Then there are countries where tipping isn't in the culture, even to such a degree that people may get offended by it.

I tipped a cow once....he didn't like it.

Try giving a tip in Japan, they will force you to take it back (Source: Personal experience :S)

not really.. Idea's are intelectual property.. when you take that, that is theft.. Not to mention the physical code that you so call "copy".. when you take something, Or copy something and that in turn takes money from someone, that is theft...


that was the whole point of the post.. to point out, that piracy does hurt everyone.. Instead, as i figured... the people would come out of the woodwork, and some how make it about me not understanding the Bigger issue.. and that is??

DRM may not be liked.... But it is hardly the reason to resort to theft...

Or the places with a service charge on the bill so you're still in effect tipping even if the service was completely terrible.

i guess,, wow is the only thing that comes to mind..

A cow... he?!

and it isn't the reason. DRM is just an excuse theives use to justify their actions. When people do something that in their hearts they know to be wrong, well the last person they want to blame for it is themselves...DRM is a convinent out for piracy people, to alleviate their guilt. That is all. So take DRM away, give pirates one less out. Look at the Witcher 2 selling DRM free, if memory serves they had less pirates of their game then the normal DRM-laced new release.

If I steal something from you (your car keys or money from your bank account), you no longer have your item, whether it be physical or virtual. If I copy something from you, you still have said item.

Copying without the right to do so is copyright infringement, not theft.

Both are crimes, but still different. Drunk driving is also a crime, but it's not theft.

I think it depends on the country you live in. But can you actually provide us with a proof for that statement? I live in UK also so I'm interested in this subject and my findings are quite different.

Yeah, piracy. Do some reading first dude ;)

Well he had sharp pointy horns, no utter, and went mooo. ;-D He was protecting farmer Maggots mushrooms you see, sleeping on the job, couldn't have that now. So...Tip...BOOOM-BAMM...Aiiieee!! (that last part was me, while running.) You just can't please everycow I guess *shrug* Lesson learnt: Never tip a cow. I hope you remember that. ;D

Unless you've built some kind of thought stealing device or you have malevolent telepathic powers, you can't steal thoughts.
Even with the lost sales argument, the idea, nor the program itself have been stolen. The author still has them.

And you seem to be talking as if I'm arguing in favour of piracy because of DRM..? I'm just pointing out the logical fallacy that you won't let go of, not defending piracy.

Ah, see, the thing of it is: once you've bought and downloaded the game, that's it. GOG can fold the next day, or be offline for a week, or close your account and it won't matter one damn. The same cannot be said for any game that needs to phone home upon install. If the servers are down, you'll need to crack the bitch to play. No, that would be copy protection, which is a little different from DRM. Copy protection is technically meant to stop people making copies of the game. DRM can, as we have seen with UbiDRM, stop people from playing the game entirely. It's considered too much by some because, interestingly, some may not have a constant, reliable internet connection. It also means (unless you go the 'cracking' route) that you are effectively at the whim of a third party's equipment.

I was unable to play 'StarCraft 2' for three days due to internet problems, both on my end and Blizzard's. A game I had been waiting 13 years to play, out of my reach due to DRM. 'Annoyed' does not even cover it. Whilst I do not agree with software piracy (except in very specific circumstances), it's not stealing. It isn't. Not at all. It's copyright infringement. That doesn't make it legal, but it doesn't make it theft. Because when you pirate a game, nothing is taken. You are making a copy. You are copying the game. It's a copy. The original code is... well, the original code is still wherever the original code is, because even when you buy a game, you're not getting the code, you're getting a copy of the code.

You are not physically stealing a damn thing when you pirate a game or a piece of software. You are copying it. It's similar to getting a book from the library, scanning every page, then returning the book. The book has not been stolen. Theft has not been committed.

However, that's still not to say that it's not a crime, which it is. It's just not theft. That... is quite nonsensical. There is a difference between single-player games and multi-player games. In multi-player games, only an absolute idiot would expect to be able to play them fully (i.e. with other people) without the need for some form of networking involved (either LAN or internet). They are multi-player games because they are designed to be played by multiple people at the same time. Single-player games are not. Unknowable, as far as I'm aware. Whilst (and I want to make this clear) I'm not condoning piracy, piracy nevertheless does strike me as an easy scapegoat to use as a cover for other problems with the game. Games flop not because people pirate the hell out of them. If they did, Activision wouldn't make a billion dollars every time they release a Modern Warfare game.

There are many reasons games flop. To blame it entirely on piracy is to free the publishers and/or developers of any responsibility for that flop. Yes, I will agree that some of the rationalisations are a bit weak.

But your 'land of milk and honey' vision of a world without piracy is... naive. This is not, as far as I'm aware, in any way 100% knowable. Some will claim that piracy costs them millions a year. Others claim that people pirating their game actually nets them more money, because the pirates buy the game, and then encourage friends to buy the game.

The point is, as with so much, it's not a black and white issue. It's. Not. Stealing. It's copyright infringement. You are copying the game, not stealing it. If you pirate a game, it doesn't disappear from wherever you copied it from (well, in the normal scheme of things, at any rate). It's still there. It's copying. COPYING.

Yes, it's still illegal, but it is not theft. Doesn't mean it's right, just that it's not theft.


And on that note, I apologise for the essay.

It's a civil matter rather than a criminal one. Meaning it's up to the copyright holder to decide how their copyrighted material is used. For instance, someone might decide to go all creative commons and people will be able to download torrents of their work without fear of reprisals (as long as they don't break the terms of the CC).

If a copyright holder decides that your actions are infringing on their copyright then it's up to them to fund a case against you and prosecute you accordingly.

Now that's the vital difference between a civil and a criminal matter. If copyright was a criminal matter (and it is increasingly moving in that direction in the UK) then the police would be able to arrest you and charge you, even without the copyright holder's say so.

But because copyright belongs to the individual (or company) it's up to them to decide who they want to prosecute and who they don't and fund whatever cases they think they can win.

So it's a double edged sword in a sense. But I think that making legal defence of copyright more affordable would be a better way to go than the increasing push towards making it a criminal matter where the rights holder's opinions (especially considering that copyright is automatically awarded to creative endeavours in this country) are irrelevant and the matter is out of their hands.

So basically you are saying GOG uses Accounts, like mine here, as DRM?
....
Do I just post my credit card number here now or later for people to use in my name and download games?