4 ms·

I am from Brazil, here piracy is widespread, also I make games, a industry that loves copyright. First, it must be understood that the "official" original expl

by speeder 12y ago

I am from Brazil, here piracy is widespread, also I make games, a industry that loves copyright. First, it must be understood that the "official" original explanation of copyright was to prevent people not authorized by the author to sell the author stuff, ONLY that, it was NOT intended to prevent the general public from getting free stuff. (the actual explanation was that the first copyright laws were made to allow censorship, but I don't have enough information to explain that now). Today what I see is lots of people on the "First world" frankly believe they are entitled to earn money from pure intellectual work and that poor people should stay uneducated/ignorant/cultureless if they can't pay. I personally had lots and lots of pirated games, books, and media in general, because then there was no other choice, I was one of the first "gamers" in Brazil, I was also poor, and stuff was mostly not available here, even to get a pirated copy of Doom (the first one) was hard, very hard (my dad had to make some engineering work for Kia Motors, and asked as part of the payment a copy of Doom, after he learned that the factory manager had a copy). I am very sure, that if I went with the route of obeying copyright laws, I would be a very, very different person today, probably I would be a cashier, and would contribute to society much less than now, and the same applies to almost all programmers from the third world. Or you frankly believe a random indian/pakistani/brazillian/peruvian that is a WinAPI programming master had a legal copy of windows and all the tools when he was first learning as a kid?

venomsnake 12y ago
Same here in Eastern Europe - every game pirated, every software product - pirated. 20 years later - huge steam library, working in software and paying a lot of taxes, etc etc.
innguest 12y ago
Great point and wonderful way to show how copyrights harms everyone. It's the epitome of selfishness to create something and not allow others to look at it and copy it when there is no loss to the creator. The expectation of profit from just having others listen to a song or use a decide whose blueprint you created is a problem of entitlement in our current culture.
javajosh 12y ago
It's an interesting argument that has some merit in my view, that violating copyright on games was just the "carrot" you needed to learn a useful skill, the manipulation of computers. And yet, doesn't this mean that you owe your skill to defeating copyright schemes, and that if they didn't exist for you to defeat, you wouldn't have the skill you have today? :)
vacri 12y ago
because then there was no other choice I spent a long time pirating games, but seriously, 'no other choice' is nonsense. You could just 'not play the game'. I don't think that software piracy is the great evil that it's made out to be, but neither do I think it's harmless and that there's justice in people just taking entertainment because they don't have enough money at the moment. It's not like video games are a staple required to sustain life. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't care that you pirated software, but I think it smells bad that you paint it as some sort of social justice issue or class war. frankly believe they are entitled to earn money from pure intellectual work Work is work and consumes effort and time, whether it's shifting bricks or squashing bugs.
- speeder 12y ago
  By the way, I was in my post talking about people with your exact argument. The choices you are giving me are: pirate, or be ignorant and cultureless. You thinking the second is a good choice, is frankly stupid, games are not just entertainment, they are part of popular culture, they showcase interesting technologies, and may even have actual uses (example: simulators that teach real skills). And I was not talking only about games, but all sorts of media, or you think all the coding books that curious people (including teenagers) here have are legal?

by speeder 12y ago

venomsnake 12y ago

Same here in Eastern Europe - every game pirated, every software product - pirated. 20 years later - huge steam library, working in software and paying a lot of taxes, etc etc.

innguest 12y ago

Great point and wonderful way to show how copyrights harms everyone. It's the epitome of selfishness to create something and not allow others to look at it and copy it when there is no loss to the creator. The expectation of profit from just having others listen to a song or use a decide whose blueprint you created is a problem of entitlement in our current culture.

javajosh 12y ago

It's an interesting argument that has some merit in my view, that violating copyright on games was just the "carrot" you needed to learn a useful skill, the manipulation of computers. And yet, doesn't this mean that you owe your skill to defeating copyright schemes, and that if they didn't exist for you to defeat, you wouldn't have the skill you have today? :)

vacri 12y ago

because then there was no other choice I spent a long time pirating games, but seriously, 'no other choice' is nonsense. You could just 'not play the game'. I don't think that software piracy is the great evil that it's made out to be, but neither do I think it's harmless and that there's justice in people just taking entertainment because they don't have enough money at the moment. It's not like video games are a staple required to sustain life. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't care that you pirated software, but I think it smells bad that you paint it as some sort of social justice issue or class war. frankly believe they are entitled to earn money from pure intellectual work Work is work and consumes effort and time, whether it's shifting bricks or squashing bugs.

speeder 12y ago
By the way, I was in my post talking about people with your exact argument. The choices you are giving me are: pirate, or be ignorant and cultureless. You thinking the second is a good choice, is frankly stupid, games are not just entertainment, they are part of popular culture, they showcase interesting technologies, and may even have actual uses (example: simulators that teach real skills). And I was not talking only about games, but all sorts of media, or you think all the coding books that curious people (including teenagers) here have are legal?