A question of morality

[ThEjOkErIsWiLd]

So... I was over at a friends' house hanging out and my buddy got some funds onto his credit card so he could finally buy the ultimate songbird edition of Bioshock Infinite.... and he goes online and promptly discovers that the only version left is the 360 one. Here's the basic conversation that went between us:


Me: "Aw, that sucks dude."


My friend: "Yeah, but I really REALLY want that songbird statue... oh well, I'm getting it anyways"


"It's too bad you're going to have to play it on the 360 though."


"Nah, I'll just pirate the PC version"


"Woah... well... wait, you're not going to trade in or sell the 360 copy, are you?"


"Oh, no, I'll keep it even though I'll probably never even unwrap the thing."


And that was pretty much that. Now, understand that this guy does not regularly pirate games, I think he's got close to 200 games in his steam library, and for games that have intrusive DRM or a crappy publisher attached to them, he simply doesn't play those at all. So I guess my question is, is it wrong for him to be doing something like this? I know that it's certainly illegal.... but should it be?

[Shinobi13]

As long as you have the legal rights to a game (on any platform), you can pirate it all you want. At least, that's how it is up here in Canadialand. Since I have a Conker's Bad Fur Day cartridge, I can have the rom on my PC no problem. It would be the same deal with Bioshock, except that he didn't get the PC version from a retailer. He still paid for, and has access to a version of the game, that's all that counts.

[GlowBear]

In the world of computer games, there is no such thing as morality. So I've heard.

[Tarvu]

In the grim future of the 41st Century there is only War.

[noobspoon]

I pirate all my old pc games i have copies of on disk when i want to play them, i don't have a disk drive so it's the easiest way. I don't really think it is morally wrong in either his or my situation.

[Panzadolphin56]

I don't think it should be illegal, but then again I don't agree with what seems to be the publishers' position that somehow they have the right to dictate how and when you play a game after you've bought it. If you've paid good money for a game it should be your right to do whatever you want with it, end of story.

[Sir Legendhead]

I wonder if game publishers question the ethics of ripping off consumers. The idea gives me a mental image of men lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills and laughing.

[Mighty Hatman]

Since the game is going to bought anyway at a high price I'd say there's no morality issues here. Probably illegal by some technicality but no one will care.

[Tarvu]

You can't, like, own information, man.

[Mighty Hatman]

You can't stop the signal.

[Tarvu]

Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere.

[Mighty Hatman]

Mal. Guy killed me, Mal. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that?

[Dexter345]

I am generally anti-piracy, but a situation like this is justification enough for me. It's what I did with Mother 3's fan translation; I went through the trouble to import a Japanese cartridge before downloading that one.

[Tarvu]

I am generally only in support of piracy if those doing it have at least one pirate prop.

[Mighty Hatman]

I have an awful pirate hat from a costume I wore ages ago. Should I be wearing that any time uTorrent us open?

[Tarvu]

Yes and more.