If we're still in the context of video games, would it really do anyone much good to hold the rights to, say, the original Doom?
The medium has progressed so much in barely a few decades, its value is mostly cultural and historical anyways.
If one were to hold exclusive rights to the gameplay, that would open a totally different can of worms and wouldn't be practical anyway.
What about ownership of a franchise? Its copyrighted name and distinctive features. This has already resulted in some fucked up situations
like where Bethesda would sue guys for using "scrolls" in the name of their games.
Or what these cunts did to Fallout.
Yeah, I agree that there needs to be some kind of a limit on copyright ownership.
I mean, if you own something, you should probably be able to sell it, because otherwise what's the point.
On the other hand, people get inspired by each other's ideas all the time,
and whenever something is a big hit, you always see those cunts coming out of the woodwork claiming
they were the original inventors of the plot behind Hairy Twatter and the Prisoner of Ass Cabin,
so there's no point in being too strict about it. Too much legal bullshit ultimately benefits the lawyers and big corporations.
To protect authors and publishers from having their original works stolen by bigger businesses, copyright was introduced.
Yeah, I think this is a very important point to remember.
Remember back in the say when pirated windows would say something along the line: you might have fallen victim to software piracy?
That was the correct default attitude and it was surprising for Macroshaft to get it right. On the other hand, their product was one of the most pirated
and after all these years they still seem to be doing rather well for themselves.
Sure, it's a bit naive these days as people tend to know exactly what they're getting, but nonetheless it rings back to the essence of the problem
and why the copyright laws were wrtitten in the first place.
In countries with sane legislation, downloading games/films/music for your own use is not THE crime.
It's also not a crime when you put it on a pendrive and share it with your friends.
The crime is when you assume the role of the publisher/owner and disseminate while denying them their rightful share. This is your lost sale and lost money.
Torrenting blurs the line, because if you download, you must also distribute.
On the other hand, the stuff is usually distributed for free these days, so nobody really cuts into anyone's profit, unless you're dumb enough to pay for torrents,
and in this case I'd argue that you've already been punished sufficiently.
It's one of those cases where law isn't all caught up with reality. It all sorta made sense when you wold get your plundered booty at a bazaar from
a shady guy with a blyat accent, though this might be more of an Eastern European experience.