29 replies to this topic

[BellaBleu]

Same here...except when something like music is really good, I go out and buy it after torrenting it

[Elindoril]

Get all my games for free? Why the hell not?

I'm not spending $50+ and actually GO to the store to get it when I can just click a few links and get it without exerting any real effort.

Edited by Elindoril, 23 November 2009 - 04:45 PM.

[jcrdude]

You guys are going to make Lars Ulrich, sworn enemy of the internets, have an aneurysm.

I don't want to pay for anything. So piracy gets a thumbs up from me.

I've never liked Metallica... but his douchebaggery only made things worse.

I've downloaded their discog like 7 different times now just to be an ass.

[sealonfire]

Looks like the results are clear.

[kbbbb]

Piracy in general i can admit is kinda wrong, but again only to the people who it would actuly have some effect on, the smaller bands, those who need those few extra sales rather than the multimillion pound sellers.

Most band's money comes from concerts, unless they're pop (like Britney) whose fans are too stupid to use google. The majority of money from iTunes downloads or CDs goes towards the bottom lines of big record companies. If someone feels strongly about a band, their best bet is to go see the concerts, and if they're really crazy about them, send them (stalkerish) presents and donations. Buying albums does encourage record labels to hold on to acts, but with the net and places like MySpace Music becoming more legitimate ways to launch bands, the main perpetrators of the myth about piracy being doom is the greedy labels who are too lazy to update their business models.

Also, there are pathetic groups who seek to hold on to their IP way after it's worth anything. People who distribute Donkey Kong Country for SNES roms via P2P have been chased by the developers. Certain companies who no longer produce games remain on a longwinded campaign to prevent them from going on Abandonware sites. Old software isn't like a painting or a chair- once it's OS that it runs on reaches the end of it's lifecycle, and the company no longer sells the product to market, it's functionally useless for the mainstream should become public domain. Is anyone going to pay for a 15 year old game that runs on Windows 98? Mostly, no.

The type of arguments these companies seek to prop up their assertions and keep their stranglehold over Washington (and thus the rest of the west) is that if someone downloads something, that's a lost profit. If someone pirates, that's theft. I would argue, it's far more tempting to pirate having that retarded warning notice on Family Guy DVD's played over and over again so I didn't have to see that retarded notice telling me I'm a criminal when I paid them for the product. As has been said, if someone's not going to buy the product anyway, then there's no lost profits. Conversely, artists like Moby have argued piracy has helped them, spreading his appeal and music and getting more people at his concerts. Adobe can't argue with piracy either- the reason most big companies use Photoshop is because young pirate obtained and trained themselves in the soft early, making it an industry standard, so the next gen pirate it, and thus the cycle of theft continues.