Quoting: voyager2102

Quoting: scaineBut 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.

Wow... another one of these judgmental phrases so devoid of any actual fact, yet, oozing with sense of mission! You are moralizing. You just are ;)

Counter example of what you say: In Germany copyright law says that you can take a CD that you bought, bring it to a friend and even make a copy for him as long as you don't charge for it.

The law explicitly allows this and here you come and say it's stealing an "that is just so"! Wake up! We should adopt the Jolly Roger as our new flag!!!1!

Interesting! But a bit of googling seems to completely disagree with your example of German Law. Can you point me in the right direction? What I've found appears to suggest that German law is very close to UK law - you can make copies for your own use, but copyright law is still in effect - that is, only the author of the works is allowed to redistribute/reproduce it for anything other than personal backup purposes. There appeared to be a debate around this in Germany around 2002/3, but nothing I can find suggests that the law changed significantly.

I looked at a few sites, but this is the cleanest: http://limegreenip.hoganlovells.com/article/33/copyrights-copyright-protection-germany [External Link]

Bottom line, ask yourself how you'd feel about selling one hundred copies of your work, only to discover 100 thousand such copies were being enjoyed by the masses? I'd be pissed off. How about you?

It's true - I really don't understand anyway who defends piracy. At all. Happy to be "educated" however, but that education must address not just laws and jurisdictions, but more importantly how that defender-of-piracy would justify and accept living on the street if they were the artist with no income and not the pirate.

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Quoting: buenaventuraIt simply echoes what you wrote in your article. Using "arguments" like "that's just how it is" or "it's just a fact" or "you say something else but I am right so buzz off", even "this is my site and look, a lot of people repeat my baseless "it's a fact, you are just entitlement sillies" statement over and over, thus it is true", it would have been better to just disable commenting for this article - you do not seem like you want to read or respond to anything but people agreeing with you. Perhaps a like-button on your articles would be better than letting people actually write, if you are just looking for hurrah's.

The article has generated lots of views - many of your comments have had likes, as have many of the counter arguments. Gaming On Linux has never been "in it for the hurrah's". The near-complete lack of advertising should attest to that.

There's some nice irony that you're getting upset because not everyone agrees with you, so you're attacking the editorial and website... because you don't agree with it.

BTW, the idea about liking an article is a good one. I don't think it would stifle discussion either. Right now, the only gauge to an article's popularity is the Views count at the top of the article. That's useful, but people like yourself are engaging with this article despite (or because of) not agreeing with it. A like button would be cool gauge of support for a given article.

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Quoting: emphy

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.

I... think we're agreeing on everything except some semantics on the names. So... good? Unless you're trying to shift blame somehow - the buyer might not be technically stealing, but that doesn't absolve them from the crime. Unless they genuinely didn't know? So I guess this argument is valid for the likes of the g2a sites. Buyers there might not realise that the keys are stolen. This article, however, to get back on point is making it clear that if you did know that the keys are dodgy, you don't get to cry victim about high prices, or wanting to support the porting house.

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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.

That's a terrible metaphor, I'm afraid. By all means, listen to the radio, or even your friends CD of an artist: that's not piracy.

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.

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Quoting: minus9I presume the more pious members of this discussion have been strict adherents of the thousands of pages of copyright law for their entire lives as no one likes a hypocrite.

Well that's a leap. We weren't talking piracy, really, but since we are now: the piracy angle is more clear cut - it's stealing, plain and simple. Rationalise all you want (and I did when I was younger), but remember that if the shoe was on the other foot, you'd be as pissed off as the next artist if someone was freeloading your work. The music industry might have over-reacted in the 80's, of course, and if we're being honest here, they're still over-reacting. A bit like the movie industry, or the TV industry. Crucially, none of their over-reaction gives you the right to steal their work sadly.

So if you create something incredible, then set a fair price for that effort, if someone rips you off via piracy, then a) you have every right to be angry because b) piracy is theft. Argue about fair price, sure, but this is boolean, not a long integer, as you put it.

But this article isn't about piracy. It's about buying dodgy keys, knowing that they're dodgy, knowing that the porting house won't see a penny, then complaining that this article made them feel guilty for it. That is sheer entitlement, and that's what made me laugh. The straight up rationalisation the "boo hoo" of it all. By all means, buy from where you like, that's your prerogative. But don't spout on public forums about how doing so is your right (as a human??) because you're entitled to experience everything that's ever made... because <mumble> culture <something>.

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I'm wiping away tears of laughter at the thought that the price of something I want to buy should be tied to my "purchasing power"! Absolutely hilarious stuff. Oh, you're a high earner? You pay ten times what this guy does for exactly the same experience. Brilliant. But... but... why did I kill myself all my life to earn more then...? WHY????

Sat through all nine pages of comments and this was quite the pay off.

Great article btw. I'd like some clarity from Bundle Stars, since I bought one of theirs a year ago or thereabouts and assumed that since it was all Linux-compatible titles, it would be Linux keys I'm buying. Disappointing if that's not the case.

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What a save at 6:50 [External Link]! Awesome turnaround dude. I've not played the 1 on 1 games yet, but I might have to start giving them a go.

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Quoting: g000hIf anyone wants to risk buying it now, 2 weeks before its Linux release, I spotted a sweet deal here:

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-MADMAXR/mad-max [External Link]

66% off the full price.

Pretty sure that counts as a Windows sale. And bypasses Feral completely of course. But if supporting Linux gaming isn't a priority for you, that's a decent deal.

I'm hyped for this one. I haven't bought Dawn of War yet (not really my thing, but I'll probably pick it up around Christmas), and I haven't finished Life is Strange yet. But this... this is instabuy/instaplay material. Great stuff!

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Anything inspired by BF1/2 is going to be worth a look in my book. Such a great game. I hope this lives up to its potential.

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: boltronicsWhy??!?!? These games all work perfectly under Wine. Have for a very long time.

If they wanted to truly release Warhammer games for a new audience, they should have ported Space Marine! That's a game that does not work under Wine, probably only because of copy protection.

It's all about building up our library without having to resort to hacks like Wine, which never truly work properly.

That's a very unpopular opinion, but very much my experience. Wine gaming is a compromise and relying on it sends developers the wrong message. I don't buy Windows games any more - my last purchase was the Dishonoured expansion back in early 2013, but I've bought around 200 Linux-only games in the subsequent years.

Great to see a title of this quality arrive on the Linux platform. Well done Feral! (again)

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