Software Piracy

[GinandTonic]

given the ease of piracy buying a product is a moral choice. Esp with regard to music charging often twice the us price in "rip off britan" for no reason does little to encourage a positive attitue.

As regards civ, you know sid deserves your cash...

 

[onedreamer]

I'm not sure that's true everywhere. Local laws and all that.

if you're not sure I wonder what are you talking about ?

 

[Vaiks]

I agree with Zedong because I face the same problem. I live in Brazil and Civ4 was not released here.

I cannot import the game because most of the on-line stores don't acceppt creditcards with billing addresses outside north-america. Direc2drive says that Civ4 is only available to purchase on US, Canada, Mexico and UK.

So, being a huge Civ fan, how am I suposed to get it? Unfortunatly, some of us are considered second class costumers...

 

[Robovski]

Staggered releases frustrate customers and encourage piracy.


As for getting the game legit when people won't sell to you, have you considered a private route, say eBay? Find a seller willing to ship worldwide and takes PayPal or cards. That or look around - not all retailers have thier heads up thier behinds - but watch out for the Customs Agents - they like to tax you.

 

[Rince]

As for getting the game legit when people won't sell to you, have you considered a private route, say eBay?

Or instead of eBay, ask someone on this forum to buy it in his/her country and send it to you. Shouldn't be hard to find somebody you can trust a few dollars.

Rince

 

[auldian]

But even so, what sort of person knowingly breaks the law just to play a game?

Games are luxury items. They're not food, or fuel or a place to live. You don't need them in your life. Just because something nice that you'd like isn't available is no excuse to steal it. Pathetic.

Rant over. Take it or leave it.

OT
I was considering earlier after reading a SafeDisk thread; 95% of the young people I've worked with in the past 5 years don't buy games unless they want the manual or "can't" play due to effective copy-protection. They were never taught that stealing this form of property was wrong. I think my own taping of albums and sharing them with my friends back in the 1970s and '80s was the same attitude.
Every copy of a "DVD backup" utility I sold at a retail store was to people copying movies they'd rented. I sincerely don't know of one, single copy that was bought for "legal backup" of an owned DVD. These were almost always bought by adults. Their kids will see a wonderful library of illegally copied movies.

 

[Vaiks]

Yes, asking some one to purchase it and send it to me should work, but how would I pay him? He will not be able to charge my credit card, most stores won't accepp my creditcard and ship it to another person (they don't even ship it to me!) and, if cougth on customs, over here I will pay 60% of import taxes!

I don't know if I can just put $50 dollars on an envelop and mail it... risky.

Jees...

 

[Padma]

Theoretical discussions of piracy I'll tolerate.

Talking about how to pirate the game, or advocating it, or telling people how to do it, will get you a warning, possibly a ban, and a thread closure.

What Turner said.

 

[warpus]

Yes, asking some one to purchase it and send it to me should work, but how would I pay him? He will not be able to charge my credit card, most stores won't accepp my creditcard and ship it to another person (they don't even ship it to me!) and, if cougth on customs, over here I will pay 60% of import taxes!

I don't know if I can just put $50 dollars on an envelop and mail it... risky.

Jees...

Send him an international money order. Go to your bank and they'll be able to help you with that.

 

[SPQR300]

Or just download it in 25-30minutes and play... ^^

 

[Abaddon]

Erm... couldnt you just buy off eBay?

 

[Velvet-Glove]

Yes, asking some one to purchase it and send it to me should work, but how would I pay him? He will not be able to charge my credit card, most stores won't accepp my creditcard and ship it to another person (they don't even ship it to me!) and, if cougth on customs, over here I will pay 60% of import taxes!

I don't know if I can just put $50 dollars on an envelop and mail it... risky.

Jees...

Do you have a PayPal account? If you can find a friend to buy the game for you then you may be able to send him money via PayPal who will, in turn, charge your credit card (though I'll admit that PayPal can be a bit picky about which countries they will accept money from sometimes).

Alternatively, arrange for a direct bank transfer - funds from your account into friend's bank account. Can take a few days to show up but it's fairly safe.

Get the friend to state it's a "gift" on the customs label. At this time of year it could very well be an Xmas present and the allowed value is usually higher than for a 'commercial' package (at least that is the case here in the UK - roughly £36 for a private gift or £18 for commercial goods before tax is officially due).

I think it's outrageous that genuine buyers can be left out in the cold like this purely because they don't happen to live in one of the 'acceptable' countries. Who on earth decides these things, it's stupid to alienate potential customers like this!

 

[Silica_Pathways]

Look on the bright side - at least good ol' pirate fellows earn their money and can feed their family

 

[bmaxa]

I'm not usually a ranter and raver in forums but I have encountered an issue that has made me go through the painstaking process of registering on this forum just to vent.
I have been a Civ fanatic since 1993 when I used to stay up for days playing civ with friends in our dorm rooms. Now that Civ 4 has come out I have been as addicted as ever to the great graphics and the still great game play. My bubble has been burst however when I first tried to purchase Civ from Direct2Drive.com only to discover that I cannot purchase the game because I live in Barbados and some genius decided that we don't seem to count as real people. I may sound a bit melodramatic but I do find it amazing that after a game has ben released for a year, it is teh appropriate to sell it to us "peasants" in third world countries.
This attitude leads me to my other great peeve, software piracy. I have friends who are developers and I hope to be one myself one day. As such, software piracy really ticks me off becaues it is often not the big Firaxis type company that suffers but the small developers. Having said all of this, why are people surprised when people in developing countries like Barbados pirate software, music and videos? We can't buy from Direct2Drive, iTunes or a myriad of other sites and companies like Amazon.com happily sell us Music, DVDs and Books but say no no no to PC Games and electronics. This really makes me laugh as our money is only good enough for what they want to sell us as opposed to what we want to buy.
At the end of the day, all I can say is that I'll keep "stealing" software, music, videos and audiobooks until someone finds a away to allow me to legally purchase it.

That's my rant, take it or leave it.

Heh, same problem here, but since few years ago my country (Serbia) started to
import titles and prosecute pirates.
So I have now about dozen or so games that I'v always wanted
to have legally. Lucky me civ 4 is in shops here so I'll get it as soon as I can.
It's really incredible when one can legally buy the game here!

Greetings, Bane.

 

[widdowmaker]

But even so, what sort of person knowingly breaks the law just to play a game?

Games are luxury items. They're not food, or fuel or a place to live. You don't need them in your life. Just because something nice that you'd like isn't available is no excuse to steal it. Pathetic.

Rant over. Take it or leave it.

but it is avalible, only illegaly. should he pass up a game that he would buy if the corporation saw fit to sell there?


what if firaxis decides they will never sell there? what if mc donalds decides he is too backwater to warrent a resturant, should he pass up a stolen big mac he would willingly buy if the corporation would sell it to him?


your belif in this is as asanine as it is stupid.

 

[bmaxa]

but it is avalible, only illegaly. should he pass up a game that he would buy if the corporation saw fit to sell there?


what if firaxis decides they will never sell there? what if mc donalds decides he is too backwater to warrent a resturant, should he pass up a stolen big mac he would willingly buy if the corporation would sell it to him?


your belif in this is as asanine as it is stupid.

What is even more interesting in my country just two (or was three) years ago
one could go to same shop as I'm going now and *legally* buy pirated copy.
I'm talking about legal shop, not just a bunch of street pirates.
Also in serbia greatest reselers of video games and movies
was ex pirates, they like it or not that is true.

Greetings, Bane.

 

[Reinhard]

But even so, what sort of person knowingly breaks the law just to play a game?

Games are luxury items. They're not food, or fuel or a place to live. You don't need them in your life. Just because something nice that you'd like isn't available is no excuse to steal it. Pathetic.

Rant over. Take it or leave it.

In most Western democracies it's not illegal to download copyrighted software from the Internet. Uploading typically tends to be illegal though. So, usually it's just a question of morals instead of it being legal.

 

[warpstorm]

In most Western democracies it's not illegal to download copyrighted software from the Internet.

Which Western Democracies?

 

[SPQR300]

In most of the EU countries it's legal to download music or films for personal and family use, while you are noot making profit with it, and you don't upload it. It's considered exactly like recording from the radio or the TV. But downloading software is illegal everywhere I guess.

 

[bky1701]

Which Western Democracies?

Canada, Mexico (well, not sure if that fit’s the criteria), I think France, not sure about England and Norway.

I also believe it is legal (or at lest not enforced) in China, Vietnam and North Korea (there are other laws there restricting media that some people miss-interrupt as anti-piracy).