ACTA, SOPA and PIPA

[masta247]

If the publisher made ebooks legally available for a few pounds. Which is probably more than they get from the shops, people would buy them. I know I would. And what is the issue with libraries? I can borrow a physical book but not an ebook. It's ridiculous, antiquated and encouraging piracy.

Exactly. Same with video games. But guess what? You're right, but of course they picked a different route - they say that selling used media content is worse than piracy now:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-17-lionhead-pre-owned-worse-than-pc-piracy

You sell an used game - you're a criminal, worse than a pirate and should be punished, because they don't get their money from you selling a copy to someone else who would've bought a brand new game otherwise!
And they're..gosh.. fighting with it.
Some time ago they introduced these codes that you can only use once, that are tied to your account forever. And you get only one with your game, and you can't run that game without it.
Also, to play some modern games you need an online connection all the time, so they check if you're the person with that code. All the time. No online connection = no playing, used code = no playing. Gosh, talking about things going wrong way. It's funny,it's hilarous and obviously soo wrong but at the same time sad that things are heading that way. And things happen like that because they can, because, instead of making it illegal (I paid for this, why would you still possess means to make it useless for me?) they encourage companies to make it even more ridiculous, and with SOPA/ACTA/PIPA they are also supporting it with extremely unfortunate mechanisms.

Obviously a pirate would simply download a cracked game, install it in a far more convenient way and play whenever he wants, as he wants, without paying anything. If it gets further in the current diferection people will be forced to download things illegally to use them in a reasonable way, even if they wanted to pay for them in the first place. Just like people download ebooks because buying them is so ridiculous.

 

[Da_Funk]

Downloading a movie is not necessirely stealing - which is what corporations would like you to believe that it always is. It's often learning and trying things out if done right and fair.
In
A great example here would be the Witcher 2. It contains no anti-piracy systems because the developer did not want to make life any harder for people who buy the final product (pirates usually get better, cracked versions), because they did not believe that piracy reduces game sales. Furthermore, it was developed and published by a Polish company, which is where piracy thrives, and it was one of the most pirated game worldwide. They had little marketing money. Results? The game is one of the best selling RPGs and it was only released for PC so far.
If they started calculating losses like some companies do they would probably come to conclusions that if it wasn't for piracy almost every person on our globe would buy a copy. Of course that's bullshit.

In the end, there's research claiming that piracy might indeed boost your sales, and even the most "anti-piracy" (but reasonable) research states that if piracy negatively affects your business, the losses are almost negligible.

About the world that I live in? I and most of my friends who used to download things have original copies (including collector's editions) of things that they like. They wouldn't have found them or be interested in the genre in the first place if it wasn't for "trying things out" in the past.
Years ago when I was a teenager I would listen to hundreds of cds (I wouldn't buy any of them) that led me to a position where I bought quite a lot of cds that I used to like in the past. Same with video games - I bought more than I ever 'downloaded', and I wouldn't have bought perhaps any of them if it wasn't for pirated copies that I tried back then. Now I don't have any downloaded copies at all.

Thats what a demo is for. You download something (for free) that contains limited access. If you enjoy the demo you pay for the full product. You don't download the complete product use it, and then decide to go out and pay for something you already have that you got for free. Same goes for TV, you don't download an entire series watch the first two episodes and then decide to go buy exactly what you downloaded. If you know these people, I want to meet them because I do not know a single person like that. And it's not like the circles i'm in have shallow pockets either.

You would never walk into a store and steal something because you fear the consequences. As it is right now, there are no consequences for stealing on the internet. And i'm just as guilty as anyone. Use the system to your fullest advantage, but don't argue that it isn't morally "wrong".

 

[Pittsey]

You would never walk into a store and steal something because you fear the consequences. As it is right now, there are no consequences for stealing on the internet. And i'm just as guilty as anyone. Use the system to your fullest advantage, but don't argue that it isn't morally "wrong".

I don't think anyone is arguing this. People just don't support these bills. They are Draconian.

People are also pointing out that greedy capitalists are themselves to blame for the rise in Piracy, and the rigid business models and failure to adapt to new technology....

 

[masta247]

DaFunk, it's also not going to work on the internet unless you wanted total control over everything everyone is doing, which is not going to happen too. They could as well take down the internet just to make life a bit harder for people who want to take advantage of downloading things, at the same time destroying the most amazing place for knowledge (created for free by the society in world's biggest unity in mankind's history) and free information trading for all of us. Amongst other amazing things that the internet gives us.

It's not real life, it's not technically getting there and taking a physical thing from someone. Usually it's taking something you wouldn't get otherwise, and people who want to get it will still get it because you're not taking anything away from them. Furthermore, you might first "take" it and then buy it later. It's not the same mechanism as physical stealing.
The way to make people buy things on the internet is to create/sell them in a way that people would like so much, that they would like to buy these things.
I don't know a single person who doesn't own legal copies of their favorite movies, games, music cds. I know that a lot of them wouldn't have them if it wasn't for "illegal downloading" in the first place. While I agree that there are negatives to piracy as a whole but it's not anywhere as bad as some people make it seem. At the moment anything any government can do to make life harder for pirates (other than charging small license fees for each download paid directly to the copyright owner, which is still impossible to track but a great idea for a law) will cause waay more harm than good for the society.
Internet is the pinnacle of human kind's ability to transfer knowledge and information and it's threatened by idiotic laws written by people who have no comprehension of their potentially disastrous repercussions.

 

[masta247]

I feel silly defending piracy now. I'm not a pirate, the amount of things that I even download off the internet these days (legally) is very small too, and what I do for a living should be threatened by piracy and run me out of business (according to some huge companies and governments). Yet I argue with people, who download everything (illegally) off the internet and don't condone piracy. Oh the irony

 

[Flipmo]

I'm not a pirate either - I just help the Somalis from time to time.

 

[ARon]

Anon has been going crazy ddos'n everyone, pretty funny. What's hilarious is that they somehow got access to the CBS website and deleted everything. All that was on the site was a text file lol

 

[vg4030]

I'm not a pirate either - I just help the Somalis from time to time.

eff the somali pirates, the FBI should shut them down.. stealing our white women and not paying for them and sheeet

 

[masta247]

Anon has been going crazy ddos'n everyone, pretty funny. What's hilarious is that they somehow got access to the CBS website and deleted everything. All that was on the site was a text file lol

Yeah, they helped the Polish block the government sites, the police department website, president's website and such, lol.
Because they were supposed to sign Acta next Wednesday. There's a huge protest coming up on Tuesday

 

[Preach]

I paid for this, why would you still possess means to make it useless for me?

I so agree with this point, but I also just totally feel like I can see why it's happening. It's fucked up. But unless gamers start boycotting all games that require an internet connection to play and swear to minesweeper for the duration of the revolt until things change (which will never happen because the great majority just don't care about it deeply enough to go to those lengths), it's gonna keep going in that direction.

 

[Da_Funk]

What games do that? I know some that come with a one-time use code so that you can play it online but what games can't you play without an internet connection?

 

[Pittsey]

What games do that? I know some that come with a one-time use code so that you can play it online but what games can't you play without an internet connection?

Football Manager 2012

 

[masta247]

What games do that? I know some that come with a one-time use code so that you can play it online but what games can't you play without an internet connection?



Some new ubisoft games, some EA Origins games and it appears that Steam is heading that way too, and it's becoming a new trend.
Anno 2070 was the latest one I played that had this annoying system.

Whenever I lost connection to the internet it made my game useless (took away units and research in the middle of a game because they were held on their servers). So you have to start all over again.
But you can't start that game without being online. And I mean you can't start even to play an "offline" game like campaign or skirmish vs AI.
Since the game is a strategy game and each mission takes really a lot of time (like a few days) to complete I couldn't complete a single mission.

A lot of people download cracked versions just to play offline like it's supposed to be. Plus the cracked version is anti-piracy-system-free and DRM-free so it works smoother and stores all data on your HDD.

 

[Preach]

Yeah, I personally didn't play a game like that. The last "new" game I played was Starcraft 2. A friend ranted about one game he couldn't play without internet and I just know it's "a thing" without having anything to back it up But look here:

http://www.google.no/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=no&site=&source=hp&q=games require internet for single player&btnG=Søk

Yes, when I search in google I write like a true foreigner.

 

[masta247]

I'm going out to protest ACTA. There's a pretty huge thing coming in Warsaw city centre because of it, it starts in an hour and that's where I'm heading with my friends and university professors. In case I die... I love all of you

 

[Da_Funk]



Some new ubisoft games, some EA Origins games and it appears that Steam is heading that way too, and it's becoming a new trend.
Anno 2070 was the latest one I played that had this annoying system.

Whenever I lost connection to the internet it made my game useless (took away units and research in the middle of a game because they were held on their servers). So you have to start all over again.
But you can't start that game without being online. And I mean you can't start even to play an "offline" game like campaign or skirmish vs AI.
Since the game is a strategy game and each mission takes really a lot of time (like a few days) to complete I couldn't complete a single mission.

A lot of people download cracked versions just to play offline like it's supposed to be. Plus the cracked version is anti-piracy-system-free and DRM-free so it works smoother and stores all data on your HDD.

Ahh I see, so your talking computer games? That is uber lame.

 

[masta247]

Ahh I see, so your talking computer games? That is uber lame.

I'm not sure what you mean but you asked about the part where I mentioned computer games and that's why I elaborated on it. Since SOPA and ACTA strike heavily in the video game industry (and related, like video game journalism) and it's one of your biggest national industries I'm not sure why you think that it would be lame.

 

[ARon]

For some reason Americans think console gaming is better than pc gaming, its almost like its more socially acceptable. I've noticed this a lot recently with skyrim. Most people have it on xbox but f that. I still get annoyed by people who think console fps's are better than their pc versions.

 

[S O F I]

yeah, I always saw PC gaming for games like Age of Empires and shit. But for anything else, console >>

 

[ARon]

Fps games suck on consoles even though they're mad popular. You don't have the precision you get from a mouse and keyboard on joysticks, its not even close