Okay, so piracy is a big thing. You can’t deny it, and if you do, you probably need to get your head checked. Of course, the figures from developers and publishers are going to be rounded up, of course they are, exaggeration to prove a point. It is their product after all.
Over the years, piracy has become far more common. It’s become a hell of a lot easier. Knowing where to look provides people with a scary amount of information, places to find things illegally, the works. I can, within an hour or two, find the latest Holywood block buster and have it downloaded, of course, it will be sucky quality, but in a few weeks I can find a DVD rip of the same movie, and I still won’t have paid for it.
There are going to forever be companies working to try and be one step ahead of the pirates. They’re forever going to fail, too. Due to the platform on which games are released, they simply cannot keep up. I remember a program that would tell you what version of which ever given companies protection system is on the disc you asked it to scan. It was updated frequently, and was hosted using Rapidshare for the most part. For a pirate, it was an excellent program, it did all the leg work for you, all you had to do then was circumvent the security, and you’re done.
What does this mean for us, the legitimate consumer? Well, for a start, these security companies are going to get even more invasive with their systems, see the PC release of Mass Effect for the current wave of internet hate, and they’re going to take a harder line with potentially stolen keys. As a legitimate consumer, the chances of this being a problem for you are, well, next to nil. There are, of course, going to be teething problems with any system like this, because there is simply no way to replicate x million people trying to authenticate at once in a testing environment, see the Half Life 2/Steam problems at launch.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of users saying “Well, if the game wasn’t crap, then it’d be okay”, or the ever popular, “If it wasn’t so expensive”. The former argument may well be true, but the latter. It’s the weakest argument I’ve ever heard. Cost is, though, an important factor. Buying directly from the developer is not always an option. However, take Introversion Software as an example. They’re indy, and Chris Morris has said numerous times, that they will remain indy. You can buy their games directly from them, no middle-men. They’re cheap, for the fun you get out of them, an example would be Defcon: Everybody Dies. I bought the boxed edition on launch, and was given a digital copy of the key, and a download link for the digital copy, as distribution of the boxed copy was taking longer than expected. I paid £15 for the game, and going by the number of hours I played it for, that boils down to me paying them something horribly low like 0.5 pence an hour. That’s pretty low, and they would need somewhere in the region of 1,000 people to buy the game before they even came close to minimum wage in this country, the country they work in. However, they’re indy, and very different to the companies who are not indy.
Let’s take Bioware, for example. They are selling a downloadable special edition of Jade Empire for $40, that means I might get some .jpg files and maybe some .mp3 files, but it’s not going to be much. Amazon are selling the boxed special edition for $15, which means I might get some bits of paper and plastic for my troubles, rather than the .jpg and .mp3 files. However, it’s half price (Assuming there are shipping charges in the region of $5), and I don’t have to worry about how to reinstall it if a hard drive dies. I just pop the disc in. So, when bought from the right place, the price should be a damned non-issue, and should not be a motivating factor behind piracy.
Regardless, there simply is no way to stop piracy. It simply cannot be done. The pirates, and I mean the determined pirates, will forever share things illegally. However, casual piracy is where the biggest problems lie. I have a friend, who given the opportunity, would rather get for free what would normally be a paid for item. However, he quickly gives up if he can’t find it fast enough. When people like this make it into the private torrent trackers, though, all hell breaks loose, until the tracker is shut down.
Of course, when you talk piracy, you have to talk about the RIAA, the MPAA, and whatever other people there are doing the same job. Their bulldog tactics earn them a bad name, sure, but they don’t have a choice. If someone thinks it’s okay to steal, they’re not going to stop because some group is telling them to, just like any crime, and it certainly wouldn’t have any effect if they were effectively Government endorsed cyber police. Criminals don’t stop being criminals because they’re asked to stop, they just don’t.
There is no ideal solution to the problem, except for everyone to discourage piracy. Which is unlikely, as apparently, piracy has become morally okay.
You want someone to blame for all these new irritating DRM measures?
Blame the pirates, it’s their damned fault.
Comments
ѻdxd
is a level 50 Demon
But also, the scare tactics used by the MPAA, RIAA, BPI et al, are neither right (and in many cases just as illegal).
I've had threatening letters from my ISP about things I supposedly "downloaded", wasn't fun. They left me alone after I explained that I hadn't done it and they couldn't prove it.
But yeah, blame the pirates, but also blame the scare tactics used by the RIAA etc, because they just encourage the pirates.
Such a beautiful lie.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
It's not like they can do anything but file lawsuits. Due to the data protection laws, there's nothing they can do without breaking the law to get into a position where they can prove things.
I'm all for user freedom, but when it comes to piracy, there is no moral leg for the pirates to stand on. They bitch because something is expensive, without (apparently) considering what goes into it, and what they're effectively paying developers in the region of pennies an hour for something if they buy it.
The other thing that gets me is when people pirate something, and play it to death/listen it to death, and then say something like "Well, it was too shit to pay for", despite being happy to pirate it and play/listen to it for several hours. That argument makes me want to have these people shit broken glass.
But yes, the scare tactics are very over the top, there's no excuse for some of the outright ridiculous lawsuits they file, but at the same time, the pirates making it so easy for people to negate legal channels for buying obtaining thins is just.. Well, just as bad, if not worse.
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ѻdxd
is a level 50 Demon
*shrugs*
There are ways around it, I mean, if the RIAA et al, actually think they've got a pirate then they can apply for court injunctions and what have you to to look into their activities. In my case I was accused of downloading COD4 for the Xbox 360 (which I don't own), the relevant body contacted my ISP, gave them an my IP address and then they wrote to me telling me to stop it. What concerns me is how they got my IP address, given that there is no chance in hell I'd pirate an Xbox 360 game.
Such a beautiful lie.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ѻdxd
is a level 50 Demon
Such a beautiful lie.
ɤHoobatsch
Aggro Monkey
In the case of music for example. Itunes will sell songs for 74p a track. which is about £8 an album.
HMV sells the album for £15.
Thats a 50% markup for the pleasure of a box and an inner sleeve, all of which you can get from the bands website usually.
I realise this isn't exactly a popular fact. but it is true nonetheless. The band will get a very small share of the money, which i find incredibly unfair seeing as its their genius youre paying to hear. Yes I realise, mixing staff, sound technicians. all have their part. blablabla.
The simple fact is that the pricing IS unfair. especially in the case of audio/visual recordings.
I do think people lose track of exactly what is changing hands as well. Look for example at world of warcraft ten million subscribers, at roughly £10 a month (or $10. dont even get me STARTED on that. I'd LOVE to open a us account for everthing, just so I can play half price.)
anyway, so lets say, ten million subs, at tenner a month. thats a hundred million a month. for CURRENT USERS. to use a service that basically takes up a fair few fibre drops and some hardware. and not a hell of a lot else (not judging by how long it used to take to get an answer from support anyway
I guess in summation and partially becaue ive lost my thread. Yes stealing is wrong. But its also wrong to force people to pay so much for something, and make *so* much profit on them. In alot of ways theyre stealing also. If you went to a market stall and after two hours haggling walked away with a kiddies swingball set for £50 the vendor would be wetting himself laughing. "Theres one born every minute." Yet effectively thats what youre paying for an xbox 360 game and you might not even get as much use out of it as you would that swingball set!
I realise the analogy isnt exactly true for all scenarios, the developers of swing ball spent probably a tenner on an old car suspension coil, tennis ball, washing line and pole. and games cost tons of money to make.
Heresy grows from idleness.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Of course, digital distribution is a pain, because the hard copies are sometimes really nice (An example is my Nightwish 1997-2001 collection, which is a really nice book with the four albums from that time frame in it). Whether you want a hard copy or a digital copy, the biggest thing is (In my opinion) to buy directly from the artist. A lot of them sell directly from their site (Machinae Supremacy, NiN, Bong-Ra are the first ones that come to mind) where the money, for the large majority, goes to the artist, as I'm sure you're aware.
Forcing people to pay, unless they can find it else where, the high street prices is unfair. HMV has, and probably always will, be a collection of rip-off merchants. Shops like Music Zone, though, were more reasonable. Amazon, too, is a hell of a lot cheaper (Assuming you buy enough to not need to pay for shipping, which is what, 25 these days?), although you have to wait one or two days for it.
When it comes to console games, they're forever going to be expensive at launch, because the initial sales are probably going to be the biggest earner for most companies.
As for WoW.. There's no excuse for it, it is essentially daylight robbery, but with so many players, the ones to realise this quitting goes completely unnoticed.
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ѻdxd
is a level 50 Demon
I prefer to buy stuff from the high street though, I like walking into HMV or Virgin, flicking through the CDs and holding them as I walk over to the counter. Because I feel I should support the high street, there are people there that need it as a job. And speaking from my own experience of how the internet is killing the high street, it's hard for these guys.
Such a beautiful lie.
ʊchalkley3
I go where I please, and I please where I go
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Piracy is massive, now, it's scarily easy to download something. They would have even less luck just telling people it's bad. Yes, their tactics could use a bit of fine tuning, IE, not trying to sue the dead, the old, or the people without computers, but there's very little they can actually do, thanks to all these lovely data protection laws, they have to be subversive and bastardly about what they do.
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ʊchalkley3
I go where I please, and I please where I go
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
How do you prove that someone has downloaded something illegally, when there are legal torrents, and in the UK at least, you have to pay for a static IP address, so it's entirely possible to argue that you may have had the IP in question, but there's nothing to say that it wasn't changed to someone else before the offense was commited.
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ɤHoobatsch
Aggro Monkey
unless of course its behind a nat box. at which point id refer to the local network admin and make HIM liable for it. that generally gets people moving.
Heresy grows from idleness.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ɤDavidus
1Z 2 133+ 4 j00
Music and movies on the other hand...
I find developers make games easily accessible to try out, with demos, betas and what not. Plus, I can understand how expensive they can be to develop, with no one person making an exorbitant amount of money from the venture. Most of that capital gain is put back into the system.
But, say with the film business, the majority of the budget in most cases go to overblown toss pot of actor/tress. Like in Jersey Girl, the total budget was 25 million, with Ben Afflek garnering 14 million of that. Thats just fucking wrong for a couople months work. The same can apply to the music business in most cases too. I just refuse to pay for these peoples luxury homes and Ferraris.
An indifferent member of Team Fagballs since Winter 2007.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
I want a CD collection akin to Henry Rollins, because that looks absolutely mad.
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ɤDavidus
1Z 2 133+ 4 j00
An indifferent member of Team Fagballs since Winter 2007.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ɤDavidus
1Z 2 133+ 4 j00
An indifferent member of Team Fagballs since Winter 2007.
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Also, Peel lived for music. Either way, I want their music collections.
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ѻmick-mick
All Your Base Are Belong To Me
I'm a gamer, He's a gamer, She's a gamer, We some gamers,
Wouldn't you like to be a gamer too?
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ӝTheHalcyon
Pirate Cap'n, Reckless Thinker, Riot Mother
Haly
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.
ӝTheHalcyon
Pirate Cap'n, Reckless Thinker, Riot Mother
Haly
ӝNirach
Worrying is about as effective as chewing gum to solve algebra
There it is again!
Keep your eyes peeled for the average gamers.
Nothing's broken, it's just functioning differently.