awful comparison.
Yeah yeah, we know piracy is digital and coke is physical, but really, what does it matter? You still have no right to use a product if you didn’t pay for it.
But in the case of digital media, the only thing between you and the product is a cd key or shitty copy protection that makes it harder for the people who paid and easier for those who didn’t.
DRM is another topic, so that’s irrelevant.
You just don’t feel like arguing in favor of DRM, because everyone knows it’s pure evil.
that is actually practiced frequently in the corporate workplace, a little thing called ‘downsizing’ or ‘reengineering’.
as for music, i’m in favour of the thing that bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are doing where they release their album on whatever level of quality or audio format you want for a donation of how much you think the album is worth, you can then pay $8 for a simple physical cd and case mailed out to you, $16 for a hardcover, then $150+ for vinyl collectors editions and such… the money goes DIRECT to the artist and those involved in the creative process.
Bands being signed to record companies these days, their contracts now require them to give a big chunk of their profit made from concerts to their record label EVEN IF THE BANDS ORGANISED THE WHOLE THING THEMSELVES, the major labels are charging more for cd releases which (in their minds) makes up for piracy but it just makes it more uneconomical for ANYONE to buy the cd’s… and as for copyright laws, these days it’s more about corporate profiteering than protecting the creative rights of the artists… those court cases where people are fined hundreds of thousands for music piracy?.. do you think the label was actually damaged financially in anything CLOSE to that? and do you think any of the artists actually receive any of that money?
games and movies are usually a different story though, the development of games costs millions these days where they NEED the funding only a publisher can give them, the publisher funds the developers/producers for the tools, resources and man hours they need to produce the item which is a collaboration of the work of many people.
That said, when a game is impossible to find because a company is no longer publishing it (mid-90’s games from now defunct developers, old DOS games, stuff plain impossible to find any other way.etc), or a demo hasn’t been released for me to try and get an idea of what i’m getting, often i will download the game or borrow it from a friend and see if i want to pay for it. A few years ago i was given a pirate copy of Half-Life 2, a couple of weeks later i bought a copy in-store and booted up a steam account. I borrowed a copy of Farcry off a friend, i couldve gotten a nocd crack upon returning it to him, but i went to EB where i found it for $30. I still installed the crack though as i prefer not to have my desk space taken up with a stack of game cases.
The majority of games i have (90%+) are either abandonware or games i legally purchased… if i don’t like a game, i stop playing it and don’t buy it.
As far as i’m concerned, it’s no loss to the publisher, it’s their fault for not releasing a demo, or releasing a badly done game. I mean what’s the alternative? me having been gipped out of $100 i wish i’d never spent… if that’s how they make their money… i want to be supportive of developers and publishers who produce something worth buying.
Ofcourse it’s helped along by the fact that a new game over here will cost up to $120 for a new-release STANDARD copy of a game… collectors editions can be upwards of $130… and the exchange rate of the dollar being $0.84 US cents at the moment, and often being over $0.90… that’s the equivalent of $100+ US Dollars… i VERY rarely buy a new-release game for that reason… it’s a ripoff… I understand they want to make profit, but… damn
No. DRM and piracy, while related, are two diffrent arguments. I dislike piracy. That doesn’t mean I don’t dislike DRM (shitty DRM that is, like what they’re doing with Assassin’s Creed II.)
DRM exists because of piracy. So justifying piracy because DRM exists is retarded. It’s a big circle of stupidity between an anti-DM person and a game dev, but what you don’t realize is that it affects other people who don’t pirate the game.
DRM could be removed and instead replaced with an online service like Steam.
But it would have to be at least as reliable as steam and it would only prevent people from playing multiplayer games illegally.
:facepalm:
This talking point is older than you are.
Look, piracy exists. Pirates will get around any sort of protection you might try to implement. Protections that you implement will harm law-abiding users and just make the pirates stronger. You don’t strengthen your defenses ad infinitum. You go on the offense. Figure out what makes the pirates tick and solve THAT problem instead of trying to stop it with a virtual forcefield to protect the soft-squishy nougat center.
Fix the problem that causes piracy. Don’t put band-aids on it.
I would like to remind everyone with this same viewpoint that you can pirate games on Steam.
Aaaaaaaand… GO![/SIZE]
When did I ever say anything against that?
Well, I think that those who work on a project, should get paid for a project.
I also believe in getting a reasonable value for what I pay. I pay for downloaded books. I like to collect as it were, so if I like it, I will be happy to buy it. If it sucks, then piss on it.
Bottom line though, is that the person who does the work should get paid. If the game/DVD/audio product/etc can sell 1,000,000 copies, that is awesome. Incentive to make a great product.
Shrugs.
I care less of taking digital products compared to actual physical product.
Part of how the human mind is wired.
Easier to steal something we cannot see.
In the past without digital technology it was easier to keep are person’s work safe but now it is a grey area.
Would having my friend watch a movie I bought be bad since he didn’t purchase it himself?
How about when I have 20+ people over for a party and they all view that moving without paying for it?
How about when I stream it to thousands of people on the internet without them paying for it?
What if instead of a movie it was music or a game?
I used to buy a lot of games back when they were priced 20-30 USD but now it is ridiculous…they are priced at 60+ USD.
The only way I think they can curb piracy is to make the physical product version of the digital material appealing enough for people to buy.
Piracy is not the biggest reason for the high prices.
Well yah part of it is popularity.
If video games weren’t as popular they wouldn’t be priced as highly.
Also it costs more to produce games in the present compared to the past.
But piracy is one of the main reasons for DRM.
And DRM is also one of the reasons that people pirate games.
VICIOUS CIRCLE
Pirating started it! :’(
True dat. This is why we can’t have nice things!