Widescreen Gaming Forum

For instance, I don't pirate games for the same reason I don't take them from the local store without paying for them first.

File sharing and Stealing are two very different things. (I do understand that your not saying that they are, but im just making a point that most people fail to realize)


"Would you steal a this purse?" "Would you steal a car?"

No, but I sure as fraking hell would make a copy of them.

Dafox,

I'm glad you're willing to debate the point of piracy/theft. I'll assume we can go about this as gentlemen, so I'm willing to engage.

File sharing and stealing are not automatically the same thing, I agree. Stealing is acquiring a product via illegitimate means (without payment or permission)--file sharing is simply sharing data on a network. The crux of the matter is the content itself. I can file-share my own family pictures because they are mine to do with as I please. If I share a commercial product like a game (which I do not have the authority to do), then I have enabled others to acquire that game without payment or permission.

Now, if the digital transfer of my game over a network was limited to only 1 recipient, and it automatically resulted in the game disappearing from my hard drive (no longer in my possession), then that is tantamount to me giving a game CD to a friend, aka, a gift. I am finished with a product, so I give it away, or I even have the right to re-sell it. But it is no longer in my possession.

The fact that digital content can be perfectly replicated and distributed without removing the original source does not mean the product/content is legitimately acquired. If I could 'copy' a Ford Mustang at will and distribute them to an unlimited number of people, without payment to Ford or their permission to do so, do you think a judge would dismiss Ford's lawsuit against me or send me to jail? I may not be 'taking' anything, per se, but such actions have the potential to kill any company because it directly cuts off revenue. That's why I would be in jail.

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

For every customer remotely aware of drm at all there's a dozen more that are clueless and will buy the game regardless.

Even if every single person who understands drm and the unforgiven restrictions it puts on the software you've paid for boycott EA, it would still get way more sales than it needs to keep afloat.

The problem with near monopolies is, they're same as a monopoly, no matter what happens, they'll crush anything in their path.

So...now your attacking my budgeting. Thanks Cranky.

Think of it as a recommendation. You've said you have a full time job, and you've also said you have no money. This is a problem. The usual solution is better budgeting.

I'm out of this conversation, mostly because you've pissed me off.

You pissed me off too with your attitude that gaming is your personal entitlement. Yet I'm still here.

File sharing and Stealing are two very different things.

A common argument despite being wrong. The argument tries to allude to file sharing and pilfering being different, which is true, but makes the fallacy of equating stealing with pilfering. Stealing is a very broad topic - it covers pilfering, but it also covers plenty of other things that do not involve displacing a physical object, such as fraud, theft of services, sneaking into a theater through the exit door, and pirating games.

"Would you steal a this purse?" "Would you steal a car?"
No, but I sure as fraking hell would make a copy of them.

I'd rather you just steal them. Make it possible to copy cars and the car company goes out of business. Make it possible to copy purses (more importantly their contents) and you've destroyed the economy forever.

Furthermore, I can produce condescending images masquerading as pictorial graphs to show oversimplified points too.

So...now your attacking my budgeting. Thanks Cranky.

Think of it as a recommendation. You've said you have a full time job, and you've also said you have no money. This is a problem. The usual solution is better budgeting.

Or realizing that some of us don't have the extravagant sums of money to pay for things other than essential modern civilized needs.

Gaming class computers, broadband Internet connections, and nice big widescreen monitors don't count as "essential" needs. If you have these things, you have enough income to pay for entertainment every now and then.

Gaming class computers, broadband Internet connections, and nice big widescreen monitors don't count as "essential" needs. If you have these things, you have enough income to pay for entertainment every now and then.

Gaming class computers and nice big widescreen monitors aren't monthly dedications, unless someone purchased them on credit in which case the money that would otherwise be spent on payments for those items anyways.

And why assume broadband internet access?

Fair enough, you guys both got me on that one.

I was just discussing piracy with a friend minutes ago, he made a good point (Reminded me) that even if there was no such thing as piracy, It would barely help. I know that I would not buy THAT many more games, I would play the games that i bought more and I would be wise with what I spent my money on. The point is 95% of the games that I pirate I would not buy even if it was the only option of obtaining it.

I'm just a poor student; I can barely afford the 1-2 games that I buy every year.
At the same time, without piracy I really would not be interested in building a decent PC (thats where most of my extra money ends up, rather than games, a PC that is needed to play them) which in turn is good for the economy.
Same with the DS and Wii for example, I purchased both of those for the sole reason that I new that I could get any game free. I would have never ever even thought to buy either of them if it was not for piracy.

TL;DR A pirated copy is not a lost sale.

I'd change that to a pirate 'sale' is a possibly lost real sale. One who'll download has an equal chance to have bought vs not have bought the title. Just because it's downloaded doesn't include that were it unavailable to download it would be bought, it's an assumption used far too often.

As for file sharing vs piracy, I always considered file sharing normal as long as the file isn't copyrighted. Linux isos, free independent films and a number of other things are file shared to save the maker some bandwidth fees yet they're always grouped up with the 'bad' ones.

The games I download, I'd never buy. Mercs 2 is a good example. Download, try, delete.

The ones that i would, i do.

Already paid for Warhead but I'm not installing until i find a crack.