Freeware or Piracy? Which do you believe it is?

This was a dead thread, but I decided (with some help) to use it to post a new subject anyway.

Remember all those movies and videogames that you used to watch or play?

Well, what is your take on whether the use of movies or ROMs are considered freeware or if it' s piracy.

I believe that it would be piracy if the movies or games in question still have owner' s rights to them.

If they do not, then they would be freeware or public domain...meaning that anyone could use them as they wish.

If the movies or games in question still have owner' s rights, then use of these constitutes piracy.

What' s your take on this subject?

Videogaming is the contemporary interactive pasttime.

but but btu.... Daroosh, i want to reply!

Sorry, i just had to be a dumbass, i will behave myself now

when some one tells me not it makes me want to do it more sorry i' ll try harder to do what am told.

well then just make a new one here!! next post say something that you wuold like to talk about

i don' t agree with piracy (i may do it, but i still acknowledge that it is wrong).

Are you specifically refering to Emulators or what?

Ahem...you can only download old movies and games...Being a pirate myself I' ll go with piracy, because what' s the fun of it being legal.

In response to the following complaint I have decided to change my signature:

" by the way, yoshimitsu you might want to click the little checkbox that makes your signature disappear." -Jonah Shoemaker, Residential Dumbass

My original intention was referring to downloading movies from places like Kazaa or downloading emulators and games from retro-systems like for the Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, Colecovision, Intellivision, etc.

I am not here to judge anyone, just to discuss each poster' s beliefs on the subject matter.

Videogaming is the contemporary interactive pasttime.

I am inclined to agree with Yoshimitsu... old movies and songs, though not legal, is more acceptable (in my opinion only). Especially those hard to find items.

The game emulators, that' s a bit tougher. The concept is great, but so wrong. Definitely piracy. BUt I am not one to judge (my brother has a arcade and nintendo emulator on my computer right now)

Oh, I wasn' t just saying that downloading old games and videos was acceptable. It was more of a, " You can only download old movies and games? Someone should' ve told me this before I download Movie X and Movie Y last weekend" , very sarcastic in nature.

And I think I responded to your question Daroosh by saying that I' m in favor of piracy, which all of the mentioned things is.

In response to the following complaint I have decided to change my signature:

" by the way, yoshimitsu you might want to click the little checkbox that makes your signature disappear." -Jonah Shoemaker, Residential Dumbass

I am inclined to agree with Yoshimitsu... old movies and songs, though not legal, is more acceptable (in my opinion only). Especially those hard to find items.

The game emulators, that' s a bit tougher. The concept is great, but so wrong. Definitely piracy. BUt I am not one to judge (my brother has a arcade and nintendo emulator on my computer right now)

Actually Rikka, I agree with your first paragraph and would also translate it to the game emulator part of your post as well.

While it' s all still piracy in one form or another, I think that the age of said items should be a major factor. I think old songs and old as hell games are more acceptable, at least to me.

I' m a MAJOR fan of arcade emulators like MAME, RAINE, and CALLUS among others and while it' s major piracy I enjoy the hell out of reliving the glories of many of my arcade favorites. Arcades are pretty much on life support in the U.S. and it' ll be a little while before I purchase an arcade cabinet and some games.

I think old things like 8 and 16-bit emulators and ROMs should be more acceptable, not necessarily legal but more acceptable and apparently a major game company like CAPCOM seems to promote piracy in some form, lol.. Believe it or not at the 2002/2003 E3 show Capcom had a specialized arcade cabinet running MAME at their booth, allowing visitors to play some old arcade gems like King of the Dragons and Knights of the Round.

They were promoting the arcade cabinet cause it was specifically designed for arcade emulators and the reps told me it was coming out a few months after the show.

I didn' t get into the downloading movies part because I' ve never downloaded an entire movie, just trailers and short clips. Plus from my experience old movies are A Lot easier to get than old games so I haven' t had a need to download movies yet :). Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video don' t clear out their old movie selections as new movies are released, they do however clear out their old game selections as newer consoles hit the market. If I own a physical copy of a movie and want to download it then I will.


When it comes down to it:

1. I find 8 and 16 bit console ROMS and emulators to be acceptable.
2. I find arcade emulators and older ROMS to be acceptable.
3. Old hard to find songs are also alot more acceptable to me cause I can sympathize with those having trouble tracking down a CD. I spent 3 years looking for one particular CD once and I finally lucked out one day and located it at some online music store.


What I Don' t find acceptable are -
1. Emulators and Roms of Current generation consoles and games as well as those of the previous console generation (PSOne, N64, and Dreamcast)

2. Sites that put up ALL of the tracks from a CD release to download. That is just SOOO wrong, LOL..

3. Full version software downloads. (I did it in the past but it was still wrong, lol)

I once went out with one of the world' s biggest pirates, LOL, and the worst thing about it all was that she tried to justify it. If you' re a pirate like I am, just admit it and don' t try to justify it with some lame excuse like she did.

Back during the Dreamcast era, which was also the PSone era, she' d proudly claim that she had over 90 burned PSOne games. When people brought it up she always used the " I wanna try before I buy" bullcrap excuse.

I' d often chuckle and say to myself- " That' s what Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video are for!" ---- I also found it funny that out of the entire 90 or so burned PSone games she had, as time went by she never owned one legit copy of either game, lol..

I think the worst kind of pirating I' ve ever done in the past was download full copies of 3D Modeling software like Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Lightwave.. Maya at the time cost $15,000 for the unlimited version and $8,000 for the smaller version, Max and Lightwave cost less but were still in the multi thousand dollar range, that' s definitely money I don' t have, lol.

But with me piracy does have an upside, I actually do treat it like a chance to sample certain things. I downloaded a full version of Cakewalk' s music software in the past, really liked it and purchased a legit copy of their most recent music software release. As for the 3D Modeling software, someday I' m planning to purchase a legit copy of Lightwave as it' s the one I liked the best out of the three. If I ever download a movie and like it I will buy the DVD or VHS version. If I download some awesome tracks from a game music CD or get a burned copy and like it, I have and will track down a legit copy and buy it.

Yeah Terry. After I posted I rethought, and I agree with a lot of what you said. I mean not everyone is " priveledged" enough to own a working NES or the like. Like you, I often sample music, if i liek the artist, I go out and buy their stuff.

i' ll take anything. if i see a movie on kazaa that i kind of want to watch, but don' t really feel like buying it, i' ll download it. i mean, it' s not like they' re losing money. i wouldn' t have bought it. if kazaa hadn' t existed i simply wouldn' t have watched it. besides is it piracy to borrow a friend' s movie and watch it but not buy the movie yourself? no. but the same thing is happening. you' re watching a movie you didn' t pay for, one that' s being shared with you.

i' ll take anything. if i see a movie on kazaa that i kind of want to watch, but don' t really feel like buying it, i' ll download it. i mean, it' s not like they' re losing money.

You take millions of people who do that and think that way and companies DO end up losing a Bundle - remember, you' re not the only one who' s stealing from the companies and thinking that they' re not losing money. ;)

i wouldn' t have bought it. if kazaa hadn' t existed i simply wouldn' t have watched it. besides is it piracy to borrow a friend' s movie and watch it but not buy the movie yourself? no. but the same thing is happening. you' re watching a movie you didn' t pay for, one that' s being shared with you.

Not every thing sells, that' s the nature of business. Not every movie released gets watched. But borrowing a movie, renting, buying or pirating all have different effects.

There' s nothing wrong with watching a movie at a friend' s place or borrowing a movie from them but not every one will loan out their stuff out and the amount of loaning out that goes on isn' t anywhere near as hurtful as everyone realizing they no longer have to pay for a movie when all they can do is just download it.

If the entire planet borrowed Joe Redifer' s ONLY copy of the movie Ever After and didn' t buy it sure that would hurt the manufacturers of the movie.

Remember, extremely small doses of something may not be noticeable, but when a significant portion of the population does it then it hurts the businesses. Let' s say there are 2 million owners of Grand Theft Auto 3 for the PS2 but only 90,000 Legitimate copies were sold while the remaining 1,910,000 are pirated copies, there' s a HUGE loss there.

Suppose you open up a business, let' s say a record store, you' ve got a pretty good client base early on but then later on you notice that they' ve stopped coming to your store. You find out that instead of buying the products from your store, they' re either illegally downloading all of the CD tracks for free off the net OR have someone buy the CDs from your store and provide free burned copies to all of the other customers that used to frequent your store, don' t you think your business will suffer dramatically??

It may not be apparent to you now but if you ever own a business you' ll probably have a much better understanding

If one kid shoplifts from your store, it' s not hurting ya much at all, he doesn' t think you' re losing any money from it but then more and more of his friends and other people develop the same mentality and do the same thing, don' t be surprised if you can' t afford to pay the light bill the following month

9 times out of 10 I end up buying the movies I buy anyways. Same thing goes with music, except for the obscure songs and cd' s...then they are download only.

In response to the following complaint I have decided to change my signature:

" by the way, yoshimitsu you might want to click the little checkbox that makes your signature disappear." -Jonah Shoemaker, Residential Dumbass

Im all for piracy.

New and old music,movies,games,anything.

Why pay $500 - $16000 for software when u can get it for free.

XBL Gamertag:RUSSIAN mobster
XBL Games:Splinter Cell:PT,PGR2,Mech Assault, Crimson Skies, MM3, DDR, Rainbow Six 3, Unreal Championship, NFL2k3, Moto GP, Tetris,RalliSport Challenge 2,HALO 2.