Is illegal downloading so bad?


Viking

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I mean, I don't think it's that bad. Think about the people who have never played zelda: A Link to the past?


If you put aside the people who make the games, I think it's great that someone can download a vintage game and


and see what they have missed out on. I would never have played or heard of Chrono Trigger if it wasn't for my


brother, illegaly downloaded it. Such games are important for the game history, it's it own culture!


And the people need culture, to know that there are better games than Call of duty.


But yeah, I also do download new pc games like Amnesia. But the thing is, if I think it's great


I support them and buy the game. I've been like to everything I have downloaded illegaly.


If I like it, I buy it : )


Played Mirror's edge, played 1.5 hours, hated it, so I just deleted it.


PS: Do not think I just download without having the game, because I inherit most of my games from my big brother : )
 
i can only vouch for the music side of this story, because if it wasnt for the internet, i wouldve never heard some of the greatest music alive, yes i download an assload of music illegally, but i am proud to say that i purchase everything i really like, almost up to 100 CDs now, cauing my cd shelf to be full and im now randomly stacking cds on top of each other on my pc desk which i dont like at all :{ i like all my cds in alphabetic order
 
I download whatever takes my fancy. I see nothing wrong in that - if it's available and I want it, I grab it. If it's available to buy and is right in front of me, I buy it. If it's not... Well, I don't go wandering through the town looking for it! Petrol prices being what they are...


D.
 
i can only vouch for the music side of this story, because if it wasnt for the internet, i wouldve never heard some of the greatest music alive, yes i download an assload of music illegally, but i am proud to say that i purchase everything i really like, almost up to 100 CDs now, cauing my cd shelf to be full and im now randomly stacking cds on top of each other on my pc desk which i dont like at all :{ i like all my cds in alphabetic order


Well if downloading wasnt available you would be taping albums from friends etc. But you are right in the long run I think this will lead to more overall/random cd sales instead of huge peaks, less superstars. And that is the best thing that can happen to music. (not necessarily to the music industry, but in the end the music will benefit)
 
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i can only vouch for the music side of this story, because if it wasnt for the internet, i wouldve never heard some of the greatest music alive, yes i download an assload of music illegally, but i am proud to say that i purchase everything i really like, almost up to 100 CDs now, cauing my cd shelf to be full and im now randomly stacking cds on top of each other on my pc desk which i dont like at all :{ i like all my cds in alphabetic order


Well if downloading wasnt available you would be taping albums from friends etc. But you are right in the long run I think this will lead to more overall/random cd sales instead of huge peaks, less superstars. And that is the best thing that can happen to music. (not necessarily to the music industry, but in the end the music will benefit)
While I'm not sure I completely agree with your statement about benefitting 'the music', I must admit to some illegal downloading in what I believe to be an ethical manner - if I want to listen to some music by an absucre band that only has one small outlet in a distant country, I want to know I'm gonna like it before paying 3x the album cost to have it shipped. Another example would be when games, etc. are released only in one region so that I can't play them, even as imports (think about Sin & Punishment for the n64 before it was ported wi WiiWare). And there are many other cases, but none of which have been simply because I have said "I can't be bothered paying for this" but rather "I can't find this" or "I'm not yet sure if this is right for me". Anything I turn out to like I buy anyway, because I like owning a physical object rather than a bunch of digits what will probably get lost the next time I screw up my partitions.


As for whether illegal downloading is 'bad' in general, that is one MASSIVE can of worms. The philosophy depaartment has had a lively debate about that since before I started my degree, and it's still recieed new arguments and examples every time I check in there.
 
i think record companies are destroying music at a much quicker pace than illegal downloading ever has. and i agree, owning physical copies is very nice, but its very hard to handle that much, take the nintendo ds for examples, instead of owning 100 game carts, one can easily put them all on single microsd card that never has to be taken out, same goes for music, theres a great satisfaction of playing an actual cd that you paid money for, but its hard to argue thats its any better than having a few thousand cds on one mp3 player
 
I have a huge DVD collection but they only consist of DVDs which were no more than £3 each. If all DVDs were £3 I know I'd buy dozens more.


I thought Apples app store would have shown that low prices can = huge sales, but no, latest series of 'waking the dead' (4 episodes) is £40 in HMV!


We watched it online... on the iPlayer... for free.


Makes no sense.
 
Yeah, but I was thinking more of the game aspect.


People who makes pc games can't earn that much now then what they did before
 
I dont really download.I think its unfair to game companys.I want them to continue making good games.With the ds r4 card you can have tons of games on 1 disc,but its too much choice and too many games.I like owning the physical product.I couldnt be arsed torrenting stuff it takes a while.
 
Music: Since Metallica sued their fans 10 years or so ago I have never bought or illegally downloaded any music from major labels, I'm done with them.


Games: I have never illegally downloaded a game that was currently being sold, don't believe in Piracy in the game industry. I've never illegally downloaded a PC game, dark path there with the places you need to go with cracks and such.


EDIT: I remembered for the DS I do download games I don't own to try before I buy. I recently bought Plants VS. Zombies, amazing game for the DS, but I played through 60% of it before I bought it. I also have a rule about DS games: If I play all the way through them I have to buy it, no and ifs or buts.


Movies: I have an addiction, when I'm not a member of Netflix I download a ton of movies. It's an addiction because with every movie I watch I think 'I can't believe they can justify charging any money to see that movie', if movies were better then I'd feel bad but they all suck. Good movies I buy but those are really really rare.


TV Shows: I never watch anything on TV, ever, I download every show I watch. If it is a show I really liked I'll buy the box set of the season when it comes out. That is actually most of the DVDs/Blurays I own, TV shows. I do watch shows on Hulu though, a few advertisements in a show isn't bad or one big long one at the beginning is even more bearable, but I can't stand advertisements what seems like every 2 minutes. I do pay for satellite though, I have a PVR but I find it easier to just download shows that have all the advertisements cut out rather than fast forward through them. I keep it because in a small way I think I'm paying for what I'm downloading.
 
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I have a huge DVD collection but they only consist of DVDs which were no more than £3 each. If all DVDs were £3 I know I'd buy dozens more.

Ditto. I have a huge collection of roms/disk images and games, but also a couple of hundred DVDs, all of which were in Tesco for a fiver or so. And I don't own any pirated DVDs.


D.
 
Yeah, I usually pick up my music/movies/games used. Garage sales, used video game stores, wherever. But I usually just find what was popular ten years ago.
 
This is why I love open-source philosophy, not because of free stuff, but the freedom to distribute it.
 
I have a huge DVD collection but they only consist of DVDs which were no more than £3 each. If all DVDs were £3 I know I'd buy dozens more.
Exactly. I remember the time of Playstation 2 games, they told us they were so expensive because of piracy. When the playstation 3 came out, and was not hacked until several years later, they obviously lower the price because there was no piracy. WRONG, the PS3 games were the most expensive ever, even taking inflation into account. So they invented new excuses.


I think record companies, games distributors, etc. (basically all the middle men of the media industry, the companies between the producer and the consumer) really need to adapt to the new world. We now live in a world where downloading and copying digital stuff not only become possible for all media, but it is incredibly easier and more convenient than buying some bulky piece of plastic that you need to copy anyway onto your digital format of choice. I haven't bought a (physical) game, CD or movies for at least 3 years, and I plan not to do so anymore.


So when you have alternate solutions like iTunes or Steam, it's all great, but when you don't, then piracy becomes the only option. That should force all the parasites to adapt.
 
I'll admit it downloading music, this is because I know that artists make money on concert tickets and not record sales. I don't download games or movies though. As I'm trying to break into the games industry I see it more as a requirement not to, it'd be like saying "Yeah, we all want to make money and feed families...but fuck you I want it free". As for movies...I'm just a bit of a sad act that likes to see the cases sitting on a shelf and I like the cinema experience.
 
so on average, a major record label artist makes $0.32 for every cd they sell, how much do game manufacturers make for every game they sell on hard copy?
 
so on average, a major record label artist makes $0.32 for every cd they sell, how much do game manufacturers make for every game they sell on hard copy?

A bunch more sometimes. Consoles sales are a gold mine.


In short, The gaming market is too dynamic to say how much they really make. I'll say it is second to the stock market.
 
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I pirate anything and everything. I don't buy anything I don't have to.


In order to continue my lifestyle in its current path, if I want music to listen to, if I want games to play, and if I want food to eat as well, I need to pirate.


Of course, if and when I become financially solvent, have everything I need, a family and a means to not only support but spoil them, I will commence divying out my lost increments of-- what, 50 cents?-- to artists and developers I would like to support.


I mean, let's take a realistic, hedonistic approach to this; let's also assume (hah) that money always causes happiness, and that one cent is roughly equivalent to one "hedon."


I pirate game. I save 20 dollars. 2000 hedons to me, and that doesn't even include the 1000 I get because I can play the game. I am incredibly happy. Yay!


I buy game. I spend 20 dollars. I acquire 1000 hedons because I get to play the game. 2000 hedons are depleted from my account at First Hedonistic Bank and divvied up as follows:

  • 200 hedons to the State for sales tax I don't believe should exist.
  • 500 hedons to the particular retail outlet, most likely a corporate giant, which I also, probably, do not believe should exist.
  • 300 hedons to the cost of shipping a burned disc across the goddamn country like a dumbass, when there's this thing called the Internet-- all for the sake of DRM, which I do not believe should exist.
  • 600 hedons to whatever company is throwing their weight behind the developers, which is the only way the product could exist, because of our screwed up capitalistic system, which I do not believe should exist.
  • 400 hedons to be divided among the rest of expenses, which we will liberally assume are the individual payroll cheques of the -actual- developers, of which we will liberally assume are ten.




My numbers are undoubtedly flawed, but you get my point. How happy is the developer (who is, incidentally, the only other person I care about besides me) if I buy the game? He gets 40 cents. "Meh," he says, and continues work on the next game. The net hedons of people I care about are 400 (money) + 1000 (game) = 1400.


If, on the other hand, I don't buy the game, I get to eat for the week, and still get to play my game-- which, by the way, I wouldn't have bought in the first place if I didn't "steal" it. The net hedons of people I care about are 2000 (money) + 1000 (game) = 3000.


Clearly, piracy is mathematically superior, and so it is the route I should take; quod erat demonstrandum.


That is to say, until I am to the point of total financial freedom at which point altruism would become a higher priority than immediate survival, I probably won't pay for a game unless it is from an indie developer, in which case my above argument is entirely invalid, because the developer gets every cent (I bought the Humble Indie Bundle, for example).
 
so on average, a major record label artist makes $0.32 for every cd they sell, how much do game manufacturers make for every game they sell on hard copy?
I hear most recording artists don't even make a fixed amount per CD, it is kinda like they're on salary, their label guesstimates how much they'll sell, they give them maybe 1% of that guess up front which is a lot of money, and keep the rest. There is so much abuse in the music industry because none of these new artists are rich to begin with, a few hundred thousand dollars is a crap load and heck yeah they take that when in reality their CD might made the record a few mil. Also, for new artist(usually doe-eyed teenagers) they pay for the limos, plane rides, trips around the world, all at cost for the company so it doesn't cost them as much as it would you and me.


Game industry the abuse isn't as bad, low level programs are educated, usually have student loans they have to pay back so they're not going to work for nothing so they make pretty good money, no where near what a recording artist makes but there are a lot more people to pay for a game. In the end the money is more even distributed I think.


Indie in both cases is often the best way to go, you get a higher percentage of the profit since the operation is so small.


I think piracy could double and the effects wouldn't be felt, it still takes as many people to make a product and salaries would stay the same but the company might not be as profitable but these companies make way too much anyway, they make so much it is hard to believe that their employees make so little in comparison.
 
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