Is piracy a serious issue for game developers?

[D_Sinclair]

You know, I'm curious about one thing...

The title of the thread is "Is piracy a serious issue for game developers?"

Seems pretty clear who should be posting to it. So why are all these nonpublishers throwing in their two cents and bickering over semantics?

I just want to say something. First, just because there is potentially an infinite supply of something, you do not have a right to take as much as you want if it isn't yours to begin with. You took it, you kept it and you didn't pay for it when you should have. I don't see why some people have so much difficulty in grasping the fact that doing so is wrong.

 

[The Persian]

Probably because that's not a universal absolute.

 

[kenobi65]

Information has value? Wow, i didn't know you could tag a dollar value on how to make fire!

Ah, but the knowledge of how to make fire was given into the public domain many milennia ago (see court case "Zeus v. Prometheus").

 

[Storm Raven]

I just want to say something. First, just because there is potentially an infinite supply of something, you do not have a right to take as much as you want if it isn't yours to begin with. You took it, you kept it and you didn't pay for it when you should have. I don't see why some people have so much difficulty in grasping the fact that doing so is wrong.

Why does the tragedy of the commons spring to my mind?

 

[The Persian]

If you believe that, then it would be valid, yes. For some people, it's purely mythological, for other's, it's religious.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Ah, but the knowledge of how to make fire was given into the public domain many milennia ago (see court case "Zeus v. Prometheus").

Bravo!

 

[Psionicist]

You know, I'm curious about one thing...

The title of the thread is "Is piracy a serious issue for game developers?"

Seems pretty clear who should be posting to it. So why are all these nonpublishers throwing in their two cents and bickering over semantics?

I just want to say something. First, just because there is potentially an infinite supply of something, you do not have a right to take as much as you want if it isn't yours to begin with. You took it, you kept it and you didn't pay for it when you should have. I don't see why some people have so much difficulty in grasping the fact that doing so is wrong.

Read my post above. You think it's wrong. It's not wrong in other cultures.

 

[Storm Raven]

Information has value? Wow, i didn't know you could tag a dollar value on how to make fire!

Hypothetical: suppose you didn't know how to make fire. Would it be worth something to you to have me teach you how to make fire?

 

[Storm Raven]

Read my post above. You think it's wrong. It's not wrong in other cultures.

A statement that only holds water if you believe morality is relative.

 

[The Persian]

Hypothetical: suppose you didn't know how to make fire. Would it be worth something to you to have me teach you how to make fire?

I posted mine, as a somewhat humorous jab at the other side of this arguement, and that's as far as I intended to take it. If you want to get rediculous and stray this discussion largely away from the initial topic, game developers, specifically those who write and produce RPG books, then we should probably make a new thread, in a new forum.

But I digress, and that further adds to the point in the previous 12 page thread, the information itself has no value, regardless of supply or demand and whatever intrinsic value one has with that piece of information. It's merely neurons and axons, chemicals and other lovely biological terms that explain our brain coming up with ideas, not a viable product or service that has a value. It's a culmination of many things, not just 1 thing.