i really don't give a shit. you moral people can take a ten foot rusty spear and shove it up your ass and be content in all your aloof and righteous glory. i'll keep the money in my pocket and enjoy my games to the same extent as those who buy them. perhaps more, since my wallet keeps its share.

Personally, I believe that intellectual property is an unnatural concept. It has had its uses as a compromise, but that in no way makes it inherently good, and it has certainly destabilized in recent years in light of advances in the area of computers. It borders on immoral now, and I don't find myself beholden to it much at all. That, however, would take too much to get into here. "Pirating" a game is not stealing. One may question the ethics of it, but it is a piece of propaganda to call it theft. If it is immoral, it is immoral for different reasons. To put it briefly, I don't believe it is moral to own an idea. That, however, is a complex topic in itself.

That said, I do have a somewhat Marxist streak in this area. I do believe that the workman is worthy of his labor to use the biblical expression. This means I do want to pay people for their labor.

So, it works out like this: I will use an emulator on a game that is no longer in print in its original form. Yes, I have a ROMs of several NES games. They don't make NES games anymore. It's gone out of print. The company has made its money. I am aware they get remade, but the workman has been paid. In fact, the workers are not being paid anything anymore for what they did. They generally work as wage-slaves for the corporation. They don't have any share in the time and labor they put into it, and a corporation is not a person. Once it goes out of print in its original medium (at which time, it has almost always made its money), then I consider it fair game. Even if I adopted a different standpoint here, I still wouldn't be giving the company that made the game any money. All quantities of the game have already been bought. It's simply being sold and resold in pawnshops. If I bought the TMNT fighter today, Konami doesn't get a dime much less the programmers (and yes, that was a kick-butt game in the day). That doesn't always mean I'll download it, but I do consider it fair game.

On the other hand, if the industry collapses, then these same workmen are out of a job. Soulless corporations or not, it takes a lot of money to create these games. So, I pay for any game still being sold on its current medium (or, in the case of PCs if its still middle-aged or younger, or if its still in print). I will support the industry.

This isn't the most popular stance, being either too restrictive or loose depending on who you ask, but I don't take my moral talking points from either the Warez crowd or from the corporations and government. Sorry for the wall of text, but it's not a simple yes/no question.

@canicus@xanga - I totally agree with you on this.  They make money on something and then keep trying to whore it out without making new stuff.  I wish they'd just focus their money on giving more programmers jobs.

Anyone who thinks that piracy doesn't hurt developers isn't paying attention. Sure, maybe Nintendo won't feel the sting on the latest Mario game, but games that would have become cult favorites in the old days never see any sequels because they don't make enough sales. You can justify piracy in all sorts of ways, but the fact that you have to do so should make it obvious that it's wrong.

... Not that I haven't done it.

nothing wrong with emulators or roms..cuz some games that i do want to play..it never came out on console and there is NO way of ever buying it and the makers will never release it on any consoles either.

I sometimes do to try out the game, since demos are sometimes not good representations of the final product. It's saved me many times from buying a load of over-hyped crap (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) and other times it's introduced me to excellent games I wouldn't have bought without trying it first (Europa Universalis III).

And @KefkaJ, that's exactly how I feel. How in the world is the company supposed to make money if everything is free? Filling their games with advertising? If there are hobbyists that want to make free software, or those that can get by with donations, then good for them. However, I disagree with making it mandatory to give out everything for free.

Just to clear things up, I'm not criticizing you, canicus. I find your form of pirating moral, since as you said, they're not making the game anymore.

I do it for my PSP games. Most of them are Japanese games. 

Wouldn't ROMS be considered paralegal? As in, generally it would be considered illegal but on the same coin it benefits the company no longer since they are already making bucoos of cash from their newer crap! Sometimes you download it through a legal and funded source who gives it to you for free. I agree that the only music CD or game you should buy is the one that would be worth its merit! Everything else matters not if you get it outside legality or within paralegality (if your not fond of the thing you seek).

As for BlackPoetrybyFG, keep your Heathen spewings to yourself please!

i'll admit that i pirate games [for pc], but i buy games that require online play [tf2, l4d] and whatever console games that come out.

Frequently. Typically, much older games however. I haven't been impressed with much past...2004 or so.

I buy games that I can still find at the local gamestop, but if it's some ancient game then emulator's are the way to go.

If you think about it, buying used games hurts the developer just as much as pirating does, since the developer/publisher never see a single cent of that money on their hard work.  Food for thought.