I understand your opinion, which is all it really is regardless of your couching it as something objectively true. I also clearly stated that what Static misrepresented as the actual law might be meaningful in a dialogue regarding your position. My point was that he was wrong about pretty much everything he was stating about actual intellectual property laws.What you possibly don't understand and respect is that the law is wrong....
In that proposed scenario people wouldn't have the right to have control over what they create. If people can't license out their IP or sell their skills to someone with the resources to develop it further so that both parties and society as a whole can't benefit from it, they're being denied their personal liberty not only to do with their property as they wish, but their very right to work as well.The only reasonable application of criminal law to unauthorized duplication of code would be to prevent people from actually profiting from code they did not write.
That's the worst excuse for pirating that I've read on here.It's not theft. You're taking a copy of the game, not taking the original.
((snip))
All prices are going up, but not everyone's wages. People are helping the economy by pirating moderately.
OK, so you go spend the time and effort to code over a billion lines of code to create a game that you think people will like, then put it on the internet (for sale) where any Joe Schmoo can download it and not pay for it. Now, you have spent several years, and numerous amounts of money to do this (I am sure you don't work for free), but wait, it's ok if someone pirates your intellectual content, after all you did it for everyone right?
Who cares that you put your hard work, sweat, and total budget into creating this, it should be free.....
but I guess when you sit at home in your mommy and daddy's basement living off their dime it really doesn't matter does it, after all, it doesn't hurt anyone's livelihood does it?
If I make something, put it up for sale (regardless of whether it is digital or physical) and you STEAL it to use without paying for it, you are taking money out of MY pocket, and homey don't play that.
And who do you think the stock holders are? Only people in suits and ties sitting in some office somewhere? NOT, the majority of stock holders are your average joe, working a full time job(or retired) who put their hard earned money in the market, hoping to make a little money to retire (or live on if already retired), mainly people like your parents, and grandparents who are trying to make their lives (and yours) better in the long run, but that's ok, you don't mind stealing from them right?
You make a product. You sell that product to the public. If someone takes your product without paying for it, that is stealing, an ancient and well-known crime. There are no shades of gray in this matter. Theft is what it is, no matter how convenient it is to do.
First, its stealing. No matter what you (arbitrary "you") say to convince yourself otherwise, its stealing and its illegal. Theres really no gray area in that sense. Its the exact same as stealing the physical copy of it in the store, except that its easier to get away with it.
And now, Im gonna make a really stupid argument. Lets say we took this new 3D printer technology to the next level, walked into a store and "scanned" a Coach purse (first thing that came to mind). You then "printed" an exact replica, so much so that even the maker of the purse would think its real. So, now you have a purse that is worth God knows how much and prevented Coach a sale of said purse. So, is that stealing, or is it ok because you didnt actually steal it, you just made a copy using modern technology?
Yes they are. Businesses pass on the cost of product loss from piracy to the law abiding consumers. They also pass on the cost of market loss by laying off workers.To the people that buy all their games, dont worry about the people that pirate, they arent hurting you
These are meaningless semantics. When you pirate something you're doing something illegal. You're taking something which you're not legally entitled to. You have no right to use it. You were supposed to pay for it just like you were supposed to pay for the apple. What makes arguments to the contrary all the more petty is that stealing an apple if you are starving and have no means to procure the money to buy it is far more understandable and justifiable than the purely selfish motivations of pirating a luxury item such as a PC game. No one ever died from being denied the ability to play COD. Plenty of people die every day from lack of food, water and shelter.It's not that black and white when it comes to piracy. When you pirate something, you copy the data from a server to your storage device, thus making 2 individual copies of the data, the original owner does not lose anything...
Yes they are. Businesses pass on the cost of product loss from piracy to the law abiding consumers. They also pass on the cost of market loss by laying off workers.
These are meaningless semantics. When you pirate something you're doing something illegal. You're taking something which you're not legally entitled to. You have no right to use it. You were supposed to pay for it just like you were supposed to pay for the apple. What makes arguments to the contrary all the more petty is that stealing an apple if you are starving and have no means to procure the money to buy it is far more understandable and justifiable than the purely selfish motivations of pirating a luxury item such as a PC game. No one ever died from being denied the ability to play COD. Plenty of people die every day from lack of food, water and shelter.
The owner does lose something, he loses the money that people would have otherwise paid for a legal copy if they had not pirated, and all the talk about people who pirate not buying it if there was not an illegal free option simply is not supported by empirical data. Even if an owner suffers no monetary damages the concept that taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong is something most of us learned as adolescents.[/quote]
1.Almost everyone does things that are illegal, most people, including myself, break the law several times a day. It's not a big deal
2.NOTHING in this thread has been supported by data.
3."with as low as the percentage of people that pirate is, its like taking a couple $100 dollar bills from bill gates." No mention of this eh?
(I don't know how to use the quote function)
Most people don't commit crimes several times a day. Don't get me wrong. In the big scheme of things it's not as if someone is akin to being a serial baby killer, rapist or bank robber if they pirate product, but it's also not as if they're just going 10-20 mph over the speed limit on a highway either. It may seem that way in your mind but that doesn't make it so, and the way the law views it clearly puts it in a different category than a non-criminal infraction like speeding or spitting on a sidewalk. Unless your talking about minor stuff like that, I would say you live in a very different world than most people because most people don't violate criminal statutes 2-3 times a day.
The fact that losses to piracy reflect losses in sales and the costs are passed on to consumers and the labor market are supported by data.
I didn't mention your last statement because it's meaningless, irrelevant and an incredibly weak analogy. If you can't extrapolate why from everything that's been posted throughout this thread that's your own issue.
Yes they are. Businesses pass on the cost of product loss from piracy to the law abiding consumers. They also pass on the cost of market loss by laying off workers.
These are meaningless semantics. When you pirate something you're doing something illegal. You're taking something which you're not legally entitled to. You have no right to use it. You were supposed to pay for it just like you were supposed to pay for the apple. What makes arguments to the contrary all the more petty is that stealing an apple if you are starving and have no means to procure the money to buy it is far more understandable and justifiable than the purely selfish motivations of pirating a luxury item such as a PC game. No one ever died from being denied the ability to play COD. Plenty of people die every day from lack of food, water and shelter.
The owner does lose something, he loses the money that people would have otherwise paid for a legal copy if they had not pirated, and all the talk about people who pirate not buying it if there was not an illegal free option simply is not supported by empirical data. Even if an owner suffers no monetary damages the concept that taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong is something most of us learned as adolescents.
Yes it does, it steals intellectual property. Just because it's not a physical object does not make it any less than theft. If you come up with an amazing idea for an invention, one that could earn you millions, and I overhear this and copyright it first, I have stolen your idea, your potential income and indeed your reputation for coming up with that idea in the first place. But hey, that's okay right because, i'm not 'stealing' your idea, I'm just 'copying' it right? Please stop trying to justify theft, you obviously are a pirate and therefor a thief. You seem to have no problem with that, ok, just stop trying to justify it. You aren't stealing to live, you are stealing to play a computer game. I think that's pretty sad.
And yet you felt the need to mention it....But that's irrelevant.
1. You continue to ignore the fact that it's not about putting a company out of business. Piracy hurts people. It hurts the businesses and they pass the hurt on to their consumers and their employees. It's not the victimless crime that people who pirate pretend it to be.....i'm POSITIVE that the... probably 5% of people playing skyrim that pirated are not going to put Beth out of business.....
This irrelevant and morally and intellectually barren argument was already addressed and dismissed in several other posts. If you can't grasp the concept that using something that doesn't belong to you is wrong then repeating it again is pointless.It is entirely impossible to Steal something that does not physically exist.