Philosophical Quandry: Piracy

Fyron · #1 July 11th, 2003, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Who knows, someday someone might invent a license model that is less restrictive without increasing the risk of piracy.

It is called the GNU public use liscense, used with open-source software packages.

geoschmo · #2 July 11th, 2003, 08:31 PM

So Fyron, why even bother asking the question? What does it matter whether anyone here thinks it's ok if you burn a copy of Se4 and give it away. Since the Aztecs killed people without giving it a second thought you have permission to do whatever you want. Why stop at piracy. Why not get a gun go steal a copy from someone else. It will save you the trouble of copying it.

You can do whatever you want and no one can say you are wrong for it because the Aztecs killed people. With no moral absoltues you can do absolutly whatever you want.

Thermodyne · #3 July 11th, 2003, 08:39 PM

It is wrong, anyway you look at it. If they want to test drive it, DL the demo or try it on your system. But let�s look at both sides of the coin. The license is a contract. When the game in question is bought and paid for, then installed on your system only, you have done your part, But then you find that it is damaged and in need of repair. Then after several free patches you get to buy an upgrade which is still damaged. And after several patches there are still some problems. Does the agreement still stand? I for one feel that I should be able to return my original SE4 CD and get my money back. Or that SE4 classic should be fixed once and for all. As should Gold. It�s a two way street. With anything except software, defective merchandise is a breach of contract. Why is software different?

Fyron · #4 July 11th, 2003, 08:41 PM

Geo, I was talking about on a cultural level, not an individual level.

Gryphin · #5 July 11th, 2003, 08:43 PM

It comes down to:
You agree to the EULA
If you violate the EULA you have gone against your word.
Going against your word is _____
(Fill in the blank. I am not going to say it for you).

Erax · #6 July 11th, 2003, 08:46 PM

Fyron and Geo : see my edit a couple of Posts back.

Phoenix-D · #7 July 11th, 2003, 08:50 PM

"If you really want, you can go make 150000 copies of your Windows CD. As long as you keep every Last one, Microsoft can not do anything to you."

But! The windows CD is a special case, since it has no copy protection. You're allowed to make backups, but not allowed to break the copy protection in order to -make- those backups. If that isn't a stupid legal problem I don't know what is.

And no, I don't consider violating EULAs to be breaking my word. Especially with the IMO immoral restrictions some have tried to sneak in- like "by opening this package you agree to the liscence agreement inside" Hello? I think not. Also, a few have tried to put "You may not give this product bad reviews" in their EULA..