Some personal thoughts on piracy (warning - long post)

[Nospheratu]

/kicks himself for starting a sh!tstorm

Let me again remind all of you that I did not pirate this game myself (If i did, I would admit it) - I got it from a friend who pirated it and i only wrote the original post becouse I was so moved by the effort of Frictional games, that I wanted to say these things: 1. I am so impressed by your product, that even thou I have already gotten it for free and played through it twice, I will buy it myself (when able) becouse you deserve it. 2. in regard to the first point, not all pirates just download stuff, use it and delete it (most do, but not all); some of us (i say "us" becouse I download stuff too sometimes) actually have the decency to buy the things that made a lasting impression on us. 3. Thus: If you manage to make a great product which leaves a lasting impression, chances are high that even a percentage of pirates will eventually buy your game, so - well done, Frictional.

I saw mentioned somewhere that if you buy the product a couple of weeks/months/years later, it isn't worth as much as when it was originally released. Well, DUH. So if buying something a few months/years after the release is such a problem, then what do we do with all the little babies today who will maybe buy and use the product over 20 years later? Do we magically warp them back in time, so that they can purchase the product on the release day? Also for instance: CD prices of "Queen" today are higher than they were when they recorded it, so if i would bootleg a record 20 years ago and today decide to buy the CD, I would spend more money than for the vinyl on the release day.

Delete it right away? You just admitted to beating a pirated game twice before considering purchasing it. So you can fuck off with that.

You pretty much just said "I don't pirate stuff stuff because it is not worth my money, I pirate everything to see if it is worth my money!"

I admited to having downloaded Warcraft 3, installing it on my disc, playing it through once, being impressed, playing it through again on hard mode, being impressed with the alternate ending as well and then (while the credits ran) saying to myself: "Wow, this game deserves to have it's place on my game shelf." I bought it in the same week.

Here is another problem: "You pretty much said". No, i didn't pretty much say something and then comes your interpretation, i explicitly wrote that SOMETIMES (not always) i find ONE THING (not everything) and if it seems of enough interest to me at that moment, i'll download it and TRY IT OUT, but if I don't like it, i'll delete it right away. Why? Becouse i know pretty much what kind of movies, music and games I like, so if I don't like something i downloaded in the first 5-10 minutes, I will not use it any further, since i don't like how it looks/sounds/plays. Do you really think that a grown up guy with a job and a life has the time, willpower and need to daily download gigabytes of all possible movies, games and music and store them on his computer, even if he has absolutely no interest in 99% of them? Why the hell for? To play/watch/listen to them when, during my sleep?

Downloading a pirate version if a disk gets scratched or if it does not work properly is fine. I see no problem with it... There is a difference between stealing and fixing.

This actually made me laugh
Let's say i download a pirated CD and - since i like it - keep it on my hard drive for a year. Somewhere during that year I decide to honor the musician's work by buying the original CD, which I then put on my shelf. At the next new years eve i have the original CD on my shelf and the mp3 folder on my computer. In this case I am a criminal.
In another version I go to the store and buy the CD straight away, then I use it for a year. After almost a year of usage it is so scratched, that it won't play properly, so I decide to download the pirated version and keep the songs on my hard drive. At the next new years eve I have the original CD on my shelf and the mp3 folder on my computer, but in this case I am innocent.

Anyway, I didn't intend to stir up so many reactions, so next time I'll better keep my fingers from typing too much; it wasn't meant as a trollbait or anything like that, so if this gets out of hand, you can close it Bye guys.