What is the legality behind pirating and then buying a game?

[SpatiallyAware]

Let's say you download a game on the 5th. You like it and purchase the game on the 7th.



If you were caught downloading the game from the 5th what could potentially happen?

 

[dguy6789]

Legally it's not okay and you could get in trouble.

Morally, it's perfectly okay. It's BS that you have to buy a game at full price to try it and you can't return it or get a refund if you don't like it. Nothing wrong with trying before you buy as long as you buy it if you intend to keep it.

 

[SunnyD]

Morally, it's perfectly okay. It's BS that you have to buy a game at full price to try it and you can't return it or get a refund if you don't like it. Nothing wrong with trying before you buy as long as you buy it if you intend to keep it.

Morally, it depends on what your personal morals are. Legally, it's illegal, plain and simple.

dguy, you may think it's BS, but nothing is stopping you from not buying the game if you don't like the terms the manufacturer/producer/vendor put forth. Don't pirate games if you don't like those terms. It's that simple. You have absolutely no right to try the game before you buy it unless there's a legitimate, legal way to do it.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Morally, it depends on what your personal morals are. Legally, it's illegal, plain and simple.

dguy, you may think it's BS, but nothing is stopping you from not buying the game if you don't like the terms the manufacturer/producer/vendor put forth. Don't pirate games if you don't like those terms. It's that simple. You have absolutely no right to try the game before you buy it unless there's a legitimate, legal way to do it.

:thumbsup:

 

[shingletingle]

Legally it's not okay and you could get in trouble.

Morally, it's perfectly okay. It's BS that you have to buy a game at full price to try it and you can't return it or get a refund if you don't like it. Nothing wrong with trying before you buy as long as you buy it if you intend to keep it.

Gets my vote for the most nonsensical post of the year. At least so far.

 

[Martimus]

Morally, it depends on what your personal morals are. Legally, it's illegal, plain and simple.

dguy, you may think it's BS, but nothing is stopping you from not buying the game if you don't like the terms the manufacturer/producer/vendor put forth. Don't pirate games if you don't like those terms. It's that simple. You have absolutely no right to try the game before you buy it unless there's a legitimate, legal way to do it.

I wholeheartedly concur with this statement.

 

[MJinZ]

Let's say you download a game on the 5th. You like it and purchase the game on the 7th.



If you were caught downloading the game from the 5th what could potentially happen?

If you steal a Carvel Ice Cream Cake and eat part of it, then you decide you like it, so you buy another Carvel Ice Cream cake and eat it...

 

[GullyFoyle]

Poor Dguy. It sucks when people quote your post, removing any chance for a ninja-edit. I feel for you man...

 

[jonks]

You are guilty of copyright infringement the moment you download a copy of the game. Intent to purchase at a later point, even if you actually do make the purchase, doesn't negate the previous infringement. CI is a strict liability statute, that is, intent is not relevant, just whether or not the act was committed.

You asked what could potentially happen. CI has both civil and criminal penalties depending on the type of infringement. "Willful" infringement, which means you know or should know full well that you are doing something improper could result in massive financial penalties.

IRL, no one has been sued that I'm aware of for movie or video game piracy over the internet. The RIAA is the only one who seems willing to risk the public's wrath by suing people who are also their best customers.

The morality question is a bit murkier, but if you don't end up purchasing the game after you pirate a copy, well, that clarifies the situation quite a bit.

 

[Maximilian]

Legally it's not okay and you could get in trouble.

Morally, it's perfectly okay. It's BS that you have to buy a game at full price to try it and you can't return it or get a refund if you don't like it. Nothing wrong with trying before you buy as long as you buy it if you intend to keep it.

Amen to that! This is why demos are important.

 

[pmv]

If you steal a Carvel Ice Cream Cake and eat part of it, then you decide you like it, so you buy another Carvel Ice Cream cake and eat it...

Surely its not necessary to point out why this is a _terrible_ analogy?

Seems to be quite obvious that if you pirate it and then almost immediately buy it there's no moral problem - nobody has lost anything as a result of your actions, not even a _potential_ sale.

Legally is quite another matter.

What if you buy it and _then_ pirate it?

 

[ramj70]

Surely its not necessary to point out why this is a _terrible_ analogy?

Seems to be quite obvious that if you pirate it and then almost immediately buy it there's no moral problem - nobody has lost anything as a result of your actions, not even a _potential_ sale.

Legally is quite another matter.

What if you buy it and _then_ pirate it?

So taking something that is not yours is not a moral issue? What day does it become a moral issue? The fifth day you do not pay for it, the sixth day, two weeks, a month?

 

[pmv]

So taking something that is not yours is not a moral issue? What day does it become a moral issue? The fifth day you do not pay for it, the sixth day, two weeks, a month?

What is being 'taken'?

edit - OK, what is being taken is a couple of days of use of the item - the producer is getting paid a couple of days late. What are interest rates now? How much is that worth? Pretty much nil, I would say.

In general, incidentally, yours is an attitude that I really don't understand. You seem to have the attitude that morality and legality are identical, that the only 'moral' thing to do is to exactly follow the precise letter of the law, or rather, terms of a contract.

What I don't get about this view is that its often espoused by people who are big fans of capitalism. Now capitalism, in its corporate guise, doesn't work like that _at all_.

Large corporations, for example, will regularly delay payment to other companies for as long as they can get away with, causing costs much larger than the fraction of a sent that is being lost in this case.

Corporations generally work on a basis of _what they can get away with_ or what most helps their bottom-line. They don't follow this pernickety, legalistic kind of moral code in any way shape or form. It's _not_ that they are 'evil', its just that this is how the system is set up to work, this is the normal behaviour (and I'm not denying it works OK in terms of keeping the economy functioning).

If you really think this kind of exacting, contract-based, legalism is the correct basis for morality then you really ought to be some sort of fervent anti-capitalist. But I bet you aren't. Which just seems inconsistent to me.

To me, someone depriving a corporation of a few fractions of a cent by paying a few days late is not a big moral issue.

 

[Majes]

Okay, here is another scenario...

I have a friend who pirates his games. He probably has over 100 pirated games in his collection. I often go to his place and try different games. Some I buy later for myself, some I do not.

Where am I on the legal/moral scale?

 

[ramj70]

What is being 'taken'?

A game, intellectual property, whatever you want to call it.

 

[Mem]

Legally it's not okay and you could get in trouble.

Morally, it's perfectly okay. It's BS that you have to buy a game at full price to try it and you can't return it or get a refund if you don't like it. Nothing wrong with trying before you buy as long as you buy it if you intend to keep it.

Morally I say its very wrong,you have options ie wait for a demo version or read lots of reviews,maybe a friend has the game you can try on his PC before you decide to buy a retail game,end of the day game developers work hard and to unrealistic deadlines for the most part,its their bread and butter and something where pirates are happy to steal from and don't care about morals.

 

[pmv]

A game, intellectual property, whatever you want to call it.

The game isn't being taken, its being copied. There's not really any such thing as 'intellectual property'. All that is being taken is, as I said, a few days worth of interest on the payment.

(If the game is copied and never purchased at all, that's different).

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

Surely its not necessary to point out why this is a _terrible_ analogy?

Seems to be quite obvious that if you pirate it and then almost immediately buy it there's no moral problem - nobody has lost anything as a result of your actions, not even a _potential_ sale.

By pirating a game, even for a day or two as an illegitimate demo, you are encouraging the people who crack/steal games and distribute them to folks like you to continue to do so in the future. Thus you are furthering the financial commitment game companies put forth to fight piracy, which takes away from money that could be spent otherwise. So something is lost: money spent trying to keep you from doing it again.

Piracy only exists because there is a market for it. By participating in that market, you are furthering the problem, regardless of how long you used the pirated materials for.

 

[ramj70]

The game isn't being taken, its being copied. There's not really any such thing as 'intellectual property'. All that is being taken is, as I said, a few days worth of interest on the payment.

(If the game is copied and never purchased at all, that's different).

Oh, its being copied, well that makes all the difference in the world. How silly of me.

There is no such thing as intellectual property!? Wow you just overturned hundreds of years of legal principle and law and business practices.

 

[dguy6789]

Poor Dguy. It sucks when people quote your post, removing any chance for a ninja-edit. I feel for you man...

You're fooling yourself if you think I would want to edit my post for whatever reason. You guys need to realize that something being a law or not has absolutely nothing to do with if it is right, wrong, good, or bad. I stand by what I said 100%. Sheeple. It seems you're not familiar with the term. Anyone who agrees with a law just because it is a law is rather absent minded. Try and think before you post.

 

[Fingolfin269]

You're fooling yourself if you think I would want to edit my post for whatever reason. You guys need to realize that something being a law or not has absolutely nothing to do with if it is right, wrong, good, or bad. I stand by what I said 100%. Sheeple. It seems you're not familiar with the term. Anyone who agrees with a law just because it is a law is rather absent minded. Try and think before you post.

Wow, so people who disagree with your law breaking ways are sheeple kept in line by the man. You are a sad person.

 

[SunnyD]

You're fooling yourself if you think I would want to edit my post for whatever reason. You guys need to realize that something being a law or not has absolutely nothing to do with if it is right, wrong, good, or bad. I stand by what I said 100%. Sheeple. It seems you're not familiar with the term. Anyone who agrees with a law just because it is a law is rather absent minded. Try and think before you post.

If you don't like the law, fight to have it changed. In other words, vote with your wallet and your time - don't support the developer/manufacturer/producer, and don't give them the satisfaction of a sale or even the time of day.

Until then, it's illegal plain and simple, regardless of whether you're morally bankrupt or not. When you decide that doing what you can within the boundaries of the law is the proper course of action, whether you like the law or not, then you can lecture people on what morality means.

 

[arkcom]

If you steal a Carvel Ice Cream Cake and eat part of it, then you decide you like it, so you buy another Carvel Ice Cream cake and eat it...

More like you eat the Ice Cream Cake while walking around the store, and then pay for the empty package on the way out.

 

[coloumb]

Ok...

What happens if you photocopy the first half of a book in the library on the 5th, then decide to buy the book on the 7th from the bookstore?

Or what happens if you decide to record an XM radio broadcast on the 5th, then decide to go buy the cd on the 7th?

what if you decide to download episodes of LOST and then decide to buy the dvd collection later on?

What if you photocopy an article from a magazine you purchased and gave the copy to your friend?

What if you rented a movie from the $1.00 video rental box, made a copy, and returned it.

Lots of what if's - quite honestly, the chance of "the man" breaking down your door and dragging you away in handcuffs is slim to none unless you're a distributor.

Morality is about the only thing you'll suffer from - can you morally accept to use a copy of the item you want and later on buy a copy [you're not buying the original - you're paying someone else to make a copy for you to buy - it just happens to be recognized as an official method for which to buy what you want]

 

[frozentundra123456]

To me it is both legally and morally wrong to pirate a game. Whether you buy it later is not really relevant. Most items you cannot "try before you buy" so to say that you have a right to pirate a game to see if you like it before buying does not make sense to me.

If you take (or use) something that is not yours without paying for it that is stealing, pure and simple. Whether you pay for it later is irrelevant.

I do get tired of developers complaining about piracy, but I would have to admit that piracy is probably one of the reasons fewer and fewer games are being made primarily or exclusively for the PC. So someone that pirates a game hurts not only the developers, but other PC gamers as well.