when is piracy acceptable?

Did you ever have the volume up when copying the games on tape? Awful noise :(

Bet you made mix tapes from the radio too, and pressed stop before the talking came on!

Was heartbreaking when you didn't press stop in time :(

This is a tricky one. But, i'd be inclined to say that all is fair game :D..... unless anyone is pirating any of my stuff.. Then it becomes a problem, a big problem!!

Yep, I was one of those Spectrum owners with a shelf full of Maxwell C90's, chock full of copied games. Back then the subject of piracy didnt really raise its head, it was just something everyone done. I'm a subscriber to Retro Gamer and reading interviews with developers at the time, most were aware of the problem but not many were concerned enough to do anything about. The 3 attempts to solve it I remember was (1) asking the person to type in a word from a line in the manual (2) A colour coded card that came with Jet Set Willy (3) and a stupid lens you had to hold over the screen to understand the code to type in.

Which thinking back was a shame, if more games companies had protected themselves from pirates perhaps the UK would have a better games industry.

There was some arguments going around a few years back that piracy was helping the gaming industry. It allowed people who couldnt afford their games to get hold of and try a companies offereings, converting them in to future customers.

As I get older I know I can pirate games, download DVDs and MP3's etc and I know most of the methods to do it without getting moody letters from ISP. But to be honest I can't be bothered. I would rather just go out and buy it or download it legit.

At the moment there is no reason to pirate a game. Buy it brand new, finish it and stick it on e-bay - if you are lucky you are less than a tenner out of pocket, which is not bad for an AAA game.

However as we move more and more towards a download only gaming world where we wont be able to sell our games on, I think piracy will grow again

when you are Johnny Depp

Simple

When I was growing up Dad would go to the Record Library which was at the Central Library in Oxford. When a new release came out, he would get it from there and tape it.

Then you would copy music and computer games from your mates on tape-to-tape machines (and they could only have been invented for that purpose).

And then there was da torrentz....

Unless you want to take the RIAA on, the answer is simply "never".

I try and educate people on the hidden cost of "free music". You're not showing the artist you actually like it by helping them accumalate huge amounts of cash (but don't do what Adele did!)

But the main hidden cost is getting your laptop fixed! Dwownloading so much risky music comes loaded with viruses, spyware and nasty things. And it's £40 a pop to repair, so next time you want a copy of an album, buy it - or if you listen to alot of new music, Spotify is great!

the internetz is answering that question.

its acceptable when those that are trying to protect their content do nothing other than write silly unenforcable laws to scare people away.

i understand, in theory that if you are on a tube with you headphones on and its up too loud you can fall foul of the broadcasting law.

so my view is, in the face of such stupidity and charges for new films being like starship enterprise mileage, get your freak on and DL.

red riding hood is a bit rubbish, unknown is good, p4 is out already a7v8. kids films ftw.

The one thing I do download on a regular basis are things like the US version of the Apprentice (far, far better than the UK version) because it is not available in the UK on any channel (Every now and again the BBC will show series 5 in the small hours). If they were available to buy on DVD I would buy them on DVD, but they are not.

Couple of views:

Its fair game if you have spent a decent amount of money in the past on that particular artist, be that by CD, DVD or concert ticket sales.

Conversely, if you download something of an artist that you've never paid anything out for before but you really like what you downloaded, then you should buy the album.

I agree with Carl, if it's not available to buy, then piracy is unfortuantley the only option!

Daniel, why not buy a Spotify subscription? It's £9.99 a month (cheaper than a CD) and lets you listen to any track they have, interuption free and on your mobile device too!

I can see where this view comes from but it is still just as wrong as anyother form of piracy. If someoene buys a decent amount of insurance from you, do you sit back and let them help them selves to free insurance after that.

Good point, well made. I suppose the ultimate answer therefore is, its never acceptable.

I do like what some record companies are doing now though to try to tackle this in a way that moves the industry forward ; the recent Kaiser Chiefs album release is a good example of this and very well thought out I feel.