On the one hand, yes, this is fucking excessive. King has no ownership of the word "Candy", not in any shape or form. Fuck, can you imagine all the strippers named Candy being stuck paying royalties to a Danish mobile dev?
Yes, I'm obviously kidding, but this raises a point. The concept of intellectual property is utterly and completely broken. I've tried to explain it to friends, being an aspiring writer, but the only thing some people see is that I.P. ownweship is what guarantees royalties, and royalties are largely what keeps writers afloat.
I pirated my share of games during my teenage Lean Cow years. If I happened to initiate an unpacking process or launched a Scene executable within sight of my parents, the obligatory lecture on copyrights would follow. Back then, I couldn't retort anything - but now I know that the bulk of any lawsuit's money goes not to the developers, but to the publisher. Hack up a paperback and sell it to your students in photocopied form so it costs less? You owe every unsold copy to the publisher. Not the author - the *publisher*.
People need to be paid for their work. It's unavoidable and necessary. The problem is the current system no longer favors those who *need* to make money off of this to live, it favors people who simply *want* more money, largely to further business-related growth.
You can justify your freemium purchases in Candy Crush by saying you're actually paying the devs who work for your updates and balance tweaks, but the fact is - you aren't. You're paying King's CEO and CFO more than the App coders.
As far as suggesting something new is concerned - good luck, honestly. I keep trying it around the family table, and I'm almost considered a thief. Bring up alternative payment methods to American friends as a Canadian and bam, you're automatically labelled a Socialist.
Half the problem is ideological, honestly. There probably are better systems out there, but they just won't have that Hardcore Capitalism ring that some economists find comforting.
