Isn't Pirating Just Borrowing?

[lizard81288]

I was thinking why pirating is bad even though everybody does it, then i thought of used games, and then it lead me to this.

Pirating:
Someone buys the game, rips it and uploads it. Then someone else downloads it.

Borrowing:
Someone buys the game, and then gives it to you. (then you say you lost it, and are secretly keeping it)

Either way you are getting the game for free, but someone else has to buy it. If someone lent you their music CD, and you Ripped the CD into windows media player, isn't that the same thing as pirating the CD, since you didn't pay for it?

[Diari Mahmoud]

Stealing and borrowing have different meanings...

[lizard81288]

I know, but the end result is, someone bought the game, and you play it for free.

[Diari Mahmoud]

There is a difference--pirating only needs one person to purchase and upload and the whole world can get it
However, borrowing is only locally, or with your friends. And most of the time they have different tastes than you have.
Ultimately, if your friend says it's lost, you forgive him, or maybe let him recompense. However, the owner will have to buy it again (or pirate it himself (see...). Borrowing is on a small scale and pirating is on a much, much bigger scale.

[Gypsy]

Essentially it's the same thing, but local borrowing is far less damaging than online piracy.

I'm not against it either way.

[Gare]

Not exactly. When someone uploads a game, everyone on the net has access to it. Like it's been said above, the damage done isn't exactly the same in the two cases.

[Sprung]

It's pretty close, but with pirating I get this really cool ship. And wenches.

[Raype]

Pirating is pirating.

No need to justify it with bullshit logic.

Either do it or don't.

No one cares.

/tired of seeing "piracy isn't wrong because X/is more like X than Y" discussions

[Gare]

Pirating is pirating.

No need to justify it with bullshit logic.

Either do it or don't.

No one cares.

/tired of seeing "piracy isn't wrong because X/is more like X than Y" discussions

Remember, it's a gift from a stranger.

[Tassadar]

Pirating is pirating.

No need to justify it with bullshit logic.

Either do it or don't.

No one cares.

/tired of seeing "piracy isn't wrong because X/is more like X than Y" discussions

This, either way you have access to the a product which you obtained without paying for and denied the creators the profits they are entitled to, so it's wrong, then again I pirate in spite of this.

[Kuro Kagami]

I was thinking why pirating is bad even though everybody does it, then i thought of used games, and then it lead me to this.

Pirating:
Someone buys the game, rips it and uploads it. Then someone else downloads it.

Borrowing:
Someone buys the game, and then gives it to you. (then you say you lost it, and are secretly keeping it)

Either way you are getting the game for free, but someone else has to buy it. If someone lent you their music CD, and you Ripped the CD into windows media player, isn't that the same thing as pirating the CD, since you didn't pay for it?

Borrowing =/= stealing

borrowing implies giving it back... otherwise it's just stealing.


Anyway, it's useless comparing borrowing/stealing/pirating to justify it... same goes for people saying it's good or bad.

Either do it or not, arguing about it is quite useless in the end anyways... if you ask me.

[Josh]

As you said, in both cases somebody has to buy the game. However, they are VERY different from each other. In the case of borrowing, only one person is able to play the game at a time. Therefore, you are greatly limited in how many people are able to utilize that one purchase. In terms of piracy, by posting a file on the internet, thousands of people can access that file very quickly and all have it at the same time. Then they can all play that game at the same time. While not all of those people would have bought the game for various reasons, a large percentage of them would have bought the game had there been no option of piracy.

[lizard81288]

As you said, in both cases somebody has to buy the game. However, they are VERY different from each other. In the case of borrowing, only one person is able to play the game at a time. Therefore, you are greatly limited in how many people are able to utilize that one purchase. In terms of piracy, by posting a file on the internet, thousands of people can access that file very quickly and all have it at the same time. Then they can all play that game at the same time.

Yeah, i guess i didn't take into account of how many people could access the game/movie, ect.

[Eulogy]

Borrowing a game is like borrowing a $20 bill. Pirating a game is basically PRINTING fake $20 bills. That's the best analogy I can come up with. Sure, you are not "stealing" someone's $20 bill directly, but you are devaluing everyone's money by printing your own. So while you are not stealing a copy of a game out of a store per se, you are denying the developer compensation for the entertainment you are receiving.

[Andy_Jerk]

The older I get the more everything in life seems to have to do with time. I think there's a huge difference between pirating a relatively new piece of software and downloading something that's ten years old. In the latter case, there will always be collectors who have to have the original article, and I don't know how much it hurts anyone if Joe Somebody gets to check out a rare Super Grafx game on his laptop. It's common sense: you know when you're fucking someone over and if you try to hide behind generalized guidelines to justify it, well, the shit usually hits the fan eventually in one form or another.