With MU being taken down, it'll become way harder to do, but people are willing to find other ways. The problem is mainly that piracy is being used to push censorship laws. And it's not a fair tradeoff, as piracy is wrong in the first place. I read an argument that went something like this: If you steal a CD, the CD is worth practically nothing. It's a piece of plastic produced for mere pennies. It's the data that makes it valuable, and that's what is being "stolen" in piracy. We can find other ways to get stuff. Netflix/TV for movies and TV shows, retailers, online marketplaces and direct download for games and music. I'd still support piracy for stuff you can't buy, but I think the "Why buy it when I can get it for free?" needs to die out. I myself pirate a hell of a lot, but I don't want to keep doing it. It's not like I have plenty of money to spend, either. I realize this isn't very eloquent, but I just thought I'd put my feelings out there.
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paperwarior posted... With MU being taken down, it'll become way harder to do, but people are willing to find other ways. The problem is mainly that piracy is being used to push censorship laws. And it's not a fair tradeoff, as piracy is wrong in the first place. I read an argument that went something like this: If you steal a CD, the CD is worth practically nothing. It's a piece of plastic produced for mere pennies. It's the data that makes it valuable, and that's what is being "stolen" in piracy. We can find other ways to get stuff. Netflix/TV for movies and TV shows, retailers, online marketplaces and direct download for games and music. I'd still support piracy for stuff you can't buy, but I think the "Why buy it when I can get it for free?" needs to die out. I myself pirate a hell of a lot, but I don't want to keep doing it. It's not like I have plenty of money to spend, either. I realize this isn't very eloquent, but I just thought I'd put my feelings out there.
You're thinking about this the wrong way. We need to pirate now more than ever, to keep money from going to the record and movie companies that are destroying our country.
You're assuming that if piracy goes away, the people who want censorship laws won't find other excuses.
I'm sure they would, but it'd be a setback to them. I really don't like the MPAA or RIAA, but that's not really an excuse to not buy any music or movies.
Hey, they're poor as hell, so they have more of a reason to pirate and bootleg and whatnot. I'm mainly writing to all the first-world people who pirate.
Yeah, bootlegging, I know. That's different. If they need to do that to make a living, let them. But Western pirates really don't need to pirate for the most part; it's just financially-viable with little chance of retribution.
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Uh, this isn't what's pushing censorship laws. The internet being so open is what's pushing censor laws. The governments of the world (mostly ours) doesn't like us having such a large voice. They'll find something to blame. Just look how they're now trying to pass some making it easier to catch child pornography.
-- GameFAQs isn't going to be merged in with GameSpot or any other site. We're not going to strip out the soul of the site. -CJayC
This is stupid. Piracy will never go away because data can be reproduced infinitely. Rather than return to the old days, the corporate industries need to adapt to the present
-- Jerry Sandusky is a football God! Jerry Sandusky is a football LEGEND! http://youtu.be/B3fRhOfkc_w
Yes, what will we do without the central hub of piracy?! I don't think anyone will be able to pirate anything anymore without megaupload!
I meant for members of that one site. And it's not just MU. All the filehosts are scrambling. If some of these laws pass, TPB and public trackers are a goner, and who knows how much they'll crack down. It's still completely possible to pirate, but that was a watershed moment. Usenet will be safe forever, supposedly, but when you switch to a paying model, piracy's benefits diminish.
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I'm actually fine with people who pirate to test drive. I mean, I'm fine with what anyone does. I'm not judging. But there are tons of people who legitimately won't buy what they pirate.
From: paperwarior | #101 I'm actually fine with people who pirate to test drive. I mean, I'm fine with what anyone does. I'm not judging. But there are tons of people who legitimately won't buy what they pirate.
But there are also people who pirate something, tell a friend how awesome it is, and their friend will go out and buy it.
-- GameFAQs isn't going to be merged in with GameSpot or any other site. We're not going to strip out the soul of the site. -CJayC
It will never end voluntarily. People will never change their ways of thinking that stealing games is ok.
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Thinking Luigi and WAAAA > Pokemon Trainers was dumb, and Pokemon rocks. In other news, Valve is a pretty f***ing terrible company, let's be honest.
I guess it's a lost cause, but if the public opinion could be changed, that would be the best possible solution. Maybe an intermediate step would be getting people to buy what they like.
-- I had a nightmare where Ulti forced me to eat brain matter. ;_;-MegaWentEvil
It's dying off. It's been mainly a problem of accessibility and like, super slowly companies have caught on all you need to do is make your service more convenient than pirating and the problem suddenly dies very quickly. Heck, I haven't pirated any available-for-sale-in-this-market product for like 2 or 3 years now.
From the first line, wrong. Still easy. Megaupload was big but nowhere near what napster was years ago in terms of volume in relation to everyone else. There are all kinds of alternatives that it's a joke to think that anything specific dying will make it hard. You're branched across five ways, and mega was just part of one. A big part, but not unique, and long from dead. It was the start.
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Like a lot in this fine internet age, I pirate lots, and buy what I can to support stuff I dig.
Especially the less mainstream it is, I don't worry about needing to buy say Iron man 2 on blu-ray, but I will buy Hobo With A Shotgun on blu-ray, get Savage Dragon every month, CDs from my fav bands, etc.
Plus I give all those movies my 10.50 at the theater anyway, and see lots of bands live, there are just bigger fish to fry. This isn't really one of the more serious issues around.
-- One Piece: Pirates with style! -= Metal Gear Solid: Tactical Espionage Action =-
the practice of having copyright in the first place would probably be better served by dying out. especially with that bill allowing recopyrighting things in the public domain.
the history of copyright is pretty interesting stuff too. it started out as a means of controlling information (as the only ones who could feasibly distribute were the ones that owned the machines to copy. only after some time did copyright become hailed as a way to 'protect the artist's rights' and only because it was a way for the publishers to retain their power.
before copyright, artists freely distributed their works and were paid by those that were moved by such works. it is a model that has been coming more in fashion lately and it is a model that the records industry hates.
anyway, not to sound too argumentative, piracy isn't so much a bad thing in a number of cases. it certainly isn't all sunshine and lollipops, but there are business models that can support piracy beyond the traditional models used today.
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I definitely don't support copyrights extending long after the creator's deaths. The idea of reinstating copyrights is completely nuts. But I do think that digital media should be something you can sell. I don't think this practice is seriously threatened by piracy. Maybe piracy even led to its formation. But selling non-physical art is something which I hold as good for culture.
paperwarior posted... I definitely don't support copyrights extending long after the creator's deaths. The idea of reinstating copyrights is completely nuts. But I do think that digital media should be something you can sell. I don't think this practice is seriously threatened by piracy. Maybe piracy even led to its formation. But selling non-physical art is something which I hold as good for culture.
and an artist should be free to sell their art for a price they want without having to become tied to a predatory model that is outdated.
if a bunch of people copy and distribute a song by the artist, that just makes for free advertising and a greater pool of people who would be willing to pay for more things by the artist.
sure, it is a relatively idealistic scenario, and would rely on new content generation to keep ahead of piracy saturating sales potential, but there are artists that use this model and thrive on it, freely supporting piracy.
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There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out
If you ask me there should be a law against piracy just to give some disincentive against it. But it shouldn't be enforced, because there's no good way to enforce it. Piracy is the world's most mainstream crime, and random unlucky saps are having their lives ruined in an attempt at enforcement. Similarly, copyrights in media are ridiculously convoluted, making it tough to make cool stuff like crossovers or ported games. Now that hurts artists.
-- I had a nightmare where Ulti forced me to eat brain matter. ;_;-MegaWentEvil
A lot of people pirate, and buy later if they enjoy what they downloaded. I'm one of them.
Keep dreaming. Most people pirate because it's free. They don't go and pay for something later.
Why is this relevant?
Pirated copies aren't lost sales.
Yes they are. Playing the game without paying for it is a lost sale, no matter which way you try to spin it. The only people playing the game should be people who bought it. Of course, this changes for offline multiplayer games (splitscreen or whatever the term is), in which case only one person needs to buy it.
Oh and piracy isn't theft. There's this huge misconception that pirated copies of anything equal lost sales, which isn't remotely true because almost everyone pirating anything was never going to buy the entity in question in the first place.
Makes no sense. They stole the game. If they weren't going to buy it, they wouldn't have it. The fact that they did pirate it shows that they were interested in it.
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Thinking Luigi and WAAAA > Pokemon Trainers was dumb, and Pokemon rocks. In other news, Valve is a pretty f***ing terrible company, let's be honest.
Playing a game you bought used is identical to piracy in the eyes of the publishers, barring DLC and things like that. Personally, my piracy is only for stuff I can't get legally anyways, and most recently, a game I already own but want to rip the sprites out of.
But really, I know plenty of people who pirate things they would never consider buying, and I can't see any reason why pirating a game you literally can't buy should be a bad thing.
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Yes they are. Playing the game without paying for it is a lost sale, no matter which way you try to spin it. The only people playing the game should be people who bought it. Of course, this changes for offline multiplayer games (splitscreen or whatever the term is), in which case only one person needs to buy it.
The argument isn't whether the person has a right to play the game, it's whether they would've bought it under any circumstances. That's what a lost sale is. If the customer would've pirated it or not bought it, it's not a lost sale. It's only a lost sale if someone who was willing to pay pirates it instead.
From what data companies have chosen to share, there seems to be a pretty good argument that stopping piracy does not actually help sales at all. In music, it might actually be the opposite.
There are exceptions to everything. Pirating games that are not sold anymore is one thing, but pirating games that are available in stores is stealing, even if you didn't want the game in the first place (which is such a sad excuse most people use because they wouldn't be playing it in the first place if they didn't want it).
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Thinking Luigi and WAAAA > Pokemon Trainers was dumb, and Pokemon rocks. In other news, Valve is a pretty f***ing terrible company, let's be honest.
The argument isn't whether the person has a right to play the game, it's whether they would've bought it under any circumstances. That's what a lost sale is. If the customer would've pirated it or not bought it, it's not a lost sale. It's only a lost sale if someone who was willing to pay pirates it instead.
And who is to decide what they would not have bought? It can't be that they aren't interested in the game, because just by pirating it proves that they are. It can't be because of lack of cash because games go on sale all the time, for really cheap too.
It's such a stupid argument that you're throwing out there. I mean, at least the cheap-asses have an excuse if they miss out on the big sale. Saying you're not interested in playing a game then going out and pirating it is such backwards logic that it hurts my brain trying to understand it.
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Thinking Luigi and WAAAA > Pokemon Trainers was dumb, and Pokemon rocks. In other news, Valve is a pretty f***ing terrible company, let's be honest.
So you're saying that if piracy didn't exist, Crysis 2 would have sold 4 mil more copies, SMG2 1.3 mil more, etc.?
If you really believe this, then let me know so that I can make a mental note to never pay attention to anything you say again.
Nope. What I'm saying it's potentially a lost sale. Not all of them would go out and buy it, but I can guarantee a big percentage would if there wasn't a way to get it for free.
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Thinking Luigi and WAAAA > Pokemon Trainers was dumb, and Pokemon rocks. In other news, Valve is a pretty f***ing terrible company, let's be honest.
I remember this one time, someone (I think it was Palmer) refered to the act of comitting piracy as "piracing" instead of "pirating" which I and many others found quite humorous. That's about all I have to contribute to this topic
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instead of trying to end piracy with invasive laws, companies should be focusing on tapping into the digital distribution market. when you provide people a legal alternative to piracy at a reasonable price, I think a lot of people would be willing to go with that option. most people are intelligent enough to know that it's a good thing to support the products that you enjoy, because that means you will be seeing more of that product or products similar to it. if there's no convenient, legal way to obtain what you want or the benefits of piracy are so massive as to make purchasing the bad option, that's where the problem stems from. look at the success of Valve (for PC games) or sites like crunchyroll (that legally stream anime which before there was no way to view except through piracy). hulu and Netflix are also good examples on how to stop people from pirating TV and movies.
instead of trying to end piracy with invasive laws, companies should be focusing on tapping into the digital distribution market. when you provide people a legal alternative to piracy at a reasonable price, I think a lot of people would be willing to go with that option. most people are intelligent enough to know that it's a good thing to support the products that you enjoy, because that means you will be seeing more of that product or products similar to it. if there's no convenient, legal way to obtain what you want or the benefits of piracy are so massive as to make purchasing the bad option, that's where the problem stems from. look at the success of Valve (for PC games) or sites like crunchyroll (that legally stream anime which before there was no way to view except through piracy). hulu and Netflix are also good examples on how to stop people from pirating TV and movies.
Agreed, but if there isn't any way to completely get rid of pirating, a lot of people will continue to do so. Sadly, that will never happen, but getting rid of the big pirating sites is a good start.
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Thinking Luigi and WAAAA > Pokemon Trainers was dumb, and Pokemon rocks. In other news, Valve is a pretty f***ing terrible company, let's be honest.
Why is it sad that consumers are literally going with the best option they could pick?
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You're messing with me! You're messing with me, aren't you!? You're making fun of me, aren't you!? Aren't you!? You definitely are! I'll murder you!