Pirating = Stealing

[Rekarp]

Pirating is not quite the same as stealing, but that does not mean I endorse it. the analogy of someone stealing your car is inaccurate because pirating software does not remove the original from the owner. If someone steals my car, I am without a car. If someone steals my software... well that just means they won't be buying my software. still sucks, but not the same as stealing hard object.

Yes it is

quoted from Merriam-Webster

stealing
One entry found.


Main Entry:
1steal Listen to the pronunciation of 1steal
Pronunciation:
\ˈstēl\
Function:
verb
Inflected Form(s):
stole Listen to the pronunciation of stole \ˈstōl\ ; sto·len Listen to the pronunciation of stolen \ˈstō-lən\ ; steal·ing
Etymology:
Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan; akin to Old High German stelan to steal
Date:
before 12th century

intransitive verb

1: to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice

2: to come or go secretly, unobtrusively, gradually, or unexpectedly

3: to steal or attempt to steal a base

transitive verb

1 a: to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully <stole> b: to take away by force or unjust means <they've stolen our liberty> c: to take surreptitiously or without permission <steal> d: to appropriate to oneself or beyond one's proper share : make oneself the focus of <steal>

2 a: to move, convey, or introduce secretly : smuggle b: to accomplish in a concealed or unobserved manner <steal>

3 a: to seize, gain, or win by trickery, skill, or daring <a> <stole> bof a base runner : to reach (a base) safely solely by running and usually catching the opposing team off guard

Number 1

To take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice.

By DEFINITION pirating = stealing

Are you talking about Pirating in general? Or pirating games that are currently on the market. Cause there is a big difference between what everyone calls pirating.

Anything that is currently being sold. That eliminates abandon ware and old software. This does not exclude things like Office 2003.

To the pirates out there, think about what your doing. You are taking money away from starving developers and programmers and KILLING THE PC GAMING MARKET.

[ShockSlayer]

Yar har fiddle dee dee... Wait....Piracy? Oh.

See my sig.

I dont pirate anything...maybe.

SS

[Arrow-->]

Rekarp--
quoting from Merriam-Webster-- nice

[bioniclebert]

I wouldn't be suprised if there are any more steam imitators with other game software like gametap. It's practically impossible to steal a steam game from the internets, since it's really based on your account. So you'd really have to be stealing an account to do that. I also wouldn't be suprised if steam itself becomes more popular as well.

As bic stated, there are no discs to scratch, games are cheap and often on sale (EXCEPT CALL OF DUTY 4 WHICH IS STILL $50, BIOSHOCK IS $20. Both released in late 2007 by the way.) That's not really Valve's fault though. COD5 should lower that price a bit I do think.

I don't see the problem with doing some work to earn things in this world.

But what's your opinion on games you own? Like say, I own Bad dudes for NES and I want to play it on my PC. Honestly I don't think you should have to buy a game twice to be able to play it however you'd like. Though it's a tough call for me really. I mean, my friends all play the orange box on xbox 360, but I'd rather play it on PC anyday. That's why I bought it for PC, and also for xbox. But I really don't like having to do that, especially if I'm paying for a $50-60 game twice. I mean, sure I can understand you can't complain that a game's expensive, but can't I at least groan a little that I'm probably going to have to buy it over again if it's not on steam? Or if it's on XBOX and PC?

Maybe within the next 20 years we should come to expect a console which can break down these barriers. Like a console that's just got steam on it.
-Bert.

[HBN]

I read once that the act of downloading data is not illegal. The part that is, is uploading it online so other people can get it for free.

Maybe that law has been changed, but I don't think it has. THAT'S why there are things like DRM's. Because authorities cant do anything about it.

Don't yell at me if I'm wrong. I'm just passing something on "As I understand it."

[nitro2k01]

Pirating is not quite the same as stealing, but that does not mean I endorse it. the analogy of someone stealing your car is inaccurate because pirating software does not remove the original from the owner. If someone steals my car, I am without a car. If someone steals my software... well that just means they won't be buying my software. still sucks, but not the same as stealing hard object.

Yes it is

quoted from Merriam-Webster

stealing
One entry found.


Main Entry:
1steal Listen to the pronunciation of 1steal
Pronunciation:
\ˈstēl\
Function:
verb
Inflected Form(s):
stole Listen to the pronunciation of stole \ˈstōl\ ; sto·len Listen to the pronunciation of stolen \ˈstō-lən\ ; steal·ing
Etymology:
Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan; akin to Old High German stelan to steal
Date:
before 12th century

intransitive verb

1: to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice

2: to come or go secretly, unobtrusively, gradually, or unexpectedly

3: to steal or attempt to steal a base

transitive verb

1 a: to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully <stole> b: to take away by force or unjust means <they've stolen our liberty> c: to take surreptitiously or without permission <steal> d: to appropriate to oneself or beyond one's proper share : make oneself the focus of <steal>

2 a: to move, convey, or introduce secretly : smuggle b: to accomplish in a concealed or unobserved manner <steal>

3 a: to seize, gain, or win by trickery, skill, or daring <a> <stole> bof a base runner : to reach (a base) safely solely by running and usually catching the opposing team off guard

Number 1

To take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice.

By DEFINITION pirating = stealing

Not quite. You misapplied the definition. If you look closely you'll see that the caption says "intransitive verb". What's an intransitive verb? It's when a verb has only a subject and no object. As can be seen the word steal can be used both as a transitive and an intransitive verb. I don't think I've used definition intransitive (1) just as I have not used definitions intransitive (2) and (3), so I assume that definition intransitive (1) is less common than the intuitive definition in transitive (1)
And even if we were to forcefully use the first definition, you could still argue that "take the property of another" only applies when the proprerty in question is being reappropriated from one person to another.

[Rekarp]

Not quite. You misapplied the definition. If you look closely you'll see that the caption says "intransitive verb". What's an intransitive verb? It's when a verb has only a subject and no object. As can be seen the word steal can be used both as a transitive and an intransitive verb. I don't think I've used definition intransitive (1) just as I have not used definitions intransitive (2) and (3), so I assume that definition intransitive (1) is less common than the intuitive definition in transitive (1)
And even if we were to forcefully use the first definition, you could still argue that "take the property of another" only applies when the proprerty in question is being reappropriated from one person to another.

Fine then Definition.com

steal
   /stil/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [steel] Show IPA Pronunciation ,
verb, stole, sto⋅len, steal⋅ing, noun
–verb (used with object)
1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.
2. to appropriate (ideas, credit, words, etc.) without right or acknowledgment.
3. to take, get, or win insidiously, surreptitiously, subtly, or by chance: He stole my girlfriend.
4. to move, bring, convey, or put secretly or quietly; smuggle (usually fol. by away, from, in, into, etc.): They stole the bicycle into the bedroom to surprise the child.
5. Baseball. (of a base runner) to gain (a base) without the help of a walk or batted ball, as by running to it during the delivery of a pitch.
6. Games. to gain (a point, advantage, etc.) by strategy, chance, or luck.
7. to gain or seize more than one's share of attention in, as by giving a superior performance: The comedian stole the show.
–verb (used without object)
8. to commit or practice theft.
9. to move, go, or come secretly, quietly, or unobserved: She stole out of the house at midnight.
10. to pass, happen, etc., imperceptibly, gently, or gradually: The years steal by.
11. Baseball. (of a base runner) to advance a base without the help of a walk or batted ball.
–noun
12. Informal. an act of stealing; theft.
13. Informal. the thing stolen; booty.
14. Informal. something acquired at a cost far below its real value; bargain: This dress is a steal at $40.
15. Baseball. the act of advancing a base by stealing.
—Idiom
16. steal someone's thunder, to appropriate or use another's idea, plan, words, etc.

Software belongs to someone (The programmer/developer) You are taking it without his/her/their permission.

LOOK pirating the software/game is exactly the same as shop lifting from best buy.

[Rekarp]

I read once that the act of downloading data is not illegal. The part that is, is uploading it online so other people can get it for free.

Maybe that law has been changed, but I don't think it has. THAT'S why there are things like DRM's. Because authorities cant do anything about it.

Don't yell at me if I'm wrong. I'm just passing something on "As I understand it."

Wrong. That is like saying you left your keys on the front porch and someone came by and stole your car.

[nitro2k01]

...
Software belongs to someone (The programmer/developer) You are taking it without his/her/their permission.

LOOK pirating the software/game is exactly the same as shop lifting from best buy.

Nope, same problem here.
Take: Person A possesses X. Person B takes X from Person A. Person A no longer possesses X, but B does.
Copy: Person A possesses X. Person B copy X from Person A. Person A possesses X, as well as person B.

From this, I'm not arguing piracy is ok, but that the analogy piracy = stealing is wrong. If you're supposed to have an analogy between financial economy and the economy of information, the nearest you can come is inflation.
Stealing: Someone breaks into your house and steals your hard earned dollars.
Piracy: Someone is starting to print and circulate his own dollars, causing economic inflation and thus crashing the economy.

That is a correct analogy. Piracy = Inflation.

[Gamelver]

so piracy is like counterfeiting, and still illegal and wrong.

[Rekarp]

You are taking money away from someone or some company thus stealing.

[blackbox_dev]

I don't pirate games. Only music. But I always do it to preview an album, and I buy it if I like it. If I don't like it, then I delete it because it's not worth the space on my hard drive.

[HBN]

I read once that the act of downloading data is not illegal. The part that is, is uploading it online so other people can get it for free.

Maybe that law has been changed, but I don't think it has. THAT'S why there are things like DRM's. Because authorities cant do anything about it.

Don't yell at me if I'm wrong. I'm just passing something on "As I understand it."

Wrong. That is like saying you left your keys on the front porch and someone came by and stole your car.

That's true enough, I guess.

Well, I used to pirate. A lot. But every song I got, I replaced by buying the CD. Seriously, I only did it to sample the music. I only have one entire CD I haven't bought yet, but that's cuz its a legit download and in this case; it wasn't stealing.

[nitro2k01]

You are taking money away from someone or some company thus stealing.

Fine, keep repeating the same mantra. You're free to call things what you like, but remember that calling a thing something that it isn't, is intellectually dishonest.
You can say that piracy is as bad as stealing and you may even be right. In the analogy with the economy, it doesn't make a difference whether someone stole all your saving or if the politicians and banks caused inflation thus making your money worth close to nothing. The result is still that you can't buy food, clothes, gas or whatever you might need.
But that still doesn't make them the same thing. And more importantly, the problems they pose shouldn't be acted upon in the same way. Stealing can simply be seen as an immoral act, whereas inflation (And in the analogy, piracy) is a symptom of a failure of the existing system.

When I compared piracy to inflation, I wasn't kidding. Media companies are essentially not selling physical objects, but information. (And to some degree, emotional value)
But with the abundant amount of storage and bandwidth at people's disposal it is only natural that the value of information will decay. The increased information capacity allows anyone to store more music than they will essentially ever listen to. As consumption of information (Be it music, movies or games) becomes more casual, it becomes less precious.

This leads me to think the following about piracy:
It's not unjustifiable - Ie, there are situations where it is justifiable.
It's inevitable

You say that piracy is unjustifiable. I say that it is unjustifiable to sell an overpriced product, and when people refuse to accept the excessive price tag, legislate them into doing it. The conservatism involved when trying to artificially keep the price of a product way above what the consumers are willing to pay, makes me nauseous.
It's a whole new market, and media producers should readapt or die!

[Rekarp]

You say that piracy is unjustifiable. I say that it is unjustifiable to sell an overpriced product, and when people refuse to accept the excessive price tag, legislate them into doing it. The conservatism involved when trying to artificially keep the price of a product way above what the consumers are willing to pay, makes me nauseous.
It's a whole new market, and media producers should readapt or die!

Ah? So a Ferrari is a very expensive car but I don't think its worth the price tag so I should just go out and steal one? Your logic is flawed. You are STEALING property by pirating games, music, movies. Pirating is exactly like walking into Best Buy and pocketing a game.


There are lots of people that think $60 a game (or $50) is a fair price. If the game tickles my fancy I will pay the price for the game. If the game is not worth the $60 then I will not play the game or wait till I can buy it used.

You are just making excuses and blaming the gaming industry for your actions.

edit// should proof read better after having b33r. >_>