I used to warez the shit out of games when i was a teen. Since i've been employed i dont really see the point of downloading tons of games, i rarely play games and when i do its usually something i KNOW is a great game, or on the 360, so i'll buy it. There was an exception recently tho, after buying two fucking copies of oblivion on 360 for my GF, and having the same eventual completely broken(disc-read errors)experience with both copies, i found a torrent and just installed it on her PC.
Every module we did at university involved a slightly different skill set and so also needed some different software. We were studying to be professionals in the design industry so we needed to use professional software. The university refused to even give us demo versions and didnt even suggest learning editions or open sources. When I asked my lecturer about this she said "just ask around someone will have what you need".
So I guess thats piracy from a university students position.
Keep in mind, this woman was sharing this game. Who knows how many people were able to gain access to an illegal copy of this game because of her? I have no pity.
The thing I find funny is that 500 some-odd people were sent letters to settle for £300, and some actually decided to go to court instead of settling. Balls. Balls. Balls of Sttteeeellll!
When I was in school I certainly didn't have 1,200 to drop on Adobe's Creative Suite, or 2,500 for Max, but I also wasn't making any profit from using them. I would never go into debt for a product whose price is based entirely on the fact that it is used to generate the user profit when I myself am only using the product to learn. So even though I lacked a commercial license I was never using the product commercially. Now that I do use them commercially I have a commercial license through work.
Games on the other hand, are a bit of a different story. I always found it funny when people would pirate games in college and then go crazy with complaints when the pirated version crashed or wiped saves or screwed up their computer. What do you expect for something you got illegally? You lose all right to complain about a product when the version you got had to be broken to work for free...
Keep in mind, when you're download a torrent, you're also uploading it...so you are, quite literally, supporting piracy.
Yep, I understand that using bit torrent is considered sharing as well. And, I don't mean to sound harsh, but I really have no pity for things like this. It is stealing, it is sharing, it is illegal, and...depending on your morals...it is wrong. Whether or not this woman was using a bit torrent and unaware that she could have been technically "sharing" her stolen goods doesn't matter. The ignorance card doesn't play in any other cases, and I don't think it should here either.
When I was in school I certainly didn't have 1,200 to drop on Adobe's Creative Suite, or 2,500 for Max, but I also wasn't making any profit from using them. I would never go into debt for a product whose price is based entirely on the fact that it is used to generate the user profit when I myself am only using the product to learn. So even though I lacked a commercial license I was never using the product commercially. Now that I do use them commercially I have a commercial license through work.
Yeah I'm with you on this. The point about PLE (made earlier) is valid but not always applicable - alot of programs I know of dont really have that type of version available.
Moving on to games... the main reason I used to pirate was a lack of demos, pure and simple. Sometimes even when there was a demo, it was hit and miss. I once downloaded a splinter cell 4 demo, it ran perfectly on my rig. Went and bought the retail version off the back of that, and got burned real badly by titting around for 3 hours just trying to get it working on a more than recommended rig with no customer support or advice. That was a turning point; I decided it was more ok to pirate for a while because I needed to see how these games would run - and not just the demos, but the retail version. Once you buy a PC game, its not like console games, you can't take it back if it doesnt work, its just going to sit there like a coaster of so much money.
If there was no demo available, I often didnt really bother with the game at all, or sometimes, the torrent of the retail game was roughly the same as the demo, leaving me with a decision - why would I try the BS demos when for the same bandwidth and time taken I could try the real thing?
I will say though, even though I dont pirate any more, I'm half glad I did. All of the games I pirated, without exception, were shit. Sorry for the language but it was true - they were real bad, and I'm glad I never bought them (they'd have been immediately traded in, and ideally, taken back for refund but thats not possible.)
As an interesting aside - the games I knew would play well, be it from a demo or from 360 versions I'd tried - I always bought, though I do now tend to hang back a few months while the release gets patched accordingly. Too many bad experiences.
So that was it in a nutshell from me. I will say, I used to know someone who pirated console games... now that was something I do not understand for reasons stated above.
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I'm all for stopping people from stealing your game, but fuck.
So I guess thats piracy from a university students position.
The thing I find funny is that 500 some-odd people were sent letters to settle for £300, and some actually decided to go to court instead of settling. Balls. Balls. Balls of Sttteeeellll!
Games on the other hand, are a bit of a different story. I always found it funny when people would pirate games in college and then go crazy with complaints when the pirated version crashed or wiped saves or screwed up their computer. What do you expect for something you got illegally? You lose all right to complain about a product when the version you got had to be broken to work for free...
Yep, I understand that using bit torrent is considered sharing as well. And, I don't mean to sound harsh, but I really have no pity for things like this. It is stealing, it is sharing, it is illegal, and...depending on your morals...it is wrong. Whether or not this woman was using a bit torrent and unaware that she could have been technically "sharing" her stolen goods doesn't matter. The ignorance card doesn't play in any other cases, and I don't think it should here either.
Moving on to games... the main reason I used to pirate was a lack of demos, pure and simple. Sometimes even when there was a demo, it was hit and miss. I once downloaded a splinter cell 4 demo, it ran perfectly on my rig. Went and bought the retail version off the back of that, and got burned real badly by titting around for 3 hours just trying to get it working on a more than recommended rig with no customer support or advice. That was a turning point; I decided it was more ok to pirate for a while because I needed to see how these games would run - and not just the demos, but the retail version. Once you buy a PC game, its not like console games, you can't take it back if it doesnt work, its just going to sit there like a coaster of so much money.
If there was no demo available, I often didnt really bother with the game at all, or sometimes, the torrent of the retail game was roughly the same as the demo, leaving me with a decision - why would I try the BS demos when for the same bandwidth and time taken I could try the real thing?
I will say though, even though I dont pirate any more, I'm half glad I did. All of the games I pirated, without exception, were shit. Sorry for the language but it was true - they were real bad, and I'm glad I never bought them (they'd have been immediately traded in, and ideally, taken back for refund but thats not possible.)
As an interesting aside - the games I knew would play well, be it from a demo or from 360 versions I'd tried - I always bought, though I do now tend to hang back a few months while the release gets patched accordingly. Too many bad experiences.
So that was it in a nutshell from me. I will say, I used to know someone who pirated console games... now that was something I do not understand for reasons stated above.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/pirate-station
Most of it is "well duh", but it's an interesting take on the subject. Thoughts?