Kotario said:
Do these Pirates also localize and translate games? Because, if they don't, you could have the exact same results by importing games (and it would be legal and moral).
They don't, but they "pirate" localized versions too.
The difference between buying "pirated" and buying imported games is that if it's imported, the company producing it earns money from it, if it's pirated the company producing it earns nothing, only the seller and whoever produced the copy earns money.
I do not like the term "piracy" because it is a marketing term. It implies things which have nothing to do with the actual act of making an illegal copy. There's a slight difference between raiding a ship and just copying something without the producer's approval.
I oppose the illegal act nevertheless.
I would rather buy a copy of FOPOS off eBay because then Interplay wouldn't earn a buck (no increase in demand, therefore no need to produce another copy) but I wouldn't support anybody else except for the guy who bought it originally.
Software "piracy" or illegal reproduction of audio CDs and movies is not a new thing tho. It's not a sudden threat. It's always been there.
Before the rise of CDs, people copied records to audio casettes and before the rise of DVDs, movies got copied to VHS tapes. The illegal market always existed.
The problem with audio CDs is that artists would earn more by producing them on their own and selling them via the internet than by going to a record label and letting them do it. The only reason to do so is the marketing.
The big artists don't have to care about the losses, but if it wasn't for the industry, there would be a lot more of rich artists and probably less of the successful "artificial" bands.
I always buy good, available games at Amazon.co.uk because it's the best place to get English games if you're German. If a game is not available any longer and not yet registered as abandonware, I try eBay.
If I like a band, I buy their CDs either at a music store, Amazon.de/.co.uk, or, if they distribute their own CDs, directly from the artists.
If I don't like a band, I don't buy its music. If I like a band, I try to buy their music (read: the CDs I'm interested in) directly from the artists, if that's not possible, I buy it off a store.
It's the same with computer games. If I'm only vaguely interested or if it's not available, I buy it off eBay, otherwise I buy it from a store -- or from the developers, if they have no publisher or provide such an option.
Heck, if the dev teams had a donation option, I'd donate them money if a game I bought off eBay for a couple of bucks only or a game I found only as abandonware turns out to be great.
I think the entire corporate idea has masked what it's really all about: paying developers for their work. Rather than just having a steady income, they should be payed for the sales, like bands.
I would rather have the developers own the rights of the games they produce than some big corporations which only screw around with them in order to make a quick buck.
Meh. Capitalism and Idealism just don't mix.
