Software Piracy: The Morality

[Ross Scott]

I see piracy as necessary in cases of obscure stuff. There are dozens of games and soundtracks out there that you cannot even buy a copy of anymore, and sometimes the original company doesn't exist. Who's the mythical person you should be paying money to in those cases? More often than not the original developers would be happy for you to obtain a copy of the game any way you can when it's shelf life has expired. Even what's now considered abandonware, a lot of it wouldn't be runnable today if it wasn't for cracks made for copy protection of the time. In the case of a rare physical item, someone else would have to be deprived in order for you to enjoy it, but that's not the case with a digital medium.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Yeah, that's my point.

[Pinkie Pie]

 

Some time ago I read about a CEO of EA (or some other game corporation) that he would be glad if he could get players to pay 1 dollar everytime they run out of ammo in any game.

That's so ridiculous it's hilarious, I really hope someone at EA said that. I and about a thousand others warned Bioware about working with EA back when I used to frequent their forums and the devs just laughed and said it's really not that big a deal. If CEOs are actually saying crap like that, that's a pretty big deal. I mean, I think almost every CEO for any game company thinks that, but to announce it so the players know about it? That kind of attitude is just like, "Yeah, we know we're complete jackhats about our games. We don't care, you're still gonna pay for them, anyway." That stuff is what makes piracy seem like a good idea.

[Axeldeath]

 

Some time ago I read about a CEO of EA (or some other game corporation) that he would be glad if he could get players to pay 1 dollar everytime they run out of ammo in any game.

That's so ridiculous it's hilarious, I really hope someone at EA said that. I and about a thousand others warned Bioware about working with EA back when I used to frequent their forums and the devs just laughed and said it's really not that big a deal. If CEOs are actually saying crap like that, that's a pretty big deal. I mean, I think almost every CEO for any game company thinks that, but to announce it so the players know about it? That kind of attitude is just like, "Yeah, we know we're complete jackhats about our games. We don't care, you're still gonna pay for them, anyway." That stuff is what makes piracy seem like a good idea.

 

I actually left a video of that on the forum.

[Bjossi]

We are comparing copyright to theft here and they are considerably different. Morally I consider theft worse because you cause damage to the store that bought that copy of the item from the supplier, so they pay the full price of that item since you took it without paying for it. Downloading something without paying for it is a mixed bag of being neutral or damaging depending on whether you were going to buy it or not. Many pirates would not buy a game/film/etc. even if there was no illegal download of it available, thus his/her download was a neutral action that didn't harm anyone. The question is what the statistics are like, how many pirates are neutral and how many are potential customers? Of course the copyright holders always count every pirated copy as a potential buy since that paints piracy in its darkest colour possible.

[scott155]

So, you're saying that the morality of piracy is tied to the economics based on how much is really lost by the victim?

[Bjossi]

Of course it is tied to the economics. If you had choices of two stores to rob, the moral difference would likely be decided based on which store suffers more from it. Like choosing between some big name outlet or the small neighbourhood grocery store run by two blind elderly ladies.

 

The morality aspect is also exactly that; who will suffer, not just by how much. To me pirating a small piece of software written and distributed by some programmer with good will on his/her own website seems much worse than pirating a shitty Hollywood film, for example. So for me there is no definite answer, whether one is worse than the other is down to the particular cases being compared.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Well, regardless, making a digital copy and spreading it for free is still a breach of copyright and against the law, no matter how you look at it.

[Bjossi]

Laws and morals are two different things. I have broken the law many times without feeling any guilt, because a lot of laws are fucking stupid. Governments spend so much time dictating how adults should be allowed to live their lives. Very simply put as long as what I do doesn't harm another individual's happiness directly or indirectly I don't consider it morally wrong. But I digress.

[BTGBullseye]

Laws and morals are two different things. I have broken the law many times without feeling any guilt, because a lot of laws are fucking stupid.

Indeed. For example, in Utah, it is illegal to not drink milk.

 

If you're lactose intolerant, don't go to Utah! If you follow the law, never mention the name of anything with a © in it.

[scott155]

Laws and morals are two different things.

For some reason, some of the people at my school seemed to have trouble with this concept.

 

Also, if the two people who said piracy was worse than theft could explain their reasoning, it would me much appreciated.

[Razor235]

Indeed. For example, in Utah, it is illegal to not drink milk.

 

 

[BTGBullseye]

Yup, it's true. Still on the books.

[Razor235]

How the hell do they expect to enforce that?

[BTGBullseye]

The same way they expect to enforce digital copyrights, and get SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/CISPA passed... Get idiots to thinking that the law is right regardless of how totally moronic it is.

[Arby]

I voted for both. Morally, there's no difference between the two. A property owner has the right to decide in what manner that his property gets distributed. When you pirate software or steal from a store, you're taking the property in a manner which the property owner did not give you permission to. When you take something that doesn't belong to you and the property owner says that you can't have it that way, then that's theft no matter how you look at it.

 

 

Coming from the same belief structure, I'm obviously in agreement here. I found a good article on this a long time back that I was reminded of. http://the-undercurrent.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Fall-2009.pdf

[Vapymid]

Wait a second....

A property owner has the right to decide in what manner that his property gets distributed.

 

No he doesn't, if you are talking about a physical property. All he can decide is how, to whom and for how much he sells it. He does not have any rights to determine what happens next to his product, after it has left his hands for a consideration he chose to accept.

 

Not so with the IP. IP cannot be sold, only assigned or licensed. That allows IP owners to claim that they have special rights to control not only the distribution chain but also the final use of the property. However, the relevant laws were written long time ago and they don't match the real world practice and have to be interpreted in order to be applied. It is not a black and white situation and drawing 1:1 parallel with the physical property world will not work.

 

I found a good article on this a long time back that I was reminded of.

 

A biology undergraduate is hardly an authority on the subject. The essay is confused and fails to make any rational argument to support her conclusions. I'm disappointed.

 

Regards

[Alyxx Thorne]

The same way they expect to enforce digital copyrights, and get SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/CISPA passed... Get idiots to thinking that the law is right regardless of how totally moronic it is.

With good lobbyists, you can.

[BTGBullseye]

Unfortunately.

[Wheatley]

As far as the ethics of pirating goes, it gets difficult, as I'm not sure I could fully reconcile piracy with any ethical theory, but in the end, does it really matter? I don't think that we can prevent copyright infringement unless we become technologically stagnant. I think our current model of dealing with content and copyright may need some rethinking, as I don't think as a society we're going to stop pirating or become capable of preventing it on any large scale.

 

Edit: Ack, I didn't exactly mean to post in a relatively inactive thread... Oh well.