An often ignored aspect of the "piracy" issue, at least on the side of strict intellectual copyright laws, is the matter of quality. The traditional concept of "pirated" media is that they're cheap, low-quality versions. Poor quality and a hassle. Well, perhaps once true, this hardly the case anymore, and the shared versions over the Internet are a significant problem for traditional media because the quality is in fact better.
When you have a better product, it's easier to charge more. If you have the same product, you can still get the sale based out of guilt and implicit morality. When your product is worse than what's free, you're a lost cause.
Put in a DVD and you are treated to a series of advertisements showing off the publisher of the content. Choose to play the content, and you then get the honour of sitting through the warning reminding you that you can get a free version without all this crap, except you shouldn't. Try and play it in your DVD drive, hopefully the CSS decryption software can manage to work its way past that anti-copying DRM that clearly works so well.
This extends to videogames as well. How long does it take just to get to the title screen? Is it entirely necessary to tell me everytime I put in the game to whom the developer outsourced the cinematics? You've already gotten my money for this product; don't make me less likely to do the same in the future.
The FBI warning is ironically an advertisement unto itself for why it's beneficial to act against it.
When you have a better product, it's easier to charge more. If you have the same product, you can still get the sale based out of guilt and implicit morality. When your product is worse than what's free, you're a lost cause.
Put in a DVD and you are treated to a series of advertisements showing off the publisher of the content. Choose to play the content, and you then get the honour of sitting through the warning reminding you that you can get a free version without all this crap, except you shouldn't. Try and play it in your DVD drive, hopefully the CSS decryption software can manage to work its way past that anti-copying DRM that clearly works so well.
This extends to videogames as well. How long does it take just to get to the title screen? Is it entirely necessary to tell me everytime I put in the game to whom the developer outsourced the cinematics? You've already gotten my money for this product; don't make me less likely to do the same in the future.
The FBI warning is ironically an advertisement unto itself for why it's beneficial to act against it.
Recently Spotted:
robio (3m)
I remember this becoming prevelant in the DC era where every game started to have shout-outs to all the engines and middle-ware makers.
Still not a reason to pirate games though, it's not the hard-working (or slacking) devs fault.
At my old work we had these pissant vendors who were always trying to write co-branding discounts into our contracts (so we'd have to carry "Powered by Pissant.com") on our equipment etc...
Legitimate or not, it's a competitor. If they're going to get anywhere in increasing the legitimate market-share, they need to put together at the bare minimum as good of a product, or else they've lost before they've started.
I would steal a car and a handbag if I needed to.
But I'd make sure i was stealing the car and handbag of the CEO of MGM or Warner Bros. or whoever has those ads before dvds.
Adding rootkits to CDs - failed attempt to combat piracy
Creating an online marketplace - successful attempt to combat piracy
It's not a matter of eliminating people sharing content, it's a matter of eliminating lost revenue. Obviously filesharing is not going to disappear under any scenario, but you're suggesting a false dichotomy.
What I'm saying is that even if they gave it away for free on the Internet, the illegitimate version would still be preferable.
I'm sorry, but that's a joke. There are people who will pay no money for products even if they are priced low. MP3's are a buck and people torrent -- and that's for products they like (or they wouldn't bother to torrent).