Do you pirate?

[Melirune]

(07-17-2012 04:44 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  I love this sentence so much because it shows the sheer bollocks logic. They make shit games so I'll pirate it. So, either way you end up with the game anyway. So let me ask you, if it's so shit, why do you want to own it?

My reasoning is this - There are many games that look good, but actually fall short of any enjoyable experience. I don't have a problem with pirating a copy of a game or movie to see if I actually enjoy it. If I do enjoy it, I have absolutely no problem buying an actual copy. If the product is terrible, I just delete/uninstall it. No money lost from me, and no increased sales figures for something that doesn't deserve it.

(07-17-2012 04:44 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  So what you're saying is, being the Entertainment industry MUST go by YOUR standards. Michael Bay makes crappy films so that gives me the right to take ANYTHING from Hollywood. I'm not going to pay Activision/George Lucas anything again so I'll pirate it, completely ruining the credibility of your argument.

You saying they suck is a point but pirating it just means that you wanted it anyway.

To be fair, I haven't pirated any Michael Bay movies, as I won't even waste my bandwidth on his rubbish. The same goes for Activision and Lucas. There are just certain things that I refuse to waste my bandwidth on.

Now, I'm not asking that the industry go by my standards at all. My standards differ from yours, which differ from the next guys and so on. It would be unfair and selfish to demand something just for me. I'm the type of person who prefers elaborate sets and puppetry to CGI and green/blue screen. I prefer actors with talent instead of these young folks who are just there as eye candy. The things I prefer in film just have no place in it anymore.

However, in the case of Transformers - it is just a bad product. Half of the movie feels like it was shot from a hand-cam from 2 feet away. The Autobots look the same as the Decepticons. Megan Fox has the acting talent of a drugged sloth. I could go on.

I don't feel like this product is worthy of paying for at all. I saw it in theaters and felt angry after, so when the next movie came out I made the decision to pirate it. If it was bad, no loss and if it was good I would have no problem buying it. Unfortunately it was again terrible.

As for Star Wars - I saw the prequels in theaters. And I was unimpressed by all three. Again, I will not even waste the bandwidth to pirate it. But if someone who hasn't seen them wanted to, I would ask them to pirate it. I wouldn't want to inflate Lucas' ego anymore than people already have. On the other hand though, I have no problem buying the original trilogy because of how well done it was (in my opinion)

Now, I don't take just 'anything' from Hollywood. There are still directors that I will dish out the money for without having even seen the product. For example, I will not pirate a Rob Zombie film, I will buy it.

Now, expand this way of thinking to all other forms of media. For me, pirating isn't a way of saying "Oh, this sucks but I want it anyway". It's a way of deeming whether or not something is worth buying.

Am I saying pirating is right? Not at all. But hey, I'm not here to give my money to these companies that don't deserve it.

And now for another reason that I pirate - sometimes you can't find something that you wish to own, whether it's rare or just not available in your area (I'm talking things that are at least 15+ years old, nothing modern). There are lots of classic movies from the 60's that I like. And I can't always find them in pawn shops or maybe they are too expensive on eBay. Again, I have no problem pirating these. They are old enough that they don't hurt sales or take food out of peoples mouths.

And another reason - Metallica. Metallica was very outspoken about how bad pirating/Napster was. But for those of you who don't know - Metallica got their initial success from people pirating/bootlegging their material. If it wasn't for people doing that, Metallica might not have been as big as they were.