Thread: Compare and Discuss - Piracy its wrong.

Copy protection only harms people who actually buy stuff, for example I own the game Worms 4 Mayhem which uses starforce for its copy protection, because of starforce the game fails to work in Windows Vista or Windows 7. However thanks to pirated copies of the game I can use the crack from the pirated version to allow me to play the game I purchased legally.

As for DVD’s no one wants to be forced to sit through the anti piracy advert every time you put a DVD in (unless it was the one from the I.T. Crowd ) but again pirated DVD's have the annoying piracy warning removed so the only people who ever see it are people who actually bought the DVD anyway!

...see where im going with this?

I’m not saying piracy is right but pirates do get the better deal almost every time...

Originally Posted by BonezOz

Piracy? Ask the Somalian's

As for downloading IP that's a different story. Some of the key reasons that people download software, movies and music are:

1. Movies: Want to watch new releases from the comfort of their desk chair
2. Movies: Want to watch hard to find movies that aren't available to rent (I'm guilty of this)
3. Movies and Software: Can't get the game or movie in their country due to being banned.
4. Software: To expensive/can't afford the legal version - and no free equivelant
5. Software: Want to try before they buy
6. Music: Like a band, but can't find it on CD/DVD
7. Music: Obscure band that is only available either via torrent or the iRipYouOff store
8. All the above: I'm a cheapskate and I'm going to stick it to the man
9. All the above: Because I can
10. TV Shows: Like movies, they aren't always available overseas, or come on too late at night to watch, this would make the download the equivilant of recorded TV.

All in all illegal downloads of IP are wrong, but it's nothing new. People used to make copies of cassettes back in the day. When software came on floppy disks instead of CD/DVD people would make copies for thier friends. One install CD of Windows 95, 98, ME and 2000 could be used numerous times because there wasn't an activation option.

I couldnt agree with you more!! infact, im also found guilty for many of the above mentioned facts that you pointed, if not all!! But like nutter said : "I’m not saying piracy is right but pirates do get the better deal almost every time... ".... I rest my case!!

I've edited this post like 5 times already, because i'm very passionate about art and censorship, and i cant type fast enough to express all my thoughts about it. I'm excited about this thread, and about all of you're opinions on the matter. based on my experience, and what i;ve seen happen throughout my 25 years, i believe corporate america has turned the entertainment industry into an (almost) artless factory driven solely by greed. the internet hasnt helped, becuase now that everyone can post user-generated content (whether it be music/writing/movies/whatever) it's almost impossible to find the true artists because they immediately plunge into an ocean of mediocrity. i have to stop editing this now, because every time i hit "save" i think of another 10 pages i want to add.

(i have to reiterate, like in most of my posts, that i'm very ignorant of the way things are outside of the US, therefore i can only express my opinions about what i know. the following is my opinion of the Orwellian conspiracy that we've all been unwillingly taking part in for the last 50 years)

that being said, i feel no guilt about pirating anything. the mega-conglomerates like the MPAA and the RIAA have been making too much money for too long by ripping off the end consumer.

these days, 99% of all music is corporate manufactured garbage. they use marketing techniques to figure out the kind of music the target demographic will buy (this demographic is generally teenage to early twenty-somethings, because we buy stupid shit =P) and they crank out artless crap like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys (lame boy bands seem to come out on about a five year cycle these days) and Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus and all the other "musicians" who are popular as hell for a couple years, until theyre replaced by the next wave. they also use the same techniques to suppress the true artists by over-producing they're music to fit demographics. sometimes you can hear a song on the radio that sounds like the same old corporate contemporary shit, but you see the band live, and its a great song, because the studio version was manufactured.

this same technique can be used in the opposite direction as well. there was a local band here in southwest Florida called Twisted Method. they used to play the local clubs. and they sucked. hard. but they were playing the type of bullshit rap/metal that was popular at the time, so a record company picked them up and tweaked them into something that would be bought, even though the music was garbage.

by the way, they used to pay hundred of millions of dollars to gain the marketing knowledge to do this, but thanks to social networking sites like cryspace and facebook, the world will post all the info they need for free! they aren't losing a dime to music piracy, they're probably making more profits just from the lack of overhead costs due to the free market research. not only is it free, but its constantly updated.

art, in my mind, is the creation of something beautiful for the sake of beauty. art is one of the only things in the universe that is distinctly human.

for companies to try and limit access, or even believe they have the right to tell us what is art and what isnt, and to put a price on it, is unacceptable to me, from an existential standpoint.

if you were to approach your favorite musician, and tell him/her that you love they're music, and have great respect for them as an artist, do you think that person gives a damn whether or not you paid $13.99 for they're CD?

how many great software companies, that produced brilliant groundbreaking games are no longer around, because they couldn't compete with the giant monopolies that control the market? (think Looking Glass, ID software, Ensemble Studios, Westwood*, just to name a few)

it would take an entire book for me to express how i feel about the movie industry.

you think there are any studio producers or record executives that are struggling to put food on the table? maybe they could only buy 10 new cars last year because of the decline in record sales.

cry me a fucking river.

i encourage pirating in all forms.**

i'm an anarchist at heart, Down with Big Brother!

(if you havent read George Orwell's 1984, then go out and buy it right now [or steal it, up to you]. also download/listen to Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" to get what i'm talking about as far as corporate influence on music)

"Always had the deep respect, and i mean that most sincerely
the band is just fantastic, that is really what i think
oh, by the way, which one's Pink?"

(Great album, "Wish You Were Here")








*EA bought out Westwood, who created all the Command & Conquer games up through Red Alert 2 (I think that was the last produced by Westwood) if you buy (or steal) C&C The First Decade, which has every game up through Red Alert 2, which was put out through EA, you'll notice a few changes (censorship) in the very first Allied mission of the expansion to Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge. the mission synopsis is that Yuri is using his psychic domination to get the civilians of Hollywood, CA to willingly walk into his grinders, using them for energy. As you wipe out the Yuri Clones, who have the psychic powers, the civilians are released from theyre stupor and taken to safety. there are several Easter eggs that were in the original version that were censored for the the EA version, just because they made reference to Westwood Studios, the original creators of the game. the best (in my opinion) is a Cowboy character Named Flint Westwood, a very obvious Clint Eastwood reference and tribute. this character had unique lines, said in the Dirty Harry voice like "make my day, punk" and classic Clint eastwood stuff. there were a few more characters, not as memorable to me, because i happen to be a big Clint Eastwood fan (for instance there was a character supposed to be Arnold Swartzeneggar[that name is probably mutilated, but the Digiex spell checker doesnt give me any suggestions =P]). anyway, in the EA version, the characters still show up in the game, but instead of having unique names and lines, theyre given generic names like "cowboy actor" and "action film star" with standard C&C dialogue. this really fucking pissed me off. unless you can find an original Westwood released version of Yuri's Revenge, you will never experience what i thought was a very creative example of artistic lisense. that type of censorship is exactly like the methods used in the twice referenced masterpiece, 1984. Flint westwood was erased permanently from all copies, except pre-EA copies of the game. He now only exists as a memory.

"who controls the past, controls the future
who controls the present, controls the past"

-Big Brother, IngSoc slogan.




** when talking about internet media piracy, not necessarily true piracy, like whats happening in Somalia. But there are 2 sides to that story as well. I dont condone kidnapping or holding anything for ransom, but what the Somalians say for reasoning is 100% true, even though we might not agree with the reasons. you have to understand that these people arent doing this because they want to, they dont have any other choice. the country has no government. there are no jobs, or ways of making a living. last year, before the piracy started making headlines, Somalia was just another impoverished African nation that was unique only because it had the worlds highest inflation rate, 2 million percent. which means if something normally cost $1, it would cost $2,000,000 in Somalia. how much money do you think the average Somalian fisherman makes? and how much does it cost to feed his family? meanwhile, the rest of the world is usuing Somalian waterways to make hundred of billions of dollars by transport, and dumping the ships waste there becasue the laws say they cant dump it in First World Country's waters. It isn't just the US thats guilty of this either, its all of our Countries. But we've been doing that to Africa for as long as we can remember. Its rather sad actually, seeing as how all evidence points toward Africa as the originating point of mankind. Yet we blissfully ignore the unimaginable atrocities that are commited throughout the continent, most of which are a byproduct of modern society. First World economies only exist because third world economies exist. there cant be rich people without poor people. the basic rule of capitalism is that for an economy to succeed, there has to be another economy that fails. i made a post a few days ago, crying about how hard life seemed without internet access! these people have to worry about war/rape/AIDS/food/water/survival in ways that we could never imagine. i cant say that what the pirates are doing is right, or justified, but i can say for a fact that if i were in they're place, i would do the same thing.