As far as I am aware, interpreters like openRA, Scummvm, gemrb are always fully legal, independent of where individual users may have gotten the game content.

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So far, the evil Paradox's influence seems to be non-existent.

The only things, so far, seem to be the two pre-order in-game bonus items.

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TBH, I am more interested in how they treat the people who take them up on the offer mentioned in the mail. Will they give a refund to the mac/linux users?

Everyone will make silly mistakes, it's how well the devs deal with them which is important to me.

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As a kickstarter project, the usual caveats apply.

That being said, Arcen games has a good history of treating their audience well, so if it gets funded the chances of the game getting released as promised is as close to 100% as is humanly possible.

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Quoting: scaineSo if you write a book, stick it on Amazon for six euros, you'll be cool when I and thousands of others download the torrent instead? It's only digital, right? I wasn't going to buy it anyway!! Apparently I'm entitled to your cultural contribution without paying?

Man, I'm really trying here, but I just can't understand it.

If people aren't going to buy the book anyways, what, exactly is the difference ^_~

Seriously, though, you are missing the second part of the cultural exchange, which is that it has, for quite a long time, been traditional to pay, even if the stuff is freely available.

There is a rather big difference between "author's shouldn't get paid for their work" and "people should not be blocked from culture due to their financial situation".

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Quoting: liamdawe... to a hobby like computer games ...

:O
(sorry for taking it completely out of context, but :O )

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Quoting: scaine...

I... think we're agreeing on everything except some semantics on the names.

Probably not, but then again we are not talking about everything there is to say on the topic ^_~ . Sorry, I get really triggered on this topic, probably because of those annoying unskippable anti-piracy ads, the ones with "you wouldn't steal..."

I definitely agree that buying at shady sites is a bad thing (even if is legal). The chances of the dev. not seeing a single cent (even indirectly) of the purchase, or even being harmed by chargebacks from credit card fraud, are simply too high.

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Quoting: liamdaweJust needed to quote this again to give it some more light, because never has a hammer hit the nail on the head so damn hard.
...
This sort of stuff will be posted on GOL in future, because I personally feel it's important to highlight, especially given the recent spate of increased pro-piracy comments on GOL which to be frank, piss me right off. This is a pro-legal website, that should have been clear since day-1 of us opening given our content.

Sorry for contributing to the derailment ^_^. Personally, I love your so-called off-topic articles even if I may not always agree (shocking, I know)

Pro-legal I don't care for so much, but I love it the site is pro-making-sure-the-devs-receive-money-so-they-get-rewarded-for-making-great-games, which is, after all, the reason those laws were created in the first place.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: Colomboscaine: Piracy is not stealing. Stealing is taking from someone. Piracy is piracy. Its like listening to musician who is playing behind fence for audience that paid for it. Musican isn't directly losing anything, audience who paid for it isn't directly losing anything.

..
But in the musician example above, we're not talking about piggy-backing a live performance, a closer example would be a copied CD. You're paying nothing for a perfect copy of what other people did pay for. You are stealing. This can't be debated. It just is.

Sure, there is nuance, but when people start talking about digital vs physical, that's just rationalisation for the fact that pirates deprive artists of revenue. Weren't going to buy it anyway, hence not a sale? Largely false, because if you weren't going to buy it anyway, then why did you pay peanuts for a pirate copy? Don't think it's worth the asking price? Wait for a sale, or debate that price.

But piracy is stealing. Fact.

Erm, no. Piracy is copyright infringement: breaking a legally enforced monopoly on copying.

There is something to be said for calling it stealing when copies are being sold, since in that case you can demonstrate the buyer was prepared to pay. Even then, the one buying it is not stealing, but buying 'stolen goods', and the seller is the one who is stealing.

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Quoting: Colombo...

Quicky post, since I don't have much time now.

I understand my own examples quite well, thank you ^_^

Sure, there are cookbooks for which you must pay, but there's no one stopping you from sharing the recipes contained therein. Same for theatre groups performing out of copyright plays. Still, more than enough people are prepared to pay for (quite high quality) versions to be able to fund the production.

The general availability of culture has absolutely nothing to do with the ability of the authors to charge for their work. But once people have culture in their hands/minds/computer, the author's control of it is a legal construct. The simple reality is that, without some stasi-level surveillance, people will share products of the mind. The implication of people owning ideas is restricting peoples freedom to share it, FORCING them to stop doing what has been a pillar to cultural development for thousands of years.

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