Is online piracy really "theft"?

[Graal]

Rubbish. Pirates are cheapskates who think they're committing a victimless crime, not victims who are being forced to buy a product essential for life.

And good job for missing the point and painting everyone under the same brush all at once. Let's put it this way. If you want a game, you can go on the internet and order it from a number of retailers, most of whom will ship directly to your door. You can even jump in your whaaaaaaambulance and rush to the nearest shopping centre, where you're bound to find at least one shop selling most of the recent videogame titles. It's easy for you.

Up until a few years ago, in many places in the world, even developed countries, that wasn't possible for a lot of people. The only way they could acquire it was through piracy. Nobody is saying it was right, or that it made it legal, but that's just the way it was. There was a service issue for them, making them unserved customers.

Enter Steam. Problem mitigated.

Can't find the game in your local shops, or they're all sold out? Don't pirate. It's on Steam.

Don't currently have the money for the game? Don't pirate. Steam will have a sale in two or three months.

When iTunes first came out, and people were free to buy those songs they wanted, instead of being charged outrageous prices for whole CDs if they only wanted three songs on the CD, did a lot of people not stop pirating because they suddenly had a more convenient way to acquire their music?

You are always going to get that die-hard group of people who will pirate no matter what, but they are not reflective of all pirates. Piracy is technically illegal, yes. However, now that we've established that, what now? Have those few words stopped pirates in their tracks?

So next time, before doing what you always do in arguments, which is standing in a corner, fingers in your ears and yelling 'herp grownups buy their stuff lololol', stop and think a bit. Stop being the one-dimensional journalist you are, and think for a moment that there is more to piracy than just 'lolfreestuffs'. The gaming industry itself is as much to blame for the state of the piracy scene as anyone else.

You can treat software piracy just like any other theft, but that is a really shallow way of looking at it, and a definite step backwards in the process of looking at a viable solution to the piracy problem. It's the exact same shitty attitude game publishers have, and it's the reason we have to put up with shitty DRM that harms the consumer.