136 replies to this topic

[PrejudiceSucks]

Welcome aboard, Don.  (Edit For Clarification: Ruff-Ryder)

A torrent is, as BeefOnTheBone said, a way of distributing files between people, which, depending on how many people are involved, can be very, very fast or can be very slow.

The benefits to the seeder, to begin with, at least, are that the more people they can give the file to, the less their computer is being used as a source, so it frees up bandwidth.

For game torrents, it's hard to tell. There's probably a readme enclosed which will tell you what you need to do, but this is a site where we keep things 100% legal, so let's not get too indepth on this one.

Edited by Frodo, 22 December 2007 - 02:52 PM.

[Potatoe]

PrejudiceSucks, on Dec 21 2007, 08:09 PM, said:

Welcome aboard, Don.

A torrent is, as BeefOnTheBone said, a way of distributing files between people, which, depending on how many people are involved, can be very, very fast or can be very slow.

The benefits to the seeder, to begin with, at least, are that the more people they can give the file to, the less their computer is being used as a source, so it frees up bandwidth.

For game torrents, it's hard to tell. There's probably a readme enclosed which will tell you what you need to do, but this is a site where we keep things 100% legal, so let's not get too indepth on this one.

Some people distribute legal games using torrents, for example Anarchy online(they released it as freeware I think. Not sure whether it was a campaign to get more players and is only for like a year or totally free. Not sure, but it was legal anyway).

[Ruff-Ryder]

I feel I have made a mistake, but I got your website from a torrent, So I assumed You seeded. And BeefOnTheBone i'm sorry you feel that way Sorry brother but I love games and I'm poor. And after all who am i hurting? Do you know how many times times I have bought a game that I couldnt run, and there are no returns on software. And I have yet to get a game for free that worked. Iwas hoping you guys were going to help me with that. Anyway thanks for all the imput, I'll check in with you guys tommorrow.

[Doubler]

I don't think this is a good place for a piracy discussion (to kill it before it starts).
Welcome, Ruff-Ryder, but don't expect any help here on downloading or working illegal software. Don't even ask.

[A. J. Raffles]

Ruff-Ryder, on Dec 22 2007, 07:32 AM, said:

I feel I have made a mistake, but I got your website from a torrent, So I assumed You seeded. And BeefOnTheBone i'm sorry you feel that way Sorry brother but I love games and I'm poor. And after all who am i hurting? Do you know how many times times I have bought a game that I couldnt run, and there are no returns on software. And I have yet to get a game for free that worked. Iwas hoping you guys were going to help me with that. Anyway thanks for all the imput, I'll check in with you guys tommorrow.

The people who made the games you play and the people who actually have the decency to buy the games they play. Believe it or not, software companies have to make profit so they can continue to produce games for you to play. If people illegally download games for free, fewer games are sold, so software companies a ) have less money to spend on new game projects, which hurts the company and the people it employs b ) will eventually have to raise prices for computer games in order to cut their losses, which hurts the buyers. In extreme cases, piracy can put companies out of business.

As for the "Sorry, but I love games and I'm poor" argument, surely you don't seriously believe that's a valid justification for stealing? The fact that you love, say, diamonds but can't afford them wouldn't give you the right to swipe a few off the counter when the jeweller isn't looking or to get them cheap off someone who you know nicked them from the jeweller last week. Computer games aren't like food or fresh air - you CAN live without them, and there are millions of people who do. They're essentially just a luxury item (like diamonds): they're nice, but they're not vital to have and they come at a price. It isn't as though you had no choice in the matter: you can choose not to steal. If I can't afford some luxury item which I'd love to have, I'm afraid that's just tough. I can decide to save up until I can afford it or I can just grind my teeth and accept that I'll have to do without it at least for the time being, but arguing that stealing is OK when you "love" the item you're stealing but are too "poor" to buy it is very twisted logic in my opinion...
[/rant]
Sorry about the rant, but it just annoys me when people talk as though they believed they somehow had a god-given right to free stuff.

[Juni Ori]

I have to agree 100% with AJ here. Food or water or medicine for medical purposes stolen is understandable, even acceptable in certain cases, but games, that actually don't cost too much, are something quite the opposite. If you can buy computer, you can buy games. Or did you steal your comp too?

[Doubler]

Can we quit the piracy discussion now? Please?
If it can be continued in it's own 3xBlah topic I might have a comment or two to make for myself, but this is still an introduction topic.

[Juni Ori]

Perhaps piracy should be introduced also?

[Doubler]

Ahoy mateys.
I be a pirate, unable to count me age, but roaming the high seas for several winters now. Yarrr, me interests be booty, plunder and pillage, rum and wenches. Me ship is called the Venture, and she be the finest ship 'tween Santa Domingo and the Cape - that be the Cape of Good Hope for all ye landlubbers. No ship under English or Spanish flag be safe from me cannon and no landlubber be safe from me cutlass.
Arrrr!

[Doubler]

Alright, now that it has its own topic.

Many people associate software piracy with theft, which is imho a deliberate misconception that makes so-called pirates easier to condemn (but, I'd argue, harder to deal with).

Theft has a very strong moral connotation, especially in the very material west. Still, software piracy seems to have very little in common with material theft. Getting into someone's car, hotwiring it and driving away would be stealing to pretty much everyone, and almost no regular citizens would even think about doing such a thing if not dire. However, in the hypothetical situation where we had a device to produce an exact copy of a certain car, given the needed materials, without having to drive it away or even touch it, do you really think people would still classify or experience it as theft, and be held back by that experience?
It's not even the same when you talk about business. A car stolen is a car lost (which needs to be replaced, etc.), but software 'stolen' is software re-created, on which no traditional terms apply.

For that reason, there's a lot of concerns with something like 'intellectual property' and such that are simply passed by when you call piracy 'theft'. When it comes to intellectual property a lot of people simply don't have the moral connotations associated with property, and this is aggravated in that which is often called 'theft' doesn't actually touch the property in the question at all! This discredits 'theft' and makes it a joke to many pirates. And this seems to me a very substantial issue that should not be glared over.

Most instances, by labeling software piracy as 'theft' take an easy road to condemnation and prosecution, but fail to actually adress the deeper issues in people's experience and minds. Now I personally wonder how they can even hope to deal with the problem if they can't even be bothered to understand it.

[_r.u.s.s.]

most of people look on the "piracy" in wrong way.
you should: download the game for free, play and finish it and then, on your consideration, check whether the game was good or not. if you like it- buy it. if you don't- don't. that's how it should be. though some people are not wise enough to do this and most of kids just download the games without any thought of supporting the developers

[Juni Ori]

Thinking as a potential novelist - and I've thought this way before - I must say that no matter how easily product is reproduced, it is property and should be paid for if enjoyed of.

I'm sorry russ, but that's idiotic suggestion, because people are selfish and only marginal would pay for games at all. Industry would go down in no time.

[Doubler]

Why hasn't the industry already gone down if people are so selfish?

[Tulac]

Juni Ori, are you sure? You should check out the latest example of radiohead. You can download their album from their site, you can pay as much as you want meaning you can pay nothing or 100€.

[Juni Ori]

Yeah, I am, though it's not impossibility I might be wrong.