Are you against Piracy?

[tjhart85]

I voted no, but with this to say:

MUSIC: CD's are too expensive and the downloading (legal) is crap. I refuse to pay essentially the same amount for a CD (albeit a custom legal CD) that I would for a full CD I bought from the store that comes with the CD, the CD case, the CD jacker and the backing in the CD case. That's just my take on it.

SOFTWARE: Any software I really like and use a lot I pay for. Its as simple as that.

MOVIES (THEATER): I have downloaded movies, and 9/10 times if the movie is good I will actually pay to see it in theaters.

MOVIES (DVD): DVD's are expensive, for no reason. I do NOT care about all the extras they put onto a DVD (I do like the subs, but thats it), and I don't like that they charge more for a DVD than a VHS when the media for a VHS costs more. If I really like the movie I will pay for it. Or I will have my copies and wait for the monster box sets to come out (SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-MAN2, same with XMEN series and STAR-WARS).

My take on it is if you really like what you hear, see, or use then buy it.

[lylo]

Its a harsh topic but one that has gotta be confronted in some way.

Yes, I will admit I do have a significant amount of pirated software installed on my computer, and it is essential for me. I'm a 17 year old student with no form of income and so torrent sites can be essential to me, and I'm sure to tonnes of other people. Games, I download, only to try out, I am a keen gamer, and I will happily save up what little I can week by week and eventually go out and buy it, knowing that I can take full advantage of it.

Music is pretty similar, I will download music, but if I find something I truly love, then I'll go out and buy it.

Like said before in here, its a kind of nessecary evil. :/

[robchurch]

It's interesting that people don't seem to appreciate the amount of hard work that goes into developing even the simplest software.

I personally don't condone piracy of any kind. It's the same as theft.

[lylo]

I certainly didn't mean to say I don't appreciate the effort people go to when developing software, but some people can afford to buy alot of this or to donate, while others cant. Chances are though, that no matter which of these two groups a person falls into, sooner or later, a certain piece of software WILL be essential to them.

[un4given1]

What's overpriced? Let's say you pay $50 for a game. That game keeps you entertained for 20 hours. That means you paid $2.50 an hour for entertainment. You can't even go bowling for that cheap. You can't play pool. You can't go see a movie for that. There is almost NOTHING you can do for $2.50 an hour. So, lets say you buy a CD. It's got an hour of audio on it. You pay $15.00 for it. If you listen to it for a total of 6 10 hours you paid only $1.50 an hour for the entertainment of that. If you buy Windows XP for your PC and you pay $200 for it. It runs your PC for 3 years. That's about $67 a year for the entertainment your PC provides.

You need to keep in mind that when you buy a CD or DVD you aren't simply paying for the cost to put that movie or song on it's media. We certainly know that's not all that goes into it. You pay the salary of the publishing people who worked to port that movie to DVD. You pay for advertising (don't argue this one... if companies didn't advertise you may never know a movie existed). You pay for the cost of the store keeping hundreds of copies of that product on hand so you can walk in and buy it at any time. You pay for the cost of having it shipped all around the world.

Now, I understand that some people will download something and if they like it they buy it. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but they are certainly more honorable than the others. But, don't for a moment think that it's legal for you to do that. If you have not paid for a product you have stolen it. If you are looking at a 2005 Mustang and decide one night you are going to take it for a spin without permission. Do you think the cop is going to buy "Oh, I was just testing it out, I'm going to buy one tomorrow" Not quite.

[lylo]

Those are fair points indeed un4given1, but think about those who may not share such an interest in gaming or computing as say you, I, or anyone else in this forum. What if that person goes and buys a game which by fact, is absolute crap, say by looking at the front cover and thinking 'Oooh, that looks good' and he pays full price for it. Thats certainly not gonna keep him or anyone else entertained for that long. The same with movies, or music, anyone can fall into a trap of buying into something that they've been 'made' to believe is worth buying into. And then after it, they feel robbed. There certainly are alot of things that definitely would not be worth buying to some people out there, but they could easily go and buy it anyway if advertising has anything to do with it.

[Crispy]

What's overpriced?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, one of my favorite examples of that could be photoshop... I bet there several million illigal copies out there... I bet a fair bit of those would be legit if a "home user" license costed say 75£ instead of 500£

I would absolutely be the first one to argue that photoshop is definitly worth the 500£ and that Adobe deserves a fair payment for their work .... but 500£ is just way too much to spend on a single software title for the average home user ... so they have no other choice than to use pirated versions ...

So its something of a moral deadlock I would argue ...

[sonu27]

I agree, it's worth £500 or even £600 which I think was the original price for the CS version.

But I cannot afford to spend that much when I'm only going to be using it from time to time and just trying to improve my skills.

[Jeremy]

I voted No. This is a harsh topic indeed. I won't give any details. I rarely download, anyway.

[Glowy]

I voted Yes.

I think it's no excuse to download a full version to test it. Ever heard of Trial Software?

and as for being trapped into buying something... that doesn't work for music, where I come from you can listen the CD in the shop before you buy it.. and even return it the next day if you don't like it. same goes for games and DVD's (unfortunately some misuse this trust to copy it, and then return it)

To make sure you don't get "trapped" inform yourself... well... before buying.

[jondercik]

Somewhat. I agree with a few of the other people here. I pay for most of the software I use that is resonably priced. For example I have licensed copies of VMware, Winzip, UltraISO, and Nero.

But I do not have licensed copies of some Microsoft and Adobe products. The reason for this is that they cost way too much, about $500 each. The normal person cannot afford to pay these prices. But I would but them if they came down to the sub $100 range.

I know developers need to get paid but they will make more money selling lots more of a product at $100 than a few at $500.

[rendrag]

What's overpriced?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, one of my favorite examples of that could be photoshop... I bet there several million illigal copies out there... I bet a fair bit of those would be legit if a "home user" license costed say 75£ instead of 500£

I would absolutely be the first one to argue that photoshop is definitly worth the 500£ and that Adobe deserves a fair payment for their work ....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see the argument, but it just does not make economic sense. There is a 'willingness to pay' threshold we all operate at for a given product and piracy blows that out of the water.

People say that 'if X product was cheaper, i'd buy it, but since it's not, I have to pirate it because I need it'. That is a load of garbage. If piracy didn't exist, and you couldn't afford X product, you'd find suitable Y alternative that you could live with. You don't need that piece of software. There are alternatives. If X was truly valueable enough to you, you'd find a way to afford it and purchase it.

Piracy allows people to acquire products outside what they would normally consider affordable.

The most popular argument for piracy is that if you weren't going to purchase it anyway, then the product manufacturer has lost no money. While that's true in a sense, there is a reason companies generally offer demo versions of their software. That way you can try before you buy. If you get any value out of the software that you stole, then the product manufacturer has lost money. plain and simple.

I personally believe that the cost of products would go down if there was no piracy. Piracy is a huge industry that does real damage. I know the first argument back will be that not everyone who pirates can afford the product they're pirating, but there are enough people/companies that do pirate, despite the fact they can afford to purchase it, which is why it's such a problem.

but 500£ is just way too much to spend on a single software title for the average home user ... so they have no other choice than to use pirated versions ...

You are never in a situation where you have no choice.

[dman]

There is not much need to pirate anything but Windows itself and games these days. My system is almost all freeware or O/S. Firefox Browser, Sunbird Calendar, Thunderbird EMail, WinAmp, Gimp & IrfanView Photo, CDBurnerXP, OpenOffice, PSPad Editor, Audacity Sound recorder, SharpDevelop C# development, MySQL DB, IZArc zipper, HandyRecovery undelete, CCleaner registry cleaner, AgentRansack FileFinder.... The list goes on and on. Ya just don't have to buy OR pirate to get a great system these days. 'Cept for games, of course. If I play past the first couple levels, I buy it. Windows, always buy. If you want free use Linux.

[enquvist]

this is always a difficult question with so many different situations people finding themselves in, what if they stop making certain soft ware available and someone has it and copies it for you, is that different to copying it just cuz you don't want to pay for it - always a tricky question with so many variables in the scenarios.

[raza]

If they decrease the prices then atleast I will buy original stuff.