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Hawk52: I'm not going to touch the subject so much as get something off my chest.

Don't bring up morality on subjects like this, because here's the thing about morality: Morality is relative to the person deciding on their own moral compass; defined by the experiences and opinions of the person making the choice at that time. Just because something is illegal, or goes against a group or personal norm of others does not make it immoral to the person making that decision. It might be frowned upon by others and society in general, but that is not morality.

When you bring morality into the fray and base your opinions regarding what is morally correct to you, you've already missed the entire point.
Precisely.
Piracy is simultaneously both moral and immoral, depending on the person observing.

What Piracy IS, and no one can actually argue it, is illegal.
Just because something is illegal does not make it morally wrong, or 'bad'.
However, at the same time, just because you do not find something morally wrong to do, or bad, does not make it legal.

I don't care who pirates or why they do it, technically speaking, it's illegal. Then again, so is speeding >.>
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FantasyNightmare: You can't really win against piracy, as it is a moral issue. You can try to appeal to the greater moral good, but people will be immoral douchebags and pirate games regardless.
GoG is taking a very interesting route, by trusting us enough to not put the game up on torrent sites.
But anyways, I remember reading somewhere that some people don't crack DRM to stick it to the man, but for the challenge. Furthermore, I think some crackers are putting up a little message that says "If you like the game, please buy it to support the developers".
A friend of mine read the same nfo...
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FantasyNightmare: But anyways, I remember reading somewhere that some people don't crack DRM to stick it to the man, but for the challenge. Furthermore, I think some crackers are putting up a little message that says "If you like the game, please buy it to support the developers".
A worthless phrase, if you ask me. I read it as "I have cracked it and because I don't want to sound like a totally spineless pirate dickhead, I have added this sentence to have a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

IMO if a cracker wanted others to support the devs, he would *not* crack anything, because it helps the pirates instead (I know that some people use cracks on their purchased games, but that's not my point).
But because he wants some internet cool points for being teh 1337 cr4ckz0r, he does it anyways.
GOG installers is also being pirated, but not so much as scene releases. a recent release on TPB has both GOG and Skidrow releases, Skidrow's release outnumber GOG's release by a margin of 3:1 in seeds, Older Titles has even a wider difference

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jackalKnight: There's probably lots of people trying to crack Diablo 3 just to stick it to Blizzard to take revenge for the disappointments surrounding it.
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Fictionvision: That will take writing an entire server package to cope with calculations done server side.

Very much possible as proven by WoW private servers, but it will take a long time to get done.
It's already been done by Skidrow in June already :P
Post edited December 06, 2012 by te_lanus
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doady: The point is that DRM does nothing to stop piracy, not that being DRM-free will stop piracy.
That's how I see it as well.
DRM doesn't do anything good.
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FantasyNightmare: You can't really win against piracy, as it is a moral issue. You can try to appeal to the greater moral good, but people will be immoral douchebags and pirate games regardless.
GoG is taking a very interesting route, by trusting us enough to not put the game up on torrent sites.
But anyways, I remember reading somewhere that some people don't crack DRM to stick it to the man, but for the challenge. Furthermore, I think some crackers are putting up a little message that says "If you like the game, please buy it to support the developers".
This is also what ive read in different places over a period of time. Pirates basically crack DRM as a challenge (otherwise you would see every single game cracked - people would be surprised at the number of games...which should be easy to crack, havent - i guess latest has the 'greatest' DRM to challenge crackers ;).. What happens after that is more of a moral issue. And yes a lot of .NFO's (quite a few)on said *cough* pirate copies so have that about buying to support devs. So to me i dont think pirates necessarily crack to copy the game - copying and sharing is a side product.
For me, one part of the puzzle has to do with freedom. I don't like being shackled to Steam, a console, or otherwise being told that someone can take away the games I want to play. Supporting DRM-free games is something that has become a matter of principle to me.
Drm was never intended to be working against the 'pirate bay' piracy. It was suppossed to end the second hand market and stop legitimate sellers from 'abusing' their copy', like making copies for friends etc.
The Witcher 2 was one of the most pirated games in USA. So no.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/the-witcher-2-pirated-45-million-times-cd-projekt-6346876
Post edited December 06, 2012 by keeveek
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SimonG: Drm was never intended to be working against the 'pirate bay' piracy. It was suppossed to end the second hand market and stop legitimate sellers from 'abusing' their copy', like making copies for friends etc.
Pretty much this...But for DRM-enthusiastic publishers even if you lend your disc to a friend or gift it to a family member - it is abusing.
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Hawk52: I'm not going to touch the subject so much as get something off my chest.

Don't bring up morality on subjects like this, because here's the thing about morality: Morality is relative to the person deciding on their own moral compass; defined by the experiences and opinions of the person making the choice at that time. Just because something is illegal, or goes against a group or personal norm of others does not make it immoral to the person making that decision. It might be frowned upon by others and society in general, but that is not morality.
I think there are moral absolutes. Rape, for example, is always immoral. And while some morality might be socially constructed, like say stoning women for having sex, I think that could still be absolutely immoral when viewed from outside the bubble.

That said piracy is not among these absolutes.
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Hawk52: I'm not going to touch the subject so much as get something off my chest.

Don't bring up morality on subjects like this, because here's the thing about morality: Morality is relative to the person deciding on their own moral compass; defined by the experiences and opinions of the person making the choice at that time. Just because something is illegal, or goes against a group or personal norm of others does not make it immoral to the person making that decision. It might be frowned upon by others and society in general, but that is not morality.
So true. Good, evil, moral, immoral, right, wrong all depends on your point of view.
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StingingVelvet: I think there are moral absolutes. Rape, for example, is always immoral. And while some morality might be socially constructed, like say stoning women for having sex, I think that could still be absolutely immoral when viewed from outside the bubble.

That said piracy is not among these absolutes.
Not really, because in every culture it's different what is rape and what isn't.
I think piracy is something that's always going to exist, and in an odd way that's what pressures companies and publishers to provide services that people value and want to pay for.

Sometimes people pirate to try a game before they buy it, test it on their system, etc. While I'm not condoning piracy, that's one case where someone's intention isn't to necessarily get a free copy of the game.

I've seen people talk about playing pirated games, liking them, then deciding to buy them. Then you hear about some developers not minding that people may pirate their games, since for them it could be a potential sale if they like it, and a potential long time loyal customer.

http://killscreendaily.com/headlines/giving-it-out-free-simplest-indie-marketing/

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/180277/Some_indies_dont_fight_piracy_they_embrace_it.php#.UMBQEXeRZCY
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keeveek: Not really, because in every culture it's different what is rape and what isn't.
You're overthinking it. There is a clear "standard" rape that is obviously absolutely immoral. If you want to branch out into date rape and such it's a different matter but I wasn't speaking of that.

And even in the cases where a society supports it, like say slavery in America 200 years ago, it can still be absolutely immoral. Just because large portions of a society support something doesn't mean it's automatically morally relative.

I'm a sociologist who believes everything is socially constructed but that doesn't mean there isn't a core and basic morality based on empathy that has absolutes.
Post edited December 06, 2012 by StingingVelvet