The morality of downgrading by Fanjita

The morality of downgrading by Fanjita

July 4th, 2007, 18:11 Posted By: wraggster

Fanjita has spoken out on his blog about the recent release of the Noobz downgrader and the negative comments directed towards the PSP Community:

So, we recently released the v3.50 PSP downgrader, and it was interesting to see how many people commented on forums etc, to the effect of "every time you release a downgrader, you're boosting piracy on the PSP". That got me thinking - is piracy my fault?

After a lot of soul searching, I'm satisfied that the answer is no. And here's why...

By opening up homebrew on PSPs, we're giving freedom to the end user. They can choose how they use that freedom. If they care about the platform, then I hope they'll use the freedom responsibly, and run only legitimate homebrew, or at worst, backups of their own UMDs. Those that choose to pirate have themselves to blame if the platform suffers. If you choose to shoot someone, it is not the fault of the gun manufacturer. If you pulled the trigger, then you committed the crime. In other words, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

Modern society seems to place very little stock in individual responsibility - all we seem to hear about is "I want my rights", and not "I want to have the responsibility that goes with them". In my opinion, that's what's wrong with the world today - a refusal to take responsibility for our individual actions.

Downgraders are tools. We provide them because we believe in individual freedom and have faith that human beings can be responsible. We do not like being treated like children by those with whom we spend our money. So it's your choice what you do with it.

Everyone who uses the downgrader for bad should look at themselves critically, and accept that THEY ARE HURTING THE INDUSTRY. THEM,THEMSELVES, BY THEIR OWN CHOICES AND ACTIONS.

I find it interesting that some of the most vocal anti-downgrade protesters openly admit that they themselves pirate PSP games. As far as I can see, there are 2 possible reasons for this:

They don't have the moral backbone and self control to avoid piracy themselves, despite fully understanding that it is bad for the future of the PSP. Do they need a nanny to stop them from being naughty?
Some sort of elitism - piracy is fine for them, but if everyone gets to do it, then everyone suffers. So long as they can do it, they're happy, and they're keen to keep others (even those who have much better motives than them) from enjoying the benefits of an unlocked PSP.
Neither of these positions is defensible, in my opinion.

On a separate note, I've noticed a terrible trend for people who are stockpiling copies of Lumines, in order to profiteer from the shortage of stocks. Worse than that, I've even noticed that some 3rd party Amazon sellers have been actively cancelling orders placed before they realised what was going on, and relisting the game at massively inflated prices.

Well, shame on all those people. It disgusts me that we give our time and effort so that everyone can freely enjoy homebrew, just to see a greedy few attempting to screw others over. It's hardly community-spirited, now, is it?

As the webmaster of DCEmu i fully agree with what Fanjita says, if you download illegal copies of games you will eventually kill off the very console you own right now. Lets keep homebrew and piracy far from each others, homebrew can only become more mainstream if piracy is kept as far away as possible.

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