in.

I buy my games. I perfer to simply have the official version... Makes things much easier.

What do I think of it? I think people are cheapskates and need to save up some money

 

[Sharky]

i've stopped doing it. But not before making changes.

God took my games away from me because it was becoming my idol.

Waited a while before God gave a few games back to me, ones that i can enjoy and not idolise.

Those games were bought legit. Now i don't see any reason why i should pirate anymore.

Paying for the games is basically saying thank you to the companies who put their hard work into it. I think they deserve more than you pirating it from them.

 

[Felron]

I haven't modded my consoles, but I am going to be doing ..somthing like it with my GC.

I just don't have the money to spend on it. Though I own lots of games (the ones I play online) I just can't affored to pay $80 a game.

I'll mod, and I won't care.

 

[KenobiKid]

In high school I modded my PS1 and had copied games. At this time I didn't see it as stealing and didn't see the harm is causes. Piracy of any kind music, movies, video games is wrong. Companies speand millions of dollar each year creating/developing these things and really only see a small percent of it come back, they depend on return consumers. I think people should really thing about the long term problems that piracy creates. I can't say that I've never done it, but I'm willing to admit now that I was wrong and like I said I didn't see it as stealing, but that's really what it is.

 

[Key Peninsula Redneck]

Warez are bad. I don't pirate things.

 

[Dust and Ashes]

I used to download and burn games and I justified it by saying that I wouldn't have bought the game anyway, so I wasn't really taking money out of the game company's pocket. Then I started listening to the Holy Spirit's conviction and asked myself if right was right and wrong was wrong. I don't steal intellectual property anymore. Those people work hard to provide us with good games and I want them to continue doing it so I won't steal from them.

 

[royli57]

I would whole-heartedly suppor those who have worked so hard to develop the games.

But something inside of me feels injustice when I see the underhanded tactics of RIAA and the gaming industries.

 

[CHR15T05]

In answer to the orignal question:

Yes I have done it, but binned all my coppied Cd's since and dont do it anymore.

For those that say they dont care is a worry. Yes they are expensive but there is a kind of rule of thumb which is cruel but true.

If you cant afford something, you cant have it.

I would love a Ferarri, but I cant afford one, and so I dont have one.

Would you walk into a shop, pick up an $80 game and leave without paying?

Probably not?

Well pirating IS the EXACT SAME THING.... no question.

 

[Dracil]

Sure. As long as prices remain so ridiculously high, the substitutes and their affects on my demand elasticity means that I'd rather pirate.

In Asia though, where piracy has taken its full effects and companies have gotten smart and brought down the prices of the legitimate stuff to compete, I'm more willing to pay for the real thing there.

BTW, copyright infringement is not the same thing as stealing, no matter how many prizes the RIAA gives you to brainwash you into thinking so. Copyright infringement is more like making your own version of a medicine by looking at the ingredients of a patented medicine and then creating it yourself in your own little medical lab.

 

[CHR15T05]

Sure. As long as prices remain so ridiculously high, the substitutes and their affects on my demand elasticity means that I'd rather pirate.

In Asia though, where piracy has taken its full effects and companies have gotten smart and brought down the prices of the legitimate stuff to compete, I'm more willing to pay for the real thing there.

BTW, copyright infringement is not the same thing as stealing, no matter how many prizes the RIAA gives you to brainwash you into thinking so. Copyright infringement is more like making your own version of a medicine by looking at the ingredients of a patented medicine and then creating it yourself in your own little medical lab.

Taking on your drug analogy, that would mean for a pirtate to only be breaking "copyright infirngement" hae can look at the code, see how the game is put together, and THEN sit down by himself (or with a team) and do all the years of 3D modelling, Animation, Texture work, sound editing, music composition, and hard coding, and by THIS means, he can re-create the entire game.

Well good luck with that one then

I'm off to copy right infrindge a Ferarri by chaning the number plates. Hope that's ok with you?

And im sorry but this IS a christian Forum and so I am entitled to a moral high horse. Well you say pirating is not the same as stealing, do you mean Legally or morally? Less face it, the 2 are not always the same. BEsided, isn't "copyright infirdgement" also illegal?

 

[seebs]

I pirated a game once, because I was mad at the company that made it for another game which I bought and which wouldn't run on my computer. I also pirated, mostly by accident, a couple of games back in the 80s, because I didn't realize the copies I got weren't legit; I just assumed people gave stuff away.

I bet the Mark Of The Unicorn technical staff had a great time wondering what to do with my query about how much they wanted for a Mouse Stampede license. (They're a MIDI/sound company, but for reasons unknown, they did a Centipede clone for the early Mac.)

 

[Dracil]

Taking on your drug analogy, that would mean for a pirtate to only be breaking "copyright infirngement" hae can look at the code, see how the game is put together, and THEN sit down by himself (or with a team) and do all the years of 3D modelling, Animation, Texture work, sound editing, music composition, and hard coding, and by THIS means, he can re-create the entire game.

Well good luck with that one then

I'm off to copy right infrindge a Ferarri by chaning the number plates. Hope that's ok with you?

And im sorry but this IS a christian Forum and so I am entitled to a moral high horse. Well you say pirating is not the same as stealing, do you mean Legally or morally? Less face it, the 2 are not always the same. BEsided, isn't "copyright infirdgement" also illegal?

Actually, the technology for digital infringement is a lot easier. I just copy all the bits. When they make a machine that can re-create the drug by dumping in the ingredients and setting some variables (much like CD burners and their software), the same will happen.

Ferrari analogy is flawed, as you're just reverting to the old theft analogy again, which is completely different. The person actually loses their car there.

Legality, yes, it is illegal, but not a crime, unless the volume exceeds X dollars (US law). That said, I wonder what you think about protests and acts of civil disobedience? Another question, what do you think about your own rights? Before worrying about the rights of the RIAA and game companies, you might wanna contemplate on how their greed has been infringing on your rights over the years.

Too often in these debates I see people quietly letting their own rights get trampled on over supposed "moral high horses" based on laws that were created by the very same people out to screw you over in the first place.

 

[CHR15T05]

Actually, the technology for digital infringement is a lot easier. I just copy all the bits. When they make a machine that can re-create the drug by dumping in the ingredients and setting some variables (much like CD burners and their software), the same will happen.

Ferrari analogy is flawed, as you're just reverting to the old theft analogy again, which is completely different. The person actually loses their car there.

Legality, yes, it is illegal, but not a crime, unless the volume exceeds X dollars (US law). That said, I wonder what you think about protests and acts of civil disobedience? Another question, what do you think about your own rights? Before worrying about the rights of the RIAA and game companies, you might wanna contemplate on how their greed has been infringing on your rights over the years.

Too often in these debates I see people quietly letting their own rights get trampled on over supposed "moral high horses" based on laws that were created by the very same people out to screw you over in the first place.

I think I said in my last post that morality and law are not always the same, so on that part we apready agree

However I will agree to disagree on the morality of copying games. One could argue that Ferarri are screwing people over. Whether they are or not is irrelevent when it comes to our personal moral standing. If i cant afford a ferarri I cant have one.

For me, the same is with games. At present I would LOVE to run out and get:

UT2004
SSX Tricky
Bond for Xbox
Rainbow 6
Xbox live
BF1942

and there are many more not to mention DVD's and music I would love to buy. However at present I cant afford to spend my money on those luxuries, so I live without them.

That's me!

I guess being a 3D modeller myself and knowing how little one is paid, even programmers, and how much of the profit goes to the publishing houses.....who in term dont just sit there and make money, they have THIER team of people working on packaging, promotions, advertising, magazine PR, retail pesence, etc etc and all have to be paid...... but all that said, if a game is worth playing, it is worth paying for, otherwise you ARE stealing from those that have put long hours into making the games.

Perhaps you would prefer a farer system where by if you want the game YOU personally pay the wages of the whole development team for just 1 day. Hmmmm... i wonder which would be cheeper?

Anyway like I said, I think I will agree to disagree otherwise I will be on this post all day every day

 

[Dracil]

Except for one problem, you're assuming that piracy always lowers sales. I'm not sure how it works for games, but at least for music CDs, it's actually been shown that the opposite occurs. Piracy *increases* sales.

That would be like taking the Ferrari and the other person miraculously suddenly owning two Ferraris. The wonders of copying. (but more importantly, this highlights the fallacy of arguments saying that pirates are stealing revenue). I'm also sure the companies could be paying a lot higher salaries if they stopped wasting all that money paying all those snake-oil salesmen for useless copy protections and also stop paying expensive lawyers to go after little kids and grandmothers.

But yeah, perhaps we shall have to agree to disagree.

 

[seebs]

With music, most of the people who "pirate" music are trying stuff out to see what they like.

With games, most of the people who copy them have no intention of buying any of them.

 

[Arnediad]

I pirate games. Are they games people actually sell anymore? No. The newest game I've ever "pirated" was the Unreal Tournament for Linux installer. Other than that I have Ultima VII, System Shock II, Outwars, Allegiance, and many many others. I also collect various other interesting computer related things on the net -- some of which may or may not be legal. If those companies want to find me and ask me to pay, I would probably do so. The thing is, I haven't seen a single company out there that cares about abandonware. They're just happy, from what I've seen, to be getting their older game into the hands of consumers.

If I had a computer that could handle new (still widely sold) computer games, I would probably pirate a few of those too. I would probably wind up buying a CD anyway, seeing as how paranoid game companies are getting with online play and the like.

*shrugs* Piracy, in my opinion, is either something you totally support or totally hate. There really isn't a fence you can ride in this case.

 

[KenobiKid]

If I had a computer that could handle new (still widely sold) computer games, I would probably pirate a few of those too. I would probably wind up buying a CD anyway, seeing as how paranoid game companies are getting with online play and the like.
.

So you don't feel bad about the countless hours that some programmer spent writing and creating that game? No matter what spin you try to put on it it's still stealing. What is "right" about taking something for free that others have to pay for?

 

[jay_solution]

The principle that piracy of any type violates is

Exo 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.

It does not matter if it's easy, difficult, for testing purposes, digital, analog, not for profit, and etc. If you obtain something without permission then it is stealing.

I use to debate in my head about ROM's. I thought well this isn't going to hurt anyone, or they don't sale these games anymore. The bottom line is you have to pay to play, and trying to run around their policies is crooked.

I'm not trying to be preachy, but I see a lot of opinions, but the bottom line is what does the Word of God say about the matter.

If you are talking or asking a question about then it must be on your conscious that it is wrong, and the Word of God says,

1Pe 3:21 The like figure whereunto [even] baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

 

[propane]

It's illegal because it breaks copyright laws- you're infringing on the artists/developers exclusive rights to reproduction and distribution. I'm not sure if it's technically stealing, but it's illegal and it's getting a product without paying for it.