How bad is piracy?

I haven't pirated a game for years and years.

The only times I've been tempted have been when the game has been bundled with draconian DRM:

• Stuff like the constant internet connection requirement (a pain in the arse in rural NZ, where the connection is as stable as a two legged chair)
• Borderline malware like Starforce
• Limited, irreversible install limits that are triggered when you change your graphics card, RAM or underpants.
• Origin (don't want to trigger another shit fight, but unless EA make some big changes, I won't install it on my PC).

It's ironic that DRM is the one thing that still makes me consider illegally downloading games. Don't get me wrong - I'm not against all DRM. Steam doesn't bother me in the slightest, and is an example of an acceptable anti-piracy measure. On the other hand, GFWL or Tages ON TOP of Steam just plain sucks. Why, damn it? WHY!??

How bad is theft? It's just a thing that happens. You will never stop theft completely, you will never stop piracy completely. Companies need to realize this and stop punishing people who actually pay for their games.

Actually, contrary to what most people think, doesn't hurt sales. When you pirate, say, a game, the dev is losing "potential" sales. Pirating a game doesn't affect sales. If you buy it, there, the dev gets extra money, if you pirate, the dev isn't losing anything, only a "potential" sale. Who's to say you would buy the game if you hadn't pirating the game? News Flash! No one. Notch says it better than I can: Notch on Piracy

Piracy is a customer service issue.

is bad? for the publisher, yes.
but the problem is not that simple...
first, the main problem is the prices, and the lack of regional prices, and second being able to but the games...
for example, in my country, Argentina, we don't have an actual place for games in the market (GFWL block this region, and Nintendo doesn't sell their products here, so if want to buy an original game for a wii,i have to order it from Brazil) so, people that want to keep legal, are fucked, more fucked if they want a console (a new PS3 coasts here aprox U$S500)... basically, the prices here, are a joke, a cruel joke. And the companies don't give a single fuck for the region, no advertising, no promotions, etc...
now we have problems with the foreing currency (restrictions, restrictions EVERYWHERE), making the whole thing more complicated.
so in this side of the world, is "grey", more than totally bad (like in the US, or most of europe, so fuck you and stop crying :D )
i used to be a pirate. but since TF2 goes F2P, i started to use steam, the sales are awesome, and is pretty easy to buy them... so now i'm not pirating games.
who to blame? the companies, they rule the market, they put the prices, and they make the restrictions, and they make the life more hard for those who actually pay for the games (yes, i'm talking about Ubisoft)...

i'm sure that a lot of people will buy the games (or music, or movies, etc) if:
·First: the companies put a regional price for their products, the minimun income here is aprox U$S500-U$S600, so a $60 game, is a LOT of money.

·Second: The companies should make a little easy (or at least posible) to buy their products. i will be happy even with a GameStop shop...

yeah, my english suck, so feel free to attack with grammar correction (but try to don't act like dicks)

95% of games played by PC players are pirate copies

Piracy is just as bad as this damn government robbing us everyday, but we pay a fine if we get caught doing it while the government walks away scotch free, jackasses...

I think that musicians should take money only for concerts, and gief all their music for free distribution online or wherevar.

never bought anything online before.

You wouldn't donwnload an EA game. Oh... wait...

Frankly, I don't give a shit about movie and music piracy. If it really hurted the industry so bad, then those industries would've "failed" a long time ago. Meanwhile, movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make and earn much more than that, celebrities have personal jets and whatnot. It's really hard to feel guilty for pirating a TV show when you know that show's star earns half a million dollars for each 20 minute episode (and if they can pay the star 500k, how much are the directors and parent company earning?).
Game piracy is another matter, however, but I believe it doesn't matter a lot - I reckon the vast majority of people who download a game wouldn't buy it, or simply don't have the means to.

it all comes down to prices.

I pirate old games that aren't for sale on steam or reail were I live...
or if there's no demo available

and I pirate tv shows that aren't available where I live but love to watch so

is downoading a no cd crack illegal if you own a copy of the game but your DVD was damaged?

Monkey Island was pretty awesome from what I played so far, I think there should be more games about pirates, still wanna play Risen 2.

Piracy is good. Good products will find their customers (Witcher). Even in music, check Reznor and Nine Inch Nails.
Now why some people pirate?
There are rarely demos for new games.
New games are overpriced (CoD).
Regional pricing for digital distribution? The biggest bullshit of the 21st century.
Buying original is often punishment for the customers (Games for Windows Live, Ubisoft DRM).
Late release in different states/continents (Mass Effect 3 for example, there was pirated version few days before release in the US, which was earlier than in the EU, so I had to wait one week longer).

When it comes to the comments about piracy, Ubisoft+EA have no idea (actually I believe they do, they just hide behind it) how piracy affects their sales but they can't just say, well, it is a shitty game, no wonder it is not selling well.

Origin is shit, GFWL is shit, only Steam is good for me.
If I paid for each game that I discovered its sucks so i really would suffered my soul and my money

I pirate old tv shows and movies not available here for purchase. Some music and some videogames. But most of my stuff is legit from Steam

The strength of my opinion of Piracy varies based on who is doing the stealing and who they are stealing from.

If a kid who doesn't have disposable income pirates games I consider that a lot less of an offense than an adult who can afford games that pirates them. Both are wrong in my eyes, but in the case of the kid pirating, the publisher isn't losing money because the kid would not have bought the game, whereas the adult who can afford the game and chooses not to pay is denying the publisher money that should be paid.

I feel the same way about music and books. If someone creates something and doesn't get paid for it or receives much less pay than the item's popularity suggests it's worth, that kinda sucks - especially if it means that the producer can't make a living off creating things that people want.

Things like TV shows and mainstream music are available of the airwaves for free, so I have a lot less objection to those things being pirated, then say DVD/Bluray quality Movies or Books.

One thing I feel kinda strongly about is that if you've bought something once, you should own the rights to it and not have to buy it again to have it in a different format. i.e. if I buy a paperback book, I shouldn't have to pay again to get it on my kindle. I also am extremely annoyed when an ebook costs more than a paperback - it defies logic since there is no printing, shipping, or physical retailing involved in the process.

It's also very annoying if a publisher doesn't offer items in the format you want to purchase them in. Like making you buy an entire album when you only want one song on it, or not selling past TV shows, etc. I don't have an issue with people "pirating" abandonware or old console roms, etc.

The sad thing about piracy is that the big companies (who are usually rolling in cash) are the ones who can afford to enforce the law, while the small guys who really need to laws enforced can't afford to enforce it.

With prices as high as they are and with most games as bad as they are, yeah I might pirate a game to see if I like it and if I do I almost always buy it.

When I used to be a console gamer I would buy games on the release date for $60 just to go home and finish it in 2 hours because it was a short game. Or I would spend $60 and find out the game is terrible. After awhile it became a big waste of money so I became a PC gamer because it's easy to find games for cheap or you can pirate it before you buy it(if no demo is available).

I might also pirate a game if I already own it on console because my Xbox hasn't been powered on in months so I don't feel it's wrong in a case like that. The developers got my money but I happened to change platforms in the process so I'm not going to buy another copy just to play it.

I know it sounds bad but I don't see any wrong in wanting to make sure it's worth the money before you buy it even if it means pirating it first to play it for a couple hours.

I also find it stupid that a tv show can be viewed for free by anyone who has cable but if you use a device to record it for others to download it's considered piracy.

i did it a few times in the past like i got half life 1 about 8 years ago in order to play a certain mod, Nowadays I wouldn't even think about pirating a game I buy all my games except for some emulator ps2 games i play from time to time.

I want to support devs that work hard to make great content and these days with places like steam being cheap and convinient pirating is too much of a hassle

I only buy games that have some huge advantage over their pirated copies. Multiplayer, for example. Like Guild Wars 2 or Killing Floor or Team Fortress 2 back then when it wasn't free. If the game is singleplayer only (or if the multiplayer part sucks and I don't give a damn about it) then I'll pirate it without any glimpse of doubt. Unless it's some really good game with a huge sale discount on steam (like Defense Grid: The Awakening or The Binding of Isaac), but that's a very rare occasion.

We're all pirates!!!

You know what would help anti-piracy... No more stupid over-the-top DRM (Ubisoft), game demos for ALL platforms (Fucking everyone at this point), and not charging 60 dollars + another 40+ later on for DLC (Activision, seriously... fuck off. You too bioware.)

I used to pirate most of my games (except those few I truly believed deserved to be owned). Actually, a lot of the games I've bought were because I originally pirated a previous game from the same publisher. As I've grown older and had a stable income, I've started to buy more an more of my games. The time and problems caused by the searching of crack and patches wasn't worth it for me any more. Now I buy all my games and even buy bought back a few on Steam sales that I had pirated in the past just for the principle.

I personally first download a game that i will maybe like. So, if is game good, i buy it on Steam or some other service. Same thing with TV shows, movies, music etc. Its the end of August, and this month i bought 1 TV show season, 4 games, 1 movie, but i really like that stuff, and of course, i will play it again.

Its okay, because i live in country with high living standard, probably highest in the EU. But, my parents are from ex Yugoslavia, so i was there. Its pretty messy country, big troubles, no money, etc.. What do you think, can average Serb bought a game, for example CoD who is priced 50 euros? Can he buy it, in a country with average salary like 200 euros? Does anyone know what i talk about?

So, piracy have a good and bad side. For example, situation with movies. If is movie really good, i cant wait for it, i go to cinema (5 movies this year, all of them really good!), if i am skeptic about movie, i wait for HD release on the torrents, and i download it. Good? Im pleased and i will buy a bluray, original of course. I dont want to waste my money on a lot of s=it, and you will agreee with me, a lot of s=it in games, music, etc nowdays?