>Quick question: How many of you have ever borrowed a book or something from a friend, and ho do you justify not paying the books publisher, you damned krimals?!
It's rather simple actually. The same reason that explains why you are only allowed to install one copy of Windows on a single machine without pirating or cracking.
On Iron Lore and PC Gaming
The problem of software piracy is actually rather complicated, and not one easily solved. The crux of the matter lies in economics and big companies' fear of not earning as much money as before. The same goes for the big players in the music industry. Their inability to reach new markets and keep old ones are blamed on piracy. Their unwillingness to provide a new generation of software/music consumers with legit options to buy their products is causing them to lose money, yet they want to force them to go to the store and buy a hard copy as before. Which other industries can ignore their customers thus and survive?
I do not sympathise with the big companies. They earn more than enough as it is throwing 9 crappy games or albums at us for every good one. A new EA game is spewed from their computers as a new R&B girl is made, polished, packed and shipped off to MTV. These are the ones crying out the loudest of gargantuan losses to piracy by holding a piece of paper before the governments, on which is written a statistic of the number of times their product has been downloaded. They claim these numbers to be losses. That these downloaders would instead have bought their products in the stores.
I do not believe that the losses to these big companies from piracy are bigger than their revenues from reaching larger markets through downloads and the spreading of their products. As for the big artists, they get little enough as it is pr album sold, and still they can afford gigantic mansions and five luxury cars. The big game companies are in a constant state of growth.
The losers are small independent companies and artists, but still, many of these survive and even flourish if their product is good enough or if their market strategies are innovative enough. Those that perish will have done so partly from losses to piracy, partly to losses from the cost of game development and publishing, partly because of the lack of quality in their product and partly for dozens of other reasons. But piracy is not the be all end all reason for artists and companies buckling under.
Now, as for piracy itself, you can argue both that it is theft and that it is not. I myself am not completely sure how I feel on the matter. Some piracy feels much less like theft than others for many different reasons I will not go into here. My point is that it is illegal, and it must stay that way. The alternative is to legalise it, and that would not be a good idea. But being illegal, the producers of the products being downloaded make millions of people into thieves. Why can they not give us legal alternatives? Why can't I, if I want to, download an album I want, and pay a reasonable price? Overprised albums and games are definately part of why piracy is so widespread, and the lack of an alternative legal way of downloading the same products is another. Lastly, in poorer countries, legal or illegal is more or less a moot point. They can't afford the product in the first place and would not buy it if their was no illegal alternative. This might not be bad, however, simply because a company would be spreading their product in a new market. As the economic development of todays poorer nations continue to grow, more and more people will be able to buy legal products, and if a company already has a strong foothold in such countries it is probable that they will keep their position and earn more money.
The money they say they lose, they don't. It's imaginary money. For the most part. Hiding a failure behind piracy is cowardly. Your product just wasn't good enough, or your PR machine failed, or your business sense was not cunning enough, or a dozen other reasons.
Piracy is illegal, ethically questionable, yet maybe not an economical disaster. It could well be a gold mine for those innovative and bold enough to see the potential.
Thank you for reading
I do not sympathise with the big companies. They earn more than enough as it is throwing 9 crappy games or albums at us for every good one. A new EA game is spewed from their computers as a new R&B girl is made, polished, packed and shipped off to MTV. These are the ones crying out the loudest of gargantuan losses to piracy by holding a piece of paper before the governments, on which is written a statistic of the number of times their product has been downloaded. They claim these numbers to be losses. That these downloaders would instead have bought their products in the stores.
I do not believe that the losses to these big companies from piracy are bigger than their revenues from reaching larger markets through downloads and the spreading of their products. As for the big artists, they get little enough as it is pr album sold, and still they can afford gigantic mansions and five luxury cars. The big game companies are in a constant state of growth.
The losers are small independent companies and artists, but still, many of these survive and even flourish if their product is good enough or if their market strategies are innovative enough. Those that perish will have done so partly from losses to piracy, partly to losses from the cost of game development and publishing, partly because of the lack of quality in their product and partly for dozens of other reasons. But piracy is not the be all end all reason for artists and companies buckling under.
Now, as for piracy itself, you can argue both that it is theft and that it is not. I myself am not completely sure how I feel on the matter. Some piracy feels much less like theft than others for many different reasons I will not go into here. My point is that it is illegal, and it must stay that way. The alternative is to legalise it, and that would not be a good idea. But being illegal, the producers of the products being downloaded make millions of people into thieves. Why can they not give us legal alternatives? Why can't I, if I want to, download an album I want, and pay a reasonable price? Overprised albums and games are definately part of why piracy is so widespread, and the lack of an alternative legal way of downloading the same products is another. Lastly, in poorer countries, legal or illegal is more or less a moot point. They can't afford the product in the first place and would not buy it if their was no illegal alternative. This might not be bad, however, simply because a company would be spreading their product in a new market. As the economic development of todays poorer nations continue to grow, more and more people will be able to buy legal products, and if a company already has a strong foothold in such countries it is probable that they will keep their position and earn more money.
The money they say they lose, they don't. It's imaginary money. For the most part. Hiding a failure behind piracy is cowardly. Your product just wasn't good enough, or your PR machine failed, or your business sense was not cunning enough, or a dozen other reasons.
Piracy is illegal, ethically questionable, yet maybe not an economical disaster. It could well be a gold mine for those innovative and bold enough to see the potential.
Thank you for reading
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ThunderTitan
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You're right... books don't make you agree to a confusing, long winded text after you already purchased and broke any seals the book might have... they just have a copyright sign on them...Bandobras Took wrote:>>1) I have yet to read an EULA on a book which prohibits lending or copying;<<
Oh, so it's OK as long as i delete the copy when i'm done with the game... 10x, that's a load off my mind.Bandobras Took wrote:>>2) Piracy is not instance of lending. The appropriate question is "How many of you have ever made a complete copy of a friend's book, including cover art, and read it while your friend kept his own book?" The obvious answer is that we haven't, because that is criminal, and that is exactly what software piracy is;<<
or are you implying that it somehow makes a difference because you need an electronic device to use one but not the other?!
Oh, i see, it's the same law that says you can only read your book in only one room in your house...ywhtptgtfo wrote:>>It's rather simple actually. The same reason that explains why you are only allowed to install one copy of Windows on a single machine without pirating or cracking.<<
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I have never faked a sarcasm in my entire life. - ???
"With ABC deleting dynamite gags from cartoons, do you find that your children are using explosives less frequently?" — Mark LoPresti
Alt-0128: €
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