I would like to hear all of your comments on what you personally think about these topics . I personally think that pirating software isn''t bad as long as it''s not for commercial use. Things like Visual C++ and Maya are very expensive and there is no point to pay $1000 to use something like Maya for learning purposes. It''s not directly hurting the people that made it because if they didnt get it for free they wouldn''t have it at all and wouldn''t buy it because of its price. I think abandonware should be legal. Nowadays you can''t buy a NES and play Mario Bro''s or your old favorite so whats the point of keeping it illegal? If i made a game that was a huge hit and 10 years later they make a ROM with it i personally wouldn''t mind because it''s a game which would prolly only bring in like $2 at most and chances are it wouldnt be in production still.

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Original post by SumDude
Things like Visual C++ and Maya are very expensive and there is no point to pay $1000 to use something like Maya for learning purposes. It''s not directly hurting the people that made it...

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...I think the question is: when someone pirates Maya, does it hurt the people who made MilkShape?

The Gameboy Advance is a good example of why companies may wish to protect their intellectual property. You may no longer be able to pop down to your local computer game store and buy a SNES and great games such as Yoshi''s Island, Mario Kart etc... as the SNES is no longer a commercially viable platform. But the launch of the GBA saw the re-release fo these games ( and many more ), and it could then be argued that no-one would be willing to pay £30 pounds for it if the game was ( legally ) available for free ( or for a small surcharge only ).

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Original post by SumDude
I personally think that pirating software isn't bad as long as it's not for commercial use. Things like Visual C++ and Maya are very expensive and there is no point to pay $1000 to use something like Maya for learning purposes.

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Which is exactly why both Maya and Visual C++ have "Learning Editions" available for a much cheaper price.

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It's not directly hurting the people that made it because if they didnt get it for free they wouldn't have it at all and wouldn't buy it because of its price.

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This is a difficult one. There are always borderline cases in the "what's too expensive if you're using it regularly" area. As always you could draw an analogy with something else: I don't race cars professionally - so is it ok for me to steal some alloy wheels, sports engine etc for my car from the factory?.
That particular type of analogy tends to degenerate into "theft of a physical product versus theft of information" arguments so I won't continue it .


For cheaper commercial software (including games) piracy IS much more likely to affect the development staff, much due to the way the more traditional developer<->publisher<->distributor<->retailer business model works (i.e. the further down the chain you are the longer it takes to see any money from sales after the initial development advance).

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I think abandonware should be legal. Nowadays you can't buy a NES and play Mario Bro's or your old favorite so whats the point of keeping it illegal? If i made a game that was a huge hit and 10 years later they make a ROM with it i personally wouldn't mind because it's a game which would prolly only bring in like $2 at most and chances are it wouldnt be in production still.

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As Chris has pointed out, it's the IP and which platform the game is running on that they're defending. If you were burning copies of the original ROM to use on the original platform they probably wouldn't bat an eyelid.

But games from the 1980s are perfect (in commercial terms) for re-launches on hand held platforms like phones etc. You probably WOULD mind if you were spending a few million on relaunching and revamping that game you worked on 10 years ago and someone went and put out an emulator running the original.

[edited by - s1ca on July 11, 2003 8:31:24 AM]

Maya has actually currently a free version for educational purposes on their webpage... so why waste a CD-R??
I think some companies are also asking for piracy... I mean if a game is more than $50 US why the hell would I buy it, knowing that I will find so many bugs and not really a great software that would actually deserve the money.
I have bought some games I had a pirated copy of, because I thought it was really fun to play. So I use them more like an extended demo really, if at all.
I like the Russian offence, which is to sell new released game for no more than $10 US, which means it''d be another waste of a CD-R if I was to pirate it. (a German game magazine had an article on it.)

Everyone I know pirates expensive programs, not even the most moral and law abiding persons I know buys the programs that are more then 100$

Quite bizarre acctualy!

and you know what? When we all continue doing this it will only continue to drive software prices higher and higher until who knows what or if segments of development cease to exist! Just remember: "Come on guys, I thought you knew better, don''t copy that floppy!!!" *song drumroll da da da da da*

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Original post by Nervo
and you know what? When we all continue doing this it will only continue to drive software prices higher and higher until who knows what or if segments of development cease to exist! Just remember: "Come on guys, I thought you knew better, don''t copy that floppy!!!" *song drumroll da da da da da*

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I saw that. That scarred me for life.

Companies like Microsoft and Sony hike up their prices to such ridiculous amounts to keep their profits up. With everybody using Windows more and more, our dependency on their products are increasing. And if these companies continue to do this, we can expect much higher prices. Besides, what does Visual C++ have in it that can make it cost so much more than any other compiler? A cure for cancer?

Don''t talk about pirating, Andrew Russell will get alllll butthurt

James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://medev.sourceforge.net