Your a monster for recording it without a DRM riddled device that can block recordings or delete stuff... hell recording from broadcast is practically piracy these days...Nincompoop said:
Piracy is harmless?
- Thread starter ZippyDSMlee
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This might work for games, but not for films. Nobody gets a pirate copy of a film, watches it, and then thinks 'now I'll pay to see it in the cinema/for the DVD'.thedeathscythe said:TLR = Piracy isn't "harmless", but with pirates testing their stuff first and buying afterwords, it balances out IMO.
Meh you prove to me that one copy equals one lost sale and then maybe I can agree with your argument.Kagim said:
Also if you remove the profit motive thats plaguing file sharing right now via donations and ad rev and such it will shrink and become a more natural part of media dissemination, the current state of file sharing is as bad as copy right's current state....
I have for POTC and the Star war special ed set, and trigun(150$ for 26 eps WTF?!?!?!?!!?) and a few others.Geekosaurus said:This might work for games, but not for films. Nobody gets a pirate copy of a film, watches it, and then thinks 'now I'll pay to see it in the cinema/for the DVD'.thedeathscythe said:TL
A lot of people actually do, because retail DVD's (and Blurays, for yours truly) have bonus features and stuff (if it's actually worth buying. I know you can download that stuff too but most people tend to download just the movie. Bad ones won't). CD's tend to take the most damage from piracy in my opinion, or at least I would figure they would. CD's usually don't offer much other than their music, which is why iTunes store works so well. It's cheaper than the CD and gives you exactly what you would get with it. Buying movies Direct Download don't give you the bonus features.Geekosaurus said:
I don't think it vastly affect Movies or Music.
Though it is nearly destroying the independent PC gaming industry.
I recall Ubisoft stated that when Cyrisis first came out, that 9 out of 10 people where playing on their servers with pirated copies. Keep in mind, these are severs that they have to pay to run and maintain. So essentially, you steal a game and then run down someone's server then complain about how the servers are terrible. The producer of Demonoid said that as an estimate that 80% of PC games are pirated, an amount that makes the excuse of "They make enough money" pathetic as it's bankrupting the medium to smaller companies. That is if you even profess that excuse in the first place.
It clearly is a big issue to the PC Gaming community. Starcraft II is online only now since Blizzard is taking the hint from Valve and making it all sever/subscription based to weed out piracy.
As someone who plays videogames on the PC, this is quite a drag to me as it limits the amount and in most cases the quality of games that come to the PC.
As for "It just goes to the publishers." Truthfully, a large sum goes to marketing but the industry is slowly but surely passing royalties down to the the development/writing team, piracy obviously hurts this also.
To say it's harmless is a very selfish statement.
Though it is nearly destroying the independent PC gaming industry.
I recall Ubisoft stated that when Cyrisis first came out, that 9 out of 10 people where playing on their servers with pirated copies. Keep in mind, these are severs that they have to pay to run and maintain. So essentially, you steal a game and then run down someone's server then complain about how the servers are terrible. The producer of Demonoid said that as an estimate that 80% of PC games are pirated, an amount that makes the excuse of "They make enough money" pathetic as it's bankrupting the medium to smaller companies. That is if you even profess that excuse in the first place.
It clearly is a big issue to the PC Gaming community. Starcraft II is online only now since Blizzard is taking the hint from Valve and making it all sever/subscription based to weed out piracy.
As someone who plays videogames on the PC, this is quite a drag to me as it limits the amount and in most cases the quality of games that come to the PC.
As for "It just goes to the publishers." Truthfully, a large sum goes to marketing but the industry is slowly but surely passing royalties down to the the development/writing team, piracy obviously hurts this also.
To say it's harmless is a very selfish statement.
The main reason the industry has become stagnant is due to publishers. Publishing is a business based solely on generating money. If a formula is found that generates profit then the publisher will exploit that formula to its fullest extent. Call of Duty is a great example of revenew generating formulas. It proved to be a popular shooter and the publisher milked the formula to no end. Due to the aggressive advertising campaigns of publishers other great games are being overshadowed. When the developer itself realizes this they will attempt to do the same thing the publisher is doing. Spend less time attempting to innovate and more time attempting to advertise. This in turn leads to generating profit since people tend to be gullible but at the same time it basically stops the industry right in its tracks.manaman said:
Take a look at the EA Sports labels. Is there a reason to release the same game each year with minor differences? Not at all. However, due to the low cost development it's sure to generate a profit. Why spend money on innovating the formula and be unsure as to whether you'll make a profit or not when you can spend less money not innovating and being sure you're making a profit.
Also, money made by the game does not go the developers. Usually, the publisher makes a contract with a developer in which it will pay the developer a certain sum of money if it creates a game. All revenew generated after the publishing of that game goes directly to the publisher. Developers rarely make money off of their own games. How do you think publishers manage to keep on going forward? By sacrificing innovation they can easily milk the industry for as long as there are people naive enough to not give a fuck. I mean just look at Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward basically got screwed over by Activision. All the profits went to them whilst they had to settle with the meager payment they received after spending time developing that IP which, technically, belongs to them and not Activision.
In regards to funding. Do you really need 10 million dollars to make a great game? Are costs this high really necesarry to create a good game? Look at indie studios. They are the only ones currently pushing the industry forward but due to overshadowing by major publishers they can rarely make a profit. It's pretty obvious good games can be made even with a limited budget. Currently, games needing funding in the millions are rarely anything but the same thing only with a different coat. Indie developers rarely get noticed due to major publishers pushing their agenda upon the world. Many gamers choose to simply go with the "hype" which frankly hurts the industry.
Let's assume publishers died out. What will happen?
Firstly, you'd have a lot of studios dependent on publishers dying out. However, due to no longer having to compete against such aggressive attempts at undermining their games indie studios will get more exposure. The old "blockbuster" way of making games will be gone and instead you'd have an industry based solely on quality. No advertising means games will get their exposure mostly through word of mouth and as such only quality titles will be bought whilst the "bad" ones will most likely be pushed back to the bottom. Studios will live and die based solely on the quality of their games and not the quality of their advertisements.
The industry might become much smaller but the games themselves would become better. Stagnation would be a thing of the past an innovation would be the word of the day. Whilst before there was absolutely no reason to innovate, currently you'd HAVE to innovate in some way as to justify a purchase.
ZippyDSMlee said:
If I cared about a film enough to want the special edition or bonus material I wouldn't damage the film industry by partaking in an illegal and immoral act.thedeathscythe said:
The silly part is when companies assume they are "losing" money because of piracy. No. No that isn't the way it works. 90 percent of all media is overpriced repetitive shite that nobody should ever ever buy. If I pirate something it's because it isn't worth the money. Woah.
You know what? I've just sorted it. Everyone look at the following sentence
If I pirate it, it isn't worth the money.
Sorted.
You know what? I've just sorted it. Everyone look at the following sentence
If I pirate it, it isn't worth the money.
Sorted.
I would see them anyway. We have Canal + which cover all movies (except indie movies), so yes, I would see every movie ever eventually.Geekosaurus said:
I never said I am entitled to do anything, I just said in my exact circumstance, I am not hurting ANYONE.
First, dude, please paragraphs. No offense, just that blocks of text are hard on the eyesCrustyOatmeal said:
Anyway, if anything, I'd say piracy helps the little guys. Since they're small, they're obscure and even if you know about them, you're not gonna shell out the money for a CD for some small time band you never heard of. But you grab a CD with an eyepatch, listen to the music and hey - you might like it.
Most people support the little guys if they like their products. More to the point, in case of bands in particular, it can garner people to their concerts. I've had several bands which I initially came to know/like through pirated material, which later led to me buying their new CDs, going to their concerts and such. Without that evil pirated material, they wouldn't have gotten a dime from me. Same is with the games.
Pirating disgusts me. I don't care how you try to justify it, it is wrong and that's that. I don't mind paying for things that support people I want to continue producing material (which is why I legally pay for all my music) but no apparently, showing genuine support for the things you enjoy (and take for granted) isn't cool.
Well, it isn't quite harmless, it does harm some businesses. Not all though. Many of the not as popular musicians love piracy simply because it spreads their name around. Take for example (even though this isn't music we are talking about) Machinarium. A cute little robot adventure game made by a independent group of game designers. Without piracy, their game would be unknown, with it many many people found out about it. Even though it was pirated heavily as the saying goes "The end justifies the means" and they made quite a bit of money from their "Piracy amnesty sale."
It definitely is blown out of proportion, and what they consider piracy some times is....well insane.
It definitely is blown out of proportion, and what they consider piracy some times is....well insane.
The numbers (On world of Goo, at least) are not made up. The 90% figure is based on their global score system. Number of unique game clients logged - number of games purchased = number of people who pirated the game. There are a couple of factors that could shift that number in either direction, and they roughly balance out. Oh wait, I stand corrected, you're right, it wasn't 90. They re-did their stats.ZippyDSMlee said:
It's 82%.
And what do you mean "Small audience to sell to?" There are no statistics on Audience size, however considering the game was released
A)Via Steam
B)Via direct download, from 2D-Boy (Win/Mac/Linux)
C)Via Wii-Ware
I'd say that's a pretty damn big audience.
On top of which, the fact that a small company was hurt to the point where Their publisher, Brighter Minds, went bankrupt [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89228-No-Layoffs-at-Bankrupt-World-of-Goo-Publisher] kinda invalidates your point about how it only hurts the big guys. The problem with this was not that it didn't gain public interest (it did,) but that 82% of the people playing the game pirated it (again, invalidating another one of your points, that games only die because they're unpopular.) I mean, there's still a torrent for WoG with 300 seeders, and it's been 2 years now.
You say it doesn't hurt the little guys. World of Goo (and the bankruptcy of Brighter Minds,) Proves you wrong on that point, at very least, because these little fish got their asses sniped clean out of the pond.