http://games.on.net/article/11787/Piracy_Does_Not_Equal_Theft_According_to_Minecraft_Creator

Now, I don't agree ENTIRELY with everything he says, I certainly agree with the gist of it and have made many arguments like that myself.
But of course, as soon as you say something like this you usually get trounced on and told "you're just saying that to help you sleep at night, pirate" even though I do usually buy games that I consider worthy of purchase.

RANT

I don't know if software piracy equates to lost sales or not. I'm not even sure how you would accurately study the impact of that.

But generally I have no respect for people who pirate software. Downloading and running executables from an untrustworthy source is a stupid practice. I guess I'm personally annoyed by this sort of stupidity since I'm constantly fixing virus or malware infested systems of family/friends/coworkers.

I've seen situations where a person charged $100 to reinstall Windows OS, used a pirated version, and didnt even tell the client. Months down the road MS updates their validation check, and the OS is refusing to update and displaying some ugly popups about counterfeit software. The funny thing is there was a valid COA on the case, this money hungry pirate was either to stupid to find the right version of windows or thought they were doing the person a favor.

It annoys me even more when people pirate something there is almost no reason too, like MS Office. There are valid freeware alternatives like OpenOffice that have enough compatibility and functionality for 99% of the population. But I keep seeing some mentality that it must be poor quality because it's free. I know people that probably only open or edit three Word documents a year but they still want MS Office, just not enough to pay for it.

I guess if you pirate software but are aware of the security risks, are capable of fixing any problems that arise due to virus/malware/software updating, and arent trying to profit off others then I don't have an issue with you.

I still have issues with those people. Don't care about legal definitions or whatever. Fact of the matter is, those people are benefitting off other people's work without compensating them for it. The only reason they do so is because they're cheapskates who feel entitled to things because it's been made so easy to acquire them freely with little chance of getting in trouble for it.

Games are one thing, I haven't pirated a game since I've been on steam and now I have over 100 games in my library. I don't see much issue with downloading a piece of software to use, or learn if you are A.) Not going to profit from it B) Give it away and C) The software was just ridiculously over priced for what you actually wanted to use it for. But you could argue that there are plenty of open source solutions for that kinda of problem.

Years ago, I spent $100+ or something for a student version of Photoshop CS3, tried to install it on my new computer and found out it has an install limit of 1. Adobe won't authorize it, and contacting them was no use. I had a useless bunch of CDs.

Ended up using Photoshop 7 CD that my family actually bought (retail) many years ago, but damn.

Student licensing for AutoCAD was a nightmare, despite paying good money for it. Ended up asking for a copy of AutoCAD 2006 from interning at an engineering firm, which I was given. I was under the impression if I paid money, no matter the amount, these companies would help me a bit and give me *some* leeway, despite AutoCAD license being 2 years. Both situations ended up using old copies, but if I had to opportunity to use cracked version after that, I would..

Echo - the moral is that Autodesk are a**b******s.

He does have a point that each time someone pirates a game, it doesn't necessarily equate to a lost sale.

That still doesn't change the fact that those who pirate games are illegally obtaining something that costs money for free.

Nothing cost money if I don't want it to (Who said that, rob?)

The Autodesk Education Community has most of their software for free for students. I don't know, though, if you can get in without being enrolled in a relevant school. I've graduated now, but they don't seem to care.

Speaking of which, what vista disc do I need to download if I want to reformat? Will any Home Premium work?

lol, they used a picture of a copy of minecraft that was modded to ****: hi-def texture pack and depth of field.

I think you want Vista Home Premium x64. Also I cant remember if your license was an Upgrade or Full Install. Hopefully it specifies on the COA. I believe with Vista and Win7 any installation disk will work for any of the standard editions (Basic/Premium/Ultimate, dunno about Starter) but you just need to get x86 vs x64 correct.

You can easily find an AIO (All in one) version online, I keep one around for just that purpose.

the only thing i have pirated is photoshop. almost all adobe products are priced rediculously high. i would gladly purchase the cs4 version of photoshop if i could get it for 50-60$(the price of a newly relaesed high end game) but it costs on average 200$. i am not saying i think pirating is ok, i know damn well its not. but... tough cookies.

as far as the argument of weather piracy=lost sales, if the person was potentially going to buy the game already and then pirates it instead, THEN thats a lost sale. if your pirating games you would not have bought anyways how is that possibly a lost sale?

The Crysis 2 leak sold me on a game I didn't care at all about, how does THAT work?

Yeah there's quite a few games I would never have bought if I hadn't downloaded pirated versions of them first. Hell I would never have heard of them if it wasn't for a certain piracy site releasing them.
I even remember a small company sending that site a thank you email, because without the free advertisement of it being pirated there they never would've made anywhere near as many sales.

It's easy to make if you already have an existing ISO. Just delete ei.cfg from the sources folder and make a new ISO.

Or do what I do. Just put it on a bootable flash drive and go in and delete ei.cfg. I don't think I've installed Windows 7 from a DVD since it came out.

I wouldn't pirate games.

I do have a problem when a software product (Audio, Video editing) that is marketed at professionals, is offered in an effectively useless version to hobbyists. Either that, or they get charged the same price.

It's just annoying to me, and nobody is going to book time at (for example) a studio with pirated software. Pros will buy it and people like me won't ever really use it (and would have never bought it) so what's the deal?

The College of Engineering at my university provides the latest versions of SolidWorks for 3D CAD for its students. I pirate it anyway since it's much easier than fighting with the idiotic license server. Get disconnected from the VPN during the exam? Have fun with that failing grade.

MATLAB on the other hand has a very simple license manager and I use legitimate copies of that. I just wish more companies would stop frustrating the people that actually follow the rules.

That seems to be an ever more common pattern. Buy the software; run the cracked version.

Since the anti-piracy measures make people use cracks and such, one might say that the anti-piracy is encouraging piracy...

re: "treat game development as a service."

This is bad advice.

Feature addition tends to have an exponential marginal cost in software development. Eventually the cost will surpass the marginal benefit, but you are still obligated to develop the product. At that point you are forced to choose between absorbing the cost of on-going development (which is unsustainable) or discontinuing support (which alienates your customers and may even cause legal problems.)

Notch is already having problems with this, and Minecraft is still selling well and costs almost nothing to produce. This sort of approach is completely untenable for most other indie games, which involve speak sales, fairly high budgets and many art assets (most indie devs are programmers, so they have to outsource artwork at a financial cost.)

I'm not sure why Notch was invited to speak or why anybody should listen to him. Minecraft is a hit (its sales are strong for a game, indie or not, and the ROI is enormous,) and it's great that he has the budget for a real game now, but he's as bewildered by his own success as anybody else. He wasn't prepared for Minecraft to be a hit, he never expected to make so much money, and he can't explain how he even did it. I hope most indie devs are smart enough not to buy in to the cargo cult. If you want to learn how to build a successful game company you need to talk to guys who really know what they're doing, like Gabe Newell.

Well said all round, Jon`C.

release day DLCs piss me off more than anything. the game studios hold off adding this stuff to the already $60 game and then have the balls to charge you another $10-$20 for content they already intended for the game. that to me is the only justification for pirating. ****ing vultures trying to get even more money.

Example of a same release day DLC?

The good, real indie devs I think are. Unfortunately there will always be waves of sf_golds asking for help for the smash hit MMO due out in 3 months.

dragon age 2

I pirate everything that I can unless the price is affordable for me (e.g. discounted games via Steam). However, I tend to use freeware alternatives when practical (e.g: Gimp instead of Photoshop). Microsoft isn't losing a dime if I pirated my copy of Windows 7 because if I couldn't pirate it, I still wouldn't purchase it & would merely use my student edition of Windows XP that I paid $25 for (a reasonable price that I was able & willing to pay). I read dozens of eBooks each month. If I had to pay for "Kitchen Confidential" I wouldn't have read it.

I sent my favorite "band" (Carbon Based Lifeforms) $5 via their PayPal link after downloading one of their albums via BitTorrent because I thought that was a smart option to offer people & because it was one of the few albums on this planet that was worthy of my hard-earned. I also expressed interest to them in an email about getting a copy of their 1st album which is no longer for sale. They sent me a direct download link & I sent them another $5. That, my friends, is how the world should function.

You folks can call me a thief & think less of me if you wish. It matters not. Piracy enables me to increase the quality of my life by allowing me to obtain products that I couldn't otherwise afford or at least would't want to waste money on. Is it stealing? Maybe. I don't think how it's labeled is important. It's the cause & effect that's important. You can't lump all "pirates" in to the same category & pretend that they're equally bad. That's no better than comparing the guy that steals a Mercedes with the guy that steals food for his family. Digital piracy is a unique form of "stealing" & it's not as cut & dry as many would have you believe.

You're actually not helping the band when you do that.

So you feel that you're entitled to all of these things without paying because...? All I see is the same old "I'm not hurting anyone, no one's losing money" rhetoric that people try to use and justify their behavior and make themselves feel better. Just man up and admit that you're wrongly taking things without paying for them and stop trying to hide behind silly justifications. That, to me, is worse than anything. I have more respect for someone who just comes out and says, "Hey guys, I pirate stuff. I know it's wrong, deal with it." than someone who makes up excuse after excuse.

?

Honestly, with all the constant sales on Steam, any desire I ever had to pirate games is gone. I've got more games on my computer right now than I'll ever be able to finish playing in the next 2 years, all obtained legally.

That game isn't even out yet, lol

Some websites state otherwise.

I do not see why anyone should complain about piracy. What is it to you if i download not only movies, music (and audio book), but games software comics and books as well? I can hardly believe that a couple thousand copy's of Due Date the DVD is breaking the industry. Do you see any film or game companies crashing and burning because of piracy?

I download a lot of things that i would not be able to by amway. I downloaded every single Green Lantern comic from Hal Jordan's original 1959 appearance till now on my PC. DO i really have $5000 or whatever for GL #1?

You can piss and moan about pirating, while paying out the ass for all your media. While will be at home, going through every Francis Ford Coppola movie on wikipedia and downloading all of them. This is the beauty of bit-torrent's. Any and all media is at my fingertips. How can i say no? I will always want more movie, why should i continue to pay for them my entire life, when i could spend that on something useful.

I bought the entire series of the X-Files for 20 dollars a season, **** paying 60$ for a season of TNG/DS9/TOS.

It has certainly impacted the music industry, it is damn hard to find a music store now. There are a few virgin megastores, but other than that there are only a handful of independently owned record stores. Not saying this is a bad or good thing, just that it's a little hard to deny the impact.

They need to stop trying to shove CDs with ****ty DRM down our throats. Physical media is dieing. Itunes, etc, is the future.

Whoa whoa whoa, music CDs have DRM these days? Jesus christ...

I hope you don't really think that's entirely the fault of piracy.