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[Heron TSG]

The moment you start hunting them, piracy begins in increasing numbers.

fixed.

[Zai]

The moment you start hunting them, piracy begins in increasing numbers.

fixed.

...It would probably help to use an example.

Like Spore. If I recall correctly, it had about a 1 to 1 ratio of people who purchased it to people who pirated it. Many people pirated because of the invasive DRM that it had which was removed in pirated copies. Hell, you could play the game early if you pirated it!

[Cheeetar]

I have no problem against people who pirate, and if a game is old enough that it is no longer being sold by the original companies (i.e. I saw multiple sites that sold you Evil Genius if you subscribed (which I believe is much worse than ordinary piracy, as the site is doing it to gain money)) I support its piracy.

[Heron TSG]

Spore costs $60, and you were only allowed to install it thrice before they would de-activate it. If you installed it on three different computers, only one of them would work.

I can understand pirating a game that modifies your hard drive to prevent it from installing something more than three times.

[Keiseth]

Yeah, if you go out and buy something, then pirate it to escape its draconian security... why not? Seems fair to me.

[kcwong]

The moment you start hunting them, piracy begins in increasing numbers.

fixed.

...It would probably help to use an example.

Like Spore. If I recall correctly, it had about a 1 to 1 ratio of people who purchased it to people who pirated it. Many people pirated because of the invasive DRM that it had which was removed in pirated copies. Hell, you could play the game early if you pirated it!

DRM (ineffective counter-measure) != Law Enforcement (Cops knocking on your door)

But the devil is in the details, isn't it? The difficulty in making and enforcing that is very difficult, and may cross with other laws concerning piracy. That's why it is not implemented for home users anywhere.

In Hong Kong it is illegal to use pirated software in companies - jail time for both the employee and employer. I don't see this law being enforced anywhere yet.

[x2yzh9]

Spore costs $60, and you were only allowed to install it thrice before they would de-activate it. If you installed it on three different computers, only one of them would work.

I can understand pirating a game that modifies your hard drive to prevent it from installing something more than three times.

Yeah, if you go out and buy something, then pirate it to escape its draconian security... why not? Seems fair to me.

Yes, but it would only be fair if you didnt distribute that pirated version to others, even then it should/is illegal to pirate it.

[Jreengus]

Although I don't know how this carries over to games I remember reading a study that people who pirate music are apparently eight time more likely to actually buy it or something similar.

[Sensei]

Yeah, if you go out and buy something, then pirate it to escape its draconian security... why not? Seems fair to me.

If you truly insist on finding the exact proper moral ground, I'd say buy the game, and then get a pirate copy. As well, pirating is fine in my moral compass if you purchased the game and lost it.

I think the results of thatguyyaknow's aforementioned study are simply because people who are pirating music buy or used to buy a lot of music anyway- someone who doesn't listen to a lot of music or isn't 'in the know' isn't very likely to pirate something.

[Vattic]

I don't know when it comes to games but when it comes to music I know lots of people who became fans of certain bands through being given pirated copies of their albums who now buy everything said bands release. Some musicians support piracy to an extent for this very reason. The copyright laws in the UK are stupid anyway as technically even lending a book to someone breaches it and a lot of publishers state that they will not prosecute to the full extent of the law because of this .

[Yaddy1]

The moment you start hunting them, piracy begins in increasing numbers.

fixed.

...It would probably help to use an example.

Like Spore. If I recall correctly, it had about a 1 to 1 ratio of people who purchased it to people who pirated it. Many people pirated because of the invasive DRM that it had which was removed in pirated copies. Hell, you could play the game early if you pirated it!

DRM (ineffective counter-measure) != Law Enforcement (Cops knocking on your door)

But the devil is in the details, isn't it? The difficulty in making and enforcing that is very difficult, and may cross with other laws concerning piracy. That's why it is not implemented for home users anywhere.

In Hong Kong it is illegal to use pirated software in companies - jail time for both the employee and employer. I don't see this law being enforced anywhere yet.

That's a terrible law that would put a lot of innocent people in jail. Think about it. Your employer tells you to use some software. How do you know if its pirated? And even if you do, if you refuse and your employer is arrested of fires you you now have no job. How could you consider thinking that that law should be applied anywhere!?

[Sowelu]

Although I don't know how this carries over to games I remember reading a study that people who pirate music are apparently eight time more likely to actually buy it or something similar.

Yeah, that's me.  Music piracy drove around 75% of my music purchases before Pandora came to be.

As for games, the topic annoys me.

[kcwong]

The moment you start hunting them, piracy begins in increasing numbers.

fixed.

...It would probably help to use an example.

Like Spore. If I recall correctly, it had about a 1 to 1 ratio of people who purchased it to people who pirated it. Many people pirated because of the invasive DRM that it had which was removed in pirated copies. Hell, you could play the game early if you pirated it!

DRM (ineffective counter-measure) != Law Enforcement (Cops knocking on your door)

But the devil is in the details, isn't it? The difficulty in making and enforcing that is very difficult, and may cross with other laws concerning piracy. That's why it is not implemented for home users anywhere.

In Hong Kong it is illegal to use pirated software in companies - jail time for both the employee and employer. I don't see this law being enforced anywhere yet.

That's a terrible law that would put a lot of innocent people in jail. Think about it. Your employer tells you to use some software. How do you know if its pirated? And even if you do, if you refuse and your employer is arrested of fires you you now have no job. How could you consider thinking that that law should be applied anywhere!?

That's why I said the devil is in the details. And exactly why I have not yet seen the law being enforced.

If the government does not make that law, other countries and corporations will accuse her for not protecting their digital rights and complain to WTO. http://www.google.com/search?q=WTO+piracy&ie=UTF-8.

That's why the laws are written, but rarely actively enforced.

Most bigger companies do have higher moral standards than others though, and with the laws in place, they perform routine check of all computers to remove pirated/license expired software.

[Puck]

Piracy = Theft
Theft = Bad (mmmkay)

unless you steal from EA 

[a1s]

don't pirate! (the FBI will kill you)