Piracy is harmless?

[ZippyDSMlee]

IMO piracy is harmless and blown way out of proportion, most things that are pirated are popular making millions a year in profits and most workers get paid while they were working on the media project so there is no real damage done to the day to day employee,maybe if you get a royalty but thats always a gamble on the profitability and public interest level of a project, if it fails to gain the public's interest it remains a small fish in a large stormy ocean more likely to die or be eaten..

For the most part piracy is a way information is spread outside the highly controlled rackets of retail chains.

However the moment piracy comes in contact with ad revenue,donations or money from direct sell its no better to society than a drug dealer selling crack, where as the common downloader is more dangerous to pizza snacks and green filed bowels .

I really can not see any harm in illicit distribution its a part of how media and information is disseminated to the public and mostly to freethinkers or the poor, its to small to do any real harm, not when the world wide media industry brings in trillions a year beyond what even large nations make.

At the end of the day between popularity and public interest these things harm media more than illicit distribution can as it will always be in the shadows of the main retail system, as it should be.

So what are your thoughts? And please no 2 word/sentence hate on the man or piracy...... we can do better than that dammit.

PS:I have come to a quandary in my CP/IP musings, IMO one needs a license to attempt to make money off copy rights and intellectual properties this leads me to to think that the sell of used media should be leaned against 10% or so, so that the rights owners may profit from the legal sell of their goods as I see no difference in DLC and physical media even if I do not like buying DLC and prefer physical media. What are your thoughts on that? I know its more a lease and they get one chance to make money off the publicized copy righted item but times are a changing and there should be little difference in how physical and digital goods are policed.

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

piracy may not hurt the big corporations but they hurt the little guys. if a band like motion city soundtrack has 20% of their audience steal their tracks its no big deal but when a small, local band has their music ripped that 20% is the difference between getting new recording system and just getting a new mic. for small time publishers of video games, music, and other media sources piracy is a huge problem and if the stigma against piracy wasnt in place a large number of teenagers and young adults (a large section of medias audience) will steal these things. just think about it, if you have the means to get something free and without leaving your own home why wouldnt you? dont get me wrong, i do my fair share of downloading but whe it comes to indie band/ video games i try and fork out the cash. i may be hypocritical by telling people not to steal while admitting to do it myself but i just think the main victims are the little guys and if we dont support them we are going to be stuck with the same people with their non-innovative ideas for a long time. do you really want to be playing another CoD game while listening to some generic music the rest of your life? we have to support the little guys, for the sake of innovation and creativity

 

[Windexglow]

"It doesn't hurt them, they make enough money!" is a horrible excuse. I used to have the same opinion as you, than I got a job and realized I made crap up so I could justify it.

 

[kalakashi]

piracy may not hurt the big corporations but they hurt the little guys. snip

I've done absolutely no research whatsoever. Bear this in mind.

Surely the small time games aren't pirated as they usually haven't gained enough interest for it to be worth pirating? I can't think of any small-time games that receive much piracy at all.

 

[Ertol]

To me piracy just shows you don't care about video games or supporting them. Sure you could just get it for free off torrent or something, but I always pay for games. Sometimes I wait until they drop the price a bit (thanks to the economy), but it's out of respect to the company making the game. If they spent around the usual 2 or so years making a game, I figure the least I can do is cough up some money. It's even worse for the small time developers. If it is their first game, and they lose a lot of sales to piracy, they could go under and never get another chance.

 

[Socius]

Piracy is good for the enviorment and awesome!
it's communism in pracsis that actually works perfectly!
even the musicans still earn plenty of money thanks to tours etc.
I do however buy LP because they're even more awesome than mp3 files.
but I go both ways.

When it comes to games and movies?
well as long as we have this blasted capitalistic system I guess it will count as stealing.
but hey, It's still awesome. oh and seriously? "you wouldn't download a car!"?
screw you!... I would if was possible.

 

[muckinscavitch]

If everyone pirated games, everyone would be out of business and then there would be no more games.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

To me piracy just shows you don't care about video games or supporting them.

Your money does not go to the developer, it goes to the publishers. I disagree with publishers and I see them as a bane on developers. If I had the ability to send money directly to the developers I would gladly do so. As of now, however, I have a big problem with buying games that are not self published.

 

[Geekosaurus]

Your theory of 'they make enough money anyway' is based on the assumption that the majority of people watch films legally. And you're justifying an illegal act by saying that only a minority of people do it. It's only a minority that murder and rape, that doesn't make it right. And I don't see the point of monitoring and controlling piracy with money going to the rightful owners, that already happens; DVD sales.

 

[tomtom94]

Oh yes, of course, something illegal is harmless.

 

[manaman]

Piracy's impact is hard to judge, but because the first question you have to ask is how many people that downloaded it would bought it if it wasn't so easy to pirate it in the first place. Something that sadly companies are finding isn't exactly the windfall they where suspecting when they do manage to gimp, or keep games from being pirated for the first couple of months (Spore for example, which is probably why EA shifted focus to picking up slack in the used game market).

I can tell you one thing. All those people that are downloading the game rather then buying it are taking directly from you, me, and everyone else that does pocket. The company still needs to make a profit, so they have to base what they charge for games based on average cost to make them, vs sales expected for the games. I highly doubt game prices would fall if every bought their games, but I do know that the next price jump would be held off longer.

To me piracy just shows you don't care about video games or supporting them.

Your money does not go to the developer, it goes to the publishers. I disagree with publishers and I see them as a bane on developers. If I had the ability to send money directly to the developers I would gladly do so. As of now, however, I have a big problem with buying games that are not self published.

Publishers spend as much if not more then the developers spent making a game advertising it so that it does make money. Many of those games with $30 million budgets had $10-15 million of that used for advertising. It only costs around $10 million to make a current gen game. The publishers take a huge chunk because on top of that many times they gave the developer the funding to make the game in the fist place as well. Not a lot of studios have $50 million laying around to make a couple of games simultaneously and advertise them, plus whatever it cost for them to distribute them. Sure the system could use an overhaul, but it's not exactly the root of all evils.

 

[guardian001]

piracy may not hurt the big corporations but they hurt the little guys. snip

I've done absolutely no research whatsoever. Bear this in mind.

Surely the small time games aren't pirated as they usually haven't gained enough interest for it to be worth pirating? I can't think of any small-time games that receive much piracy at all.

Really? You didn't hear about, say, World of Goo (2d-boy is a 2 man studio), which had a 90% piracy rate? Or Machinarium, which was pirated so much (again, 90%) that they dropped the price 75% in an effort to make some pirates pay at least a tiny bit of money?

 

[HonorableChairman]

I think piracy of film and video games is straight-up wrong. Both of those things take a shitton of money to make, and, especially when they're not blockbusters, people taking the cheap route really hurt profits. All this talk about Devs vs Pubs is bullshit, because the argument is you'd rather have the Dev get no money at all than the publisher get a cut of what you pay (Because the Devs, while not having full profit control, get SOMETHING out of it, if only the potential to keep making games).

Musical piracy I have less of a problem with, since most artists make profit through performances anyway. It's still not ideal and you shouldn't do it, but if you pirate something like Thriller where the artist is both very successful and dead, I don't think it's all that bothersome.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

The Escapist tends to have a harsh opinion of piracy supporters... be warned. In any case I agree with you. Our copyright laws are strange and somewhat ineffectual; the term piracy may be abandoned in the future, perhaps it will be replaced by something like file sharing... you know... what it really is.

 

[Shycte]

"They make enough money as it is" does not work in a democracy.

Also, make fun of it if you will but the "You wouldn't download a XYZ" is a excellent campaign because it is true. If someone where to invent a car it is a fact that he/she should be able to decide who gets to use it, why should this change when we are talking about IPs like songs and games? If someone invent a game?

The money most always keep in rolling, the pirates just make the things even more expensive for the honest ones.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

No it is not harmless people lose money.

 

[Akalistos]

IMO piracy is harmless and blown way out of proportion, most things that are pirated are popular making millions a year in profits and most workers get paid while they were working on the media project so there is no real damage done to the day to day employee,maybe if you get a royalty but thats always a gamble on the profitability and public interest level of a project, if it fails to gain the public's interest it remains a small fish in a large stormy ocean more likely to die or be eaten..

For the most part piracy is a way information is spread outside the highly controlled rackets of retail chains.

However the moment piracy comes in contact with ad revenue,donations or money from direct sell its no better to society than a drug dealer selling crack, where as the common downloader is more dangerous to pizza snacks and green filed bowels .

I really can not see any harm in illicit distribution its a part of how media and information is disseminated to the public and mostly to freethinkers or the poor, its to small to do any real harm, not when the world wide media industry brings in trillions a year beyond what even large nations make.

At the end of the day between popularity and public interest these things harm media more than illicit distribution can as it will always be in the shadows of the main retail system, as it should be.

So what are your thoughts? And please no 2 word/sentence hate on the man or piracy...... we can do better than that dammit.

PS:I have come to a quandary in my CP/IP musings, IMO one needs a license to attempt to make money off copy rights and intellectual properties this leads me to to think that the sell of used media should be leaned against 10% or so, so that the rights owners may profit from the legal sell of their goods as I see no difference in DLC and physical media even if I do not like buying DLC and prefer physical media. What are your thoughts on that? I know its more a lease and they get one chance to make money off the publicized copy righted item but times are a changing and there should be little difference in how physical and digital goods are policed.

All that sound suspiciously like a cry for help from your conscience. Otherwise, you wouldn't have told everyone that you are a Pirate.

 

[IzisviAziria]

I pirate music on purpose. The amount that the artists get off of albums they sell is pathetic, the record companies get most of it. And the record companies are largely responsible for the cookie-cutter crap music that gets popularized, leaving little guys with talent screwed.

Bands make far more off of touring; if you want to support your favorite band, pirate their music and go to their show when they come to town.

 

[Android2137]

Considering how I'm intending to be come an animator, I have to say no. No it is not harmless. I will admit that I'm guilty of downloading pirated stuff, but I've been trying to legitimately purchase when I can.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

piracy may not hurt the big corporations but they hurt the little guys. snip

I've done absolutely no research whatsoever. Bear this in mind.

Surely the small time games aren't pirated as they usually haven't gained enough interest for it to be worth pirating? I can't think of any small-time games that receive much piracy at all.

How about Audiosurf? That was indie and I know a huge, HUGE amount of people downloaded that. I'm sure that hurt them a lot. Also World of Goo, which someone said above.


OP: I used to pirate quite a bit, mainly old movies/games which I just couldn't be stuffed tracking down anymore. But I don't pirate anymore.
Even if a small people were murderers, it would still be the wrong thing to do. Piracy just makes people who pay legitimately pay more...