- 12. I never outgrew toys. I know alot of adults prefer to refer to them as 'action figures', but screw that. They're Toys, they always will be. If you attempt to call my Optimus Primal an 'action figure' I will... Well to be honest I'll probably just attempt to engage you in debate over how it's a children's toy that I, in a fit of immaturity, bought.
So. Pirates, eh?
Not the "Aye, avast" pretty boys with funny walks and gold teeth, or even the scurvy ridden bilge rats, but the dude with a good internet connection and a torrent program on his computer.
That's right ladies and gentlemen. In order to get pirate copies of things (not that I know from first hand experience or anything) all you need is a single, easy to obtain, legal program, and an internet connection with decent download limits.
Let's just say there's a hypothetical world in which I download movies and computer games. In this hypothetical world I am but one of many people who do such, and as so I can only speak for myself rather then the larger world of pirates (in this non-real world for arguements sake).
Let's hear what pretend Steve says as justification for this horrendous crime of 'theft'.
"Morally speaking, the primary reason in which theft is consider a bad act is not because you now have something which doesn't belong to you, but that you're DENYING other people that same object. If you steal food from someone, you're denying that person access to the food which they, presumably, have earned legitimately.
Does piracy fall under this flag? For a large number of people it may. They will download movies and games instead of paying for them. This is an act of stealing, since it denies the creators and the companies that support them the profits.
However I am quite willing to argue that in my case it doesn't. I follow a rather odd set of rules regarding downloading of games and movies. If I am downloading a movie, it is because it is NOT a movie I would have seen in theatres anyway (hence denying no one a profit) but I am vaguely interested in seeing if it's worth a DVD purchase later. If anything, downloading a good movie means they are MORE likely to earn money, since I'll later on purchase it.
Something similar applies to games. Since companies seem to be trying to phase game demos out of use (there seem to be fewer and fewer companies putting out demos for their games nowdays) I'm left with a dilemma. Potentially waste nearly $100 on a game I won't enjoy, or go without and use the $100 on something I KNOW I'll enjoy (such as alcohol). In a vast majority of cases, the latter option will win out. If there had been a game demo, I would be able to make an informed decision and am more likely to buy (and support) the game if it's genuinely good. This happened with Mass Effect. There was no demo, so I downloaded it, played it, loved it, bought it. In this case, pirating made the company MORE money.
If I download a game or movie and it is good quality, I will then purchase it. I fully intend to buy the Iron Man DVD when it comes out, even though I've downloaded the movie. I'll only download something if I wouldn't have bought it in the first place, and want to see if it's worth buying."
Wow. Fake-Steve really had to think about that. I'm glad I (as a non-pirate) didn't have to put thought into it. After all, I've never downloaded anything illegally.
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