More Unskippable Piracy Warnings for DVDs

[him over there]

I was going to talk about how this is counter productive because it only harms consumers and not pirates but since others have already done so here's another reason it's counter productive:

 

[Flight]

Speaking as a non-pirate, these things are not only whiny, but useless. I saw this ad on a DVD once that smugly informed my that not only would I not steal a purse, but I wouldn't download a car. I'm currently debating which of these is more annoying.

 

[Something Amyss]

Good idea, the three warnings we get at the moment never really managed to convince me... but this one will surely do the job...

more or less what I see happening.

I don't really think many people are going to be swayed by this. I'd be surprised if even one person was.

 

[maninahat]

Forgive me if I personally feel that the people who are victims in this crime are harmful leeches on society who have no right to exist.

Who are you referring to? The industry, the pirates or the consumers?

Pirates are selfish, entitled shits who pee in the pool, the industry are the ones who stick up signs telling people to stop it, and the consumers are the ones who suffer both the piss yellow water and the obnoxious signs. Consumers like to complain about the signs, whilst failing to realize that they should be moaning about the ones who pissed in the pool in the first place.

The industry is an exploitative cabal of greedy fucks who take all the profit from the creative endeavors of others, file lawsuits against individuals worth millions of dollars for what amounts to petty larceny, use unethical business practices to avoid paying those who do the real work what they are owed and ultimately contribute nothing at all to society.
The people that piracy generally "hurts" are people who have no right to the money they lost on piracy anyway. I have no sympathy for them and never will.

Yes, the industry is exploitative, greedy and unethical. But it is not an invulnerable, faceless monolith. It is mostly made up of minimum wage workers and struggling artists - the first to feel the pinch when profits drop, the first victims of piracy, and the least deserving of your condemnation. They are the industry - not just some suits at the top.

Also, the industry contributes a great deal. As you're on a video game website, I assume you play video games. Guess who provided the money to produce those games, the resources for the artists, the headquarters for those minds to come together, and the distribution service that allows millions of people like you to play the games. You may not think much of the industry, but without it, there would be no games.*


* Don't even think of trying to counter with some bullshit about indie games. Indie games still rely on the technology developed by big studios, and indie game developers hate piracy even more than any AAA brand.

 

[Farther than stars]

Clearly this will solve piracy. However could I have not realized that the way to combat piracy is to do the very thing that can help breed piracy. Luckily we had the US goverment to ignore evidence and logic as they are so good at doing.

Would you mind providing me with that evidence? I'd be very interested to see some of it. What's more, how does a ten-second-long warning breed piracy? Personally I don't think the average consumer stands there in the store going: "No, I want to buy this movie, but I won't because it will probably contain an anti-piracy message."

 

[Burst6]

Forgive me if I personally feel that the people who are victims in this crime are harmful leeches on society who have no right to exist.

Who are you referring to? The industry, the pirates or the consumers?

Pirates are selfish, entitled shits who pee in the pool, the industry are the ones who stick up signs telling people to stop it, and the consumers are the ones who suffer both the piss yellow water and the obnoxious signs. Consumers like to complain about the signs, whilst failing to realize that they should be moaning about the ones who pissed in the pool in the first place.

That analogy doesn't work that well. It implies that pirates are directly affecting the paying customers, when in fact all the problems for the paying customers comes form how the industry reacts to them.

In the end dealing with pirates isn't your job. All you should care about is getting a quality product. Keeping the interests in check should be the job of the corporation. All the problems come from the fact that the corporations are trying to build shareholder confidence with flashy but in the end useless fixes instead of trying to satisfy customers.

 

[Rodrigo Girao]

[http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm]

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Piracy isn't a problem. Instead it is an excuse, an excuse to for businesses to employ methods and practices to more tightly control and regulate what the average consumer can do with the technology at their disposal.

Technology that we supposedly own, media that we supposedly own, all of which are increasingly being sold as defective by design. We are sold physical media and told we only bought a license to what it contains. We are sold pieces of technology that have limitations built into them through both the construction of the device and the programming that allows it to function, despite there being no reason for it apart than the deliberate crippling or lobotomy benefits everyone, else, everyone other than the person who bought the device.

 

[masticina]

How cute

Right then time to prepare something in the kitchen I be back later

How much crap like this they put in it how more sad they look. Seriously!

 

[Bonemeal]

Sometimes I think that the MPAA does obnoxious shit like this to make more people turn to piracy. And then, when DVD/BluRay sales inevitably drop, they can point to their shrinking bottom lines, turn to their lobbyists with big, tearful doe eyes, and proclaim "SEE?! Piracy is killing our industry!"

 

[Epona]

So I'm expecting the forum to be filled with people who are angry at this new inconvenience, whilst totally apathetic to piracy and utterly incapable of suggesting a way for the government to magically fix the problem.

Yes, it is annoying. But I'm willing to man up and accept that it is probably a necessary evil when there is no obvious solution to an endemic crime. Pointing out that this new warning will hardly solve piracy is not a good argument. You're saying that if one can't achieve a perfect result, there is no point in trying anything in the first place. That is not helpful.

Man up? You mean bend over.

This is called "punishing your paying customer" and actually encourages piracy. This is another case of the pirate getting the better product.


Oh and the whole "it doesn't have to be perfect" strawman was a nice touch.

 

[Epona]

Piracy isn't a problem. Instead it is an excuse, an excuse to for businesses to employ methods and practices to more tightly control and regulate what the average consumer can do with the technology at their disposal.

Technology that we supposedly own, media that we supposedly own, all of which are increasingly being sold as defective by design. We are sold physical media and told we only bought a license to what it contains. We are sold pieces of technology that have limitations built into them through both the construction of the device and the programming that allows it to function, despite there being no reason for it apart than the deliberate crippling or lobotomy benefits everyone, else, everyone other than the person who bought the device.

Absolutely! There is nothing I can add to this but to avoid a low content post let me just say that indeed, piracy and used sales are used as scapegoats to do shit that people would not allow with any other product. Imagine your washing machine refusing to wash socks without an additional fee. Imagine your washing machine having a built in tv screen (that you don't want but is worked into the price) so it can display anti-used appliances propaganda and unskippable ads for new washers.

 

[The_Echo]

So, this is obviously dumb. But I guess I'll go check out this site and see what they have to say.

Intellectual property rights theft is not a victimless crime.

Alright, thesis activate. Show me your moves.

It threatens U.S. businesses and robs hard-working Americans of their jobs, which negatively impacts the economy.

Seems legit. Where's your evidence? ... None? Well, that's not very convincing, now, is it?

It can also pose serious health and safety risks to consumers, and oftentimes, it fuels global organized crime.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Wait. What? You're... you're kidding, right?

Serious health and safety risks?

"Don't pirate, kids, you'll catch the AIDS and possibly have your arm broken. And the mafia will take over the Yucatan Peninsula."

Now they're just lying through their teeth. I'm about 99.9% sure.
And, as others have said, these disclaimers didn't stop it before. They probably won't help much now.

 

[evilneko]

In other news, downloads and purchases of DVD ripping software and blank DVDs have risen substantially!

 

[Wintermoot]

As with every topic that comes up about these unskippable things, I feel obliged to post this image.

Anyway, do they not realise that people are annoyed by these and all these anti-piracy ads they have to wade through are more likely to make them pirate?

what about this one?

OT
I think the prime reason that people pirate is to get rid of these messages and even worse is the fact that they don,t work since they don,t show up on the pirated copy.
combat the reasons people pirate and don,t piss of the loyal consumers.

 

[webkilla]

You can actually - at least partially - download a car

if you have a good 3D printer

 

[Yopaz]

Maybe if piracy wasn't so prevalent this wouldn't happen (wasn't Alan Wake pirated so much, the game was a commercial failure) and I thought the Witcher 2 was pirated 4 million times and the game itself sold 1 million (correct me if I'm wrong)

Yeah the piracy warnings suck, but it's only because they want to make money for what they worked on. Also relevant

The reason Alan Wake didn't sell very much is that Microsoft forgot to reveal that more than half of the sales were through Xbox Live, so it did in fact sell pretty well. With the release on PC it managed to become profitable at release day. The number of people who pirated The Witcher was a random large number that was later proven false. The games that were pirated the most were in fact games that had DRM

Also do you really think that watching an unskippable section before you get to watch a movie that you paid for is going to help? Pirates are the only ones who doesn't have to watch those.

 

[Beautiful End]

Oh, maker.

I'm not against fining people who pirate stuff. At the same time, I could care less if pirate movies sell or not. I'm like Switzerland. But I am against adding another minute-long warning to DVDs about not pirating stuff. The fuck did I do to deserve that? Yeah, it's just about a minute long and I can deal with that and I know it sounds dramatic, but if you think about it:

1. I've seen that enough times. I KNOW pirating stuff is bad. I already know I'm not gonna do so stop bugging me about it!
2. Assuming I'm one of those pirates, a silly warning wouldn't stop me anyway.

 

[ultimateownage]

I still think they need to use the IT Crowd piracy warning.