for some, they won't buy an album sight unseen, so they download a couple songs to get a feel for the group and then buy them if its their cup O tea..

so yeah, i guess you were right.

sounds to me like you are selective.. 1 or 2 is fine, more is stealing..

so if i take portions of your car, and not the entire thing its OK by you?

i don't sanction theft, but to borrow is another animal entirely.

point in fact, if i had a PC gamer magazine on my coffee table and you read it, would you be stealing it? if i let you take it home would it be theft? if i copied it, how does that differ from lending you the magazine for the time it takes you to partake in its content?

if you borrow my car, will GM holler foul? borrow and steal are not interchangeable, nor should they be.

basically it boils down to viewpoint i suppose, but as long as i am, in my mind, guilt free i am fine. its sorta like this, think what you will cause you will never convince those whom don't want to be.

Just like taping a film from TV?

I hate game piracy just as much as you do Reno. Would you consider burning a CD from a friend an act of moral crime? I don't remember if it is legal as long as you don't sell the the burned copy. The only game I have done this with was StarCraft. Even now I consider buying the game retail after owning a burned version of it.

? quoting Jezpuh

You see that Steam can be handy?

I think it would now be a nice time to quote someone's signature from the Sven-Coop boards :]

"Thank You for Using Steaming pile of s**t."

Duncan, i was not taking anything out on you, i was only using you as an example of how people justify things, or better rationalizing a wrong away in favor of doing it with a clear conscience.

if i over stepped myself i apologize. i didn't mean to be a hypocrite, after all you know my collection status i assume

my point was only to say, people tend to set the "WRONG" of any situation at just worse than they are committing. i say what you are doing (you as in anyone who copies any game for any reason) is exactly the same as what i am doing, no worse, no better.

as i said many times, i buy all the games i want.. i am poor but i buy everything worth having. i can scan the disk covers to prove just how often if anyone is in doubt. on average i buy 5 to 10 games annually, considering i play only 1 or 2 half way through that sounds obscene, but i am not the only gamer in this house.

anywho's, i hope you accept my apology as it looked as if i may have crossed your line of tolerance.

/me bows out.

For myself I don't download games, as I only play games worth buying, and as such I buy them. The problem is the high price of games. Granted, a lot of money and time is spent making a game, but like you pointed out Reno, the target audience of game developers are individuals like us. I don't know about all of you, but I might only buy 2-3 games a year, in a good year, because I cannot really afford to purchase anymore than that. $100+ (here in Aus) is a lot to pay for a game. I'd happily spend that on something really good, like HL2 or Call of Duty, but thats a lot to pay for something you might think is okay. Which I think is what a lot of people think, hence pirating occurs. If the general price of new games drop to around $60-80 Aus, or your equivalent, you'd see a lot less pirating because more people are willing to spend that much. Sure the companies would loose some money due to the price decrease, but they'd make it back with an increased number of sales. At least thats what I think.

Often myself and a couple of mates my buy a new game each, then lend them to each other so we each have copies of the new games, but the cost is split. We're still paying for the games, just not as much as the often rip off price.