Why I don't like piracy: a software developer's thoughts.

[Sayvara]

I'm a software developer and I don't like software piracy. I have absolutely no sympathy for software pirates.

Why?

Because software pirates don't care about the most simple of principles: Yours & Mine.

The sanctity of ownership is what I'm talkin' about, that is to say: what's yours is yours, and what's mine you keep you damned dirty monkey-paws away from until I say differently.

When I create something, I own it. It's a basic concept that most of the 6 billion people on this planet agree on. What I make, is mine. What this means is that whatever is mine, I have the right to say who gets to play with it, allright? Whatever I own, I have the right to say: you don't get to play with this, because there is nothing, in any legislation anywhere, that gives you the right to veto my decisions about what's mine.

But software pirates don't believe in Yours & Mine. Software pirates think that just because I have offered to let people use my software for a fee, they suddenly have the right to say "Fuck it" to all my wishes and use my property as if it was their own.

And that is what peeves me... that some pimply snot-nosed kids have the gall to claim that they have some kind of right to screw my rights over; that they don'ty have to heed the most basic of principles taught to us as small kids, which is: stay the heck away from that which you don't own, or at least go ask if you may play with it before you try to do so.

Now granted I shouldn't be a jerk about it. The conditions I put up for using my property shouldn't be unreasonable. If I charge money for the usage of my property, the conditions must be fair, and I'm all for that. Consumer rights are very important.

But so are owner's rights. If I say that usage of my software is allowed only after a fee has been collected, then that's my decision to make and not yours. And just because you paid me somewhere between 5 and 50 bucks does not grant you ownership over my stuff. What you bought was a piece of plastic that just happened to contain the software, and also you bought a right to use it. You did not buy the full rights to re-distribute, multiply, crack, hack or reverse-engineer my stuff to steal it.

So that's why I dislike software pirates... because they don't have the manners or good graces to actually respect other people's property.

/S

 

[Starnerf]

Well put. As a fellow software developer (although I haven't developed anything worth distributing yet) I feel exactly the same way.

 

[matrix3509]

When I create something, I own it. It's a basic concept that most of the 6 billion people on this planet agree on. What I make, is mine. What this means is that whatever is mine, I have the right to say who gets to play with it, allright? Whatever I own, I have the right to say: you don't get to play with this, because there is nothing, in any legislation anywhere, that gives you the right to veto my decisions about what's mine.


/S

Some one sixth of the worlds population (China) would disagree with you. But on to my point.

If you are an indie developer, I will gladly give you my money, to use your software, however, if you work for a publishing corporation, *cough* EA *cough* then the developer's rights become whatever the corporation says your rights are. The fact remains that if corporations continue to effectively insult the consumer by automatically assuming that they are pirates, they will increase piracy. Most gamers are honest, they will often, overwhelmingly choose to actually spend money on a game, rather than pirate it. However, if you push a consumer far enough, you will eventually drive said consumer to pirate the game out of pure principle. The general thought process is, if you insult my integrity outright, then you dont deserve my money. If said software is of sufficient quality and you stop troubling them after the purchase, people will overwhelmingly choose giving you money for it, rather than pirate it.

 

[Good morning blues]

If you are an indie developer, I will gladly give you my money, to use your software, however, if you work for a publishing corporation, *cough* EA *cough* then the developer's rights become whatever the corporation says your rights are. The fact remains that if corporations continue to effectively insult the consumer by automatically assuming that they are pirates, they will increase piracy. Most gamers are honest, they will often, overwhelmingly choose to actually spend money on a game, rather than pirate it. However, if you push a consumer far enough, you will eventually drive said consumer to pirate the game out of pure principle. The general thought process is, if you insult my integrity outright, then you dont deserve my money. If said software is of sufficient quality and you stop troubling them after the purchase, people will overwhelmingly choose giving you money for it, rather than pirate it.

This is a perfect case of "you can't have your cake and eat it, too." If you don't like invasive DRM practices - and I certainly don't - boycott them. Unfortunately, that also means you can't play the game, since piracy is a violation of the publishers' basic property rights.

 

[Lavi]

...

Fuck it.

 

[mooma482]

You make a good point, however when I'm confronted by a game that has hidden spyware, that I can't play when I'm not online because then the auto-security checker doesn't work, when I can only install it 3 times before it throws a hissy fit at me... then I get a little pissed off.

It's like buying a book, but you can't read it unless you phone up the library and they unlock the pages, and if you open and close it more than 5 times it catches fire and burns to nothing.

You want to be compensated for your labor, fine. I want to own what I pay for. I want to be able to modd the damn thing if I please, play it whenever I want, and not be treated like a suspected criminal the whole bloody time I'm doing so.

And then when your game development company is invariably swallowed whole by EA or goes bust, I want to be able to legally get a hold of the game which is now 6 months old yet can no longer be found on the sodding shelves - but which is STILL illegal to download. You want me to buy your game, then sell the sodding thing to me. Which brings me to the next point of my rant: Cost! You want $130 for your new, half finished, still buggy, rushed out the door to meet the christmas rush piece of shambled together code? Get real. Buy a game now and you're lucky to get 5 hours of gameplay, in fact you're lucky if it works right off the bat without needing to be patched. And games keep getting shorter because designers have decided that we want 'episodic gameplay', well that's nice, but shouldn't shorter games cost less? OH hell no you say, we sell you half a car for the same price and you should be thankful.

Basically what I'm saying is, if you're going to gouge me for $130 bucks, make it worth my while. But if you're going to give me a half length, half finished, buggy piece of crap that is so loaded with protection software (which you put more time into than the sodding game) that it barely works... then your game ceases to be worth what you're asking for. I'm not saying piracy is good, but like hell I'm buying it. And I seriously doubt that the vast majority of people who pirate your games would actually buy them if they hadn't pirated them.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

There are a lot of assholes in the world. There are. However, I agree with matrix above that mega-publishers like EA are making more assholes. Even though I personally disagree with stealing software, I can understand when people get so angry as to say that they will steal a game to prove a point to a publisher, even if I don't necessarily condone the act.

The larger issue, though, is that software thieves are often the same people who complain about the quality of games, length of games, etc. Especially PC gamers. Now, as an avid PC gamer who almost exclusively plays PC games and will often wait for Xbox games to come out on his PC to play them (Mass Effect) I can tell you I am very upset with this trend.

PC game enthusiasts need to realize that we are screwing ourselves over by pirating games. I'm not talking about having to deal with DRM, I'm talking about the fact that we are beginning to be denied games that we our the biggest fans of. (I waited half a goddamn year for Mass Effect) I can't necessarily blame Bioware for this, I blame other PC gamers. If you're like me, and you actually go to the store or buy your games online then I thank you on behalf of myself and others like you.

We're all in this together, guys.

 

[lowlymarine]

I disagree that my copy of the game is still yours after you sell it to me. And so does the law: it's called doctrine of first sale [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine], buddy. No, I don't have the right to make copies of it and give them out, but I DO have the right to use the one copy you sold me where I want, on whatever computer I want, whenever I want and I don't need your bloody permission. And if I want to sell my copy to someone else, that is my right.

Point in case: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080523-court-smacks-autodesk-affirms-right-to-sell-used-software.html

So while I don't support piracy, I don't support your (and EA's) blatantly wrong idea that you still somehow own the copy of the game that you sold me, either. Call me a stickler for the law.

 

[Altorin]

except when DRM makes it a hassle to make what's mine mine for any length of time. A website goes down, a system changes in the years to come, and suddenly, what's mine isn't mine anymore.

Did the fact that this drivel came directly from a software developer make you want to pirate his work even more?

What did you make sir?

 

[Wolfy01]

But then you have to think of uni students/others who simply can't afford things like Photoshop or other software which cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
I myself am a student who had access to Photoshop legally until the computer left the house. I didn't do any major photo editing, just minor cropping or cloning. Now I cannot do these things as I only have a small amount of cash to spend on food and whatnot.

I am NOT saying that I pirate software or that i like it, I just understand why people do it.

 

[Good morning blues]

But then you have to think of uni students/others who simply can't afford things like Photoshop or other software which cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
I myself am a student who had access to Photoshop legally until the computer left the house. I didn't do any major photo editing, just minor cropping or cloning. Now I cannot do these things as I only have a small amount of cash to spend on food and whatnot.

I am NOT saying that I pirate software or that i like it, I just understand why people do it.

This is completely absurd. If you're only doing "minor cropping and cloning," then 1. you don't need Photoshop and 2. You can do the exact same thing with any number of free programs that are very, very easy to find.

And just to clarify my previous point, I'm saying that DRM is bullshit, but piracy isn't any better.

 

[meatloaf231]

I could go on a rant about DRM and piracy and all that, but I think Shamus here shares my views, and can put them far more eloquently.

 

[mark_n_b]

I agree with you on the idea of piracy being about respect ad honouring the rights of the creator.

There are three thoughts I would be curious to hear your perspective on:

1. As piracy is such an established norm any more, isn't it naive to not see this as a reality of the culture and equally naive to try not to build games / business models to include this culture.

2. Look at anime, here is a primarily obvious example of an entire entertainment subculture expanding into the mainstream because of piracy. Though not to the same extent, the video game industry has reaped similar benefits. Isn't that a good thing?

3. Piracy reflect barriers to gaming established by developers / publishers themselves. In this case cost / convenience. If a publisher deigns to charge $60 US then isn't it just asking for that pimply faced kid to download it from the internet store?

 

[Shadow Tyrant]

Personally, and this is just me, I wouldn't mind if people pirated my software. As long as people are enjoying what I make, I couldn't care less. I mean, if people like it enough to pirate it, I must be doing something right. If they're like "Man, I got this awesome game the other day. You've gotta try it." that's all I'd want. As long as they're not claiming they made it (Which they usually don't.) it's all good. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful advertising methods available. A few pirates get a hold of your game, and they tell their friends, and they tell their friends, eventually everyone knows about it and wants to play.
"But," you say, "All these people are playing my game that I worked so hard on and I'm not even getting paid." Well, here's a secret. Most people that pirate your game, if they like it, would be more than willing to donate to your cause and support you. I know I would. The reasons the majority of people pirate is because they don't want to pay for something they might not like, or that it costs too much. But add a paypal link to your site and I guarantee people will support you if your game (Or what have you) is good enough.

 

[Wolfy01]

But then you have to think of uni students/others who simply can't afford things like Photoshop or other software which cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
I myself am a student who had access to Photoshop legally until the computer left the house. I didn't do any major photo editing, just minor cropping or cloning. Now I cannot do these things as I only have a small amount of cash to spend on food and whatnot.

I am NOT saying that I pirate software or that i like it, I just understand why people do it.

This is completely absurd. If you're only doing "minor cropping and cloning," then 1. you don't need Photoshop and 2. You can do the exact same thing with any number of free programs that are very, very easy to find.

And just to clarify my previous point, I'm saying that DRM is bullshit, but piracy isn't any better.

I'm not saying that I need photoshop, and I know there are programs out there that do the things that I require but that's not my point.
My point is if you need photoshop for whatever reason but cannot afford it, I know where you're coming from.

 

[CanadianWolverine]

The Original Post is absurd.

Let me relate a story to you: I like art, especially a set of four prints inspired by the four seasons from Daisy (honestly, that was the artist's name). If I understand what that first post is saying, that is like saying that artist still owns the prints I bought from her. Its not like I stole her originals, I just purchased a copy and should I desire to make copies of my prints to preserve them in some form, modify them by adding some additional ink, or even sell my prints, what business is it of hers? Once I have bought her prints, I have already supported her wonderful work as best I could and owe her nothing more for those prints.

Is the original post now suggesting I don't actually own those prints? Or the great games on my shelves that I install and uninstall from time to time? Absurd.

If you want to only rent out your art, that is your business, just don't expect me to be a customer.

 

[privatehuff]

[long post removed]

I'm a musician and software developer. If you want to make money, you have to sell something tangible.

The interweb has changed things, and the value of the stuff you're making has drastically decreased as a result. People enjoy having fun and dislike paying money for things. You're going to need to figure something else out.

 

[jzsch55]

Yes, just created this account to post here once (browsing after a Zero Punctuation).

The point isn't I bought a painting/spoon/rug and can do what I want with it.
*IF* the artist had said: "I will rent you my painting and you can hang it on your wall, but only facing the east and only on Tuesdays, and you have to call me every time, and I can take it back when I want", you would probably not want to give them money. The thing you need to remember is they can set the rules. You can't 'agree' to their terms and then own their painting and copy it for your friends or do anything they didn't agree to when you purchased it!
If you don't agree with the 'renting' idea, don't use the damn game! When you rented games from Blockbuster, you don't suddenly own them cause you think they are worth 2.99. Pirating is wrong, and people can't justify it (although they certainly try - can't afford it but need it, they would buy the game but only if they play it 50+ hours each week...).

I'll repeat: Pirating is wrong! You morally can't use/own a game/service if you don't agree to the terms that were made explicit during a sale.

BTW Even realizing pirating is wrong I do it - my justification is that I know I wouldn't buy it if it wasn't free.