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Yup, well not everything that is pirated will be good for business, and we all know that the corporations are raging because some of the best games/movies and programs are being pirated by this crackers.. but listen to this blog and I might have a certain point.
Yes, I know it's contradicting the title but please hear me out.
As we all know, pirating of softwares/movies/games is the cancer of big companies and corporations. They will are going to fucked up sale volumes or the company wouldn't be able to sell a dime because all their copies where sold by pirates like Jack Sparrow.
But try to think of the larger picture, think of Starcraft, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty 4 and 6 etc. These are very epic games that you might think of buying for game collection and the shit.
of course, I have this experience of using a lot of stuff that isn't "legit". Being in a third-world country when pirating laws is pretty weak it's a big privilege for us 
but the thing is, I had this beautiful experience. I want to buy an original Starcraft Battlechest and maybe call of duty 4 and 6 because I want to have a collection of them.
Also, I'm experiencing some type of dilemma right now:
should I wait for another crack or just buy the damn game!
Yes, modern warfare 2 fans! I'm willing to shell out some bucks to buy an original of this game... because, I had a taste of it's multiplayer flaws and prowess (even though I know that a lot of you guys hate this shit)
I was able to play a cracked version of this from 166 to 174, now since IW and Steam is winning the battle against the pirates. I'm beginning to feel a little dissatisfied, I want more than playing this for a few weeks! and the only thing to do is BUY A GOD DAMN ORIGINAL COPY.
Now on the OP TOPIC:
Could it be possible that, IW or any other games that been epic and was pirated by the millions. Was just waiting for the right opportunity to "KABAM" kick the living hell out of the pirates to buy the damn original stock? Since right now this is what I feel.
And yeah, there was an article that Bill Gates loved how China was using his OS
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/
Anyway discuss!
 
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I don't think the current business model of developers supports a consumer base that largely pirates, but I also think it is easily possible to create a business model that does just fine in an unrestricted version of the internet.
You could probably just google it though... This argument is almost as done to death as religion.
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To me, pirating anything seems to be such a cheat. Ya ya i know someone "technically" shared the materials with you but come you have to know when to draw the line. Now I will say this sometimes i will "pirate" a CD or Movie just to try it out and see if i like it if i do i buy it, but if I don't well then i just delete it from my hard drive.
But the question is should you buy the game? I would and so should you. If you really value the company's hard work and effort that they put into the game, you will show your appreciation with your wallet. Yes i know you can still appreciate something and get it for free/pirate it i understand that, but if you really appreciate the work, then you will give up some of your hard earned money for something that they made with there hard earned money.
Btw I'm not opposed to piracy. I just have opinions about it. :p
Also a site called gog.com, a place where you can buy retro games, encourages you to share the produce you have purchased with as many people as you like.
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Right now, copyrights to games are bought and sold long after the sales benefit the people who made the game. You shouldn't torrent new games, but I wouldn't feel bad about "stealing" from someone who's just trying to make a quick buck off someone else's work.
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It's pretty obvious that most people pirate because they don't want to pay money. Very few software pirates end up purchasing the application. Whether they would have bought it in the first place, of course, is debatable to some degree.
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I have never bought a software in my life. And i am all proud of it
LONG LIVE TO PIRACY
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Canada5565 Posts
When people (like me) pirate movies made like 50 years ago or games that are practically abandonware, I think there is no reason to be upset.
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When a market fails due to in-excludability and no-rivalry, well... something needs to change. =/
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There just aren't many games worth buying. Do you expect me to pay 50€ for five hours of entertainment from CoD's single player campaign? Or one hour for C&C before deinstalling in disgust? Really good games you play for YEARS are a rare.
They should just use subscription models for payment if they want to sell their products for their true value. Something along the lines of "pay x per week, and if you have paid x*y, you 'own' the game as if you had bought it with a one-time payment and can play without further subscription fees". Would change nothing price-wise if you want to play the game for a long time, only that you don't feel ripped off if you didn't like the game in the first place.
And that would stop pirating in addition as you need some verification of your payment to play in the first place.
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On January 18 2010 16:04 coltrane wrote:
I have never bought a software in my life. And i am all proud of it
LONG LIVE TO PIRACY
Why would you be proud of that? 
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I pirate a lot but that's simply because I can't afford to pay for all those content. But when ever the price comes down to a point that I can afford, I will buy it. I have bought a lot of steam games when they had those 80%-50% discount  . If the pirated games turn out to be bad, I wouldn't buy them. Sometimes I think the demos of many games are not enough to judge a game. It's a good idea for the industry to work with the pirates but I think it would be long before the change is made.
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Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't.
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On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't.
I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong.
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Why pay for something when u can get it free? I dont get u guys lol.
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MrHoon
10183 Posts
The only thing I never pirate are video games (and good movies)
gotta keep dat industry moving~
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I used to pirate games when i was a kid because i had no money and my parents didn't really allow me to buy games.
But nowadays my standards for video games are much more higher ( so i play less games and i'm willing to pay for good games ), i have a bit of money and i can buy PEGI 18 np.
Moreover i think that pirated stuff is messy, it was ok to download a 300mb game but new games are huge ( xxGb ) and need 20 patches to run smoothly.
So yea pirating games sucks. And if i'm broke or don't want to pay 50 euros for a not so good game i just wait for the prices to drop.
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Germany2896 Posts
What you say may be true for multiplayer games, but certainly piracy hurts singleplayer / coop games.
I'm not opposed to copying a game you'll only play once on a LAN or something. Or pirating abandon-ware is no problem either since they don't want to sell it anymore.
But ultimately we have to support the games we like, or we'll only get shitty console ports.
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the problem with buying things as opposed to piracy is the ability to cut out the middle men. A good example would be buying a CD off the actual artist at a show instead of walking into a store and paying whatever markup price.
I'm all for supporting the artist/creator but I don't wanna support some 3rd party vendor, ad agency, money grubbing record label, or whatever else. Also, I'm poor And I believe in equality. I wanna be able to have all the shit that rich people overpay for frivolously and ruin the standard for the rest of us. Gotta balance it out.
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On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong.
Probably more like 5% and to call pirating marketing is such a stupid cop out for a reason of why you're stealing something... just call it what it is. Demos are made for a reason.
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On January 18 2010 22:44 Hawk wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong. Probably more like 5% and to call pirating marketing is such a stupid cop out for a reason of why you're stealing something... just call it what it is. Demos are made for a reason.
Seriously I bet it's like 1% or less.
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On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong.
I am willing to bet >5% of people actually do this, and I am never wrong.
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On January 18 2010 23:51 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong. I am willing to bet >5% of people actually do this, and I am never wrong.
beat you to it
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I've pirated some music I've actually later bought, or even better, it prompted me to go to a live show.
Movies... ok maybe I have never done shit for a pirated movie... but I pirate and don't watch a lot of them anyways. And I still go to theatres but cmon, how can you watch Death Race if it wasn't pirated?
Games.. -_-;; sorry I still haven't found a better game than BW and I might pirate and try a bit but I dun think I'm much of a gamer... just star mania. I mean, nowadays for 20bucks you keep out two games for a month with infinite renewal from blockbuster even so.. -_-;;
Outside of music, no one cept myself has gained from my piracy.
And Software piracy...lol! Who buys the software after getting a free cracked copy? Software piracy I do feel guilty for.. but I've even donated before so yeah! I try to balance.
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On January 18 2010 23:33 Zoler wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2010 22:44 Hawk wrote:On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong. Probably more like 5% and to call pirating marketing is such a stupid cop out for a reason of why you're stealing something... just call it what it is. Demos are made for a reason. Seriously I bet it's like 1% or less.
You're probably right.
1, 5 or 20, it's still fucking stupid to say that it's a free review of a song, game, product or whatever. Call it what it is—stealing
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I dunno, as long as business works from a "if it works, do it, morality be damned"-standpoint to maximize their profits, I'll pirate as much as I feel like to maximize my savings. Laws such as copyright laws are just an extention of morality anyhow, right? I'll just use their logic of what works, should be done, and it's all cool.
That being said, I use a ton of money buying games, cds and movies I actually like.
More on topic though, yea, I agree to the premise of the thread - the internet is amazing at spreading information by word-of-mouth through IM services and social netsites such as facebook, youtube and forums like this one. At least half of the music I've bought the last ten years have been from recommendations from online people, and just recently the Civ IV Succession thread on these forums have made me buy the entire CivIV collection through steam. I imagine without the internet and access to downloads and community discussions, my game and music-purchasing would have been far lower than it has been the last ten years.
Instead of looking at every pirated copy of a cd or a movie as a loss, business should look to it as advertising. Yes, they might miss a few sales in the market they normally would have by people downloading and not buying, but at the same time, they're reaching such an incredibly larger market through internet sharing and downloading. Larger market = more people = more buyers.
Of course, I guess the scary part for the big business here is the possibility for independent artists to reach the audience without the business support, not pirating in itself. With the internet and pay-to-download sites accessable and operatable for everyone, the power goes from the industry back to the artist, which will in time turn the media distribution industry obsolete if it refuses to change.
But honestly - why stick to something that we don't need anymore?
I love the internet.
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i agree, in the sense that i feel its largely untapped method of marketing a product.
Especially things like youtube. Sometimes i see obscure small companies take down interview/promos for their events/show b/c it's copy right, while the extra exposure probably would have helped them more.
That said, theres still the issue of losing revenue to piracy(and morals blah blah). Not trying to justify piracy or say 'it has benefits therefore its OK!", but its definitely something to consider deeper than INTERNET=FREE=BAD, and maybe in the direction of how to balance revenue lost vs.exposure gained.
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On January 19 2010 01:14 Hawk wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2010 23:33 Zoler wrote:On January 18 2010 22:44 Hawk wrote:On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong. Probably more like 5% and to call pirating marketing is such a stupid cop out for a reason of why you're stealing something... just call it what it is. Demos are made for a reason. Seriously I bet it's like 1% or less. You're probably right. 1, 5 or 20, it's still fucking stupid to say that it's a free review of a song, game, product or whatever. Call it what it is—stealing
Hmm, ending a market which has failed due to the rise of new technology or continue pouring in money to the middle man to promote economic inefficiency...
Idk, I'd rather take the former. Want a model that works? Concerts, exclude-able and rivalry there, and where artists make most of their money.
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On January 19 2010 03:48 ghrur wrote:Show nested quote +On January 19 2010 01:14 Hawk wrote:On January 18 2010 23:33 Zoler wrote:On January 18 2010 22:44 Hawk wrote:On January 18 2010 17:32 Saturnize wrote:On January 18 2010 17:29 Severedevil wrote:
Piracy is the ultimate form of product review. If you really like a product after experiencing it, buy it. Otherwise, don't. I'm willing to bet >20% of people actually do this, but i may be wrong. Probably more like 5% and to call pirating marketing is such a stupid cop out for a reason of why you're stealing something... just call it what it is. Demos are made for a reason. Seriously I bet it's like 1% or less. You're probably right. 1, 5 or 20, it's still fucking stupid to say that it's a free review of a song, game, product or whatever. Call it what it is—stealing Hmm, ending a market which has failed due to the rise of new technology or continue pouring in money to the middle man to promote economic inefficiency... Idk, I'd rather take the former. Want a model that works? Concerts, exclude-able and rivalry there, and where artists make most of their money.
New legal techonolgy exists... itunes and other similar things. It's stealing. I don't see what's so hard to grasp
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To be fair i would never buy an album without listening to it before. So the only solution is either stream or pirate DL.
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yep illegal downloading or distribution is definitely one form of unintentional yet effective marketing and can also bring some degree of benefit to the owner.
korean, japanese entertainment are uneasy to obtain oversea (especially at time of their (un)official release) without pirating and illegal distribution. Of course you can always subscribe to those special international tv channel(but who does that). If it weren't for video site and mp3 sharing, kpop wouldnt be big oversea; WonderGirls, BoA, or Rain won't even think about expanding to America.
The illegal distribution gives their product huge exposures.
Of course, there are definitely some money lost from this distribution and I'm not siding that illegal downloads are 100% alright. But I'm siding that illegal distribution aren't 100% wrong. Lost from illegal distribution will mostly from people who are willing to pay for the goods if the illegal distribution doesn't exist. Now.. that could be a lot of sales lost. But there definitely exposure guarantee. The exposure can lead to new pirates and eventually new sales.
But the sales' lost can be much greater than the potential new sales. The new pirate can always be a pirate. Old buyers might stay as pirate forever. Well that's too bad.. pirating are unstoppable at this era. argh!
Suing a few illegal distributor doesn't bring much. Companies should look beyond that and attempt to sell good/service that can't be as enjoyable as pirating it. Concerts, physical goods, 3d movies, ad-supported video online are some area to capitalize the "free" marketing they got and negate their lost or even bring higher profit.
Some examples are:
- Progamer shirts
- Avatar IMAX
- Concert goods (tshirt, poster, etc)
- Hulu (ads)
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/pirate_jack_sparrow.jpg)
