Piracy: good or bad?

Xacktastic wrote:I disagree. I don;t think this is relevant.
Pirating would be synonymous to:
"Your friend bought a new car. He offers to let you borrow it for a while, since you were considering buying one. If in a week, you decide you don't like it, you give it back to your friend. Nothing has changed. If you do like it, you buy it. And there, the company makes that money it wouldn't have, because a customer shared his product. You probably wouldn't have bought the car without having it first, since it's an investment."
Thats the correct analogy.

Forum Pirate wrote:Actually, the law is against its download and storage, not its use.

I dispute your claim that piracy harms developers. It can be harmful, but it also exposes people to the media who wouldn't have been otherwise, effectively advertising the developer and their content. If my friend hadn't pirated the music he did, thus allowing the pair of us to hear it, we wouldn't have gone to their consert or bought the cds. His piracy was profitable to the band whos music he pirated.

Also, the car metaphor is flawed in the context you've used it in, as piracy is copying, not stealing. The original is still there.

The developers are entitled to compensation for their work, but to expect gamers to make $60 purchases without first being allowed to test the game is highly unreasonable. Its like not allowing someone to test drive a vehicle. Even then, the hour demo many developers don't even provide is hardly indicative of the overall quality of the product, only extended time and use can test that. Just as the developers are entitled to compensation for their product, consumers are entitled to at the very least a hands on experience with the product to make a properly informed decision on its purchase. Piracy is, at the moment, the best way to get that experience, as nearly everything is on the internet waiting to be downloaded without costing money.

Perhaps if developers put more effort in creating and distributing hour or 2 hour long demos, 2 full listens through an album ect. to allow the hands on experience, piracy would decline.

bmurn wrote:A lot of interesting points here. As always nothing is black and white, but my mind definitely likes to think in those terms, although my actions do not always follow my thinking.

The boycott concept is interesting. I think that if you are going to boycott, pirating the game is an easy out. As many other mentioned the playing of the game may benefit the developer in many way besides monetarily. To me on games it is fairly simple if you want to play the game, then pay for the game. If it is too expensive, don't pay and don't play. If they are a bad developer that release incomplete games, the only way they will get the message is if no one is playing/buying the game. Support the games you like by purchasing them.

I don't think it should matter what size the developer is or what their practices are. The bottom line is they are selling something that they have the rights to and by pirating it people are gaining possession of that content/product without paying. I think many rationilizations can be made for pirating, but in the end it is stealing.

I think the argument of only doing it in the case of things you would not normally buy is also a rationilization. You are getting the benefits of some one elses work for free. They did not intend for you to have it for free. Maybe if you could not pirate anything you would be inclined to purchase some of those things that you currently feel you would not buy. I think there is some validity to the concept that knowing you can pirate things changes your perspective on what is worth purchasing.

Final point - for those that state it does not consume any physical goods, so therefore does not really hurt the companies that are pirated I look at it this way. Everyone has a set amount of money they can spend on these things. These companies and individuals are competing for that set pool of money. Pirating breaks that system. Maybe a game is better, but easier to pirate, so that developer gets screwed.

Long live capitalism! I am now off to go sneak by video camera into a theatre so I can upload the movie to the internet, while listening to music I obtained from Napster and eating some steak that fell off the back of a truck.

Forum Pirate wrote:For the 10000000000000000th time PIRACY IS NOT THEFT. Its piracy. The illegal download and storage of media without a licence to do so. You're copying something, not stealing it.

Forum Pirate wrote:No, technically you're taking nothing. Your computer is copying something from the internet. Its still illegal, depending on the situation, but its not theft.