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[darklord92]

It's been coming up recently. Sopa, Pipa Acta. Piracy is real and cant be ignored, but what is piracy online? One definition of a pirate is "One who makes use of or reproduces the work of another without authorization." isn't that the same as uploading a song of you and your friends doing karaoke? In my mind there are three types of pirates.... and a external 4th type.

The nice pirate:
I'll be honest. I've pirated before. i liked the game. so i deleted the files went out of my house. drove to EB games and bought it. and than the sequel. and than the spinoff. and than the spin offs sequel even without pirating them. (for those wondering it was the halflife 2 series and than portal ) I also played minecraft on a friends account for the longest time before I bought the game, I digress. The point here is the Nice pirate pirates to try, to see what the game is before they buy it and invest in the developer. This is like a demo of the software, and honestly not a lot of companies are making good demos now. Even worse pre-rendered trailers like dead island give gamers no real glimpse into the game, or even how it will play. I would play a demo before i pirate a game, even if i had to pay a little to play it, portal was a good example the game is short, but it works, and it's what got me interested in portal 2 because portal 1 felt like it was a demo i didn't NEED to pirate portal 2 due to the fact i already knew what it would be like.


The Poor/region locked/out in the middle of nowhere Pirate: Not everyone is right next door to wallmart, and it's something a lot of us take for granted. And even worse look at countries like Australia it can cost as much as $100-120 for a single game, let alone the console. Develoupers even force you to buy the game in your country even for those extreme prices by "locking" the game to that region, there are excuses to region locks(try playing the pal version of metroid prime 1 on a NTSC gamecube ) but sometimes it's simply to keep prices in each region set. A lot of people would say if your poor than you probably don't need luxury such as a game system, it's something I can agree with but things like computers are are becoming much less of a luxury and more and more of a necessity, and with common operating systems like mac and windows becoming more and more expensive it becomes difficult not to pirate.



T3h l33t H4x0r pirate:
as much as I'm buttering piracy up it's not nice to pirate even if you do invest. and these kinds of pirates are NO exception, I've know around four in my life. They pirate because they can and can make a quick buck at someone else expense, and all four of them found that funny. DRM only serves to push pirates like these further, they find it fun being able to crack open security. It gives them bragging rights, EAs current DRM is no exception, with there hardcore DRM being constantly cracked and more and more restrictions and checks being put on the user it becomes more of a problem for real users who want to play the game legally and more fun to the pirates that enjoy breaking there DRM. it Fuels there urges to prove that there better AND they can make a profit by selling the cracked( and with the DRM removed ) superior copies that can be installed on an unlimited amount of computers without being locked by the developer.


and finally
the Oblivious pirate:
Not everyone intends to own cracked software. just look at how many users were greeted years back when Microsoft created genuine check. this could be a result of two things, more commonly the above type of pirate. selling software for a quick buck, and when the drm updates the user is now stuck with exactly the same problems as the hacker. blocked out. Another reason could be sharing, we've all known since kindergarten to share with others. some software locks you out if you use its cd key on too many computers. Lets say you loan a game to a friend. but as soon as he installs it both you and him are now permanently locked out of that game, even though you spend the money to buy it. same as buying a new computer and moving your game to it.


I don't want people discussing there favorite place to pirate or rage on either side. I just want to know other peoples feelings and arguments behind this. It's an unpleasant topic. But it's coming up more and more in daily life, and in much less of a quite way than before.


related topics:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=98143.0 -piracy in general
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=99244.0 -piracy in general
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=96744.0 -on drm
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=94815.0 -piracy in genral
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=51500.0 -similar theme to this topic
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85946.0 -begins to waver into cyber bullying not sure how much on piracy there is.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57223.0 -Piracy in general with a pole
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=95636.0 -p2p file sharing
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=34865.0 -Nice pirating(small topic)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59552.0 -general copyright and piracy
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=37612.0 -excessive piracy fines

[Criptfeind]

I think you missed the biggest most common one.

The pirate who pirates without thinking about it.

Not the Oblivious pirate because they know what they are doing. Not the 'l33t H4x0r' because they are doing nothing but pressing a button on a web site. Not a Poor/region locked/out in the middle of nowhere because they simply are not.

Pirates that simply pirate because it is easy and cheap. Just common people who pirate. I think they are the most common type.

[darklord92]

Hmm true, guess you could call it the lazy pirate. It's there it's free it's easy why not?

[Frumple]

"Pirate of convenience" would probably be less pejorative and more accurate. It's not necessarily laziness, but that it's more convenient (less expensive, less technical/logistic issues) to pirate than obtain legitimately. I think there's also a similar term related to crime that I've forgotten, as well. Something or other of convenience. *vague shrug* E: Anyway, folks that pirate games they've bought in the past (Then lost CD/CD key/whatever) probably fall under this umbrella, too. It's technically illegal to do so, but it's an almost completely unambiguous moral issue, so plenty of people don't hesitate to do so instead of going through legitimate avenues of product replacement.

Incidentally, there's like a dozen+ threads related to this subject on the forum. You might want to go through and link to them, to help facilitate discussion.

[Reudh]

I generally don't indulge in such things...

I usually get my games as gifts from friends, who they themselves have pirated it.

[Criptfeind]

Anyway, folks that pirate games they've bought in the past (Then lost CD/CD key/whatever) probably fall under this umbrella, too.

Hum. I would rather put them, morally, under the rare and elusive 'nice pirate'

[ein]

To be honest, it's that type that I feel will just keep growing as people try to fight it~
The main issue is that big companies try to fight piracy, rather than provide a convenient alternative~
I saw a thing about this the other day, but what studios need to do to prevent piracy is to create an easy online store thing, like steam, but for movies or tv shows~

[Reudh]

Like iTunes, only better and easier to use.

[Svarte Troner]

What about the true internet pirate?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[darklord92]

Itunes works, same as steam, anything that removes the drm and makes it easier. msot pirates dont like jumping through loops to get to something. DRM nightmares and high prices count as hoops

[Flying Dice]

Steam and iTunes are both perfect examples of how companies should be combating piracy. I've never pirated games, because between Steam and indie devs I can find everything I want for little/no money and minimal effort. I could rip songs, but iTunes and my CDs are enough for pretty much everything I could want, again with minimal trouble, barring some really smalltime stuff that I can't find in the Apple database. I'm going to avoid discussing areas of entertainment where there aren't simple, affordable, legal options, for fairly obvious reasons.

[LordBucket]

I just want to know other peoples feelings and arguments behind this.

I assert that copyright is an unnecessary and harmful idea.

Lengthy, relevant discussion

TL;DR:
Copyright law does not generate a desirable result. Get rid of it. Completely.

[Stargrasper]

It's apparently not all bad, as the company behind Angry Birds would have you believe.

[ein]

On iTunes: also a pretty good idea, but from what I remember the last time I tried to buy something, it really wasn't the easiest to use, and felt kinda impersonal~
Bandcamp, however, is an amazing distribution method for music, and I've not found anything better~
You can listen to the music, and THE ARTIST is in charge~
They set the prices, or if it's free, and I've seen bands put up vinyl, cd, and even casette purchase options~
All of which, of course, include a download in your choice of a number of audio codecs, including mp3, flac, vorbis, and wav~

[SalmonGod]

Plus, iTunes went through a long period where it was really fucking awful.  Oppressive DRM measures and horrible quality files for terrible prices.  Then there's that whole issue with all Apple software turning into unkillable bloodthirsty malware when given a taste of Windows.

But I very much agree with the sentiment.  Services like that (done right) are the proper response to piracy.