GuardianOdin

you are wrong, it is still theft. You are taking something that is not free. It doesn't matter if it is digital or a real copy. Theft of intellectual rights. Your argument is absurd.

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mechtech

true, but I really don't think people like Adobe look at the individual as their target audience.

No professional designer of design firm will pirate photoshop/3dmax ect, because if you get caught, your whole business is in jeopardy. These professional licenses are where they get their money.

Pirating isn't that bad for professional software, because they want the public to be proficient with it, they want photoshop to be the defacto standard for photo manipulation, so when they get to a design firm, everyone there is proficient with their product, and the firm buys a professional license for it.


games though...pirating simply sucks for the developers. I admit I pirate a bit, but that's because I already spend as much as I can afford to on games. There's simply no way I can play everything I have my eyes on because of costs. I simply don't have 200$ a month to spend on gaming. I try to spend my money I DO have for gaming on companies that really need or deserve it. That's why I haven't pirated World of Goo or Fallout 3, while I can justify pirating Farcry 2.

curly haired boy

well of course it's different in how adobe behaves in response to piracy :P

i was just making the point that the pirating of software that's normally paid for does cost the software maker money. it's like eating a meal and only afterwards deciding if it's worth paying for. after you've used the software/eaten the meal/played the game, it's not even a question. you OWE the makers no matter how good or bad the experience was.

nathris

You just don't get it do you? It doesn't cost anything to make a digital copy, so your entire argument is invalid.

If I walk into the Louvre and take a picture of the Mona Lisa for my own personal use, does the French government automatically lose the potential millions of dollars they could have gotten from selling it to me?

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GuardianOdin

when two guys create a game that can not afford the packaging costs and cost of printing thousands of copies, yes you are in fact stealing when you download an illegal copy of their game. Stop being so naive to this fact. That $20 digital copy is what will eventually help them create bigger and better games in the future.

This not like taking a picture of the Mona Lisa. This is like stealing prints of the Mona Lisa.

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nathris

How is it like stealing prints? When steal prints they lose out on the cost of materials and running the machine. When you download a game they don't lose materials, since its not even the company that you're downloading from, and you're using your own bandwidth to download it.

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curly haired boy

it's not a matter of the material cost of a copy, it's about how much you pay for the right to use that copy.

it doesn't matter if that software comes on a disc, in a torrent file, or in an email attachment, you have to pay to use it. software companies operate under the law by selling the right to use software. bottom line, if you use the software, you are expected to have paid for it.

that concept that each copy has a fee attached to its use is how software companies stay in business. if you use paid software for free, by definition you are depriving the software makers of money that they, and the law, have attached to every iteration and copy of that code.

Stillhouse

O RLY?

http://www.mac.doc.gov/China/Docs/Bu...ertyRights.htm

It's not so much an issue of piracy being legal(which it's not), it's a matter of enforcement. Too much corruption still in China that's allowing piracy to continue, though progress is being made:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/...ith-FBI_1.html

http://www.chinatechnews.com/2008/06...to-20-in-2007/


Corruption and apathy, SA sounds like a wonderland! Book me a hotel for my next vacation![/sarcasm]

That still doesn't excuse anything, or change how I feel about the subject. If anything it makes my opinion of such people even lower. And it also illustrates the main reason why I feel this way.

Piracy(and any illegal act) is dishonesty. If a person is dishonest in one aspect of their life, they will invariably be dishonest in other parts. Someone who is willing to pirate software won't stop there. They'll include movies, music, whatever and come up with any way to justify it("Everybody does it," "Movie/Music/Software companies make too much money" etc.). And it'll spill over into other things like you mentioned, speeding, drunk driving, bribery. I'm sure worse things happen down there that can be amended with the right amount of money given to the right authority. I should know, living just 10 miles form the border with Mexico. Corruption, bribery and all manner of scumbaggery take place down here on both sides of the Rio Grande on a daily basis.

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BinaryDemon

This is the problem with trying develop an analogy for software piracy, they are almost always flawed. Basically your developing the analogy to support your logic.

To me a more accurate analogy would be:

The evening ticket for the Louvre is 6 Euros. If you walk in and take a picture for your own personal use, ok no harm no foul. You paid your 6E. If you start showing that picture to all your friends, or copying it for them then they wont feel the need to go and visit the Louvre. So the French government would be losing potential visitors.

Even written like that, its a horrible analogy.

If I was World of Goo, I would have stuck with Steam only distribution.

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nathris

Thats the problem with arguing about piracy. Whenever they don't have anything else to say, the "good" team always refers back to the fact that its "technically" illegal.

Following the law just because its the law is ignorance. Laws are set in place to be guidelines on how to behave, and its up to the individual to use his own reason to decide when, and how to follow it. Since you all seem to be so bloody adamant on following the rules, next time you go 1 mile over the speed limit, why don't you drive to the nearest police station and DEMAND to be fined? If you refuse to actually think for yourselves, and instead trust to some higher power to tell you exactly what to do, then you've failed as a human being.

I'm done with this thread.

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