Piracy and corporate bastards

I'm increasingly finding myself in a strange and awkward position (intellectually speaking) regarding software (and music, movie, etc.) piracy. I don't do it myself and basically think of it as theft (that is, wrong). At the same time, the big companies are acting like such bastards about the whole thing that every time I hear a story about it, I'm starting to cheer for the people who do.

Of course, there is the RIAA suing random people for absurd amounts of money (and basically ruining their lives), but there's also Ubisoft, creating a DRM that requires you to be online the entire time you're running their game. (And oops! The first week it comes out, their server crashes. Sorry legitimate customers! (Wait, no we're not.)) Ubisoft is the most egregious example, but obnoxious DRM screwing over people who legitimately paid shows up elsewhere, too.

Then there's the mistreatment of people who buy used copies. (Or attempting to make secondhand use impossible.) This is an entirely different problem, and I don't know a lot about it other than that it annoys me.

Anyone else know how I feel here?

Well, this'll end well.

keep in mind that, from what i hear, ubisoft started with the drm at least partially because of us pirates.

and regardless of how badly the companies act, piracy will never be justified.

uh, unless you're one of those pirates who uses piracy to test out the game, then buys it, or someone who bought it and the drm got in the way so they had to pirate it. well ok i suppose its kinda situational but its still undeniably wrong to pirate [/stating the obvious]

but anyway, the companies have every right to try and stop us. its just...they seem to pick some self destructive ways to do it.

but is there even a better way to do it?

edited 2nd Dec '11 6:22:05 AM by Tarsen

As I said, I don't do it myself and think it's wrong, but when companies start acting like that . . . well I find myself in a confusing place, intellectually speaking. With video game DRM in particular, the people it punishes most are legitimate customers.

which is why i find it odd it puts you in an odd place where you feel like cheering the people who are partially responsible for the mess.

I put it down to the market needing to catch up with technology. Yes, in an ethical sense, software piracy is theft. However, in practice, no reasonable measure can eliminate it. So, one has to approach it from a cost/benefit perspective, and focus not on reducing piracy, per se, but increasing revenue. If a given piece of DRM increases net sales ( because a few percent of potential pirates bought the game instead, and no sales were lost ), great. However, a piece of DRM that cuts piracy in half, and also cuts sales in half? *Is a really bad idea.*

Also, as a side issue, while it may be legally the same, I do not consider "piracy" of abandonware to be unethical. If a given product is not commercially available, new ( not used ), then there is no possibility of damage to the actual owner of the IP, ergo "theft" is impossible.

Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com

Tough luck. The consumer has the right to do what he wants with a product once he buys it, so long as he doesn't violate copyright laws. It's a basic tenant of consumer rights.

If companies want to avoid significant sales losses from used games, they need to begin by either A.) Making one-use features (Like Starcraft 2's activation code), B.) Find a way to get money from the used buyers like Netherrealm Studios did with Mortal Kombat, or C.) Make some games with fucking replay value so that there's not a million used sales the second day.

I adhere to the Pirate Code: "If they won't sell their stuff to me, I don't have to buy it. As soon as they are willing to sell it to me, I'll buy it."

And that's all I think of this subject, really.

edited 2nd Dec '11 11:08:52 AM by Kayeka

theres a pirate code?

Sometimes I buy, others, I download, does stole games from you relatives counts too?

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Xan-Xan/

I'm just gonna leave this here.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

exactly what made me realise trying to justify my piracy is just retarded, so i might aswell become a boomerang biggot.

My code on piracy: just don't! Unless it's older titles in which a company won't profit from it anymore (at most within the fifth generation of consoles in terms of emulation).

EDIT: And even among older games, buying from sources like GOG is a good idea.

edited 2nd Dec '11 11:27:35 AM by EarlOfSandvich

I now go by Graf von Tirol.

Basic socio-economic understanding, ergo the pirate party's thesis is invalid. Joking aside I believe that the idea of trying to criminalize the ability to charge money for products on the internet and the idea of making it illegal for people to defend the things they created from theft of any kind (bootlegs, imitations to a degree) just goes against human decency. There's no sense in trying to make a virtue out of a vice, and I believe that people (and groups of people) have a right to protect their own, and the government is meant to uphold the law; not necessarily to uphold morals or someone's ethics, but to hold decency and defend people's rights.

Inanity in 140 characters or more

Don't we already have a thread on this subject?