Nev wrote:I'm a bit confused as to why you all are so quick to defend piracy.
I mean, it's a fact of life, and it won't put entertainers completely out of business, but it's a highly self-serving attitude.
This bill sounds stupid, but the principle of not pirating things just because you can is still a valid one...
Really, this whole "piracy is costing us billions of dollars" argument is a load of Seeker-talk. Do you honestly think that each person who pirates something would actually have paid the full MSRP on that item to begin with? That is, after all, how the "impact" is measured.
I just download Ghost Rider. Why? I would never pay to see it, even on a whim on a cheap night. Just don't seem worth it to me. So, did the movie industry actually lose my $6 to $10? Nope, they've lost nothing.
The year Napster was first huge, the music industry saw a jump of 20% in sales (I think it was 1997). Did they get hurt by Napster? Not according to the figures. If anything, there's an argument to be made that it helped them.
And that's the other big thing with me. These lobby groups are so loud about the negatives of piracy yet there's no positives mentioned...ever...by anyone. Does anyone mention the fact that I downloaded Resident Evil 'cause i was unsure, loved it, then went out and saw it in the theatre and bought the DVD? The movie industry gained about $30 from me 'cause I downloaded it. With Ghost Rider, I may be proven wrong and the film might rule and I may go see it in the theatere or buy the DVD. If not, they've lost nothing 'cause I wasn't going to spend the coin on the film anyways. Heck, there would be NO Naruto market in North America if it weren't for "piracy". And that's a pretty big money maker right now.
Same thing with the music industry. There was an argument to be made that there was a decent positive impact of the piracy as people would hear a song from a band then go buy the album if they liked it.
Of course, I don't expect most people to be like me and actually buy stuff they like. There are people like one of my friends who only pirate and rarely spend the money even if they like something. Would they spend the money anyways? That's debatable. And also, Napster saw a 40+% decrease in sales the year after the 20% increase, so there are some long term effects there too.
But, that drop in the sales forced the music industry to change its practice. Look at the sales of legit mp3 downloads. They're huge. They're like that 'cause piracy is only worth it to most people if the costs are high. And those "most" are likely the ones to be purchasing to begin with. So, when an mp3 download is $1, it's so cheap it's not worth it to pirate. The end result is the consumer now has choice to get the songs they want rather than having to pay for the songs they don't. Bonus to the consumer, hit to the industry that was raping the consumer and its entertainers for years. This is a bad thing?
The same shift is happening with the movie industry. With the internet finally getting to the point where streaming is a real option, you're getting downloads on demand starting to take off. Downloading stuff on the 360 or the cable box or other PPV stuff, both movies and TV, is in its infancy and just starting to take off. Starting to become more and more popular along with DVD sales, which are huge. Again, worth the money, not worth the d'load.
So, if you take the fact that these lobby groups are vastly over-estimating the economic impact by a) overpricing the product (who the heck pays MSRP anywhere anymore?) and b) overestimating the number of people who would actually buy if piracy were not an option and couple that with the complete lack of taking into account the positives of piracy, and you'll find that piracy isn't nearly as big an issue (in NA at least) as the lobby groups are trying to make you think it is.
And right now, I'm in the middle of making a game for the XBLA. If people were to rip it off on the PC and play it (which is likely if it's popular at all), it would actually be a bonus to me. I'd rather have the first iteration of that game be played by as many people as possible. The benefits in the future would outweigh the losses now. Look how many people played Tetris on the PC on a ripped version. Don't tell me that didn't have a positive effect on the sales of future iterations of the game due to the increase in value of the Tetris name....
Seriously now. I want you to do some percentages and then come back and take me to task on something so piddly-small.
(Also I was sleepy when I wrote the post and didn't feel like proofreading).
