3 ms·

Copyright laws really really need a reform. If a thing (game, software,...) is not "easily available" to buy locally, by the first party, in any usable form,

Copyright laws really really need a reform. If a thing (game, software,...) is not "easily available" to buy locally, by the first party, in any usable form, companies should have no claims on damages, because piracy is a victimless crime. Is ExampleGame(TM) on sale anywhere, on any platform? No? How can (eg) nintendo lose money then if i pirate it? Where's the harm in piracy then?

realusername 2y ago
I'd go further than that, there's no valid reason to monetize 40 year old games where most of the devs are retired or dead. The law still pretends that there's a transfer of value there when there's obviously not, the society has moved on.
- Sophira 2y ago
  For that argument to work, wouldn't you need to have the assumption that people don't value the old games? Because people clearly do value being able to play these old games. Otherwise, emulation wouldn't even be so popular in the first place. Remember, capitalism is all finding the maximum amount people would pay in order to be able to do something they value doing, and then charging them that. Or to put it another way, it doesn't matter whether Nintendo thinks it has any value, just that you do. And the way Western governments are set up kind of facilitates that. (I'm not a fan of capitalism. Can you tell?)
autoexec 2y ago
> Where's the harm in piracy then? Nintendo and other video game companies don't want to have to compete with their past products. They want you to pay full price for their new games right now because it makes their sales figures look impressive. Older games too often lack the microtransactions, paid DLC, ads, and data collection that can enable companies to continuously extract money from their customers. There are enough old games in existence today that a person could spend their entire life playing quality video games, be fully entertained, and never once touch a recently created title. It's harder to keep coming up with new games that people will feel is more worthy of their time than older games. It's easy to just make sure that gamers can't access those great older games so that they're forced to put up with whatever expensive consumer-hostile garbage is on offer right now. Companies currently have the freedom to keep burying their old games making them unavailable unless/until they choose to overcharge consumers and force them to pay again and again for ports and shitty/censored remakes of the same games they paid for before. They'll fight to keep that freedom.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  > There are enough old games in existence today that a person could spend their entire life playing quality video games, be fully entertained, and never once touch a recently created title. I cynically wonder if this is part of why these copyright laws will never change. People would buy fewer games if it were easy to play the good user-respecting classics. Can't have money go down, must maximize profit and sales.
- smusamashah 2y ago
  I feel thankful to China. They don't usually have any regards for copyright, and that has allowed those cheap retro handheld consoles. They most often come with 1000s of games on a micro SD card. You have to stop import of those things, sue those Chinese makers or something to get rid of them. More power to them I guess.
- ajsnigrutin 2y ago
  I mean sure, but if I eg. pirate eg. Pokemon Blue (the original game for the GB, afaik, unavailable on anything that you can buy from nintendo today), and play that, I pirated it because I wanted to play that exact game (since i'm already pirating, i could pirate something newer for the same price of "free" if I wanted to, but no, I want pokemon blue). Assuming that I would buy (and pay for) whatever the newest pokemon game for switch instead is a stupid assumption. If they want people to buy old games, sell them old games. Put a gamboy emulator on the switch, put a rom-store inside it, and charge a few bucks for a game. There are many other media where you could stay with the old... books for example, there are many more out-of-copyright books than a person could reasonably read in a lifetime, but you still want to read some newest freshest bestsellers, not just the Mysterious Island from jules verne (which is actually available to buy, even if it's out of copyright!)
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
Has it ever been tested in court? Has anyone been sued for pirating a game that isn't for sale anywhere?

realusername 2y ago

I'd go further than that, there's no valid reason to monetize 40 year old games where most of the devs are retired or dead. The law still pretends that there's a transfer of value there when there's obviously not, the society has moved on.

Sophira 2y ago
For that argument to work, wouldn't you need to have the assumption that people don't value the old games? Because people clearly do value being able to play these old games. Otherwise, emulation wouldn't even be so popular in the first place. Remember, capitalism is all finding the maximum amount people would pay in order to be able to do something they value doing, and then charging them that. Or to put it another way, it doesn't matter whether Nintendo thinks it has any value, just that you do. And the way Western governments are set up kind of facilitates that. (I'm not a fan of capitalism. Can you tell?)

autoexec 2y ago

> Where's the harm in piracy then? Nintendo and other video game companies don't want to have to compete with their past products. They want you to pay full price for their new games right now because it makes their sales figures look impressive. Older games too often lack the microtransactions, paid DLC, ads, and data collection that can enable companies to continuously extract money from their customers. There are enough old games in existence today that a person could spend their entire life playing quality video games, be fully entertained, and never once touch a recently created title. It's harder to keep coming up with new games that people will feel is more worthy of their time than older games. It's easy to just make sure that gamers can't access those great older games so that they're forced to put up with whatever expensive consumer-hostile garbage is on offer right now. Companies currently have the freedom to keep burying their old games making them unavailable unless/until they choose to overcharge consumers and force them to pay again and again for ports and shitty/censored remakes of the same games they paid for before. They'll fight to keep that freedom.

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
> There are enough old games in existence today that a person could spend their entire life playing quality video games, be fully entertained, and never once touch a recently created title. I cynically wonder if this is part of why these copyright laws will never change. People would buy fewer games if it were easy to play the good user-respecting classics. Can't have money go down, must maximize profit and sales.
smusamashah 2y ago
I feel thankful to China. They don't usually have any regards for copyright, and that has allowed those cheap retro handheld consoles. They most often come with 1000s of games on a micro SD card. You have to stop import of those things, sue those Chinese makers or something to get rid of them. More power to them I guess.
ajsnigrutin 2y ago
I mean sure, but if I eg. pirate eg. Pokemon Blue (the original game for the GB, afaik, unavailable on anything that you can buy from nintendo today), and play that, I pirated it because I wanted to play that exact game (since i'm already pirating, i could pirate something newer for the same price of "free" if I wanted to, but no, I want pokemon blue). Assuming that I would buy (and pay for) whatever the newest pokemon game for switch instead is a stupid assumption. If they want people to buy old games, sell them old games. Put a gamboy emulator on the switch, put a rom-store inside it, and charge a few bucks for a game. There are many other media where you could stay with the old... books for example, there are many more out-of-copyright books than a person could reasonably read in a lifetime, but you still want to read some newest freshest bestsellers, not just the Mysterious Island from jules verne (which is actually available to buy, even if it's out of copyright!)

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago

Has it ever been tested in court? Has anyone been sued for pirating a game that isn't for sale anywhere?