Is piracy a serious issue for game developers?

[The Persian]

Right, but it should be. Among ethically minded people it is.

I should have purple hair, but I don't. Like others have said, if you truely believe, heck, *want* that, why don't you get more politically active? Maybe you do care for the notion, but you're not serious enough to take a proactive stance on it.

Ethics are also subjective to a point, popularity, age, ethnic backgrounds, political backgrounds, monetary motivation and a myriad of factors i can't even begin to fathom all play a role in ethics too!

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I should have purple hair, but I don't. Like others have said, if you truely believe, heck, *want* that, why don't you get more politically active? Maybe you do care for the notion, but you're not serious enough to take a proactive stance on it.

Actually, i'm a lot more politically active than you know...

 

[The Persian]

Actually, i'm a lot more politically active than you know...

Does that include pushing for some universal standard on morals and ethics? I don't mean just pertaining to copyright/theft/this whole subsection of topics too...

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Sorry, poltical discussions are banned here

 

[Rykion]

I disagree with your simplification.

Artists create art for art's sake. Writers will write because they feel a drive to write, just like painters will paint because they love it and photographers will carry a camera whenever possible. Look at www.fanfiction.net and www.deviantart.com and all over the internet. Those people give away their work, as you define it. If profit was a person's primary goal there are so many better lines of work than the creative arts.

For every good free artist and fiction writer there are 50 very poor ones. The good ones usually turn professional and post little or no new stuff in their free areas. The amount of things they create goes up as they have more time to devote to their art since they are making money from it.

Copywrite laws were designed to encourage artists to release their works into the public domain for the betterment of society and the general public good. They were an alternative to the patronage system, where only the rich patrons benefited from the creative works. The purpose is to support creators by giving them limited control over their works for a limited time to allow them to gain compensation for their efforts.

People taking things without compensating the creator is exactly what we are talking about here.

People are never willing to wait, they want to enjoy the benefits of the new technology NOW. Are digital distribution has so *many* benefits. Except that PDFs are clumsy, eBooks suck, the pricing structures are crazy, and the official lines of distribution are lacking. So people do what they have to, to use the new technology. Sooner or later digital books will find their iPod to meet the demand. The more the potential customer base is attacked, insulted, and demonized the later it will be.

Those willing to buy online are still a very small number compared to all customers. People are not "doing what they have to do." They are doing what they want to do.

 

[The Persian]

Then again, you should reiterate on the point brought up earlier too, if you want to draw a clearer contrast.

 

[Henry]

Artists create art for art's sake. Writers will write because they feel a drive to write, just like painters will paint because they love it and photographers will carry a camera whenever possible. Look at www.fanfiction.net and www.deviantart.com and all over the internet. Those people give away their work, as you define it. If profit was a person's primary goal there are so many better lines of work than the creative arts.

To me, this is an oversimplification, as well. "Ars Gratia Artis" is not the ONLY goal for all artists, only for some. In fact, if an artist make compensation for their works, all the better, because they do what they love, and don't have to worry about balancing doing what they love against their need for sustenance and prosperity.

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

People who have served prison time for insider trading might say that info has a particularly HIGH value. In this day and age, information as a whole has the greatest value of all. It's irrelevant that thousands produce works for free as a proof against info having no value; it means that that particular information does not have as high a value as other information.

 

[The Persian]

To me, this is an oversimplification, as well. "Ars Gratia Artis" is not the ONLY goal for all artists, only for some. In fact, if an artist make compensation for their works, all the better, because they do what they love, and don't have to worry about balancing doing what they love against their need for sustenance and prosperity.



People who have served prison time for insider trading might say that info has a particularly HIGH value. In this day and age, information as a whole has the greatest value of all. It's irrelevant that thousands produce works for free as a proof against info having no value; it means that that particular information does not have as high a value as other information.

Well, saying a number of products, or ideas, or "x" in this case have value, or hold some certain property, while others do not...doesn't mean, from what you said, that one is always one or the other, rather, it "can have" but doesn't always stick to one side. Is that true?

 

[caudor]

That’s why I have argued before that the only effective way to stop pirates is a clear and absolute threat of getting caught and punished.

I'm not much of a techie, but this is something I don't understand. Of course, I don't know much about these file-sharing networks.

Isn't there a threat of getting caught right now? I mean, if some service like Kazaa sees someone downloading copyrighted material, don't they just trace it back to the users computer and report them? I just find it hard to believe that folks with gigs of data downloaded do not actually get caught.

 

[Psionicist]

It's irrelevant that thousands produce works for free as a proof against info having no value; it means that that particular information does not have as high a value as other information.

I disagree. Just because a book has a price tag doesn't mean the information in the book is more valuable than information you can get for free (as in no cost).

"Advice is probably the only free thing which people won't take."