189: A Nation of Pirates

Vert

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A Nation of Pirates

Piracy in the U.S. and Europe usually takes place behind closed doors. But in Brazil, it's wide out in the open for everyone to see. Pedro Franco examines the state of the gaming economy in his home country and how the situation got to be so dire.

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Aug 3, 2008
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This reminds me alot of the time i went to Thailand. There were lots of little stalls selling pirated software and films but the most eye-opening this was that there was a whole mall dedicated for computer shops and about half of these were selling illegal software. I couldn't belive that you could just walk into this massive air-conditioned building and browse through shelf after shelf of softare. When i was there they had the latest Adobe Creative Suite for about £5, just on the shelf for everyone to see. If you did want to buy anything the shop keeper would just disappear into the back for a few minuted and come back with a DVD with your software on.

Because so much software is available so cheap some Thai's have started up Web Design and Programming company's. My uncle, who lives their, had a website made for him dirt cheap and I suspect it was made with an illegal copy of dreamweaver and photoshop. This means that more and more people are teaching themselves to use high end software. Over here if you want to learn to use Dreamweaver legally, you have to either get a 30-day trial or fork out a lot of money where as in Thailand you just have to walk down the street grab yourself an illegal copy and your away. So although it is illegal it does open up more job opportunities for a poorer country
 

Scorched_Cascade

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Sep 26, 2008
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This was an intresting read thank you. That said there are places in the UK like the street you described, one that springs to my mind is "Blackbush Sunday Market". Basically while most of this place is legit there are some market stalls that...arn't. Pirate dvds, games and even combat knives and high powered BB guns (illegal to carry around in the street in the UK I believe) are commonplace. Police regularly patrol (on a predictable patrol route) the market but its laughable, when they stroll past the venders just chuck carpets over their wares and this for some reason stops the police from investigating them. I would assume that a lot of the markets revenue comes from stalls like this and as its privately owned they are inclined to turn a blind eye.
 

insanelich

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Sep 3, 2008
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First of all, it isn't more than likely someone's committing a crime playing videogames in Brazil. It's just *likely*. That is exactly what the word means. Use a dictionary next time.

And you mention you pirate in Finland and... nobody cares one bit. Finland's full of high tech, plenty of content providers, game studios etcetera.

The culture isn't against piracy either, and plenty of people buy a lot of legal games. Even more pirate some games and buy others. But pirates selling their ill-earned goods is seen tantamount to sacrilege - pirate all you want for your own use, but if you try to turn a profit on the work of others, you've committed a crime against the society's morals.

Or, in short, how American of you. Be you American or not, you certainly think like one.
 

Ghost

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Feb 13, 2009
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earning a profit from pirated games? eurghhh lazy free loading trash. what if you steal a pirated game from these guys? 'HOW DARE YOU STEAL I'LL CALL THE POLICE ON YOU!'
 

Ronwue

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Oct 22, 2008
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A fascinating read, and I get the notion that most of the eastern European countries have the same situation concerning gaming.
 

Brotherofwill

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Jan 25, 2009
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The same situation exist in a lot of countries, especially in Asia. The alarming thing is that the police rarely do anything to stop them, mostly public "cover-up" raids in some small shops to amke it appear as though they are fighting it. Just goes to show that in the right circumstances the piracy industry (if it's as blatant as being sold in malls, which i've seen quite often)is a tourist attracting and good revenue source for the country.
 

Vert

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Feb 14, 2009
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This is Pedro. I haven't been able to contact the editors of the escapist on the password for the account that published the report, so for now I'll be replying from this one.

baggyn: Just as in Thailand, you can easily find all kinds of pirated PC software on the streets, not just games. Indeed, for some types of software, it's probably harder to find a place with legitimate copies than one with pirated stuff. I guess it does expand the possibilities for some people, but the overall effect on society is pretty bad, as I discuss in my article. But it really is ridiculously blatant and that easy to buy pirated stuff. The way you describe the process of buying is pretty much how it happens around here too, sans the air conditioning.

Scorched_Cascade: I imagine that you can find such places in any large city of the world, without too much dificulty. After all, it's pretty easy and cheap make pirate copies and the profits are probably quite large, which should allow for the necessary bribes to take place. At least, as long as you remain low-key.

insanelich: The expression 'more than likely' is gramaticly correct. As the word likely means "Possessing or displaying the qualities or characteristics that make something probable", more than likely simply means "with a higher probability than that which is attributed to the word likely". I.e., a high probability, as probable usually is associated with a percentage higher than 50%.
I don't mention Finland anywhere in my article, so I'm not sure what you mean. I'm guessing you simply want to compare the situation described in my article with that of Finland, right? Well, I've never been there, so I have no ideia how it works there and what effects it has had on Finish society. When I analyse piracy, I mean only to do so based on my experience here in Brazil and the consequences it has had on Brazilian society as a whole.Maybe Finland has a different and more positive experience with piracy and maybe other countries wouldn't undergo the same process as has happened here.
But, in all honesty, given what I've read regarding a few other countries, such as China and Russia, I think that the Brazilian experience is probably closer to that with which other countries, such as the US and Japan, would go through, than what's happend in Finland.
And, despite consisting of nothing more than a petty Ad Hominem, no, I was not born in the US. I am Brazilian by birth, although I did live in England for four years.
 

mercutio22

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Feb 17, 2009
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"The piracy epidemic only came about with the combination of exceptionally high taxes (EGM Brazil estimated in their March 2005 edition that at least 45 percent of the price of a PC game consisted of taxes), the low income of most Brazilians, the lack of an effective government anti-piracy program and, ironically, the very factor that helped make games more mass-market: the change of media from cartridges to CDs, making it much easier to copy games."

Very good account! And as a Brazilian, I abhor the moralist tone of rest of the text. You see, while certainly in a country where the people is not overtaxed, it makes sense to condemn piracy and all the harm it causes game publishers. Why should they pay for the problems of foreign countries? I don't think they should be the ones sustaining the burden of a corrupt foreign government. Neither should Brazilian gamers have to pay around 50-100 USD PLUS around 25%(yes, that much, still disconsidering the fact our currency is crap compared to USD) taxes for being able to play the latest title.

The pricing is completely out of context. No average young brazilian can pay that much.

I think there are two issues here that should be of concern: The game publishers should adjust the prices of their games to conform to the Brazilian economy, and the taxing here should be lowered.

If neither is done, it is expected that regular people, not regular criminals, resort to piracy if thats the only alternative.

Don't expect people to stop playing on moral grounds: That behavior is expected of idiotic Cristian faith heads living in their carefully constructed fake world of miracles and pseudo-righteousness, not to be expected of real people in the real Darwinian world of restricted resources and fierce competition - thats Brazil.

So what to do as a gamer?

IMAO, I think piracy is the most appropriate act of civil disobedience in the Brazilian gaming scenario. I would not advocate for people to buy games in the black market, but to download them in p2p networks like bittorrent. That way, drug dealers and criminals aren't financed (directly at least).

Further, it is still possible to download some games from Steam for its real price -- the Brazilian Government still ignores downloadable content. So there still is a way to reward the games you really like, and get all the advantages of buying the original games such as playing online multiplayer games, score ranking and so on.

For the low quality titles, they deserve to be pirated anyways. How's that for a righteous attitude?!

Cheers
 

Vert

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Feb 14, 2009
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SICK0_ZER0: as Kwil says, organized crime is heavily involved with this type of piracy. Although they present a friendly face towards potential costumers, you most certainly do not want to try to steal from them.

Ronwue: yes, I get the impression, from what I've read previously, that quite a few countries, such as Russia and China, are in a similar situation as to the one around here.

Brotherofwill: the raids you describe also happen here. Let me tell you a quick and interesting story.
Before the Paulista Center Mall existed, there was another 'pseudo-mall' called Stand Center that was the reference point for piracy in the Paulista Avenue. I was told that the police used to raid Stand Center every so often, but would usually do so near the holidays, so that police officers could use the confiscated software as gifts for their children.
On a more general note, the city goverment actually tried hard to close down Stand Center for years, but failed to do so on charges of piracy. This lasted until they cleverly realized that the mall failed to live up to certain hygine and sanatary conditions, and they finally managed to close it up for good.
BUT, as I've already said, the Paulista Center Mall opened not long after they succeeded and simply took its place. In this case, consumer demand for pirate goods means that even when the goverment tries to tackle the problem, they might not succeed.
 

Vert

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mercutio22, I recomend you read my article more carefully. It's not just foreign publishers and developers that lose out as a consequence of piracy (and 'corrupt foreign goverments'), but the whole of the Brazilian society. Maybe gamers, who enjoy the benefits of piracy, end up with a postive bargain in short run, but piracy also leads to:
- No official support. Red rings on the Xbox360 = a new Xbox360.
- Organized crime. And it seems impossible not to buy at least some things through the 'grey market' and help organized crime.
- No translations into portguese, which means that people who can't speak english, i.e., the poor brazilians, can't enjoy most games.
- Almost zero game development.
So you're saying that gamers, who probably have better incomes than most brazilians, should have the benefits of cheap games, whilest the rest of Brazil pays for the consequences?
I do agree with you that downloading from p2p sites helps avoid some of these issues, but I can't imagine why on earth you think that just because a person is from another country, that allows you to steal from them.
Nor do I expect people to stop pirating simply on moral grounds. As an economist, I reconize that the incetives to pirate are immense. Quite simple, the benefits of pirating consists of a large private gain, while the costs, which are larger than the benefits, are shared (and thus hidden to the pirate gamer) by brazilian society as whole.
I agree with you that it will take a concerted effort by both the goverment, by reducing taxes on games, and companies, by adopting other pricing policies, to help end piracy in Brazil. But don't expect that to happen anytime soon.
 

Clashero

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Aug 15, 2008
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The exact same situation happens here in Argentina. There are only a few shops which sell original games, and no one buys them, except for the odd Guild Wars (or other un-piratable game) purchase. 4 blocks from my house, a shop sells pirated PC games. You simply look at their list, say, for instance "I want this. GTA IV." And they'll make you a copy if they don't have one at hand. The price is 15 pesos (1 dollar equals about 3,50 pesos) for a DVD, 20 for a dual-layer/DVD-9, and 10 for a PS2 game.
2 blocks further away, a shop sells ONLY, and ONLY pirated games. It's a perfectly legal shop, all the paperwork is in order, but they sell exclusively 3rd party peripherals and pirated PS2, 360 and Wii games. Right around the corner from that shop is yet another PS2/360/Wii pirating shop which recently closed down.
 

Clemenstation

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Sounds like a rocking good time overseas.

Just out of curiosity, what percentage of titles are officially translated into Portuguese, d'yathink? Is there a big fansub community?
 

Vert

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Feb 14, 2009
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Clashero: in this aspect, at least, Brazil and Argentina are very much alike.

Clemenstation: As far as I can tell, zero titles were officially translated into portuguese in last year. Except, perhaps, any new MMORPG (which are moderatly successfull in Brazil). The best one can hope is for a translated manual, which is commom in PC games.
Regarding Fansubs, apart from Winning Eleven (which is massive around here), I've only heard of a single other game being translated into portuguese: Fallout 2. As far as I know, Fansubs are incredibly rare. I.e., you want to play games, learn english.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that curious fact: in Brazil, reasonably priced, legitimate PC games can be found for around R$100 (roughly $50) and there are plenty of stores that sell them too. For complex reasons that I won't go into, legitimate PC gaming exists to a greater extent in Brazil than console gaming. Or, to put it better, one can buy a legitimate PC game for a very reasonable price here. Which is why it is much harder to justify piracy of PC games than that of consoles.
 

mercutio22

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Feb 17, 2009
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"mercutio22, I recomend you read my article more carefully. It's not just foreign publishers and developers that lose out as a consequence of piracy (and 'corrupt foreign goverments'), but the whole of the Brazilian society. Maybe gamers, who enjoy the benefits of piracy, end up with a postive bargain in short run..."
I wholeheartedly agree. Thats why I think Brazilians should download from p2p networks when the title is overpriced. Totally pro-Brazilian community.

"No translations into portguese, which means that people who can't speak english, i.e., the poor brazilians, can't enjoy most games."

There's one good reason for them to learn. Most the english I learned came from the top quality pirated Lucas Arts games, which where for the most part not even published in Brazil in the 90s(e.g. Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max). I did buy from them when they published Grim Fandango =].

"...And it seems impossible not to buy at least some things through the 'grey market' and help organized crime."

Come on, you can't speak for everyone. I beg to differ.

"- Almost zero game development."
Sad but true. I would not be a game developer in Brazil under these circumstances.

"So you're saying that gamers, who probably have better incomes than most brazilians, should have the benefits of cheap games, whilest the rest of Brazil pays for the consequences?"

No, I am saying we should P2P and refrain from buying from places like Santa Ifigênia.

"I do agree with you that downloading from p2p sites helps avoid some of these issues, but I can't imagine why on earth you think that just because a person is from another country, that allows you to what to steal from them."

I don't think it allows stealing, I do think stealing is *necessary* in the context of the lack of reasonably priced games available in the brazilian market. I don't know how to emphasize this enough - People should buy, when the option is available: for instance, you can buy UT3 for USD 19.99 from steam while it would cost 89,90 reais in americanas.com. Thats is ABSURD! Its twice the true value. YES! I exhort all Brazilians: in the case of steal or be stolen: STEAL! MuHUHAHAHAHA!!!! (performing Mr. Evil's little finger impression)

"Nor do I expect people to stop pirating simply on moral grounds."
Then quit calling the civil disobedient "unscrupulous"as if it was demeaning to pirate in the given circumstances. Some of us do piracy while being principled. In fact, some piracy is definitely benign, specially in the case of proprietary software tools (as opposed to leisure software, gamez) . It furthers opensourceness. Is that even a word? =]

"As an economist, I reconize that the incetives to pirate are immense. Quite simple, the benefits of pirating consists of a large private gain, while the costs, which are larger than the benefits, are shared (and thus hidden to the pirate gamer) by brazilian society as whole.
I agree with you that it will take a concerted effort by both the goverment, by reducing taxes on games, and companies, by adopting other pricing policies, to help end piracy in Brazil. But don't expect that to happen anytime soon."

Me neither, so lets get practical. Teach your friends some bittorrent.

Cheers.

By the way, good essay. Otherwise excellent without the reckless admonishing.
 

Nanissimov

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Feb 17, 2009
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Its kinda sad, people are wondering whats causing the economical problems when they are doing it, The olny time i pirate a game is when i cant buy it AT ALL. Like recently, i was trying to get my hands on a copy of summoner, no luck so i pirated it. But if i want a game like gta4 or hitman bloodmoney or what ever if they have it at gamestop, deal. Ebay, maybe depending on the pricing
 

calelogan

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Jun 15, 2008
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Clemenstation said:
Sounds like a rocking good time overseas.

Just out of curiosity, what percentage of titles are officially translated into Portuguese, d'yathink? Is there a big fansub community?
Not many titles are officially translated, but it wouldn't be fair to say only a few are. Usually those are huge AAA releases, take Halo 3 and Mirror's Edge, for example. Halo 3 was not only was translated, but also got a dubbed Portuguese version. Mirror's Edge, for example, like many other translations available in Brazil, provides Portuguese subtitles in-game and for the menus. Most of the games that see Brazilian releases usually have a Portuguese copy of the game manual included and a warning mentioning that the rest of the game is in its original language.

Winning Eleven, on the other hand, is an impressive collaborative-pirate example of how Konami's soccer game gets Portuguese narrations, local teams in faithful uniforms along with ads for Brazilian companies next to the field.

As a Brazilian gamer, I acknowledge the situation isn't good, but it definitely favors those who don't want to pay big bucks for games (which come at a very high price due to importation taxes). As a Brazilian game developer, I fight these urges and buy games the legal way. There's no better way to support the industry I am part of, though we all must admit the grass on the other side looks greener.
 

Coalhada

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Feb 6, 2009
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As a Brazilian, I agree with pretty much everything mercutio22 said.
And I, too, should say that your article sounds an awful lot like what a rich North American puritan would say... But that's just me.

And to The Escapist Webdesign Crew, a warning: the image on the article (the one that contains it's title) is rather offensive. You *know* that that photo isn't from Brazil, so using it just gives everyone else the *incorrect* idea that we live in extreme poverty (even though that is the case in some regions of my country, it is hardly the case of the major cities and metropolitan areas - where gamers, the focus of the article, live). IMHO, you could have done a little more research and done a more "accurate" job, to say the least.