@Kael that's all very nice, however you confuse the action of theft with the crime of theft. Crimes need to be proven in court, and in a way they don't exist before they are proven (on account of guilt being a fully imaginary concept that is assumed to not exist until it is proven); actions, on the other hand, simply are made and that's that.
Last edited by raspberry jam; 29-02-2012 at 16:04.
Last edited by Kael Valeran; 29-02-2012 at 17:05.
And again I say, that is all a load of complete rubbish. If you produce something entirely by yourself, and then sell it, it can by no means of the meaning of the word be considered theft in any way. Everyone knows what theft means. If it is theft, it isn't legal. Legal theft is an oxymoron, unless we are talking the taking of land from other people in a legal way. Creating something from scratch and selling it, is never ever theft. Not legal theft, and not illegal theft.
Besides, now you're derailing the whole subject to a game of scrabble. We were discussing wether rich people are more inclined to ignore the law, or take things at the expense of others. Some folk argue that you don't get rich unless you are a bit of an @sshole, and my point was that there are plenty of ways to become rich and not be an @sshole. Notch I would consider an example. He became rich with one game, he got lucky, and he made a good game as well. I think the study is biased as hell, and I don't think there is any unbiased way to do such a study. Because doing the study in itself shows an assumption that how much money you have on your bank account is directly linked to your morals. I call rubbish on that assumption as well.
Also, no, you never create something from scratch. Never ever. You sit down and write a game, in doing this you draw on:
- Stuff you learned in school (tax payer money, therefore stolen)
- Being able to live in, in your case, the Netherlands, which was legally stolen from I don't know who
- Food that you eat while you do this, grown on land that has been stolen again and again since back in ancient times,
- ...and wash that food down with some Coke that is designed to be tasty to generate a desire in you for that drink (theft, unless you believe in nebulous concepts like "free will")
Then when it's done, you turn around and prevent others from freely copying your game, even if they get their hands on it, just so that you will be able to sell it (theft of their freedom).
All this theft is perfectly legal.
Note, I'm not saying that it's wrong or that it shouldn't be legal.
Oh for crying out loud, now you are just discussing semantics, and that is just a big waste of time. Seriously, The Netherlands were never stolen from anyone, and the country I live in, has nothing to do with the things I create.
None of your examples can be considered legal theft. They can be considered not-theft. So really, what are we discussing here?
What leads you to say that my examples are not theft? Certainly, the first (taxation) and last (copyright) are outright legal theft.
If I had enough money to live happily, I would develop and distribute my game for free. The point of asking for money is that devs can continute to develop stuff people want.