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pirating
Author
Obviously there are various viewpoints towards the notion of pirating. I hear many interesting parallels and anologies, but maybe we should all just sit down and "think-out" why we choose to pirate software.
The number one bs reason has to be the "try-out buy later" notion. Yes, cars you should try out, since it is a real world investment, i.e., you will pretty much depend on it to get you to work, school, and your doctor if you''re ailing, also, you will expect it to last 5-10+ years.
Software on the other hand, wait, games on the other hand (remember, we are keeping it on the realest level, no bs), fuels your insatiable urge to be entertained. You are not going to play it for more than a few months, eventually something better and bigger will catch you, if the game really does suck, you are out $40, but that''s it, you move on and go play something else. You have learned your lesson, MORE RESEARCH. Are you so special and unique that some review will not match your "reasoning" or likely-opinion. Come on people, if the game doesn''t have a demo, then read as many reviews or just simply ask peoples'' opinion. The fact that you support the "try then buy" notion just gives these warez site some justification which at the end serves to a detremental end where most are just out to "try".
Pirating is wrong no matter what the reason. If the game does not have a demo, and you are afraid that it will be a bust, don''t buy. Wait for someone you know to buy. People say they will buy it later, but if you already have the full game, what is the point of buying it.
Domini
Domini
Sure it is wrong no matter what, but games get more popular through pirating. I''m not saying I''d like my game completely pirated, but if it gets the word out then a little from Side A and Side B, that shall do. That is just from my point of view. Think of Quake. It is popular and widely pirated. Half of the popularity is from ID''s work and the other half is from pirating. Feel free to oppose me.
Piracy is wrong (despite what pirates think or in what way they justify their actions) but there are always going to be pirates.
IMO the same rule applies to piracy as it does to other theft. It is NOT o.k. to steal something just because you can't afford it. This point cannot be argued so please don't even try.
An exception to this is where someone steals food or another basic necessity.
I guess what the software pirates are saying is that although software is not a necessity (I'm not even going to guess where all these broke "I can't afford any software" pirates got their actual computer from) WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO GO WITHOUT?
The discussion becomes less straight forward when you try and give them a reason (such as the "moral" one at the top of the page) and you are not in their position yourself. It is easy to present an argument against stealing when it doesn't affect you.
The flip-side of this is that you also have to consider as a thief what it is like to be stolen from, and by decreasing someone's income by pirating their software you might as well be sneaking into their home and taking the money.
Paulcoz.
BTW, nes8bit I don't pirate software despite what you may think. I might have done so in high-school fourteen years ago but I have an appreciation of other people's hard work now - you might too when you get older.
Edited by - paulcoz on 2/22/00 9:09:03 PM
IMO the same rule applies to piracy as it does to other theft. It is NOT o.k. to steal something just because you can't afford it. This point cannot be argued so please don't even try.
An exception to this is where someone steals food or another basic necessity.
I guess what the software pirates are saying is that although software is not a necessity (I'm not even going to guess where all these broke "I can't afford any software" pirates got their actual computer from) WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO GO WITHOUT?
The discussion becomes less straight forward when you try and give them a reason (such as the "moral" one at the top of the page) and you are not in their position yourself. It is easy to present an argument against stealing when it doesn't affect you.
The flip-side of this is that you also have to consider as a thief what it is like to be stolen from, and by decreasing someone's income by pirating their software you might as well be sneaking into their home and taking the money.
Paulcoz.
BTW, nes8bit I don't pirate software despite what you may think. I might have done so in high-school fourteen years ago but I have an appreciation of other people's hard work now - you might too when you get older.
Edited by - paulcoz on 2/22/00 9:09:03 PM
We all agree that pirating happens, and that at the VERY LEAST, is is illegal. Right or wrong, regardless.
Maybe the questions we should be asking isn''t whether pirating is right, but rather ''How do we minimize it?''
I see it as a few groups:
1) Want to "try before they buy"
2) Warez-Kiddiez
3) Cheap bastards
4) Normal people
Fix (1) by releasing a timely demo. And by timely, I mean ADD time. Release the demo 3 months before the game comes out. You can''t use the excuse if there is has been a demo forever. If you release the demo even one day after it hits the warez scene, you may already be too late.
(2) and (3) - lost causes.
(4) Make it harder to pirate. They would buy the game, but it is just too easy to find pirated games, and too easy to justify it. A victimless crime is still a crime, but it isn''t like you killed anyone, right? If we don''t dangle free games in front of their faces, maybe the temptation to steal would be less. You can''t show a hungry man chocolate cake, and not have him make a grab for it.
People do buy video games. A lot of them. But they continually claim that the copy protection is an inconvience, and that it ruins the experience for the game. It is a necessary evil, I''m afriad. The only thing we can do is make the copy protection more secure, but not more intrusive. As far as I''m concerned, being able to resell the game is not a priority for a game company.
Maybe the questions we should be asking isn''t whether pirating is right, but rather ''How do we minimize it?''
I see it as a few groups:
1) Want to "try before they buy"
2) Warez-Kiddiez
3) Cheap bastards
4) Normal people
Fix (1) by releasing a timely demo. And by timely, I mean ADD time. Release the demo 3 months before the game comes out. You can''t use the excuse if there is has been a demo forever. If you release the demo even one day after it hits the warez scene, you may already be too late.
(2) and (3) - lost causes.
(4) Make it harder to pirate. They would buy the game, but it is just too easy to find pirated games, and too easy to justify it. A victimless crime is still a crime, but it isn''t like you killed anyone, right? If we don''t dangle free games in front of their faces, maybe the temptation to steal would be less. You can''t show a hungry man chocolate cake, and not have him make a grab for it.
People do buy video games. A lot of them. But they continually claim that the copy protection is an inconvience, and that it ruins the experience for the game. It is a necessary evil, I''m afriad. The only thing we can do is make the copy protection more secure, but not more intrusive. As far as I''m concerned, being able to resell the game is not a priority for a game company.
Hey I''m not saying piracy is bad and I''m not saying it is good either. It is just like that topic on religions or operating systems. When I was designing a decompression program, I made a shareware nag screen. It had a username and serial code text box. The serial code was releated to the username. I also made a crack for the program that was seperate and signed by someone else. THIS WILL GET PEOPLES ATTENTION. I never released the program. The compression/decompression algorithim was too slow. I was only trying to point out the good sides of piracy because I already know everyone is going to say it''s worse than killing. Remember I am against piracy (to some extent) too because I develop software. The simplest solution to prevent piracy is to either make the software free or not to make software. It''s like safe sex.
I see a lot of (pointless) argument over piracy, but what i dont see here (but would like to) Is information on copy protection and how we can stop our games being pirated. Does everyone here know how copy protection on most games works? I dont, and would welcome an article on different ways to copy-protect your software.
Something nobody has mentioned here is the publishers weird resistance to releasing a game everywhere at the same time. I was alarmed to discover all my friends playing the full version (pirated) of Unreal Tournament here in the UK long before its UK release, despite this being a widely demoed game that almost all of them would have bought on sight if it had been released in the shops at the same time as it appeared on IRC.
http://www.positech.co.uk
Something nobody has mentioned here is the publishers weird resistance to releasing a game everywhere at the same time. I was alarmed to discover all my friends playing the full version (pirated) of Unreal Tournament here in the UK long before its UK release, despite this being a widely demoed game that almost all of them would have bought on sight if it had been released in the shops at the same time as it appeared on IRC.
http://www.positech.co.uk
I beleive that whatever kind of copyprotection we put in our game, there is always some little guy in some corner of the world who will crack it, take DVD, the encryption was cracked before it was released, and they though it was uncrackable.
Demos i belive decreses the amount of pirate copies out there, as the offer almost the same, a "try-before-buy" thing, the only thing it lacks though is the enitire game.
However, even if "warez" are big on the internet, it''s hard to find them if you don''t know where to look. I think the big problem lies in Asia, there you don''t get a ripped version of the game, you get it on a CD with all the music and FMVs + the manual, all in a nice box, looking exactly the same as the original. Turkey is another example, you can find pirate copies almost anywhere, you don''t get a nice copy as in Asia, but you''ll get it on a CD with everything in a good looking case.
I what ever way you look at it piracy is a bad thing, everybody looses on it!
Demos i belive decreses the amount of pirate copies out there, as the offer almost the same, a "try-before-buy" thing, the only thing it lacks though is the enitire game.
However, even if "warez" are big on the internet, it''s hard to find them if you don''t know where to look. I think the big problem lies in Asia, there you don''t get a ripped version of the game, you get it on a CD with all the music and FMVs + the manual, all in a nice box, looking exactly the same as the original. Turkey is another example, you can find pirate copies almost anywhere, you don''t get a nice copy as in Asia, but you''ll get it on a CD with everything in a good looking case.
I what ever way you look at it piracy is a bad thing, everybody looses on it!
DVD was only ''cracked'' because the idiots who made the encryption left an unencrypted key on the actual DVD''s.
using that key, they figured out every other key.
NOTE: DVD was cracked because they refused to make a Linux DVD player, and people who had linux wanted to watch their DVD''s.
using that key, they figured out every other key.
NOTE: DVD was cracked because they refused to make a Linux DVD player, and people who had linux wanted to watch their DVD''s.
I strongly agree that demos would decrease the amount of hobby pirating. I only have two games for my computer. I only bought them because I got the demo on the CD that comes in my monthly magazine. Otherwise, I just wouldn''t get it at all. When I look at reviews of games in a magazine, it might peek my interest, but I''m not going to put $50+ on the line, taking the word of someone I don''t know, who likes different things, and probably has the game as a sponsor.
I also believe that there''s no real way to stop someone from pirating. Most games come on a CD and a lot of people now a days have CDRs. If you do a binary copy of a CD, the program doesn''t know if it''s the original or not.
I don''t think companies lose money from the hobby pirate. If you aren''t willing to pay for a program, making a copy of it doesn''t take from the company''s income. It the professional pirate they have to watch out for. The comanies that specialize in making the boxes and holograms to make a product look just like the legal one. (BTW: you can easily make a hologram of a hologram, you just use the original hologram in place of the source object.)
E:cb woof!
I also believe that there''s no real way to stop someone from pirating. Most games come on a CD and a lot of people now a days have CDRs. If you do a binary copy of a CD, the program doesn''t know if it''s the original or not.
I don''t think companies lose money from the hobby pirate. If you aren''t willing to pay for a program, making a copy of it doesn''t take from the company''s income. It the professional pirate they have to watch out for. The comanies that specialize in making the boxes and holograms to make a product look just like the legal one. (BTW: you can easily make a hologram of a hologram, you just use the original hologram in place of the source object.)
E:cb woof!
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