I sub all of them except for 'regular movies' My website is here www.cultfilmsubs.com but it's closed to the public - if you want an invite just shoot me a pm and I'll sort it out No more questions for HCK - You can lead a horse to water...
He wouldn't get into trouble, just wouldn't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting one on a shop shelf due to our oppressively strict censorship, decency and obscenity laws. Public opinion doesn't enter into it as Joe Public couldn't give a shiny shit about such things but as we sadly live in an Oligarchy we have absolutely no say whatsoever in anything that shapes or has any effect on any aspect of our lives so have no choice to either 'grey import' or simply pirate in cases like this. As the choice to purchase legitimately is taken directly out of our hands HCK wants to look elsewhere before he starts apportioning blame on the shoulders of the downloader.
In Australia, all films, books and other media have to (in theory) pass before a body known as the Classification Board (it used to be called the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), but that was abolished in 2006 or so). The Classification Board will then pass a rating onto the work, using a set of (theoretically) objective guidelines set down by the Attorney-General's Department, and decided upon by the Standing Council of Attorneys-General (basically the State and Federal Attorneys-General get to decide on it). The board will issue a work with a rating, and all works must have a rating to be legally sold in Australia. The ratings are G, PG, M, MA15+, R and X18. Of those, only the last three (MA15+, R and X18) have legally binding restrictions (i.e. you have to be over 15 or 18 to view them). X18 is a special category that's designed for non-hardcore pornography. It's actually more difficult to get an X rating than an R rating, and X-rated material can only be sold in certain states (actually only the two territories). This leads to a thriving mail-order industry for DVD porn in Australia. There's also a category called RC, or "refused classification". This is applied to anything that falls outside of the boundaries of the R classification. If something is refused classification, it becomes illegal to sell it (but, importantly, *not* illegal to possess it) in Australia. Most people outside of Australia are probably familiar with the system due to the fact that the R18 and X18 categories cannot be applied to video games, which occasionally leads to a high-profile violent video game being banned in this country. There's currently a lot of debate about overhauling the entire scheme, including allowing R18 and X18 to apply to video games (the leading school of thought is to move to a more industry-run system, with the government overseeing things and providing an avenue for appeals). The big problem with the current system is that there's very limited accountability, and the entire nation can effectively be held to ransom on classification (we don't call it censorship for some reason) decisions by a single person (Former South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson is probably the most well-known case of this). Anyway, back to the original point. You won't necessarily get in trouble per se, but it does cost money to have things classified (and it is also compulsory). Basically this means that if something (like, say HCK's movies) is unlikely to recoup the couple of thousand dollars it can cost to submit it to the Classification Board, and run the risk of that work being RCed, then it's not really worth the effort to bring it into the country at all. I have a friend who uses this argument to justify his anime piracy. Basically, his response is this: "If they're not willing to sell it in my country, then they're not losing anything by me pirating it, because they haven't offered me the option of legally buying it anyway". In his case, he does buy anything that gets a local release, though. As for my opinion, I fall firmly into the "piracy != theft" side of the argument, but I also find most of the justifications for piracy (including the one I mentioned above) to be stupid. Honestly, if you're going to pirate something, just do it and don't get all uppity about why you're doing it. You *are* breaking the law, but you're *not* stealing anything, and if you get caught, then, well, that's the risk you take. tl;dr: I hate both sides of the argument equally.
My endgame: Game companies actually lose much more money when you sell your used games You could pirate all you want but the fact is that pirates are a small minority The problem is the millions of gamers reselling the 4-hour games they just bought, and the other millions buying those instead of new copies
'Extreme Pornography' is illegal in the UK. I'm guessing the OP is pissed because somebody's torrented some of the porn he sells?
that's only a problem if a company deems that everyone is willing to pay top dollar for the shit they shell out. Value is subjective and second hand sale is a long standing tradition all over the world. Certainly, the advent of digital media makes it impossible to transfer your purchased license to experience the software, mainly thanks to the way that software is considered to be used under a very narrow type of license. Plus, there are valid arguments regarding the technological difficulties of re-selling digital media - considering how DRM only aims to protect the license holder's interests and not the licensee's. (unless you count that download up to 5 times rule that seems to be prevail among companies lately)
They do, and that's way they "loose" more money from that than from piracy After all the average pirate wouldn't buy a game if he can't pirate it, but the average gamer will pay full price for a game if he can't find a used copy for less.
So, to summarise - Piracy is bad. Buying a second hand copy of a game is bad Buying a game outside of your region (importing it) is also bad. And what have we learnt? Perhaps it's better to just steal cars... ...now where did I put my hammer and chisel?
Sometimes stealing comes in forms of an unreleased video games, development units, vintage video broadcast news reports on video gaming, and discontinued coin-op PCB, etc. Look, WE ALL STEAL. There is not ONE person who could tell me they don't steal in any way shape or form. So stop acting like you have any sense of moral code over this matter !
Digital downloaded media was coming wether there was piracy or not. And trust me, even with digital downloaded material can be pirated as well. There's no avoiding this ! You can cry about it but it'll never go away.
Yes, WE do steal in some shape or form. You can keep denying it. I dont deny pirating because I don't desire to spend hundreds on a game considered a "collector's item". I like to experience those shitty games I wouldn't have bought in the first place. I also rent games and import them. So sue me :lol: Ofcourse, you won't admit any forms of piracy because you run a business and that's fine. I personally know people in the Hollywood and music industry who don't practice what they preach about piracy as well. So you're not fooling me or anyone here.
NO, it isn't bad Companies dont want you to buy used because they loose money, which is why they're implementing fuck-you measures like that RE game that can't be played more than X times And yeah, its completely unfair
I was exploring an abandoned school this past weekend and I came across a very interesting and very old microphone. I took it with me as a souvenir and I don't feel bad for having done so. This school closed some 40 odd years ago, however, someone owned that microphone. I "stole" it. I am a thief and the worst kind of scum, but you know what. At the end of the day, someone left that thing there to rot with no intention of ever using it again. If a game developer goes under or a movie/tv studio does not care to use their IP and lets it rot and fall into obscurity to never be seen again and I have the opportunity to save some of it, I will do so and no matter of calling me a thief and a criminal will ever change my mind. Be holier than thou and so beholden to foolish and inane legality that you would rather see art and creation destroyed than to attempt to save any of it illegally. When piles of books were being burned under government orders you would have set the fires and never thought to save a thing. You're empowered. So keep your ethical code close to your heart, but don't expect the rest of us to abandon life long pursuits of historic preservation because of your convictions.
I fully support a moment to replace the term "pirate" with "historic preservationist". That would be a hoot!
@HCK. Just a few weeks ago you were all set for a possible extended sojourn into China and were asking what systems you should be taking with you to wile away the wee small hours. Surely this would have gone against everything you stand for, as your importing of non-native hardware and software would most likely have infringed any number of parallel import laws, not forgetting the moral and ethical dilemma you'd have found yourself in once you'd realised you'd taken food out of some poor retailers mouth by not buying from the country you were currently residing in. It's also interesting to note that a fair proportion of your gaming collection is second hand. Again,as the copyright holders and creators are not receiving a penny from these subsequent after sales, how can you possibly justify spouting all the shit about infringements and injustice that you have when you're just as fucking guilty? Your delusion quite literally boggles the mind. You sir are just as guilty as any pirate because the original license holder hasn't received a red cent in payment for his hard work, toil and sweat, you may as well have just downloaded a ROM or ISO in the first place for all the good it's done him. As 'Herman' has pointed out above, we're all thieves to greater or lesser degrees but unlike you we're not hypocritical about it. By the way, please don't take this as a personal attack, I like reading your posts as for the most part they're quite passionate and you seem like a stand-up kind of guy, but some of the sentiments you have, for as good natured and well intended as they may seem, are just ludicrous and if you think this issue is as black and white as you're trying to make out then I'm afraid you're living in cloud cuckoo land.
@Everyone When did I ever say that I had a poor opinion of selling things second hand? Where did I say I had a poor opinion of importing things? What I am against is downloading works, be it games, books, movies, what-have-you, that have been copied; that are not original. To me that's a very simple concept. And when I was preparing to move to China, I did not play on indulging in the historic preservationist market there. I was interested in legit games.
My simple view is downloading stuff is essentially the same as borrowing a copy(read: not a COPY copy, but the original product) of something from your friend for a bit while you enjoy it as much as you like, then lending it back. And that isn't illegal and I don't think they ever will make it illegal. OK, so there's still the difference that on the internet it's not the original media but a digital copy, and it's likely being downloaded from a complete stranger, but I think you're holding the "law" a little too high. I get that law in the end is supposed to be for the good of everyone and all that, but I wouldn't use it as the be all and end all of judging whether someone is bad or not, and that's what it seems like you want people to admit. It all becomes sort of arbitrary. In your case I guess you found a torrent or something of a product of yours and feel a little peeved? Contacting the individual who put the torrent up and requesting them to take it down I think would suffice, but people copy, and you aren't necessarily going to see that in very obvious places either. Fact is, you can't control everyone and you'll probably end up getting yourself worked up over something that's too out of your control if you want to punish every soul that may have touched a digital copy of your product. I'm just wondering do you hold this view for unreleased games? Seeing as what this community is and all it just feels a little ridiculous to say that here. Plus you said this. I'm sorry if I could care less there, but at least as far as some unreleased works go, lots of companies seem to just archive stuff for the sake of archiving, only then to delete it all later when they realize it takes up space. It seems like the people that this stuff was made for care more about the history behinds their works than the companies themselves. So when I see something that could have been lost in history pirated, I'm just glad there's people that actually give a damn about that stuff. Now pirating recent stuff that's still making money, yeah that's bad and I see your point of view.
Yeah, I lied... like a yo-yo I seem to be drawn to this thread (I really should be doing other things!) I just want to say that this is all turning into an argument/discussion between HCK and the rest of the forum. The only snag is that whilst 'the rest of the forum' have provided countless reasons explaining why piracy isn't always bad and is in fact a complex issue with many grey areas, HCK has neither responded to any of those particular points or stated anything more profound than (basically) "It's bad, and that's it." I believe the term is called "arguing with a brick wall" Some people are getting really upset about this (and rightly so) but don't stoke the fire, folks, it just isn't worth it.
