Philosophical Quandry: Piracy

Taera · #1 July 11th, 2003, 09:52 AM

i see pirating as putting into image file or burning to a cd and then distributing it outside. giving it to a friend to try is not pirating because your not copying your game and giving it off to him - your sharing your CD. And your getting it back later.

dogscoff · #2 July 11th, 2003, 10:10 AM

Quote:

If not, he will uninstall it and be done with it. Just him forever playing on this copy is not an option to be considered in this thread.

Well, this is the crucial bit. You can't really guarantee this in real life, so the whole issue becomes hypothetical.

However, even in this hypothetical case,it would still (technically) be morally wrong. Even if you argue that you're doing shrapnel/ malfador a favour by encouraging a new player by means of a limited trial, the right to issue such a trial still rests exclusively with them.

Of course, that's kind of a rigid approach, and it's really not the way ppl do things these days...

Quote:

giving {your game CD} to a friend to try is not pirating because your not copying your game and giving it off to him - your sharing your CD. And your getting it back later.

Except that your friend could easily just install the game and not uninstall it- SE4 doesn't require a CD to run, you know.

BBegemott · #3 July 11th, 2003, 10:32 AM

In general piracy is when you make a profit from others work. If you don't make profit, so what kind of pirate you are?

And now comes the lawer and messes everything up...

Gryphin · #4 July 12th, 2003, 01:20 AM

EDIT:
As I was preparing my second post in this thread, (the one just before Geo�s), I realized this is not a matter of law or philosophy. It is a matter of morals
My first post came to the wrong conclusion.

I break rules all the time. I don�t violate persons intent that I have agreed to. Installing the game I agree to abide by the EULA.

-----------
This comes down to following the
Letter of the Law
Or
The intent of the Law

For the most part I have always followed the intent
The most important part I summarize on the Home page of my site:
�In my youth I was taught that first you must learn the rules, (and understand them), before you can break them. Later in life I developed the corollary, Sometimes you must break the rules before you can learn them, (and understand them)�

My understanding is the intent of the law would make Fyron�s concept legitimate.
In saying so I do not forget it is still ileagle.

[ July 11, 2003, 15:28: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

Loser · #5 July 12th, 2003, 01:37 AM

Well, if I did not have a close connection with this 'friend' I would just direct them to the demo.

However if, for example, they lived with me and I could persuade, pester, and encourage them to purchase the game (on an almost daily basis), then I would probably make the loan. It all depends, really, on whether or not I think they will buy the game once they decide they like it.

Of course, this is an early morning interpretation of half-formed thoughts. Possibly more to follow...

rdouglass · #6 July 11th, 2003, 02:59 PM

IMO if the developer (of any software) intends for the user to "try before you buy", they will provide a demo. SEIV has said demo so IMO, the act of "loaning" the game is wrong for both parties; the one asking for the loan and the one doing the loaning. (It would be wrong even if they didn't have a demo.)

Normally EULA state that you don't own the s/w; you just own a license to use it. One solution around the question is you could invite the freind over for a "hot seat" game - then you don't have to worry about breaking the EULA.

Erax · #7 July 11th, 2003, 03:04 PM

Fyron, I have done exactly what you described, twice. In both cases, my friends installed the game and returned the CD, but they haven't played yet. It's been sitting unplayed on their HD's for weeks now.

Why did I do it ? That's just the way our crowd does things. We play all sorts of games - RPGs, boardgames, card games, miniatures games. We trade games with each other, we sell each other our old games, we give them as gifts, we loan them. We don't treat computer games any different.

I didn't think it was, for lack of a better word, 'wrong' when I did it. Reading some of the piracy threads on this forum, I now understand that some people may have a different opinion. All I can say is that I acted within the standards of my RL community, when perhaps I should have questioned some of them.