[xyst]

Copyright law is so archaic.

Going to jail for “pirating games” is just absurd to me. Nintendo and backers of copyright law clearly using this guy as an example to not fuck with our wares or else we will send our multimillion dollar legal team at you.

Copyright and patent law is holding the west back. Can’t create a product without stepping on some patent trolls alleged “IP”

[jimbob45]

If you were to go about changing copyright law, I have to imagine you’d only be able to change it for your nation’s works while still respecting the duration from other countries. In that case, copyright reform wouldn’t have helped this guy.

I’m all for copyright reform though. 70 + life is absurd. Even worse, you penalize people for dying early like MLK.

[animuchan]

This is an interesting perspective! So in the long run, it might be economical to hire a hitman and coerce the artist into dying early, saving potentially tens of years worth of royalties.

[jackstraw14]

> coerce the artist into dying early

how do you know it's early?

[welshwelsh]

>still respecting the duration from other countries

I don't see why. Why should other countries laws apply in my country?

[alwayslikethis]

Plenty of countries have 50+life currently and they don't respect the longer time in the US.

[bentley]

Fewer and fewer. Canada, for example, changed this year from life + 50 to life + 70. No copyrights will expire in Canada for the next 20 years.

[neilv]

I think that argument about patent law is weakened by juxtaposing it with a complaint that someone who made a business of video game piracy got smacked for it.

[Doxin]

It's still an absurd punishment for that crime.

[pipes]

So videogame piracy should be allowed? This might act as a slight disincentive to making new games.

[kelnos]

Except it won't, because copyright infringement will never replace enough purchases to actually matter.

I don't think most people would say we should abolish copyright completely, but the current situation is just dumb. The copyright term is way too long. And having governments enforce a company's business model at the end of a gun is gross.

At most, there should be financial penalties for violations. Depriving someone of their freedom for making/selling tools that enable copyright infringement is messed up. As is making someone pay a quarter of their income in restitution for the rest of their life.

[s1artibartfast]

If left unchecked, copyright infringement without compete most digital goods and most markets. It has lower costs and less transaction friction. Why buy a Nintendo game if there was a ubiquitous platform offering free games for everything in the catalog.

Who would pay for a streaming service when you can get all content from all platforms for free.

Most people simply pay for their digital content now because it's easier. The only reason it's easier is because of enforcement actions against infringement

[DoItToMe81]

You can already get both for free openly now. It's not hard, you can just Google search it. It's vastly easier and safer now to torrent or pirate than it ever has been, due to proliferation of information on safe sites, and also due to trust systems that have sealed out people who'd spread malware in the past.

People pay for digital content because it is consistently updated and has quality standards that piracy sometimes does not.

[s1artibartfast]

You're a contradicting yourself. It is not currently as easy to get high quality trustworthy pirated content as it is to log into Disney Plus or Netflix. If you take away copyright protections, you would quickly see the rise of high trust high quality sources for pirated material. Someone could simply make a trustworthy streaming service that offered the catalogs of both companies and others in full quality and offer it for a fraction of the price because they don't have to pay to license or produce content. They could advertise on billboards and everywhere they want.

[mock-possum]

Yes, video game piracy should be allowed. Copying is not theft.

[BizarroLand]

I mean, that you can be criminally prosecuted for ripping DVDs and Blurays you own to a digital format is insanity.

If you own a nintendo game and a cartridge, make a rom of it, and then play that rom on a more lifestyle compatible system then it shouldn't be a big deal.

I think the copyright on video games should end at 7 years, maybe 10 at the worst. You have a decade from the date of publication to make your money on that version of the game. What percentage of games are profitable 10 years after publication? I know there are a few, minecraft, WOW, Skyrim, COD, but even if there are 500 games on the 10+ list, that pales in comparison to the number of games that come out every year.

I bet most 7-10 year old games are lost to history, if you include ALL video games and not just the breakout hits and AAA best sellers.

[Tao3300]

> you own a nintendo game and a cartridge, make a rom of it, and then play that rom on a more lifestyle compatible system then it shouldn't be a big deal

Especially considering I had a switch cartridge fail after the warranty period recently. They wanted $40 or something to fix it. I had to "speak to the supervisor" to haggle a better rate.

[Tao3300]

There's a vast middle ground between anarchy on one hand and incarceration and lifetime wage garnishment on the other.

Don't do that to yourself. You should know better than to present false dichotomies.