Metaltastic
Member
- Feb 20, 2005
- 19,930
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What arguments (legal, moral, or otherwise) can you actually bring forward on this?
You'd be surprised how many pirates there are on this forum.
It's funny that you've come here seemingly proclaiming you know how this forum works, because there's a fuck load of us that either have pirated software in the past or still use pirated software.
And I mean a lot of us. I'm just one of the few that has the balls to admit it.
Yeah, pirates get shoo-ed away, and they don't come back, but it seems to be the ones that are total fucking asswipes about it that never come back, such as that guy who posted that topic about the guy who got "given" the waves bundle by his friend.
Started calling regs assholes before it even reached the second page, I'm sure you saw.
I'm not gonna name names or anything but there are regulars here that use cracked software either on a glorified try before you buy basis or as a "yeah i downloaded this and i use it all the time and im probably not gonna buy it" sorta way.
I just find it deeply fucking ironic that a guy with 42 posts proclaims to know how this forum works.
I'm no grizzled veteran here by any man's standards. Not when there's people like Ermin, Marcus, James, etc around, but I feel like I've been here long enough to get a good idea of the flow of this place.
You gonna shoo off some of the regs aswell because they don't meet your standards of morality? Open your fucking eyes.
I'm trying to be reasonable, I do see where you're coming from, however much it may seem like I don't, but you're going about this like a conservative christian goes around trying to ban gay marriage.
"ITS WRONG, FULL STOP."
Maybe it's because I'm getting to the point where I can't supply much of an argument back. It's against the law, yes, but I do have a tendancy to see morality a bit differently to other people.
And this may sound really fucking cold of me, in which case, it is, and but people in Melbourne aren't my problem quite frankly.
I have sympathy for them, but at the same time, that's Melbourne, this is me. Trying to guilt trip me that way flat out isn't going to work. Why? Because I'm an asshole.
They may have one set of clothes, but that, in all my coldness, is their fucking problem. Over here, I'm still living very little by this society's standards, which is what matters. I'm not going to live my life according to a Melbourne slum, there's NO fucking comparison.
You pay for food, phone credit, a couple of busses here and there, and you're left with very little money very fucking quickly.
I'm usually putting my spare change towards the upcoming week, as £2-3 towards plugins isn't going to add up any time soon. It's not even worth bothering.
I'm constantly working on getting a job, but I'm having zero fucking luck, so don't even try and pull the "get a fucking job then" card or I swear I will facepalm so hard, YOU will feel it.
Seriously.
It's probably about time I got some sleep.
Fuck.
People, just stop debating, do what you're gonna do, and keep it to yourself
Once more... your personal profits from a piece of equipment are irrelevant. Completely fucking irrelevant. You're taking advantage of others' work without permission. The moral issue isn't whether or not you can take stuff *and make money from it*, it's whether or not you can *take stuff*.
On those who cannot afford expensive plugins... two responses. First, the practical - you have to be fucking godlike for free plugins to be holding you back... so godlike, in fact, that you should have plugin makers begging to be able to give you a check. Utter bullshit. The free stuff is more than a good enough start. Second, the 'quit begging for this to not be a theft issue' response... I've taken the liberty of paraphrasing slightly to show just how absurd this is.
Nice
This argument (or replacing rims with any other physical property) simply does not cut it.
When you purchase a car (yes, I'm using cars, since fancy rims are fucking stupid), you're not just paying for the physical device itself. You're paying for years of R&D, testing, support and service... all things that you get out of software makers as well. Yeah, downloading that CD isn't taking someone's physical CD - but it's taking advantage of someone's hard work (and quite a bit of money) in a way that isn't authorized by the rightful owner of the content. The cost of the physical CD or flash drive itself is insignificant compared to the amount of work that went into making it useful. *That* is what's being stolen - you'll notice that even when software makers leave out physical media entirely they must recoup costs somehow. Software engineering isn't an easy profession - it's competitive as hell, it's hard work, and if you think you have problems dealing with idiotic musicians you haven't been called up in the morning by a total moron who can't use your software because there are too many buttons.
Theft isn't wrong because it's illegal, it's wrong because it's unauthorized use of others' property. Arguments like that may work on pseudointellectual wanker havens like Slashdot, but they simply don't hold up to a moment's inspection. If you disagree, feel free to sit back and watch as I break into your house, relieve myself on your john with your computer, make myself a drink, and sleep under your roof for as long as I take to write my response.
Jeff
"Should people who REALLY can't become an astronaut not be allowed to hijack space shuttles? "
l0lz....
Here's my question, moral compasses.
There was an outstanding bit of software that came out several years ago. A real time vst loader that you use for live sound. Totally unique and as far as I know the only program of it's type. The product did not sell, or was pirated to death, or I don't know what, something killed the company and the product is no longer available and the company no longer exists. As I was not in S.R. when this product was alive I never had the need or desire to buy it. I did , however, find a copy of it on the net somewhere. Years after it's demise.
Can I use it? Should I use it?
What if you CAN'T buy it? Not because you are poor, but because they don't make it anymore?
I didn't bother to quote your whole post Jeff, but don't get me wrong, I agree on a lot of what you're saying.
When it comes to software and plugins, we really are lucky today with the open-source community becoming larger and larger, and even if not open-source, there still are lots of freeware developers. This wasn't so common back in the early days of computer recordings, so yea, there certainly are a lot of options for someone poor but eager to learn.
And I think you've made your point come across now, that you think it's wrong to simply "take" stuff, regardless if you're making money from it or not. I agree, but I also would like to say that you are splitting it up in black and white, while I see it in several zones. I do believe it's better to not make money from shit you didn't buy, and I know it's still wrong, but it's still better than making money. Killing one person is better than killing two... even if it's a grim analogy but, still. Pure black and white doesn't work, unless you're in a digital world or something.
A friend's grandfather who is now like 80 or something, started his whole violinist career by stealing a violin when he was like 9. He didn't know how to play it before he stole it and he didn't even know it was going to become his life, but it did. Since then, he has done everything every musician dreams of ever doing... touring, playing, recording, etc. I just find stories like these really awesome, even if it's totally wrong. It's so wrong but in the end, I don't know.
Last time I stole something was probably when I was 13-14... it was a little candybar type of thing. And last time I illegally downloaded a software was... not sure, can't really remember, it's been a few months. These days, I have no interest in "expensive illegal" software, because they are worth nothing once you try them and get to know how they work. I don't know about the rest of you here, but I do feel a little bit of guilt if I use a cracked software for a production, even if it's for something that nobody will ever hear.
I have however tried most of the expensive stuff in audio plugins and I don't regret I ever did. It just made me realize I don't need them, I still have a long way to go by just using basic stock or freeware plugins.
But potential clients haven't spent any money. And there's no indication that the wider pool of potential clients are producing more paying customers than are lost through piracy. Since sales of pretty much everything copyable are dropping (cds and computer games especially) you'd have to find a pretty big extra factor to account for the decline if you want to claim that the piracy has a net positive effect.I don't understand where this general
nobody has raised the point that piracy is actually somewhat beneficial. Not only is it free marketing, it also land sales that developers would have never previously had before. All because jimmy in his bedroom studio who had never heard of vst'r'us or considered buying their software pirated their plugins for a year and eventually bought them all when he had the money. Piracy introduces new potential clients into the market.