Pretty fun article, Omar!

What worries me the most is that no one admits to piracy. In the comments section of every article like this, everyone seems to be innocent. How can we have a discussion when  everyone is busy covering their asses?

I think software piracy is bad -- but the issue is more complicated than that. If I borrow a friend's game and play it, am I pirating? Should I be allowed to torrent a fan-translated foreign game that will never come here? How about a 15 year old game which isn't sold anywhere? If I buy a game, but I lose my copy, should I be allowed to pirate it?

Those are all questions which complicate the issue. We need to draw lines...fast.

That was pretty insightful.  I still believe that piracy is not justifiable under any circumstance because it is affecting both the hardworking developers and the consumers who have to put up with this DRM crap, but it was really interesting to see what some of these pirates are thinking.

Great article! I think a lot of pirates feel that they are using technology to "beat" the system. I know a guy who has a DS with a pirated memory chip. He downloads every new game and buys none. I asked him if he would ever pay for a game and he said no, I asked why, and he said that there are so many online games for free that why should he pay for any of them.

Omar: "Remeber 2D Boy, the developers behind World of Goo? Their business practically tanked after the game's release on the PC".

Please check your facts. The game was released on the 13th october on both PC and WiiWare. Or do you think that their business tanked when they relesed their game? Only 60% of the sales were from WiiWare.

 

Thanks for the input everyone!

@Panu -- Here are several articles which cover the endemic piracy which World of Goo faced. In short, the developers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential sales from the illicit downloading and sharing:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/world-of-goo-piracy-at-90-per-cent

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55906

And finally, an article which explains how the publisher filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy:

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/30/world-of-goo-publisher-files-for-bankruptcy/

Making copies for personal use is not copyright infringement. People might get into trouble for running afoul of anti-circumvention clauses in the DMCA, but that's not the same thing.

Also, I think you'd have a difficult time arguing that Crysis was badly affected by piracy. The game was designed for ultra-high-end systems, and still sold over 1 million units worldwide. Even with a 20:1 piracy to sales ratio, you're assuming that all or most pirates would have purchased the game otherwise. That's a hefty assumption -- one which you don't have evidence to support.

I agree with Rob. You can't assume piracy directly impacts sales. What about the theoretical people who discover a game through piracy and then are compelled to buy it, for some reason? Either way it's a hard thing to prove.

An interesting article.

my rule of thumb is if a piece of entertainment isnt easily purchased in a store or online, then it is fair game to be pirated. This rule has meant i extremely rarely pirate anything thanks to digital distribution services such as Steam and XBL.

 

I feel those who pirate their entertainment should feel some regret. Yes, in the music industry the massive stars make millions with or without your one CD purchase but what about those small independent bands that are travelling in a beat up van from city to city playing gigs?

Not to be an ass, but I was disappointed in this article. I was expecting something more then four increasingly short exchanges with people who basically reaffirmed the stereotype of software pirates being cheap, petulant, petty jerks, which is unfortunate and does nothing but reaffirm their "non argument" for piracy.

I think this could be an extremely interesting article but thought the background/set-up (hearing about how different Canadian enforcement/policy is compared to the US) was the high point.

I hate pirates. They are nothing more than lousy, pathetic, moronic, juvenile, vile, disgusting, disturbed hacks who care only for themselves and convince themselves they are doing nothing wrong. Like the idiot who thinks that since he wasn't going to buy their game in the first place it is OK to steal it. Well, Ok, the next time you put something up for sale, I will steal it because I had no intention of buying it, and that will make it OK. I will go to the car dealership tomorrow and steal a new car, and when they try and stop me I will tell them it is OK, because I never planned on buying it in the first place so they aren't loosing any money.

 

What a fool. They are the ones destroying this industry, and If I were the person who interviewed them I would alert the Developers/Publishers to bring charges against them. Have them brought to the United States and have a judge throw the book at them. What disgusting and Lousy excuses for human beings. They make me sick. They are no better than a car thief, or a bank robber. They are the epitome of losers. I hate them with everything I got and I am truly going to start doing my part.

 

I am going to begin helping combat Piracy by reporting it whenever I can. I am tired of hearing about studios closing, families being affected, bankruptcy and worse. And these pirates don't give a flying shit who they hurt. Well I am no longer going to sit by and watch it happen. I love this industry too much to sit back and watch these scumbags take it down.

I want to ask pirates how'd they feel if someone ripped off the products of their work. People deserve to get paid for their creations. This is the main reason why I hate the Internet -- it makes theft of the creative process an easy and faceless crime. Piracy is theft, pure and simple. Those who pirate as a protest against DRM are still thieves. Do what I do: Don't buy or play the product. Write a letter to the developer and publisher explaining why you'll never purchase one of their products; if enough gamers did this, I think some companies would drop DRM. Support the companies that are sensible when it comes to DRM as well. 

@John Ostermiller -- Don't worry, you don't sound like an ass at all. Truth be told, I expected different results myself. When I began the series of interviews, I expected my friends to share more revealing, even intellectual opinions on the subject. Unfortunately, they all fit the bill of "stereotypic, lazy, unappreciative pirate."

You're perfectly justified in wanting more -- because I did too. But I can't force insight from friends. This article is simply the result of my findings. I set out to inquire about piracy and I got an answer. It's really up to you whether you find it interesting or not.

Thanks for your input though!

The thing that REALLY peeves me off about the Pirates is this. We are punished with CRAZY DRM that only hurts real people that Payed to play it.  Take Live Arcade.  I have a REALLY poor connection to the Internet.  I use Low end DSL because I come here, a couple of message boards and use email.  Nothing really that big. Well my 360 started scratching discs so I sent it in for repairs.  Well they sent me a refurb instead of fixing the problem and I can't play those games unless I am connected to live the whole time.  My get disconnected and I am SCREWED.  When I called MS about it they suggested I just pay for a better connection. 

Even if I wanted a copy of the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 I could not do it.  (They require you to be connected to their server the Whole time. + I got the 360 version at launch)  Ohhh and another problem with Assassin's Creed 2's DRM is this Will Ubisoft want to pay for those servers in 5 or 7 years?   What happens when they get taken down?  Will they patch AC2 to work offline?  If not who does it hurt?  Not the Pirates.

@Ed - I stopped reading your comment as soon as you likened piracy of intangible data to the theft of a physical object. It's not even the same thing, and you sound just as "moronic and juvenile" as the people you're railing against.

@Jason - There is a way to transfer the licenses to your current 360. I'm not sure how exactly, but I'm sure you can find it on xbox.com and I think it can be done from your computer.

On-topic, I agree that the interviews were pretty bare and played up to the stereotypes. I applaud the hackers that cracked Ubisoft's recent DRM scheme. The fact that it was cracked so quickly and trumpeted around the net has got to send a message. Cracking and pirating as a political message against absurd DRM I can understand. Pirating because you didn't get dedicated servers, not so much.

Also, what happens when the servers get shut down? What happens when the DRM damages your computer? What about ROMs for games you cannot purchase on any download service? What about all the idiots that equate used game sales to piracy? There's too much gray in the topic for me to take games journalists seriously when they take a strong stance against it. I get that they have to give lip service to the developers and condemn it, but don't get preachy about it when it's not that bad. I still have mad respect for Jeremy Parish for promoting the pirated fan translation of Mother 3.

@Ed "I will go to the car dealership tomorrow and steal a new car, and when they try and stop me I will tell them it is OK, because I never planned on buying it in the first place so they aren't loosing any money. "

 

 

This example fails because you would need to leave an identical copy of the car at the dealership in order for this comparison to work. Ranty rant but not a good try.

Pretty chilling stuff, honestly. I'd be curious to hear if any of these people ever buy games or do they just pirate everything? That first loser offered a half-ass explanation as to why he didn't buy Modern Warfare 2, did anyone else make such a statement? Do these people spend any money on entertainment?

I can't exactly take the moral high ground since I've downloaded media in the past, but even when I was a ROM collector I was buying real games. I wonder if any of these people do.

I work with a couple of guys who had their 360's modded recently and have been downloading everything under the sun. It makes me angry, one of them hadn't even used his 360 in months until he started doing this. I know that both of them are fully capable of buying games used or new. They just don't want to pay for the games and always try to convince me to do it but i am not in to it. I like buying games, I love having the case and disc for my collection.

At the same time I do have older games downloaded (Atari, NES, Sega Master System and MAME..etc) Do i feel anything wrong with that? No. They are not being sold by those companies anymore for a profit.

(Except wii ware titles and lame collections sega and other companies put out and it's impossible to collect arcade games unless i was a billionaire. I do own a Punk Shot machine so suck it. haha.)

Take in mind still, I love collecting games so i am constantly buying games ranging from old to new. I just think it is lame to get in to the current gen and start pirating games and never want to buy anything. These dudes do it because they are cheap asses, to me they shouldn't be playing games then.

@Omar: You still wrote that 2D Boy's business tanked when they released their game which is definitely not the case here.

Only thing that tanked was the publisher that mainly does children's books and games.

I love that first interview:

"In reality, they lost nothing, because I was never prepared to pay for any of these titles."

then:

"I was all ready to buy Modern Warfare 2, but then I found a reason to pirate it, instead."

Brilliant.

And special bonus points to the dude who implies that piracy is a problem because of the draconian DRM in current PC games.

I'll admit I own pirated games. They're all older but I still own them. It was not a result of using the Internet though. The PC games I have were from when I got my first CD burner, I borrowed some games and copied them. That was quite some time ago and I suppose I should toss them, or purchase the actual item though I really don't care to play them any more. I certainly don't condone pirating and it does bother me quite a bit today. About five years ago I could only afford one or two games a year and I recall talking to a friend that I only know through the Internet, and he was pirating everything (movies, music, games). What bothered me most was that he made a good living, probably at least triple my salary. It was frustrating just learning that people who can actually afford products will still steal as much as they can.

Going back quite a bit further I do also own a pile of pirated C64 games. Not that this makes it right, but I was young in the 80s and really didn't give it any thought. My neighbor would offer me games if i gave him blank diskettes so I did. I know today most of this stuff is emulated (I actually don't download ROMs) and the original product would be hard to come by so I don't plan on getting rid of these games.

I have a friend of mine that shares the same sentiment as many of the people described in Omar's article: he just doesn't want to pay for ANY GAME, regardless if the game is worth of the money the game costs. And that's something I really cannot forgive, having been in a struggling music business I know how hard is for people who do not have 'spotlights' on magazines or radios and the same can be said for software houses.

Of course I think most people would be ok with 'pirating' before buying, just to give a spin to the game, and I've been known to buy games even after completing them, just because the game rightfully deserved to be bought. So I cannot forgive people who just pirate away, while the 'DRM' and 'not being able to enjoy a game you bought' are really two different problems altogether.

I'm finding that a number of users are developing a rather brazen "I don't care" attitude towards piracy as seen in this article as well.  A number of people seem to only develop a sense of moral implications that extends to the limit of their own personal sphere.  My wife and I discussed this in one of the recent episodes of our family's gaming podcast, "Cheating the Systems," here:  http://www.happygamefamily.com and we essentially talk with growing kids who really do have a fuzzy understanding of how downloading something and installing it without paying for it is actually a crime.

For many people, their only understanding of their effect upon the world is their effect upon their own world.  This is why the RIAA's actions in suing and prosecuting individual file sharing users in music distribution seems to me to be one of the most effective anti-piracy actions taken: it brought home the PERSONAL consequences pirates can face.

The video-game industry, with Draconian DRM including online-connection requirements that bedevil even legitimate users, are punishing everyone instead of the actual culprits.  Pirates ALWAYS break these schemes and then, essentially, end up with a game more convenient for them to play than the paying customers enjoy.

I try to teach my kids application of the Golden Rule Plus:  whatever you do, imagine yourself in a world where EVERYONE makes that same choice.  If all software was pirated, no developers would be able to anticipate a LIVING, much less a profit, from doing the work.

Why is this concept so hard to relay to grown men and women?

@Omar: Glad to give you honest feedback - although one has to ask: if this was the result, does it not warrant either a note of your disappointment at your findings/lack their of, or possibly more investigation/a second, follow up article? At least the former puts the article into context then.

Great article.  I felt the flames of justice burning inside me after the second comment in the interview; THIS is the type of attitude that made me stop being a game pirate forever.  If you aren't going to pay for a game, you have no entitlement to play it.  At all.  If you're cheap, go rent it.  

Otherwise, keep your retarded mouths shut.  Despite your arguments, you ARE hurting the industry you take for granted.  If you were doing this for a business instead of stealing, your opinions on the matter would be flipped horizontally.  This sense of self-righteousness breeds ignorance among peers; go check out any sort of community help site like Yahoo Answers and look at any of the DOZENS of people every day who have no idea what they're doing, asking for a free handout for Sims 3, or NFS Carbon, or whatever the game du jour is.  It doesn't matter that they weren't planning on paying for the game; the fact is that they might have, but they chose to steal instead.

There shouldn't be anything to debate here - pirates don't have any ethical ground to stand on. Unless you want all digital media to be created by government and funded by taxpayers we need to have a free market for creative content in digital form.  Copyright law is what allows that market to exist.

The argument that it's ok to steal digital content you never intended to obtain legally is insubstantial, and here's why:  The fact that you would go through the trouble of stealing it means that it has some value to you; so you are stealing that amount from the owner at least.  Perhaps you truly would never have purchased the content - what about a more value-minded alternative? Piracy causes lost business somewhere.

In the end, the only justification that pirates can rely on is that they simply don't care that their actions hurt others.  What innovative, risky projects has the world missed out on that would otherwise have been undertaken in the absence of piracy?

@ Pat - I don't think that's the issue, or that anyone is trying to justify piracy as an ethical and just action. And even if they are, it misses the point - piracy exists, and will always exist in some capacity. Understanding the motivations behind piracy only gives people a great opportunity to feel outraged and superior.

These arguments always turn into sabre-rattling, but there is precious little information to go on. Does piracy genuinely affect sales? How do we come up with a way to measure the actual impact of piracy? Can we? The (lack of) intention to buy is relevant from a practical standpoint, simply because it would give us a better understanding of what's actually being lost, as opposed to what's being stolen.

How can the industry discourage piracy while not infringing on the rights of consumers? As it stands now, EA and Ubisoft are stripping away the rights of their honest buyers to fight the pirates - will they now gain sales that would have been lost to piracy?

I can appreciate the emotion people feel about the issue, but I don't think appealing to the mythical is the best way to look at it.