Philosophical Quandry: Piracy

1FSTCAT · #1 July 11th, 2003, 08:09 PM

Legally, it's wrong. Give them the demo.

Morally, when you've been used and abused by an industry, time after time, people (and especially the more commonly abused) will tend to break the rules.

I am definitely the "try before you buy" kind of person. I have supported the industry, and been *scammed* out of my money time and time again.

So I've "adapted".

If I didn't, "try before I buy" I would be suckered by advertising and gimics, and I would flat out WASTE 3/4 of my purchasing power.

The day that PC games are "rentable" is the day that a good portion of piracy will disappear. (IMHO)

Now, we also have another alternative. Fortunately, we have "Electronics Boutique" in the U.S. For the most part, you can buy anything you want there, and if it SUCKS they will take it back. You don't need a reason. This is the only "legal release" that I've been able to find, to relieve the above quandary.

--Ed

Loser · #2 July 11th, 2003, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
This was not loaning them your CD, it was copying it and giving them the copy.

Ah, missed that. It was early.

No, no giving them a copy.

Piracy is wrong. Piracy is theft. Theft is the first sin against Almighty Capitalism (the second being vandalism and the third being devaluation of markets).

That being said I have had a good deal of pirated software on my system over the years. I don't think, offhand, I have any pirated software on my system right now. I have made a point of purchasing games I have 'borrowed' and liked (Diablo II, Homeworld, Shogun, Majesty in the past few years). There are times when you purchase a product and times when you patronize an artist, after all.

I tend to treat any piece of software as though it were governed by the 'book' model that Borland used to follow: "if it's not being use in two places at once it's okay". But you can't police that, so I don't take much advantage of this advantage I intend to take.

geoschmo · #3 July 11th, 2003, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:
It's not even a valid topic for dicsussion.

Everything is a valid topic for discussion Geo. Having a bad day?

As I said in my subsequent post, I was not really clear on what I meant by that. Of course anyone is free to discuss whatever they want. What I meant was there is no question that it is wrong. There is no reason to debate whether morally it is ok to copy software without permission and give it away when there is no question from a moral standpoint it is not ok.

Geoschmo

kalthalior · #4 July 11th, 2003, 08:11 PM

I had this dilemma myself earlier this year. I wanted to introduce a new friend to the most compelling and addictive 4x game that has been developed to date -- IMHO. Fortunately, I had both SE4 AND Gold. I never play non-Gold anymore, so I loaned that to him. He has now purchased Gold AND SE3 (he loves older games), I have my non-Gold CD back, and I was (hypothetically) legal the entire time having long ago uninstalled non-Gold. Certainly not applicable in all situations, but it was a simple and elegant solution for me. I work in IT and spent MONTHS getting the small firm I previously worked for completely legal,license- wise a couple of years back.

Fyron · #5 July 11th, 2003, 08:13 PM

Again, everything is open to discussion. Your view is not necessarily the view of everyone else on the planet, you know.

Remember, morality is relative.

[ July 11, 2003, 19:14: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

geoschmo · #6 July 11th, 2003, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Again, everything is open to discussion. Your view is not necessarily the view of everyone else on the planet, you know.

Remember, morality is relative.

No, legality is relative. Morality is absolute. If morality is not absolute it is not morality at all, it's just opinion.

And again I didn't say you couldn't discuss it. But you can talk about it all you want and it won't change what's right and wrong.

Geoschmo

Phoenix-D · #7 July 11th, 2003, 08:22 PM

On a sub-set of the issue: EULAs can go ! me as far as I'm concered. It says I can only have it on one computer at once? Too frigging bad. I only -use- one at a time, and no one else uses my laptop, so that's a reasonable use.

My opinion is that true piracy (copying a game you would buy, then NOT buying it) is bad. ROMs, burning copies, transfering to other media- all stuff the companies often try to stop- isn't. Why should Nintendo care if I play Earthbound on my PC instead of my SNES? I own the cartridge and the system anyway.

Same with music CDs. If I can't burn, I don't buy, because all my music is in MP3 form in playlists. Mostly because most of it is (legally) free downloaded anyway.

Most of the "piracy prevention software" out there does anything but. It just impedes the legal user- Morrowind's, for example, was hacked before the game was released, and it cuts the framerate by 10-15 FPS for most people. Or Windows XP's activation; that was broken too.