[Tanukitsune]

I went to the mall to see if they finally had Fahrenheit, and if they had Serious Sam II and the new Asterix comic...

Most people thought I was talking about the first Serious Sam game, and none of them had it...

When I arrived at "Game.es" the only "game only" store, they not only thougth I was talking about the first game, but they told me to...

DOWNLOAD IT FROM THE NET!

What the???

For Christ's sake! This is just too much!

You know piracy is out of control in your country when even people who should be the first to rise against this kind of kind, are in fact, all for it!

They did have the game but...

To add insult to injury, the game was more expensive than if had simply ordered it from the UK...

[pinkgothic]

Oh man... that's depressing.

[Untouchable2K]

Originally Posted by Tanukitsune

You know piracy is out of control in your country when even people who should be the first to rise against this kind of stuff.

Where you get that theory from?

[Tanukitsune]

Originally Posted by Untouchable2K

Where you get that theory from?

Eeeh, because even game store owners are OK with piracy here?

[Fop]

Are you sure the game isn't available from some online service?

[pleto4_ryan]

You know piracy is out of control in your country when even people who should be the first to rise against this kind of kind, are in fact, all for it!

Never played a role in such an incident, but i have read other gamers in my country who had.
Stupid shops.

[TigerShard]

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago when at a Gamestop. I was buying Indigo Prophecy and pre-ordering some Xbox 360 games when the clerk asked me if I had an Xbox and if I used Live. He then went ahead to offer that he mod my Xbox so I could trade in my games towards my 360. He says he hasn't bought an Xbox game since launch and never will again. He said he was downloading Indigo Prophecy because it looked cool. I was so angry! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Someone who works at a gamestore and gets discounts on everything still pirates all his games, and makes money on the side by getting other people to pirate games. If people can still say piracy isn't a problem they should open their eyes, or just look at their own harddrives.

[ILoveYou]

Piracy has very minor affect on the sales (at least this is the case with music). But I agree, it's not morally right. I don't know where you guys live but I've never heard anything like that before.

[GED X-42]

I was wandering round my local computer game shops looking for a copy of Serious Sam 2.

Out of 5 shops, all of them computer game specialist shops only 1 of them had a copy of Serious Sam 2 and they only had 1 copy. Which i instantly brought.

I'd like to think it was because they had all sold out, but i doubt it.

Or maybe they were all hidden beneath the untold millions of copies of FIFA 2006.


I'm amazed the guy would suggest downloading a copy, since your purchase pays his wages.

[[toj.cc]Phantom]

Originally Posted by ILoveYou

Piracy has very minor affect on the sales (at least this is the case with music). But I agree, it's not morally right. I don't know where you guys live but I've never heard anything like that before.

Actually it has a huge affect on sales. So huge and popular in fact that some Mafia organizations hvae stopped seeling drugs and now sell/make/traficc pirated games.

[Aj_]

Originally Posted by GED X-42

I'm amazed the guy would suggest downloading a copy, since your purchase pays his wages.

That'd be hard since the store didn't have it.

Originally Posted by [toj.cc]Phantom

Actually it has a huge affect on sales. So huge and popular in fact that some Mafia organizations hvae stopped seeling drugs and now sell/make/traficc pirated games.

1. Stopped selling drugs? Well there certainly isn't a shortage.
2. They make money from selling games, they don't stop stores from selling games. That certainly doesn't prove that it takes sales from stores.
edit* 3. Organised crime has been doing similar acts before the computer was invented.

Originally Posted by Tanukitsune

Eeeh, because even game store owners are OK with piracy here?

Piracy is such a big problem that the people who supposedly suffer are OK with copyright infringement? Tell me how much vodka I have to drink to make that logical.

[Tanukitsune]

Originally Posted by Aj_

Piracy is such a big problem that the people who supposedly suffer are OK with copyright infringenment? Tell me how much vodka I have to drink to make that logical.

Imagine you are witnessing a store being burglarized, imagine you find a cop, now imagine that not only does he say "Why bother?", he says "Heck, you can join them for all I care!"....

Yes, I know game store clerk are not "Gamer Police", but they should uphold the copyright laws and be against piracy!

Piracy is so bad, that people who should be against are in fact all for it, or have simply given up hope and don't give a damn!

Why is that illogical? It's wrong, maybe even twisted, but it's logical nontheless...

[entranced]

I really doubt piracy will ever be cracked down upon enough to seriously put a dent in it. It happens so frequently...and has become so disgustingly widespread...that I just don't see how any type of organization is going to be able to put a lid on this. There would have to be so much money invested in projects/operations like this that it would be sickening just thinking about it. In the US for instance, serious changes would be necessary on our constituional rights. I don't see how that will fly any time soon.

Even without downloading over the Internet...how are you going to stop people from buying a product, and then sharing them with friends and making tons of illegal copies? The CD/DVD writing technology today has simplified it. It's just like back in the good old days before everyone was online. People made copies of casettes...recorded videos with their VCRs...and so on. I know that not much can be done about this, and you can never totally quench piracy, but it doesn't have to be as friggin rampant as it is today.

As I've already stated, the sad part is how easy it has become. Piracy of media has become easier than ever, since computer technology and the Internet have hit the mainstream. You could go as far as saying piracy is the cool thing to do. Downloading copyrighted music, for instance, is something many people will do as willingly as they'll drive over the speed limit. You can thank p2p for that. In fact, I think peer to peer file sharing is one of the most harmful developments ever. It has done f*ckloads more bad than good if you look at the 95% of the shit you'll find floating around on there. It's completely unregulated, and no one seems to give a damn that you have terrabytes of pirated media at your disposal.

All of this is growing exponentially. People are realizing that if they can get music for free with few strings attached, they can probably get movies and DVDs for free...and hell, why not get games and software while they're at it? It's all right there at the same place where they found their songs. Many get hooked on the stealing and figure, "Why waste my money on buying all that, when I can get it for free and use my money elsewhere?"

I do commend the RIAA (over here) for the efforts they have taken to combat music piracy...though they have had very modest success. If more organizations and government officials started getting involved and invested the time and energy to start addressing this, I'm sure they could make a few things happen. The p2p servers seriously need regulation. No one takes this crap seriously enough though. Like I said...right now people compare it to committing minor traffic violations.

And yes..I know that as widespread as piracy is, it still hasn't had an incredible affect on sales. Of course, there are so many more important issues in the world then the theft of music, movies, software, games, and so on...that I can understand why it's deemed so petty at this point that no one gives a damn. But I'm telling you that it's only a matter of time before it becomes noticeable. As moral as people may be, they like to get things for free. It's just becoming more and more common as the years pass.

I've got younger cousins still in high school/starting college for instance who have bragged at family reunions about gigabytes upon gigabytes of stolen music, dvds, and movies lying on their hard drives. They could give a shit about the moral implications of what they're doing. What can you really do at this point though, when your own friends and relatives seem to be advocating piracy?

I cannot wait to see where things will be a decade from now.

[Wormsie]

I read of a similar incident in Finland a few years ago, where a salesperson actually sold pirated games made of store copies...

[Aj_]

Originally Posted by Tanukitsune

Why is that illogical?

1. Copyright infringement is not stealing, or breaking and entering for that matter.
2. A store clerk is certainly not the police.
3. If piracy was bad, people who should be against it, would be against it. The people who don't care, haven't decided not to because it's "so bad".

And that's why it's illogical.

[Tanukitsune]

Originally Posted by Aj_

1. Copyright infringement is not stealing, or breaking and entering for that matter.
2. A store clerk is certainly not the police.
3. If piracy was bad, people who should be against it, would be against it. The people who don't care, haven't decided not to because it's "so bad".

And that's why it's illogical.

1. It's theft of intellectual property...
2. No, I already said that they weren't, but they should defend a game's copyright at least...
3. If piracy isn't bad why can you go to jail for it? Why are there laws against it?

[After a brisk nap]

Exactly. When even the people who supposedly benefit from copyright don't care if you break it, that just means that there's something wrong with the copyright system. (That's pretty much the doctrine of abandonware.)

In the same way, most of the inventors I know think the patent system should be scrapped, and most software developers support open source. And of course, many musicians openly encourage bootlegging and online distribution of their music.

The real opposition comes from the big corporations, because they are the ones who in fact reap the benefits from restricting the freedom of intellectual works. Not the creators themselves.

[After a brisk nap]

Originally Posted by Tanukitsune

1. It's theft of intellectual property...

No, it really isn't. This is a lie taught to us by the propaganda of industry lobbyists. If copyright infringement is anything, it's a form of trespass.

2. No, I already said that they weren't, but they should defend a game's copyright at least...

Why?

3. If piracy isn't bad why can you go to jail for it? Why are there laws against it?

Those are very good questions.

[Aj_]

Originally Posted by Tanukitsune

1. It's theft of intellectual property...

Look it up. Theft, legally and literally, means "to deny the owner of", "to take". The US Supreme Court, and written British law, says that it doesn't equate to theft.

2. No, I already said that they weren't, but they should defend a game's copyright at least...

Why?

3. If piracy isn't bad why can you go to jail for it? Why are there laws against it?

You go to jail for it because it's against the law. There are laws against it because the people who want control of IP control the people who make the law. Something being illegal does not automatically make it unethical.

[Tanukitsune]

Is it ethical to copy another's work?