It’s been around for ages and it doesn’t look like it’s going to go away any time soon. I’m talking about video game piracy (and film piracy while I’m at it too). In fact, contrary to diminishing, copied video games and movies are on the rise. Many people attribute this upwards trend to increasing internet speeds, along with storage media such as blank CD, DVD and even Blu-Ray, getting cheaper.
Let’s face it, broadband is dirt cheap compared to the price to connection speed ratio ten years ago. There were plenty of horror stories of people running up bills of £100+ after downloading too much. With the advent of broadband and the “pay-as-you-go” mentality disregarded, people now download as much as they want. It used to be an pirated game would cost more to download than to buy, but now it’s a mere fraction of the cost.
On top of the reduced internet connection prices, we have ridiculously cheap media to store our data on now. With CDs as little as 2p each and DVDs 4p each when bulk buying 25+, it’s easy to get this cheaper storage.
Now the big debate is on that technically makes game copying legal. As long as you are copying a game you own and it is only for yourself, people argue they are simple ‘backing-up’ their investments. Especially as something as simple as a scratched DVD can mean losing out on £40+ worth of software. Of course if it was this simple then it would be fine.
However, people abuse this concept and simply play dumb to the whole fact that acquiring a copy of a game, movie or piece of software you didn’t pay for is downright illegal and unfair to the people who worked to make this product. So yeah, feel free to take utilise CD copying to make backups of any of your purchases, just don’t get copies of things you don’t own.
I should also point out that people sometimes download games or movies if they are unsure whether they will like them, so do so to prevent wasting money. Although I do not condone this method, at least buy the product if you do like it after trying it!
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I agree. I also think this also leads to having too many games to play and it results in a less enjoyable gaming experience.
I used to have a modded PS1 way back in the day. I had a flood in my basement that ruined my games and system. Karma, I guess.
For my PS2, PS3 and PSP I haven’t modded and don’t plan on doing it. I also have never purchased a copied movie. Because these mediums are my entertainment of choice I feel that I owe it to pay the people who produced it.
I never modded any of my consoles, I did however make use of the PS1 swap-disc trick, this was purely because PS1 games refused to work once they got any sort of surface blemish on them.
Since then I haven’t even gone the route of backing up my games, I tend to just take care of them better :)
[...] a short follow-up to my article on the morality and legality of game copying, I will be taking a brief look in to some of the more positive aspects. Video game piracy is [...]
[...] may be familiar with my articles on game copying and back ups. As you can tell from the articles I believe backing up games can be a valid purpose [...]
[...] may be familiar with my articles on game copying and back ups. As you can tell from the articles I believe backing up games can be a valid purpose [...]