1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. Welcome to Lake Valor!
    Catch, train, and evolve Pokémon while you explore our community. Make friends, and grow your collection.

    Login or Sign Up

Piracy

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Wizard, Mar 16, 2016.

Tags:
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Wizard

    Wizard Do you feel it? The moon's power!

    Cupidueye
    (Decidueye (Cupid))
    Level 113
    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2016
    Posts:
    2,381
    PokéPoints:
    ₽9,269.2
    I think that this thread warrants the "Debate" prefix, as there are differing viewpoints on pirating things on the internets. Also, I'm pretty that talking about piracy is allowed under LV's rules, as long as nobody posts anybody's links. Of course, be respectful, all that cool stuff.

    Anyways, down to the juicy stuff. I'll be using computer software for this example.

    Programs like Adobe Photoshop can be extraordinarily expensive, and a lot of people don't want to spend all that money to buy it, I get it. However, think about pirating things this way: somebody took time out of their lives, perhaps several months or even more than a year to make that program that you're pirating. Although it doesn't feel as physical as something you may find in a store, it's still a product that somebody/many people made.

    How do you feel about piracy? Have you ever pirated anything? How do you justify it? If somebody is put in legal trouble because of piracy, should just the original uploader of the software be punished, or should everybody who downloaded it be held accountable too?

    Fire away m8ees.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  2. Reborn

    Reborn Signature Creator

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2014
    Posts:
    476
    PokéPoints:
    ₽1,993.3
    I think that piracy is without a doubt immoral for the most part, at least when you think of it in the way that you stated in the OP. Piracy essentially puts the consumer in total control of whether or not they pay for the product, and when the cost is in the hundreds and there is practically no drawback to simply not paying one would have to be daft not to pirate it. Piracy isn't always necessarily bad for the product maker, since by making the product available to everybody it makes the public more aware of that product's existence, and in the case of programs like Photoshop, users will become familiar with all the features of the program and so in a professional setting people may be more likely to purchase and use Photoshop over a rival product. In the case of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan himself said that piracy helped spread awareness of the show and led to its huge popularity, though it's difficult to know whether the increase in popularity caused by piracy was worth consumers having the ability to not pay.

    At the end of the day, we should assume that consumers will pay as little as possible for a product and it's up to product makers to prevent piracy. There are plenty of software makers who have already figured out solutions to the issue. Should you as an individual feel bad for pirating a piece of software? I guess, I mean would the alternative for you be to pay for it? In most cases I doubt it and in a lot of cases I'm sure having an extra person using the product for free is better than not having that extra person at all.

    To be perfectly honest, I feel almost stupid for the fact that when I got a new computer a couple years back it was easier to pirate a newer version of Photoshop than to install my genuine copy of Photoshop. It was as if Adobe weren't even trying to prevent people from stealing their product and that I was naive for thinking that I should.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    Wizard and Maantijger like this.
  3. Maantijger

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2015
    Posts:
    807
    PokéPoints:
    ₽268.5
    There's almost no one who's used the internet who hasn't pirated something at least once and I'm not an exception so I'm not gonna be hypocritical here. That said, I haven't pirated that many things, especially not expensive things. If I want a game, I'll buy it off Steam or whatever, if I want to watch that new movie that came out recently, I'll go watch it in the theater and I don't pirate expensive software like Sony Vegas or Photoshop either. However, I do pirate all my music and stream most of the anime I watch and manga I read. I recently got a Cruchyroll subscription so I guess I'm not an absolute anime pirate but maybe 0,5% of the manga I've read I actually bought myself. Technically pirating stealing and of course that's bad, but it's very hard for the government to control digital goods which makes it easy for pretty much anyone to do. Most of the time it doesn't threaten the industry's or the product producer's existence either and like [member='Eclipse'] said, sometimes it even helps a product be more successful. I honestly can't really blame people who pirate their stuff. I think it's one of the most innocent illegal things you can do on the internet.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    Wizard likes this.
  4. Sachi-Shimazu

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2013
    Posts:
    1,982
    PokéPoints:
    ₽60.8
    I have a weird stance on it. Minus one program that I desperately needed for school (and it was off one of my classmates who cracked it), I will never pirate games or applications. Also, Western TV series, be it animated or live action I feel horrible about pirating unless there is no realistic way to watch it. However, anime is different, as are older console games.

    So obviously it's a bad thing. I'm not saying that depending on the situations the legality and morality of it change. However, IMO it's bizarre when it comes to things that are fully out of my reach. Music, TV shows, applications, all of those I can buy and are often shared with my family as well. That makes me not want to try and pirate them, because I want to support the original creators, and I don't need to because I have such easy access.

    Anime is a different story. I'm really the only one in my house that watches a lot of anime, buying premium subs to Crunchyroll and the like would more be my money, which I don't have due to not having a job. Hence anime is a bit weird. I only pirate (well, watch on illegal websites like Animefreak and occasionally KissAnime) the new anime coming out or English dubs, because those you need to pay premium, but anything that I just need to watch ads I'm willing to watch ads. Plus there are some that just don't show up on any legal streaming sites.

    Finally, older games... These are difficult because I don't have and never will have the consoles to play them on and they are often still pretty pricey on Virtual Consoles and probably more pricey IRL. So while Emulation is piracy, it's weird, I don't feel as bad doing it, even though it is just as bad as all other piracy.

    However, it is wrong, I'm not debating that, it's just weird...
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    Wizard likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page