Windows 10 now has in place anti-piracy measures which scans your hard drive for pirated content, disables it, and reports your IP to your ISP.
These telemetry updates have been backported to Windows 7 and Windows 8.
You can go to jail for theft and the laws are becoming more strict.
As of today, September 29th, 2015, the fines for being caught first offense for every copyrighted work is now up to $250,000 USD, that is two hundred fifty thousand dollars US for every copyrighted work if caught. That is per MP3 file, every game, including Minecraft.
If you cannot pay these fines in a timely manner, or this be a second offense, you can be jailed for up to a year on class e felony charges per copyrighted work.
A "first offense" counts as having received a DMA notice from your ISP, and they can now slap you with criminal and civil charges if you continue to download illegal content.
Age doesn't matter, you can be as young as 5 or 6 years old and they would charge your caregiver(s). For example your parents can be charged with civil and criminal charges if you download illegally.
So let me ask you this, is it worth going to jail over? Is it worth losing your home, losing your parent's their home? Is it worth the hassle instead of paying $27 for Minecraft?
Legality often doesn't align with morality but, rather, with the economic interests of wealthy individuals and corporations. I paid for 2 copies of Minecraft PS3 (one to play on, and then one when I got really into it to host the 24/7 server). If you can find a way not to pay, I don't see why you should.
No one is taking your home over pirated Minecraft, the absolute (yet realistic) worst case scenario is that your ISP turns off your internet until you agree to delete the file and any torrent programs (if you used a torrent to obtain it). Still, do you know why ISPs will often turn your internet off if you torrent movies, but not generally over music, programs, or even games? Because in most of America, ISPs are also media companies (like Time Warner Cable), and it hurts their profits if you torrent movies instead of paying for movie channels / pay-per-view.
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Legality often doesn't align with morality but, rather, with the economic interests of wealthy individuals and corporations. I paid for 2 copies of Minecraft PS3 (one to play on, and then one when I got really into it to host the 24/7 server). If you can find a way not to pay, I don't see why you should.
No one is taking your home over pirated Minecraft, the absolute (yet realistic) worst case scenario is that your ISP turns off your internet until you agree to delete the file and any torrent programs (if you used a torrent to obtain it). Still, do you know why ISPs will often turn your internet off if you torrent movies, but not generally over music, programs, or even games? Because in most of America, ISPs are also media companies (like Time Warner Cable), and it hurts their profits if you torrent movies instead of paying for movie channels / pay-per-view.
I was not arguing the morality of it, but the laws are getting stricter. Just because it has not happened does not mean it won't happen. You should pay because that is how our economy works. If everyone went around stealing everything they wanted, then we would not have stuff worth having. Alternatively there are free games, free software, and free music available. The quality of this stuff is getting really decent too. If you want a premium service, then you gotta pay the premiums. It is not a difficult idea to grasp. That is the argument of every thief now isn't it?
I was not arguing the morality of it, but the laws are getting stricter. Just because it has not happened does not mean it won't happen. You should pay because that is how our economy works. If everyone went around stealing everything they wanted, then we would not have stuff worth having. Alternatively there are free games, free software, and free music available. The quality of this stuff is getting really decent too. If you want a premium service, then you gotta pay the premiums. It is not a difficult idea to grasp. That is the argument of every thief now isn't it?
Piracy is not theft. Theft removes the original, piracy makes a copy of the original without doing any damage to the un-pirated version. And that is the argument of every pirate. And if you aren't arguing the morality, your fear of the legality should only be in practical terms.
That was a myth and was proven false a long time ago. Windows can't even tell if their own windows version is pirated let alone other programs. Not to mention the heavy risks with this. What if it false flagged an important program and locks the user out of it? What if they needed said program for work? There is no way windows would ever do such a thing.
Piracy is still classed as theft, but it's not the same.
Theft = I take your car.
Piracy = I make an exact copy of your car, but you still have your car.
I don't condone piracy, but I'll admit that I have pirated. I like to test a game before I buy it, to make sure that I can actually run the game. but every game that I have been able to run I have purchased. No doubt about that.
I don't condone piracy, but I'll admit that I have pirated. I like to test a game before I buy it, to make sure that I can actually run the game. but every game that I have been able to run I have purchased. No doubt about that.
Steam refunds is a nice way of getting around that now, not to mention legal.
Steam refunds is a nice way of getting around that now, not to mention legal.
Mmhmm, also YouTube let's plays, Sony has try before you buy on the PS4. I don't know about Microsoft or Nintendo.
This post was never to talk about whether its ok or not, it is illegal and that should be enough for anyone.
Piracy is not theft. Theft removes the original, piracy makes a copy of the original without doing any damage to the un-pirated version. And that [/i]is the argument of every pirate. And if you aren't arguing the morality, your fear of the legality should only be in practical terms.
Under the new law as of yesterday, September 29th, 2015, copyright infringement is theft under US federal copyright law. Sorry the federal law says you are a thief and can be tried as one.
Mmhmm, also YouTube let's plays, Sony has try before you buy on the PS4. I don't know about Microsoft or Nintendo.
This post was never to talk about whether its ok or not, it is illegal and that should be enough for anyone.
Under the new law as of yesterday, September 29th, 2015, copyright infringement is theft under US federal copyright law. Sorry the federal law says you are a thief and can be tried as one.
I would never buy a game based on a youtube letsplay. That does not show that I can run the game, or if I will enjoy it. That's just me watching someone play it.
Remember that not everyone on the internet is from the US, as a british person i cannot be tried for a US Law. The United States does not own the internet.
Steam refunds is a nice way of getting around that now, not to mention legal.
Although not moral for the Indies.
Regardless,
Going with Sparks, I cannot be tried for US Laws since I live in the land of the Republic of Ireland, although I can be for EU law. (Ireland laws are like naww...)
Windows 10 now has in place anti-piracy measures which scans your hard drive for pirated content, disables it, and reports your IP to your ISP.
I'm unable to find anything in Microsoft-provided license information or privacy terms that supports this claim. Nothing in the link you provide as a "source" indicates that Windows 10 has any "anti-piracy" measures for other software, that it scans your HDD for pirated content, that it disables it, or that it reports it to anybody.
These telemetry updates have been backported to Windows 7 and Windows 8.
The idea that they were "backported" is nothing but a pet theory of tech journalists. The Customer Experience Improvement Program has been present for some time and has been updated relatively regularly. KB 2952664 is the one generally listed as the "backport". It adds a scheduled task that will Collect and transmit program telemetry information if opted-in to the MCEIP. If you are not it will still run but will not transmit the results it creates.
As of today, September 29th, 2015, the fines for being caught first offense for every copyrighted work is now up to $250,000 USD, that is two hundred fifty thousand dollars US for every copyrighted work if caught.
Nope. Federal Copyright law outlines various requirements both of the copyright holder and the infringer in order to constitute a valid case.
That is per MP3 file, every game, including Minecraft.
The Federal Copyright Laws are effectively used as guidelines for handling court cases, defining minimum and maximum fines, penalties, etc. The Fines you listed are determined as part of the court case if it ever goes that far. Also, Federal Copyright Law allows only up to an amount per offense of half what you stated and would be dealt with per copyright holder (you cannot be fined for a MP3 from a musician under one record label and a Video game as part of the same court case)
If you cannot pay these fines in a timely manner, or this be a second offense, you can be jailed for up to a year on class e felony charges per copyrighted work.
This is incorrect. Felony Copyright infringement is defined quite clearly in 18 U.S.C. § 2319(b) as consisting of the willful reproduction and/or distribution of at least 10 copies of a copyrighted work that has a total retail value of more than $2,500 USD. it also sets the maximum term at 5 years. A second offense of this same felony will have a maximum term of 10 years. Downloading an MP3 is NOT felony copyright infringement. Felony Copyright infringement would require you to distribute at least 10 complete copies that have a total value of over $2,500.
A "first offense" counts as having received a DMA notice from your ISP, and they can now slap you with criminal and civil charges if you continue to download illegal content.
Nothing in Section 512 of the DMCA, which concerns this notification forwarding, supports the claim that the act of the ISP forwarding the message constitutes an "offense".
Age doesn't matter, you can be as young as 5 or 6 years old and they would charge your caregiver(s). For example your parents can be charged with civil and criminal charges if you download illegally.
There is no criminal liability without an established case, which means that it must be shown that the infringement was willful, infringed on a copyright owned by the party that brought forth the case, and must be demonstrated that the value of the infringed product is over $2,500. Also, parents/caregivers can no more be held criminally responsible for this than they could for a Murder or a Rape committed by their child.
Your source is the RIAA which like many companies (like Nintendo) purposely misrepresent the law. None of what they have said that you have repeated here has any legitimacy according to the actual Laws.
it is illegal and that should be enough for anyone.
A lot of behaviors are illegal which shouldn't be (and I'll leave it at that, because that's a separate and massive discussion on its own). Legality is not a concern for many people.
"Because the government tells me not to" isn't really a valid reason if there's no moral rationale behind it which I agree with.
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So you're benefiting from my work, yet I get nothing in return?
Except "you" didn't make Minecraft. Notch is one of the wealthiest people in the world and I don't think we need to worry about Bill Gates' pockets drying up either now that Microsoft owns MC.
Like I said though, I bought two copies of Minecraft... Because pirating on the ps3 isn't so easy.
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-You own a copy of the game, or you have in the past. You've paid your dues to the developer, and no one is missing out. With the era of digital gaming coming in, we no longer own the physical disk. We own the game, and we own it for the rest of our lives. Therefore, why should we not be able to own that game cross-console? The only time you should have to buy a game twice is if a version contains more features and costs more accordingly. It's a different game, and you should buy it again.
-The game is so old that the developer is not receiving money from it anymore. If the developer is selling it (such as Nintendo selling old NES games on the 3DS) then it should still be illegal.
-You own the game on the console but want to record it on the PC (either because you don't own a capture card or your screen recorder is better).
-The game is not available in your country or is under censorship. In the first case there is literally no way to get your money to the developer anyway. In the second, censorship is not nor will it ever be acceptable, and assuming you bought the censored game you're entitled to download the non-censored one.
-Debatable, but the owner has conducted in bad behavior and you're pirating as a protest. I would not be opposed to pirating Disney movies, with how rude they are to fan artists and how intent they are on silencing creative expression. Strikes used to be illegal in the US, but workers did them to combat the horrible treatment from the company. Same concept, really.
-You want to ROM hack/mod/etc a game that wasn't released on the PC, or play those mods. It's creative and takes a lot of work, which gives it value, and is bringing new life to old games. In fact, a popular mod could increase the original games' popularity, causing the developers to receive more money. Just look at all the Pokemon ROM hacks. Playing an Emerald hack would sure make me nostalgic, and I'd probably go buy the original if Nintendo itself still sells it on the 3DS or something. If not... well that's their fault isn't it xD
-You 100% plan to buy it in the future, but you don't have the means to buy it right now. This one is also debatable. But if I ever pirated a game, and I didn't own it, and I didn't mod it, and it wasn't old, then I would make sure to just buy it in the future. It's like an IOU. And of course you can't trust everybody. But it's better than 100% of pirates not even making that promise. And it's not like piracy is going away any time soon.
By the way I've never downloaded a torrent, a ROM, or an emulator. I'm just against things that aren't right. As 7101334 said, just because it's illegal doesn't mean it should be. Or, in this case, it shouldn't be illegal all the time.
"But Microsoft says that the relevant portion of the EULA has always given it this power, but people are only just now noticing." - AKA, people have been pirating and not getting in trouble, and they will continue pirating and not getting in trouble. Also: "The covered services section lists dozens of Microsoft products, but it clearly does not include “Windows 10” or any other Windows operating system. It doesn’t even include the Xbox Store or Windows Store, which is where you can buy legitimate copies of PC games."
In other words, nothing has changed. Piracy for the sake of piracy is still wrong, piracy for the sake of the many reasons I outlined above is still right (in my opinion), and it will all continue to happen as normal. We will never eradicate piracy, ever. Carry on.
Except "you" didn't make Minecraft. Notch is one of the wealthiest people in the world and I don't think we need to worry about Bill Gates' pockets drying up either now that Microsoft owns MC.
Like I said though, I bought two copies of Minecraft... Because pirating on the ps3 isn't so easy.
I'm a developer, just like any other craftsman out there. Who cares how big my pockets are? That's irrelevant. The fact that someone put time, effort, and money into making anything at all and not receiving something in return is ridiculous (unless otherwise stated by said person). For the most part, it's my opinion that people pirate to "stick it to the man" or because "they already have enough money". Those are ridiculous notions.
Also, Bill Gates has been slowly selling his stakes in Microsoft for the past 15 years. He serves on the board still, but by no means runs the company.
I'm a developer, just like any other craftsman out there. Who cares how big my pockets are? That's irrelevant. The fact that someone put time, effort, and money into making anything at all and not receiving something in return is ridiculous (unless otherwise stated by said person). For the most part, it's my opinion that people pirate to "stick it to the man" or because "they already have enough money". Those are ridiculous notions.
Also, Bill Gates has been slowly selling his stakes in Microsoft for the past 15 years. He serves on the board still, but by no means runs the company.
How much money you have is not irrelevant at all, at least not to me. It's the same reason I would tell a friend it was bad if they stole mom-and-pop store but wouldn't care about stealing from Wal-Mart (not to compare Minecraft as the Wal-Mart of games or something, but solely in terms of profit, it's up there). We're talking morality here, not legality, so you have to accept it's subjective and not everyone shares your opinion / viewpoint. Or mine.
I didn't know that but I can guarantee you that all the Microsoft stockholders are vastly more wealthy than I am.
Well, legality is almost always based on morality. I don't have my old philosophy notes on hand, but the gist is that social morality is often based on what the group as a whole thinks is right. In democratic processes, the end result of laws (indirectly in the US, etc) is it's what the majority think is right (at least, those who care enough to be vocal, and those who aren't vocal have no right to complain if they don't participate) morally.
Also, stockholders are anyone who has stock in Microsoft. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is one of the safe bets that firms buy for retirement funds, IRAs, 401k, etc.
I don't support anyone who chooses not to pay simply because they feel someone else has more.
Of course one customer loss is going to be more of an impact on a mom-and-pop than a Walmart. Believe me, I know. My family owns a small business that's been successful for 55 years. There is no way that Microsoft is anywhere near profitting off Minecraft. They bought it for the name recognition, the brand, and the market share. Major companies care a lot about market share. Look at what MSFT did with the Xbox 360. Last I checked, not a single console was sold for profit.
Well, legality is almost always based on morality. I don't have my old philosophy notes on hand, but the gist is that social morality is often based on what the group as a whole thinks is right. In democratic processes, the end result of laws (indirectly in the US, etc) is it's what the majority think is right (at least, those who care enough to be vocal, and those who aren't vocal have no right to complain if they don't participate) morally.
Also, stockholders are anyone who has stock in Microsoft. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is one of the safe bets that firms buy for retirement funds, IRAs, 401k, etc.
I don't support anyone who chooses not to pay simply because they feel someone else has more.
Of course one customer loss is going to be more of an impact on a mom-and-pop than a Walmart. Believe me, I know. My family owns a small business that's been successful for 55 years. There is no way that Microsoft is anywhere near profitting off Minecraft. They bought it for the name recognition, the brand, and the market share. Major companies care a lot about market share. Look at what MSFT did with the Xbox 360. Last I checked, not a single console was sold for profit.
Legality is based on some people's morality. Some is universal or near-universal because pretty much everyone agrees some things should be forbidden (murder, assault, etc). Like I said, this is a whole different issue, but legality in the US is not always determined by majority rule. To give three examples: NDAA (allows Americans to be indefinitely detained as terrorists without a trial, and executed without trial, on American soil, by American soldiers, if deemed necessary / national security threat / whatever) originated in Congress and was signed by the Obama. It was proposed by the supposed 'representatives' of the American people, but something tells me no significant percentage of Americans requested the provisions outlined in NDAA. The second example would be Civil Asset Forfeiture, which allows police to seize your cash or other possessions without ever charging you with any crime - this has been used, for example, to take money someone won in a Las Vegas Casino under the vague suspicion that it could've been money earned from drug sales. And that brings us to the third point, the War on Drugs, which most Americans agree there is something wrong with, and the cannabis aspect specifically is being entirely disregarded in states like Colorado etc.
But this really exceeds the scope of this conversation, even though it's an interesting conversation. The fact is, morality is subjective and you can choose which aspects you do or do not subscribe to. "Choose" might not be the best word because a lot of your morals will develop from your experiences, beliefs, etc. but you get the idea. It varies wildly from culture to culture.
When your options are not "Pay" or "Don't Pay" but rather "Don't Pay" or "Don't Have," as I said I don't advocate stealing (taking the original copy), but in that case I wouldn't say I'm against piracy (making a free copy of the original, paid copy).
Reasons to pirate:
poor/broke and it's easy to get things free
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reasons not to pirate:
Windows 10 now has in place anti-piracy measures which scans your hard drive for pirated content, disables it, and reports your IP to your ISP.
These telemetry updates have been backported to Windows 7 and Windows 8.
You can go to jail for theft and the laws are becoming more strict.
As of today, September 29th, 2015, the fines for being caught first offense for every copyrighted work is now up to $250,000 USD, that is two hundred fifty thousand dollars US for every copyrighted work if caught. That is per MP3 file, every game, including Minecraft.
If you cannot pay these fines in a timely manner, or this be a second offense, you can be jailed for up to a year on class e felony charges per copyrighted work.
A "first offense" counts as having received a DMA notice from your ISP, and they can now slap you with criminal and civil charges if you continue to download illegal content.
Age doesn't matter, you can be as young as 5 or 6 years old and they would charge your caregiver(s). For example your parents can be charged with civil and criminal charges if you download illegally.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources just in case you don't believe me:
Piracy Law
Even when turned off Windows 10 talks to Microsoft
Microsoft's new privacy statement
So let me ask you this, is it worth going to jail over? Is it worth losing your home, losing your parent's their home? Is it worth the hassle instead of paying $27 for Minecraft?
I'd like to know how that works.
Legality often doesn't align with morality but, rather, with the economic interests of wealthy individuals and corporations. I paid for 2 copies of Minecraft PS3 (one to play on, and then one when I got really into it to host the 24/7 server). If you can find a way not to pay, I don't see why you should.
No one is taking your home over pirated Minecraft, the absolute (yet realistic) worst case scenario is that your ISP turns off your internet until you agree to delete the file and any torrent programs (if you used a torrent to obtain it). Still, do you know why ISPs will often turn your internet off if you torrent movies, but not generally over music, programs, or even games? Because in most of America, ISPs are also media companies (like Time Warner Cable), and it hurts their profits if you torrent movies instead of paying for movie channels / pay-per-view.
Windows 10 Telemetry kernel API source
I was not arguing the morality of it, but the laws are getting stricter. Just because it has not happened does not mean it won't happen. You should pay because that is how our economy works. If everyone went around stealing everything they wanted, then we would not have stuff worth having. Alternatively there are free games, free software, and free music available. The quality of this stuff is getting really decent too. If you want a premium service, then you gotta pay the premiums. It is not a difficult idea to grasp. That is the argument of every thief now isn't it?
Piracy is not theft. Theft removes the original, piracy makes a copy of the original without doing any damage to the un-pirated version. And that is the argument of every pirate. And if you aren't arguing the morality, your fear of the legality should only be in practical terms.
That was a myth and was proven false a long time ago. Windows can't even tell if their own windows version is pirated let alone other programs. Not to mention the heavy risks with this. What if it false flagged an important program and locks the user out of it? What if they needed said program for work? There is no way windows would ever do such a thing.
Piracy is still classed as theft, but it's not the same.
Theft = I take your car.
Piracy = I make an exact copy of your car, but you still have your car.
I don't condone piracy, but I'll admit that I have pirated. I like to test a game before I buy it, to make sure that I can actually run the game. but every game that I have been able to run I have purchased. No doubt about that.
Steam refunds is a nice way of getting around that now, not to mention legal.
Mmhmm, also YouTube let's plays, Sony has try before you buy on the PS4. I don't know about Microsoft or Nintendo.
This post was never to talk about whether its ok or not, it is illegal and that should be enough for anyone.
Under the new law as of yesterday, September 29th, 2015, copyright infringement is theft under US federal copyright law. Sorry the federal law says you are a thief and can be tried as one.
I would never buy a game based on a youtube letsplay. That does not show that I can run the game, or if I will enjoy it. That's just me watching someone play it.
Remember that not everyone on the internet is from the US, as a british person i cannot be tried for a US Law. The United States does not own the internet.
Although not moral for the Indies.
Regardless,
Going with Sparks, I cannot be tried for US Laws since I live in the land of the Republic of Ireland, although I can be for EU law. (Ireland laws are like naww...)
- C.C.
I'm unable to find anything in Microsoft-provided license information or privacy terms that supports this claim. Nothing in the link you provide as a "source" indicates that Windows 10 has any "anti-piracy" measures for other software, that it scans your HDD for pirated content, that it disables it, or that it reports it to anybody.
The idea that they were "backported" is nothing but a pet theory of tech journalists. The Customer Experience Improvement Program has been present for some time and has been updated relatively regularly. KB 2952664 is the one generally listed as the "backport". It adds a scheduled task that will Collect and transmit program telemetry information if opted-in to the MCEIP. If you are not it will still run but will not transmit the results it creates.
Nope. Federal Copyright law outlines various requirements both of the copyright holder and the infringer in order to constitute a valid case.
The Federal Copyright Laws are effectively used as guidelines for handling court cases, defining minimum and maximum fines, penalties, etc. The Fines you listed are determined as part of the court case if it ever goes that far. Also, Federal Copyright Law allows only up to an amount per offense of half what you stated and would be dealt with per copyright holder (you cannot be fined for a MP3 from a musician under one record label and a Video game as part of the same court case)
This is incorrect. Felony Copyright infringement is defined quite clearly in 18 U.S.C. § 2319(b) as consisting of the willful reproduction and/or distribution of at least 10 copies of a copyrighted work that has a total retail value of more than $2,500 USD. it also sets the maximum term at 5 years. A second offense of this same felony will have a maximum term of 10 years. Downloading an MP3 is NOT felony copyright infringement. Felony Copyright infringement would require you to distribute at least 10 complete copies that have a total value of over $2,500.
Nothing in Section 512 of the DMCA, which concerns this notification forwarding, supports the claim that the act of the ISP forwarding the message constitutes an "offense".
There is no criminal liability without an established case, which means that it must be shown that the infringement was willful, infringed on a copyright owned by the party that brought forth the case, and must be demonstrated that the value of the infringed product is over $2,500. Also, parents/caregivers can no more be held criminally responsible for this than they could for a Murder or a Rape committed by their child.
Your source is the RIAA which like many companies (like Nintendo) purposely misrepresent the law. None of what they have said that you have repeated here has any legitimacy according to the actual Laws.
A lot of behaviors are illegal which shouldn't be (and I'll leave it at that, because that's a separate and massive discussion on its own). Legality is not a concern for many people.
"Because the government tells me not to" isn't really a valid reason if there's no moral rationale behind it which I agree with.
So you're benefiting from my work, yet I get nothing in return?
"Programmers never repeat themselves. They loop."
Except "you" didn't make Minecraft. Notch is one of the wealthiest people in the world and I don't think we need to worry about Bill Gates' pockets drying up either now that Microsoft owns MC.
Like I said though, I bought two copies of Minecraft... Because pirating on the ps3 isn't so easy.
Reasons to pirate:
-You own a copy of the game, or you have in the past. You've paid your dues to the developer, and no one is missing out. With the era of digital gaming coming in, we no longer own the physical disk. We own the game, and we own it for the rest of our lives. Therefore, why should we not be able to own that game cross-console? The only time you should have to buy a game twice is if a version contains more features and costs more accordingly. It's a different game, and you should buy it again.
-The game is so old that the developer is not receiving money from it anymore. If the developer is selling it (such as Nintendo selling old NES games on the 3DS) then it should still be illegal.
-You own the game on the console but want to record it on the PC (either because you don't own a capture card or your screen recorder is better).
-The game is not available in your country or is under censorship. In the first case there is literally no way to get your money to the developer anyway. In the second, censorship is not nor will it ever be acceptable, and assuming you bought the censored game you're entitled to download the non-censored one.
-Debatable, but the owner has conducted in bad behavior and you're pirating as a protest. I would not be opposed to pirating Disney movies, with how rude they are to fan artists and how intent they are on silencing creative expression. Strikes used to be illegal in the US, but workers did them to combat the horrible treatment from the company. Same concept, really.
-You want to ROM hack/mod/etc a game that wasn't released on the PC, or play those mods. It's creative and takes a lot of work, which gives it value, and is bringing new life to old games. In fact, a popular mod could increase the original games' popularity, causing the developers to receive more money. Just look at all the Pokemon ROM hacks. Playing an Emerald hack would sure make me nostalgic, and I'd probably go buy the original if Nintendo itself still sells it on the 3DS or something. If not... well that's their fault isn't it xD
-You 100% plan to buy it in the future, but you don't have the means to buy it right now. This one is also debatable. But if I ever pirated a game, and I didn't own it, and I didn't mod it, and it wasn't old, then I would make sure to just buy it in the future. It's like an IOU. And of course you can't trust everybody. But it's better than 100% of pirates not even making that promise. And it's not like piracy is going away any time soon.
By the way I've never downloaded a torrent, a ROM, or an emulator. I'm just against things that aren't right. As 7101334 said, just because it's illegal doesn't mean it should be. Or, in this case, it shouldn't be illegal all the time.
Of course, this whole post is defunct anyway. http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/21/microsoft-claims-windows-10-eula-that-supposedly-removes-pirated-games-is-about-security/
"But Microsoft says that the relevant portion of the EULA has always given it this power, but people are only just now noticing." - AKA, people have been pirating and not getting in trouble, and they will continue pirating and not getting in trouble. Also: "The covered services section lists dozens of Microsoft products, but it clearly does not include “Windows 10” or any other Windows operating system. It doesn’t even include the Xbox Store or Windows Store, which is where you can buy legitimate copies of PC games."
In other words, nothing has changed. Piracy for the sake of piracy is still wrong, piracy for the sake of the many reasons I outlined above is still right (in my opinion), and it will all continue to happen as normal. We will never eradicate piracy, ever. Carry on.
I'm a developer, just like any other craftsman out there. Who cares how big my pockets are? That's irrelevant. The fact that someone put time, effort, and money into making anything at all and not receiving something in return is ridiculous (unless otherwise stated by said person). For the most part, it's my opinion that people pirate to "stick it to the man" or because "they already have enough money". Those are ridiculous notions.
Also, Bill Gates has been slowly selling his stakes in Microsoft for the past 15 years. He serves on the board still, but by no means runs the company.
"Programmers never repeat themselves. They loop."
How much money you have is not irrelevant at all, at least not to me. It's the same reason I would tell a friend it was bad if they stole mom-and-pop store but wouldn't care about stealing from Wal-Mart (not to compare Minecraft as the Wal-Mart of games or something, but solely in terms of profit, it's up there). We're talking morality here, not legality, so you have to accept it's subjective and not everyone shares your opinion / viewpoint. Or mine.
I didn't know that but I can guarantee you that all the Microsoft stockholders are vastly more wealthy than I am.
Well, legality is almost always based on morality. I don't have my old philosophy notes on hand, but the gist is that social morality is often based on what the group as a whole thinks is right. In democratic processes, the end result of laws (indirectly in the US, etc) is it's what the majority think is right (at least, those who care enough to be vocal, and those who aren't vocal have no right to complain if they don't participate) morally.
Also, stockholders are anyone who has stock in Microsoft. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is one of the safe bets that firms buy for retirement funds, IRAs, 401k, etc.
I don't support anyone who chooses not to pay simply because they feel someone else has more.
Of course one customer loss is going to be more of an impact on a mom-and-pop than a Walmart. Believe me, I know. My family owns a small business that's been successful for 55 years. There is no way that Microsoft is anywhere near profitting off Minecraft. They bought it for the name recognition, the brand, and the market share. Major companies care a lot about market share. Look at what MSFT did with the Xbox 360. Last I checked, not a single console was sold for profit.
"Programmers never repeat themselves. They loop."
Legality is based on some people's morality. Some is universal or near-universal because pretty much everyone agrees some things should be forbidden (murder, assault, etc). Like I said, this is a whole different issue, but legality in the US is not always determined by majority rule. To give three examples: NDAA (allows Americans to be indefinitely detained as terrorists without a trial, and executed without trial, on American soil, by American soldiers, if deemed necessary / national security threat / whatever) originated in Congress and was signed by the Obama. It was proposed by the supposed 'representatives' of the American people, but something tells me no significant percentage of Americans requested the provisions outlined in NDAA. The second example would be Civil Asset Forfeiture, which allows police to seize your cash or other possessions without ever charging you with any crime - this has been used, for example, to take money someone won in a Las Vegas Casino under the vague suspicion that it could've been money earned from drug sales. And that brings us to the third point, the War on Drugs, which most Americans agree there is something wrong with, and the cannabis aspect specifically is being entirely disregarded in states like Colorado etc.
But this really exceeds the scope of this conversation, even though it's an interesting conversation. The fact is, morality is subjective and you can choose which aspects you do or do not subscribe to. "Choose" might not be the best word because a lot of your morals will develop from your experiences, beliefs, etc. but you get the idea. It varies wildly from culture to culture.
When your options are not "Pay" or "Don't Pay" but rather "Don't Pay" or "Don't Have," as I said I don't advocate stealing (taking the original copy), but in that case I wouldn't say I'm against piracy (making a free copy of the original, paid copy).