Bibor
Doomsday Machine
Let me offer an unique perspective on pirated games.
When I was young I lived in Yugoslavia. It was impossible to buy any sort of legal software at that time (except those made in our country) and Amiga and Atari appeared just before the war, so the only way you could have a computer was if it was imported (actually smuggled) from Italy, Austria or Germany.
Piracy had a status of (almost) legitimate business because there were no laws about it. We even had pirates paid ads on covers of computer magazines. All reviews were based on pirated software, obviously. Before you ask+, these magazines were pretty professional and hardcore. Tips for programming in Assembler, schematics, microprocessor programming guides etc. I'd say that from 1990s here in Croatia were went back to stone age, at least as far as computer sciences are concerned.
I attached a page from "do it yourself" section from one of these magazines I found on the web. Pretty cool stuff.
Anyways, back to topic. We had access to literally thousands of games and software at that time, at pretty cheap prices. Lists of pirated games and software were huge. After the Croatian war of independence, laws still didn't exist but a new problem arose. Yes, now we had importers of foreign goods selling Amigas, Ataris, PCs but the prices were like double, triple or even quadruple compared to those in Austria. And software was still unavailable, especially games. Once Amiga and Atari were dead, the PC games market started to gain strength (I was working at the first Croatian gaming magazine at that time) and were were still writing reviews based on pirated games. That was 1997. Why?
Because legal computer games were:
a) available 6 months to 2 years after initial release
b) costing as much as 20% of a monthly income (250kn for a crappy game, 350kn for a good famous/good game, 2000kn avg. monthly salary in capital, 1500kn elsewhere)
If we really wanted to have original copies, we had to buy white labels (around 80-100kn) because that was all we could afford. And you know how OLD white label games can be.
In 2010 the situation is much better. Croatian government passed anti-piracy laws a long time ago, there were at least two big police actions that wiped most of the pirate population in Croatia. Average salaries are now much higher. Hardware and software is available normally and I really can' be bothered to use pirated software anymore. It's so much more convenient to have original Windows, to use steam etc.
However, if not for pirates and pirated software, if not for the smugglers and smuggled hardware, 20 million people (including myself) living in Yugoslavia would've been almost completely computer-illiterate until year 2000. And for that, pirates will always have a special place in my heart as people who provided me the means to learn, work and have fun. Basically, I owe them my livelyhood.
***
The other side of the story. My parents are musicians and their livelyhood basically depends on royalties. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work in theory. The funny thing is, royalties were paid out much more often and better in Yugoslavia than they are now in Croatia. So the reason why software piracy existed was really only because there were no such laws for foreign products, compared to Yugoslavian composers, performers, writers, even software programmers. Software programming was acutally a pretty well paid job in Yugoslavia.
So I understand what rolayties (or legal software) means to people who try to make a living out of it. I understand it very well. However, if the alternative is that you have no access to any of it at all, I'll always prefer pirated software.
When I was young I lived in Yugoslavia. It was impossible to buy any sort of legal software at that time (except those made in our country) and Amiga and Atari appeared just before the war, so the only way you could have a computer was if it was imported (actually smuggled) from Italy, Austria or Germany.
Piracy had a status of (almost) legitimate business because there were no laws about it. We even had pirates paid ads on covers of computer magazines. All reviews were based on pirated software, obviously. Before you ask+, these magazines were pretty professional and hardcore. Tips for programming in Assembler, schematics, microprocessor programming guides etc. I'd say that from 1990s here in Croatia were went back to stone age, at least as far as computer sciences are concerned.
I attached a page from "do it yourself" section from one of these magazines I found on the web. Pretty cool stuff.
Anyways, back to topic. We had access to literally thousands of games and software at that time, at pretty cheap prices. Lists of pirated games and software were huge. After the Croatian war of independence, laws still didn't exist but a new problem arose. Yes, now we had importers of foreign goods selling Amigas, Ataris, PCs but the prices were like double, triple or even quadruple compared to those in Austria. And software was still unavailable, especially games. Once Amiga and Atari were dead, the PC games market started to gain strength (I was working at the first Croatian gaming magazine at that time) and were were still writing reviews based on pirated games. That was 1997. Why?
Because legal computer games were:
a) available 6 months to 2 years after initial release
b) costing as much as 20% of a monthly income (250kn for a crappy game, 350kn for a good famous/good game, 2000kn avg. monthly salary in capital, 1500kn elsewhere)
If we really wanted to have original copies, we had to buy white labels (around 80-100kn) because that was all we could afford. And you know how OLD white label games can be.
In 2010 the situation is much better. Croatian government passed anti-piracy laws a long time ago, there were at least two big police actions that wiped most of the pirate population in Croatia. Average salaries are now much higher. Hardware and software is available normally and I really can' be bothered to use pirated software anymore. It's so much more convenient to have original Windows, to use steam etc.
However, if not for pirates and pirated software, if not for the smugglers and smuggled hardware, 20 million people (including myself) living in Yugoslavia would've been almost completely computer-illiterate until year 2000. And for that, pirates will always have a special place in my heart as people who provided me the means to learn, work and have fun. Basically, I owe them my livelyhood.
***
The other side of the story. My parents are musicians and their livelyhood basically depends on royalties. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work in theory. The funny thing is, royalties were paid out much more often and better in Yugoslavia than they are now in Croatia. So the reason why software piracy existed was really only because there were no such laws for foreign products, compared to Yugoslavian composers, performers, writers, even software programmers. Software programming was acutally a pretty well paid job in Yugoslavia.
So I understand what rolayties (or legal software) means to people who try to make a living out of it. I understand it very well. However, if the alternative is that you have no access to any of it at all, I'll always prefer pirated software.