Piracy and Illegal Downloads

[Xaqwais]

Man oh man oh man.

Is there anyone who just a little bit internet savvy who hasn't pirated something in there life? Whether it be music, software, video games, or movies, it's such a commonplace thing, especially around people on forums and the like.

I myself used to download everything under the sun, from OS's to PS2 games to Photoshop, but in the past year I've kinda cut down. I used to spout all the different arguments and alibis of "how it's not different than borrowing" and "they're overpricing it anyway." I stopped most of my illegal downloading due to me attempting to be a bit more religious and "don't steal stuff" being something that's said in Islam. I had just bought an R4 card for my DS and everything and I'll say it wasn't easy. I don't necessarily regret it, but man, I very much miss Photoshop on my computer.

As for what I still pirate, I still play ROMs of games that aren't available in stores anymore. I understand that now you can get them off of things like the Wii Virtual Console and such, but I have some justification in my mind that it's okay when I know that it doesn't at all make sense since it's not any different. And if a game is something that isn't released in America, I'll download it as well (such as Jump! Ultimate Stars).

But what I want to know how many of you guys pirate freely and don't feel bad about it, pirate freely and feel bad, don't pirate, etc. I know a lot of people despise people who pirate games as game developers get screwed over (this seemingly applies especially for iPod apps for people who jailbreak for them).

What say you Smogon?

 

[NatGeo]

I'm not sure if this counts, but I used KeepVid to download an entire series. ?

I will play ROMs on occasion, though I just got into it only for Black and White.

I have downloaded many pieces of music for free, some legally, some buy used of ListenToYouTube. I'm not really sure if it could be considered piracy, since YouTube lets you see things you would normally have to pay for.

IIRC, you only get a penalty for making money off of obtained stuff. Tell me if I'm wrong, however.

 

[BIG loven]

Just for music, and I dgf

 

[Polis4rule]

Only Halo OST's 1, 2 Vol. 1, 2 Vol. 2, and 3.

About time I torrent ODST and Reach's OST's.

 

[Renosaur]

My brother is pretty anti-pirate. He refuses to download movies or songs illegally, and insists on buying them from itunes or a store.

 

[jwoozie]

Well I recently purchased an Acekard 2i so I'll let you decide.

The only bad thing about it is deciding which games to play, since not a ton of DS games tickle my fancy.

 

[vitreous]

i pirate whatever i feel like pirating and don't feel bad at all. the whole thing about "intellectual property rights" (especially the music industry) is just something i don't buy. have you considered how piracy has been going on for so many years yet people are still continuing to make music?

for an instance, let's say i buy a new computer set. since it is my computer, i should be able to do whatever i want with it, whether to break it up to pieces, use it for my own convenience, sell its parts to my friends, the list goes on. conversely, i think the same should be the case with music cds. i really dislike being unable to rip the mp3s off to put it in my mp3 list. this goes for games as well--if i really like this game in particular, i would really want to edit and improve it.

 

[SMZ]

I sometimes go and think this is "not really stealing policy" similar to viteous manner, but I still sometimefeel guilty. I don't do it much now like before though. Mainly because I haven't downloaded a torrent program, which that and ROMs are the "illegal" stuff.

 

[popemobile]

I pirate music all the time, and I guess I do feel kind of guilty about it but not really enough to stop doing it. I also pirated pokemon platinum because I don't own a DS but I don't feel bad about that in the slightest

 

[Not Scicky]

I download everything. Music, TV shows, movies, comic books, you name it.

 

[LonelyNess]

when the alternative is $1.50 PER SONG, I don't feel at all bad about downloading music. Fucking highway robbery more so than any other industry.

make the product affordable (seriously, would it be so terrible for them to be $.25 a pop... or less, even. We're talking about songs that are in the tens of millions of downloads) or don't be surprised when people take the path of less resistance.

 

[Firestorm]

If you live in a country with Zune Pass or Spotify, I don't think the price argument is legitimate for music.

 

[Luduan]

I pirate frequently, with no compunction whatsoever.

 

[petrie911]

There are only two kinds of games I pirate

1) Games I can't get in English (and thus need translation patches for)
2) Games I already own a legitimate copy of.

The first category so far has mostly just been Fire Emblem and Earthbound games. I figure that if Nintendo refuses to sell them to me, they aren't losing any business from this.

The second category may sound odd, but it is still technically illegal. ROM hacks and tool-assisted speedruns both require ROMs of the game in question, so I need the ROM if I'm going to make/play/watch them.

 

[Brammi]

Mwahaha you hath fallen into his trap.

I download stuff illegally.

 

[moot]

If you live in a country with Zune Pass or Spotify, I don't think the price argument is legitimate for music.

and get music that is riddled with DRM? no thank you

zune pass is the most tricky piece of shit in the industry

lost fifty gigs worth of music i still haven't all recovered two years later

 

[Mekkah]

I'll generally download/pirate anything I want, but that isn't much, and most of it is things that aren't exactly for sale anymore. It is hard for me to believe that it's illegal, considering it is impossible to enforce such a law, and so easy to break for anyone. It just seems so outdated and irrelevant.

 

[cookie]

I stopped buying music the day I found out that the Dark Passion Play album I bought had a Japanese edition with extra songs, which in order to get I had to commit piracy anyway, unless I fancied paying another £10. I understand that Japanese albums have bonus songs like this as an incentive to buy them because the tax on imported albums is something ridiculous there, but the record companies should understand this: I don't like being fucked over when I am trying to support the music industry, especially when I have a perfectly acceptable alternative of downloading the albums for free. It's like saying " haha fuck you" well I do the same by pirating their music, seeing as the music industry is so hilariously behind in terms of cracking down on piracy.

 

[Toothache]

I do download ROMs, since I am into TASing, but I generally also buy copies of the games I own. What the gaming and music industries don't realise is that for people who pirate them, most of them will want to own physical copies too. Its an extra incentive for people to buy albums if they can listen to them first, and that's one thing the music industry never got. Similarly with games, even with the more recent Dolphin emulator being able to play current generation games, people are often more likely to buy a physical copy. It is amazing they still don't get it.

With the earliest forms of gaming technology being almost lost in many respects (cassette tape and 5.15" floppy discs especially being lost to time), there should be more of a move to digitally preserve gaming heritage. One thing the ROM sharing community does is preserve the earlier and more recent games against total eradication, so over time it is possible for future people to appreciate the history of computer games.

 

[Cooky]

I pirate absolutely everything, looking on Itunes my Purchased playlist consists of about 120 songs, in a library of approximately 10,000 songs. This also extends to movies, games etc.

It's not like you're costing them money directly, I mean I couldn't afford to buy music at £1.00 a song so I just wouldn't listen to it, and if its out there there's no harm in getting it. 0 opportunity cost (in my mind..).

 

[waffles101]

Songs are a prime example. $1.19 doesn't seem much, very reasonable. I have 1000 songs and that would be... wait! $1190! It's ridiculous. I play ROMs on my R4 but that is because I can't justify spending hundreds a year on DS games, nor do I want my DS to go to waste. I can buy a R4 + a Micro SD for less than a single game. It makes it hard to say no. I am going to download a Black ROM then buy Grey because I'm not letting Nintendo rip me off. The o ly thing I can see people realistically buying is IPhone apps because there are games that match ds games for $6 instead of $60. I jailbroke my iPod Touch anyway because I'm uber stingy and buy nothing except for XBox games.

 

[Exarius]

I used to pirate video games, but after I got myself a credit card, I started to use Steam, and practically stopped pirating games; I don't play roms that much, and if I want to play something, it's usually on Steam for a good price, which is also pretty painless to use. (And I support something I do every day, whatever that counts for).

I do, however, pirate music. This is for a very simple reason: Albums in itself cost quite a lot for a student who plays games, and for the fact there isn't any decent music shops close to where I live. Sure, you could pull the spotify card, but can you DL the songs and keep them? I listen to music while on the move too (school, etc), and if it's confined to my computer only, I would have to cut myself from the music when I am not at the computer. No thanks. If there was a decent music shop that sold the music I want for cheap close by, I would stop this too, but since there isn't, I won't.

Then movies. I download, but I almost never watch them. And even if I do watch, it's once usually. Only exceptions to date is 300 (thrice at the moment), X-Men Origins Wolverine (twice) and Fullmetal Alchemist (the original series, randomly watched some episodes more than once). And with movies costing what they do, I don't really see why I should pay 20€ or more for a movie I might not even watch at all. Plus, it's kinda the same as waiting until the movie comes on TV, then taking it up on a harddisk or something.

 

[Destiny Warrior]

I don't have problems pirating ROMs of games, because where I live, there are no stores selling console games, and the prices for import are exorbitantly high.

I don't really listen to music or watch movies, so I have no need for then

 

[alamaster]

I've bought over 200 CDs in the last 2 years of high school and it cost me a fortune. Now that I have expenses every month I can't afford to add music on top of all of that and lead an enjoyable life, so I download.

 

[capefeather]

Something that I never understood was the hate that people who pirate get. It literally doesn't affect your life, nor does it affect most of the "poor" developers that you're defending, so why get so worked up about it? It seems like an excuse to judge people based on an unrealistic moral code. I mean, yeah, maybe Luxembourg got screwed out of some games, and that is tragic, but throwing blame at pirates isn't going to achieve anything.

I download ROMs of <=5 generation games. It's not like anyone's making money off of them anymore, and I don't have any current-generation consoles or a video card that could be considered "decent" due to a string of circumstances. I tried to get into sixth-gen stuff, but Dolphin crashes on me whether I have Data Execution Prevention turned on or off. It's weird...