Are 'warez' really theft?

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by pem

What is this supposed to be

It's an eDonkey link for a file download. www.emule-project.net

[SOSAGES]

Was a link orginally posted on sharereactor.com by the guy that runs the site here is the news item:

Michael Moore about Fileshareing (05.01.2004 22:32:17) from Simon Moon
You want to know what the guy that made Roger and me, Bowling for columbine and wrote Dude, where is my country?, has to say about filesharing?
Look here: Michael Moore about Fileshareing
Its a small 5 MB video, part of an interview it looks like, and very interesting.


to download use emule edonkey2000 or overnet (id suggest emule or overnet)

Originally Posted by Bifta

I'm not going to flame you, but I will say, if you bought a game/video/dvd or application that was crap then you should have either bought it from Game (and taken it back) or read some reviews first.

Most game reviewers don`t actually have sufficient knowledge or ability to accurately appraise a game.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Most game reviewers don`t actually have sufficient knowledge or ability to accurately appraise a game.

Yes, the number of games with PC Gamer 95% on them which turned out to be sooooo naff

[Bifta]

Generally if you take a wide cross section of reviews, it's doubtful that you're going to end up buying a crap game, I know I haven't yet managed it.

Warez is theft plain and simple.

Its all fine to bleat on about how you cant afford to buy such and such a game and if it was worth the money you may buy it anyway. What about the developers? They spend several years, yes YEARS making this game entering millions of lines of code, creating thousands of textures, having the wisdom and the creativity to develop levels and then iron out bugs. Yet some people think it is their god given right to rip them off.
The general misconception is that developers make a lot of money. Plain and simple they would be comfortably off, not rich. Think about it, you buy a game for £40, how much do you think the developer gets?

Think carefully.......

Its actually about £6.00 Yes Six whole pounds sterling per £40 game.
The people that make the money is the retail shops and the publisher.
Now ask yourself again, if you sold something for as little as £6 would you be happy if people stole that from you because you were "rich"?

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Bifta

Generally if you take a wide cross section of reviews, it's doubtful that you're going to end up buying a crap game, I know I haven't yet managed it.

These days I wait for my mate to buy a game before I do
Unless I'm pretty sure I know it's going to be good, like Jedi Acadamy, or Doom3.
And as been mentioned, places like Game have a no quibble returns policy so if you aren't happy you can just take it back.

[Jon T]

If you are a developer it all depends on what you want out of the programs/games that you have written, do you want money, or do you want your software to be used by as many people as possible.

As I have said before in a previous post, I intend to purchase or legally obtain every piece of software that I have installed on my computer equipment, however if I had not used p2p/warez in the past, some of these programs I would now not be buying.

Trail software is all well and good, but the trail periods are seldom long enough, take a complex bit of software such as Dreamweaver MX or Photoshop, they require time to learn or adapt, or are supplied with reduced functionality.

As Timewarrior2001 points out, developers do not get a very high percentage of profits per game at all, so maybe the answer is for the publishers to make a smaller profit on the software and reduce the cost of it, that way you get more legal software, less p2p/warez usages, and more profits/royalties for the publishers/depelopers.

Jon

[downquark1]

What do people think about opensource?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by downquark1

What do people think about opensource?

Great idea but rarely has the production values of commercial software (especially where windows is concerned), a lot of linux software (including Linux itself) being a good exception. If it wasn't for open source I'd probably be out of a job (no php, no MySQL).

[Jon T]

Originally Posted by downquark1

What do people think about opensource?

open source software authors have waived their right royalties/profit by making their software open source in the first placed.

Howeved, the problem begins when some software if written that is closed source and then someone claims that it contains extracts of open source code with in, even worse is the reverse, where a open source item of software is found to contain element of closed source code.

My other feelings about open source code is that sloppy programming is less difficuilt to hide, and also the speed of any security/bug patch releases are usually greatly enhanced.

Jon

[invalid_session]

Warez is theft plain and simple.

Yup.

Its all fine to bleat on about how you cant afford to buy such and such a game and if it was worth the money you may buy it anyway.

I love it when someone pulls the "I can't afford it" excuse. I can't afford a Ferrari, so it's OK if I steal one, right?

[Fawkes]

Originally Posted by invalid_session

I love it when someone pulls the "I can't afford it" excuse. I can't afford a Ferrari, so it's OK if I steal one, right?

No, but no one is suggesting it is. Is it OK for you to make and an exact replica out of scrap metal, that is the question?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Fawkes

No, but no one is suggesting it is. Is it OK for you to make and an exact replica out of scrap metal, that is the question?

I don't think that was the original question at all Besides, how many people on here are able to code something to exactly the same spec. as something they'd buy and or download using P2P? Few if none by my reckoning, it's a bit of an irrelevant argument (sorry)

[SOSAGES]

make stuff alittle cheaper
dont have staggered release dates around the world and (this is the biggie) make it worth buying ..

do that and more people will pay, of course people will always steal but compnaies accept that if it wasnt for napster the activites of certain movie/song traders or p2p programs would probably still be a mystery to most companies and news sources..

record companies have been losing money on cds for years before napster raised its little head the film industry makes so much money its silly dvd sales (disc) are over 60% more than VHS when it was in its prime.. mind you i could count the number of "GOOD" films last year at the cinema on 1 hand

anyway i have a buddy who has 135 DVD-R's of divx movies and about 100 of tv episdoes (dvd rips) he also has about 400 purchased DVDs and box sets of tv shows the ones he downloads he thinks are "okay" and can live without and he wouldnt buy them anyway ..granted thats no excuse as he has stole the copyright but i kinda agree if he wanted to d/l friday the 13th 1-10 im easy with that hes never gonna buy em (i doubt he will watch em) but somthing to add to his collection the company lost a bit of money but he wouldnt of paid for em anyway so no biggie he thinks

as for me..well im skint and save my money for beer and women as sitting in front of a pc all day is a bit boring (and bad for your eyes)

anyway thats enough from me ..

ps anyone send me Star wars 3 and terminator 5 by email?