Piracy: When is it "acceptable"?

MalicE

MalicE

Party time! Excellent!
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Now before SOME of you go off on a tangent about how all piracy is bad and wrong (badong), hear me out. I've put some thought into is and come to the conclusion that in certain cases it is justified...

DSTV is on the war path now to crack down on interweb pirates, but this is not because they are picking up the cause against piracy but merely because they are trying to get more money into their own pockets.

SO, my argument is that there are MANY shows not available on SA broadcasts, be it DSTV or SABC. So it should be fine for me to download it then. Right?

Games are a bit more technical...

Now since I got the internet at home say more or less 4 years ago I have not pirated any games. Except 1. Deadpool.
After some less than favourable reviews the devs threw a hissy fit and pulled it off steam and any other site you could get it from. the ONLY way to get it was a cracked copy from a torrent download. so I see that as perfectly acceptable to pirate. But now in a shameless PR stunt I see they put it back on steam right after the movie trailer released...

Also acceptable is when a game is so bad and/or buggy that it doesn't deserve your money. Especially if you're not even sure it will actually run on your system *cough*Batman*cough*

....thoughts? HARRRR!
 
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Funny you should post this now. I've recently pulled a pirated game for the first time in about 5 years as well. Since I joined the working force, and got a salary, I haven't really had trouble buying enough games to keep me busy. Recently, though, money has been a bit tighter, and so when I bought myself Metal Gear Solid 5, and my wife got me Starcraft's new expansion, I figured it'd be worth having a look at a certain very expensive game before buying. I played it for an hour yesterday, decided in that hour that I'm going to buy it, and won't play it again before I bought it.
 
I have no shame in downloading a TV program if Multichoice/DSTV deems it acceptable to show adjacent/concurrent shows with crossover episodes out of sync. I also have no issue getting something if the evil overlords decide to show it 6 months after it aired in the US. Also goes for shows they don't bring over to good old sunny south africa. Take Portlandia for example, I love watching it, but Monochoice decided that they wont air it.

With games it's slightly different, before I decide to fork out my hard earned cash I would like a demo of the title to at least get a feel of what the title would perform like on my rig and to get a feel of the game in general. Example is now with Fallout 4, I believe its a great game, but I'm a little torn between doing my Skylake upgrade or postponing my Skylake upgrade and getting Fallout 4. So i'm forced to either pirate it to see if I really need the upgrade or just do the upgrade and get the game later.
 
When I know I'll love a game (I'm still wrong sometimes :3) I buy it straight out.

However, when I have doubts, I'll sometimes download a pirated copy first. With Witcher for instance. I bought Witcher2 when it released and I played maybe 2hours and that was it. Tried to pick it up again at a later stage and it just didn't work for me.
So when Witcher3 released I was very cautious, I didn't want to blow $60 again on something I wouldn't like, so I got a test copy first and played it. I loved the game, so I bought it.

For me it is like test driving a car. You aren't going to buy a car just because you saw it in a book and maybe read a bit about it (unless you are dead set on it because reasons I suppose). You are going to want to drive the car and have a look at the interior and build quality. Only then you will know if you are buying it or not.
For me it is the same with games. I like to check it out first and then decide if I am buying it or not.
Demos of games used to cover this and gave a good idea of what the game would be like. Nowadays you are hard pressed to find a demo of a game.

So, if you pirate the game, like it and play it for hours, buy it. If you enjoy it then the developers deserve your money. However if you pirate it and play one hour before you decide you don't like it, don't buy it.
 
I don't think it's ever "acceptable". That doesn't mean I don't do it from time to time, but I know damn well it's never right. We always find a way to justify what we do though.
 
I find it acceptable when they are no longer airing a show or if there is no ways i could afford to actually get it
 
Blazzok said:
Demos of games used to cover this and gave a good idea of what the game would be like. Nowadays you are hard pressed to find a demo of a game.

So, if you pirate the game, like it and play it for hours, buy it. If you enjoy it then the developers deserve your money. However if you pirate it and play one hour before you decide you don't like it, don't buy it.
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That is the key...try it and if you like it, buy it. Hell continue playing the pirated version if you wish, but at least make sure the devs get what they deserve.
 
Blazzok said:
So, if you pirate the game, like it and play it for hours, buy it. If you enjoy it then the developers deserve your money. However if you pirate it and play one hour before you decide you don't like it, don't buy it.
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Completely agree. I played a pirate copy Kingdom of Amalur back when it came out (my pre-internet days, spent MANY hours on it and loved every second. Some time later, after I got the interweb, and it was on special, I bought it purely for my love of the game and to play the DLC's (which I am still to do). But I shopped it after Big Huge Games shut down so I don't actually know who got my money :(
 
I also often download a game before buying it just to see if I'll enjoy it. If I do, I delete the image and wait until I buy it before playing.

I don't watch a lot of TV shows and when I do it's usually on Netflix on Hulu but I'll download something from time to time. Same goes for movies, but I download a lot more of them.

Music I just download or copy from friends as I can't get original CD's here anymore, unless I import them myself and that's too expensive for me.
 
Wlad said:
Music I just download or copy from friends as I can't get original CD's here anymore, unless I import them myself and that's too expensive for me.
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oh... yeah... forgot about music. I'll shamefully admit I pirate most of my music these days "whistling:
 
I Cringe every time I have to pay R800+ for a PC game :/ I agree, it is never Acceptable. but does not mean people don't do it. Series,movies and so on I do on a regular basis. But pirating a game does feel wrong
 
Flex said:
I Cringe every time I have to pay R800+ for a PC game :/ I agree, it is never Acceptable. but does not mean people don't do it. Series,movies and so on I do on a regular basis. But pirating a game does feel wrong
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yeah PC games costing the same as console games these days are tempting the lost pirate in me. I found myself the other day trying to justify downloading Fallout 4 because it doesn't have online MP or co-op so I don't HAVE to buy it legally..... "whistling:
 
Last game I pirated was Witcher 3. I installed it, watched the trailer, and then bought it on PS4. Have not pirated a game since..... well,, I can't remember when I did, before Witcher.
 
MalicE said:
yeah PC games costing the same as console games these days are tempting the lost pirate in me. I found myself the other day trying to justify downloading Fallout 4 because it doesn't have online MP or co-op so I don't HAVE to buy it legally..... "whistling:
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Mmmm... Nudge nudge, wink wink
 
Flex said:
Mmmm... Nudge nudge, wink wink
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haha! I decided to rather just wait till it's cheaper. and patched. got more than enough to play as it is in any case.

As for movies, I don't feel bad pirating those at all. those people make tons of money. not really a struggling industry. I go watch a lot of movie in theatre, the big titles. and if I do pirate a movie and I love it I will most likely buy the bluray. It has actually reached the point where my wife has asked me to stop buying movies cause we're running out of space to stack them :D
 
MalicE said:
haha! I decided to rather just wait till it's cheaper. and patched. got more than enough to play as it is in any case.

As for movies, I don't feel bad pirating those at all. those people make tons of money. not really a struggling industry. I go watch a lot of movie in theatre, the big titles. and if I do pirate a movie and I love it I will most likely buy the bluray. It has actually reached the point where my wife has asked me to stop buying movies cause we're running out of space to stack them :D
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If them making money is a factor, check this out.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-4-digital-sales-estimated-at-18m-in-first-/1100-6432341/
 
I'm a filthy pirate, and I will always justify my reasons for pirating certain games, always. That said, I do buy games, and even buy games I myself don't intend on playing. I'm not a cheapskate (I'm a bargain hunter, there's a difference ;))

It's not acceptable though, because we aren't barbarians. Picking your nose in public is also not acceptable :p
 
I fully agree here with malice i actually pirated batman now as i was pissed at not getting my legit copy and it bei g a collectors edition. After i had already paid for it in full. So i extreme cases like that i think piracy is "legit" and seeing as dstv is so pricy these days for 20 channels with the same shit just on different times i would also pirate some shows. Drop prices or get some more packages that varie a little specially when it comes to sport.
 
Here's something to think about, using services like Netflix or Hulu, who are not licensed to provide their services here, is kinda technically a form of piracy, however you are still paying the asking price for the services, so it's not really all that wrong. The service providers and the content creators all get their money. The only people who are taking any kind of loss are DSTV, and I'm just not willing to pay like R800 per month for DSTV and never be able to find anything worth watching, when I can get a ton more content on demand for less than a quarter of that price, even after the terrible exchange rate conversion and the extra fees for a DNS proxy service.
 
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