Software Piracy

[EpsiIon]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
I'm a programmer and a pirate. I buy things I find that are quality. Pirating stuff is a trial thing for me. I love how companies talk about loses due to pirating when the fact is if most people who pirate had to pay for it they wouldn't bother. If I wasn't so damn poor I probably wouldn't pirate either (not all people can easily shift their budget to get games).

I used to to say "I wouldn't buy it anyway, so what's wrong with downloading it?" Well, the basic problem is that it's stealing. Sorry, but poverty and laziness are not excuses for theft. If you wouldn't buy it, you shouldn't own it.

 

[jjones]

I think most people that would buy the game actually do.

 

[0roo0roo]

your not entitled.

 

[Quasmo]

I understand that pirating software is wrong. But I also believe it is extremely hard for a teenage who wants to go into the 3D animation field to purchase Maya. I do admit to having some pirated software. I guess I tend to think of it like copyright laws, until I'm making money using development software, why purchase the software? How was I supposed to get it in the first place? If I were to do web design today I'd use photoshop and flash thats like $1200. I buy all my games. I just feel the student market is even out of my price range. ($2000 for adobe video suite) I'm paying student loans I can't take out another so I can buy software that will be out of date when I get out of college. Bleh

-anti-rant

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: puffff
the problem with the gaming industry is it's target audience (high school, college students) in most cases cant afford games at $50 a pop. it's like rolex trying to sell its watches to teenagers. it's just not a fundamentally sound business plan.

These are the same people who all have $30/month cell phones and $100 athletic shoes, right?

Or that 19 year old kid buying booze and green for his gf

Ausm

 

[gUEv]

ive recently been buying a lot of games...good games that i feel ive gotten my moneys worth.

i steal lot of games too, usually ones i wouldnt have bought or when i am broke.

i know its not justified, i know its wrong, and i dont care.

napster changed the way i think about music, ive stolen 99.99999999999999982 of everything ive listened to for the past...8 years? I love it. If anything, besides the ovious monetary savings, i feel having access to such a catalog has broadened and cultured my musical tastes. since i can download anything with the strokes of keys...i can listen and research anything under the sun, and audtion groups and acts before my time or that i would never buy/have access to an album of.

i hope my piracy contributed to interplays downfall and more

 

[fawhfe]

I use to pirate software all the time but now I don't. At least from my experience, the reason it's so easy to do is that while you can never justify it, nobody ever asks you to. Sure, sometimes people have arguments about software piracy, but most of the time, you give a bs reason why you think its ok and people just drop it. Because software piracy is so "useful," every time I asked myself whether it was really ok or not, I'd never finish the argument, always finding some bs reason why I couldn't really know whether it was ok and then dropping it until the next time. Anyways, I finally ended up changing my mind after reading Atlas Shrugged, which pretty muh solidified my philosophical beliefs so that I was forced to confront the issue. I'm 18 btw and a poor ass college student and if I really want a game, I've saved up and bought it (even when I was pirating software, I bought games to play online) so that excuse is complete bs.

Btw, for people say they can't afford Maya, photoshop, matlab (in my case), etc. do you guys have it available in the labs? We have pretty much all of this software in our computer labs, and many of them you can rent from the engineering library. I'll own up to still having matlab on my computer from before, but really that's just to save the hassle of having to borrow it from the library since it's the exact same thing.

 

[MaxDepth]

I will say this now. I have a "cracked game" on my hard drive. I have a Call of Duty executable file for the single player that does not require the original CD to be in the tray. Why?

Because of SecureDisk. That cd copyright protection system causes the program to fail a detection of the original cd in my 3 cd, DVD, DVD burners. All three. I went to their site and downloaded their "patch." It didn't work either. When I took the game back to EB. The manager asked if I would keep the game and try one of the cracked EXEs off of the internet. First of all, this was said to keep my money and secondly to offer me a workaround solution for, what the others in the store had said, a really great game. I can play multiplayer without the CD crack; I have a legitimate code (license).

In the rush to keep the pirates at bay, or more likely to slow them down, some compaines are risking the ire of those who have to go through extraordinary means just to install and run their code.

The lesson? I will look closer at the requirements listing on a software package from now on. If I see SecureDisk listed, I will not buy that software.

 

[AmericasTeam]

Piracy is bad, but so what. A lot of bad things go on in this world.
Deal with it cause it isn't going away.

 

[Farvacola]

All I can say is amen.

 

[Rudee]

4 year development cycle is a big stretch from the average, which is about 11 months.

 

[purbeast0]

well here at work, pretty much the kind of protection we have is that you must have a unique serial #. If you have a serial # that is in use already, and that person is connected to the itnernet, then the person trying to use it as the 2nd user will not be able to use it until the other person is off of it ... or until he disoconnects from the internet. i guess with most of the people having broadband now a days, always being connected, it kinda works.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Rudee
4 year development cycle is a big stretch from the average, which is about 11 months.

i guess it depends on the game. I mean new sports games come out every year because the engine is pretty much the same as before. but look at HL2 and Doom 3 and the WoW game. those are alot longer.

 

[EGGO]

Originally posted by: kranky

These are the same people who all have $30/month cell phones and $100 athletic shoes, right?

lol FVCK no :laugh:

I'd like to know where MY $30/month cell phone and $100 shoes are. The people they're trying to target is the people that aren't like that in the high-school clique I thought.

 

[GreenMonkey]

if they didnt buy that mismatched primer colored body kit and big metal wing for their POS car they coudl buy all the games they wanted

These are the same people who all have $30/month cell phones and $100 athletic shoes, right?

HAHAHA too true.

I agree with the above poster that said they will not buy anything that has nasty copy protection. Some very good articles have been written about copy protection causing more problems than it stops. My buddy had the copy protection stopping him from playing his legit copy of Warcraft 3 - Dell PC. He downloaded the crack so that he could play it.

I also don't support Microsoft and don't, ahem, pay for their products. I regard them as an evil empire (albeit not as bad as Walmart). As with Walmart, I endevour not to support either company - although sometimes I end up doing so (my feelings aren't that hardcore, I just try avoid doing business with them).


I get a lot of flack from a few of my coworkers. I work in I/S, so we have a guy here that can get anything. He obsessively collects ROMs too (even though he doesn't play them, really). I do get the occasional crazy software from him. I played a pirated version of C&C generals for quite some time on LAN...I went out and bought the legal version last week. I have tons of oldschool game systems and games. I know I could probably modchip my ps2 but I prefer to buy legal versions (pricedrops).

I also know some people that obsessively burn DVDs. For god's sake, they have so many DVDs they will never watch them. They spend 1000% more time burning DVDs and printing labels on them than they do watching them.



To sum up:

I'm not perfect, I will use a pirated version of something on a rare occasion. I don't pay for the Evil Empire Microsoft's Overpriced Monopoly of software. But the few things like this I end up being a supporter. I would never have known how great Nero was if I hadn't used a pirated version years ago. And I would have NEVER bought a game like C&C generals - not an RTS guy normally. Give me a turn-based hardcore strat game any day (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Civ, MOO, etc). And I ALWAYS buy games that I actually enjoy - although I may sample them the bad way first (not like you can rent a PC game).

 

[Cobalt]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: troytime

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: troytime
and how many mp3s are on your computer?

Hundreds ... every one ripped from my own CD collection.

mp3 != pirated

my bad, i should have asked how many illegaly downloaded mp3s

Illegally downloaded = artist doesn't get money.

How many second hand CD's do you own?

The artists make minimal money on sales.

 

[rudder]

And people always use the argument that its okay to pirate because they would not have bought the game in the first place. WTF? that makes it okay all of a sudden?

 

[Klixxer]

I don't pay for software, i give contributions and support projects i like though.

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: rudder
And people always use the argument that its okay to pirate because they would not have bought the game in the first place. WTF? that makes it okay all of a sudden?

Yup, and when someone steals their car it is ok because they wouldn't have bought it from them anyway.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Old games that either were given away by the company or have been out so long the copyright has expired.

No computer program ever written has an expired copyright, and won't for another 30 years.

You'll be waiting 60 more years for the copyright on Leisure Suit Larry to expire.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
You all do know that the RIAA insists that ripping your "own" CD to MP3 format isn't considered fair use right?

Well, RIAA can go get stuffed. As long as I'm not distributing the copies, I don't think there is any problem. And if that ever gets to court, I suspect the court will agree.

 

[Ares2600]

Originally posted by: rudder
And people always use the argument that its okay to pirate because they would not have bought the game in the first place. WTF? that makes it okay all of a sudden?

I've seen that as an excuse and I don't agree with it in that context. Where I see that as a valid statement is when examining the EFFECTS of piracy.

The MPAA/RIAA can't and shouldn't compute lost sales based on the actual number of times said product was downloaded. THAT's the BS from the other side of the coin.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: Modeps
I'm getting SO tired of hearing people in here saying things like "just download it and get the crack" or " Thanks to mIRC, I don't have to pay for anything" in reference to pirating software.

And the worse thing is, these people are usually PROUD of what they're doing.

For those of you not in the business, teenagers, or poor college kids with uber-1337 download speeds and feel it's justified that you steal, you have no idea what it takes to go into developing a software package or game. The blood, sweat and tears that go into every line of code, every sprite, every model.... the sleepless nights that are spent with your mind racing on how to fix a pretty substantial bug. The long hours. Just so you can have the latest and greatest game to play....

Most of the time, these are fairly small development houses with only 20 or so people working on one project. So, if you take a game with a development cycle of 4 years, employing 20 people for 4 years to work on it probably cost at a MINIMUM a half a million dollars. That means 10,000 copies of that game must be sold before any profit is made (and that's not taking into account marketing dollars, publisher's cut, physical production costs, etc)

Here's an idea, if you dont have the money to buy a game either DONT PLAY or DOWNLOAD THE DEMO. I fail to see how anyone who is privileged enough to own a computer, xbox, ps2, or whatever can't afford $50 every few months for a new game to play.

I'm sure my words will fall on deaf ears, but what you are doing is not justified in any way.

Karma.

Originally posted by: Modeps
And the worse thing is, these people are usually PROUD of what they're doing.

Most people these days are still proud they smoked weed or did whatever. Where do most of the people who activily do drugs end up? When I grow older and I have a well paying job I will be buying games and music. The fact is though, most people who "warez" don't give a shiat.

Originally posted by: agnitrate
Certain software companies gear it so they KNOW people illegally download their software, but they know that when businesses employ these people, they will purchase their software a la Adobe. Doesn't Photoshop cost like $800? People need skills in Photoshop to become a good graphic artist, but how many artists do you know that have $800 lying around? Adobe knows people pirate their program but know that the businesses will cough up the money for it.

Games on the other hand are somewhat different. I buy games when I like them. I've downloaded a few games before and ended up buying them because they were great. I also have great faith in some companies that I know wouldn't put out a crappy product. I would buy a Blizzard game without even reading a review of it because I know it is going to be a good game with their name on it. I bought Doom 3 and I'm going to buy Half Life 2. Some people pirate and they wouldn't even buy the game so it's really no loss to the company. Piracy is a problem, but not as much as everybody makes it out to be. Perhaps if developers started making better games like the ones I mentioned above, it wouldn't be so prevalent...

-silver

That is true, alot of software companies do know this. I see that as one reasonable excuse, a small excuse but I dont think Macromedia cares if I use Dreamweaver for 2 mins at home to finish a project for school. Games on the other hand have something called Demos. How many people do you think actually just listen to the music or test the full game and then buy it?

Originally posted by: puffff
the problem with the gaming industry is it's target audience (high school, college students) in most cases cant afford games at $50 a pop. it's like rolex trying to sell its watches to teenagers. it's just not a fundamentally sound business plan.

Uhm, if you can afford a 2k computer with a 6800U and all the ods and ends you can afford a video game.

Originally posted by: troytime
and how many mp3s are on your computer?

5GBs

Originally posted by: loki8481
my roommate (a programmer, of all things) is the biggest pirate that I know.

he refuses to pay for an OS, so I'm, like, "dude, just run Linux." he'd rather steal XP (and subsequently can't patch, so he has mad issues on his comp).

You can still patch, why does Microsoft let us? Who knows...

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Rediculous pricing is what makes people steal.

If we could easily afford it, it wouldnt be worth the time and effort to go download it even.

Look at the new ESPN series of games, $20 a pop on release, and they are still making money, as a matter of fact those games are flying off the shelves as a result of the price.

No its not, its the fact that its free! Whats better than free! Not to mention alot of times you can download the game before its in stores. ESPN games I am assuming you are talking about consoles aren't as warezed.

Bottom line, there is no excuse for piracy. If you want to try a game, download the demo.

 

[KJI]

Heh this is probably going to cause a flame or something but , truthfully, practically every piece of software I use is pirated. This included stuff I use for my job(Paintshop, photoshop), stuff I use for school(Visual Basic, often various computer programs,) and stuff I just use at home (Winrar, etc.)

Why?

Quite frankly, the way I view it is that if I didn't pirate it, I just wouldn't have it. It's not really a case of programmers or companies losing money due to me (heads I don't have it, they don't get paid, tails, I pirate it, they don't get paid) and, I do spend all the money I can on hardware(sort of hard to pirate that.) Software piracy isn't like stealing cars or such, because it isn't a material good, and thus wouldn't have to be taken from somebody or produced.

This also applies to Mp3s and Japanese anime, which I also download often (though I do spend all the money I can on titles/albums.)

You can't really argue that people like me to buy everything we download, because it would be impossible unless we were rich. Though, I would understand how the kids with the cellphones and $500 Nikes could pay for it.

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: KJI
Heh this is probably going to cause a flame or something but , truthfully, practically every piece of software I use is pirated. This included stuff I use for my job(Paintshop, photoshop), stuff I use for school(Visual Basic, often various computer programs,) and stuff I just use at home (Winrar, etc.)

Why?

Quite frankly, the way I view it is that if I didn't pirate it, I just wouldn't have it. It's not really a case of programmers or companies losing money due to me (heads I don't have it, they don't get paid, tails, I pirate it, they don't get paid) and, I do spend all the money I can on hardware(sort of hard to pirate that.) Software piracy isn't like stealing cars or such, because it isn't a material good, and thus wouldn't have to be taken from somebody or produced.

This also applies to Mp3s and Japanese anime, which I also download often (though I do spend all the money I can on titles/albums.)

You can't really argue that people like me to buy everything we download, because it would be impossible unless we were rich. Though, I would understand how the kids with the cellphones and $500 Nikes could pay for it.

Thats a terrible analogy. If you can't afford it, you shouldn't have it. Just because I can't afford a Ferrari doesn't make it right for me to steal one or permanently borrow one.

How tough is it to shell out $50 for a program you will likely use for a long time?