The World Needs a Hero
March 31, 2010
There are smart criminals, there are dumb criminals, and then there are guys like this.
Just, wow. Not only do you try to steal the game at a convention, where the staff are gonna be watching people like a hawk anyway, but you actually tell them what you are trying to do? You are not nearly as brilliant a thief as you think you are.
You think you're this good, but you're not.
Now, if what he said is true, he just wanted to try it with his friends, perhaps we can be a little lenient. It could just be a case of a fan who made a dumb decision and got a little carried away. My normal instinct is to side with the little guy against the corporation, so I want to believe this was the case.
But wait, there’s more! Now we find out that not only has he modded consoles so he could play pirated games, he was banned from XBox Live for playing pirated games online! This just keeps getting better and better!
Note: this will not protect your identity online.
It does raise a few troubling issues. Hopefully this will not affect the spirit of community and camaraderie that has made PAX so successful. And of course, it highlights the continuing struggle between Internet douchebags and soulless corporate drones. Normally, however, you don’t see them being this civil to each other.
Most importantly, it brings up the old topic of, how do we define “theft” in a digital culture? Assuming it was true, he only wanted to play with his friends, no intent to distribute. Is this theft? Yes, he is playing without having to pay, but theft involves depriving the rightful owner of something. The developer still has the original code (assuming this twit didn’t intend to erase the original once he finished downloading it).
One can, and often has, argue that the developer is out the money that should have been payed; but if said twit could not/would not ever pay, are they really out that money? Does the fact they have not lost anything in a physical sense (existentially, perhaps, but not physically) diminish or eliminate the crime? Or merely alter the crime, or perhaps the definition of it?
Pardon me while I ruminate.
On a completely unrelated topic, they turned the LHC on again yesterday and set a record for high-energy collisions. Just like your mom!
