how do you feel about piracy?

[sdr08]

just wondering how do you guys feel about piracy? is it wrong or right? what are your guys opinion of pirating games, music, movies...etc...

personally, I am a songwriter (just starting out) and I think its scary for me going in this career, because people stealing songs illegally, I think it needs to stop, just to be clear I don't support the bill. there needs some way to stop piracy without violating the first amendment, what do you guys think?

[keyblade2222]

i pirate shit all the time and i do not care

[soraking10]

I'm not one to support it or anything, but hey I pirate stuff myself. Getting all this shit ain't cheap, and especially for someone who doesn't have a job.

So, yeah there it is. ._.

[Hamster Lord]

i pirate shit all the time and i do not care

took the words right out of my mouth

[Rychu-Sama]

I download music and old video games but that's about it.

Downloading music isn't technically illegal in Canada, though.

[Orion]

Piracy is good, without a doubt. Aside from the reasons described in the following video, it also allows for people to trial games before they buy them, which is an increasingly valuable tool in an increasingly digital-distribution-centred game industry. Steam doesn't have a refund feature, and if a developer doesn't release a demo for their game, you have no clue what you're playing until you've bought it, unless you pirate it to find out if you care to play and own the full product.

RIP FREEDOM OF SPEECH - YouTube

[Amros626]

I pirate things because I do not have the means to pay for them. If I had a job with disposable income I would pay for stuff. (unless it's music)

[kazukifafner]

I think that piracy can have good results on the markets that experience it. It makes them improve their ways in an attempt to compete with "free." It also promotes more of an ability to try-before-you-buy, as Orion said. However, that doesn't change the fact that there are still a ton of people who will download whatever they want for free and never actually pay to support it, regardless of whether they wind up liking what they downloaded or not (nor does it change the fact that piracy is still stealing). I think that companies should keep the tools they gained from this, but I also think that there should be ways for creators to safeguard their work and not feel like they have to worry about everyone downloading and few paying.

That said, I'm no stranger to torrenting `3`

[Taochan]

I download music because I shelled out 20 bucks for every CD I ever bought until I was 14, which equated to hundreds of dollars.

I would only download old video games or ones that never see a localization in NA.

I download TV shows that still don't have DVD releases or ones I wouldn't buy anyway and would probably just stream. I put so much revenue into the movie/television industry that I hardly feel bad for downloading the occasional TV show or movie.

All in all I feel pretty damn good about piracy.

edit:
It's not like this was non-existent before the days of the internet anyway. When I was a child and VHS' were still the only media format, my family would rent movies from Blockbuster and copy them onto blank VHS' so we wouldn't have to pay the extra 15 dollars for them. We would record songs off the radio onto cassette tapes so we wouldn't have to pay money for a whole CD when we only wanted one song. Things haven't really changed, piracy is just more blatant now a days than it was before.

[lycorismoon29]

I refuse to pay for overpriced crap unless I know I will like it and it is worth the purchase. I don't have a source of income so I can't exactly buy things I want, anyways.

When I do have money, I try and support in any form I can if I know I will like what I'm buying.

[sdr08]

I admit I pirate some things lol, but I keep getting a guilty conscious. so do you guys I should stop being a songwriter then?

[testify]

A lot of people against piracy assume that cracking down on piracy means that suddenly everyone is going to start paying for these different types of media the proper way. That isn't true at all. I only do it because it's free (in my case, it's really only music, and occasionally a movie, video games I buy). If that was taken away, it doesn't mean I'm going out and handing out close to 20 dollars (or whatever CD's cost nowadays) for a CD which only has like 12 songs on it. Besides, I don't want to hear that "intellectual property" crap, since most money made off CD's just goes to the recording labels, instead of the actual artists.

Anyways, boils down to what was previously said by Peppu. "i pirate shit all the time and i do not care"

[lycorismoon29]

I admit I pirate some things lol, but I keep getting a guilty conscious. so do you guys I should stop being a songwriter then?

Why do you feel guilty? Nobody is dying from you not buying a dvd or album. If it is because you are stealing, think about the millions of dollars record/movie companies steal from consumers and don't give to the people who created the content or into the economy and it all stays in their fat pockets.

Um, what does you not being a songwriter have to do with pirating? Keep doing what you want. You won't be able to change people's minds over buying something or not.

[lasersquash]

Pirates are okay
Also, whats with the lack of ass pirate jokes in this thread?

[sdr08]

Why do you feel guilty? Nobody is dying from you not buying a dvd or album. If it is because you are stealing, think about the millions of dollars record/movie companies steal from consumers and don't give to the people who created the content or into the economy and it all stays in their fat pockets.

Um, what does you not being a songwriter have to do with pirating? Keep doing what you want. You won't be able to change people's minds over buying something or not.

hmmm...you have a point :), and ignore the songwritter comment...I don't know why I wrote that :/, but how do you suggest me putting it into the economy? please share