Things that should be done to break the piracy debate.

[Ryong]

Originally Posted by Jagos

Shamus Young is our friend. And I'm sure that our friends in Brazil can attest to what happens when copyright is too strong.

You mean when games cost twice their original price, but everyone is about twice as poor as in the place the game was made. Crazy pricing, not sure if crazy copyright.

[Jagos]

Originally Posted by Ryong

You mean when games cost twice their original price, but everyone is about twice as poor as in the place the game was made. Crazy pricing, not sure if crazy copyright.

True:

Brazil wasn't always a haven for piracy. After all, up until the mid-'90s, the games market in Brazil was overwhelmingly legal; companies would officially launch and provide support for consoles, such as Tectoy (Sega) and Gradiente (Nintendo). The piracy epidemic only came about with the combination of exceptionally high taxes (EGM Brazil estimated in their March 2005 edition that at least 45 percent of the price of a PC game consisted of taxes), the low income of most Brazilians, the lack of an effective government anti-piracy program and, ironically, the very factor that helped make games more mass-market: the change of media from cartridges to CDs, making it much easier to copy games.

But it hurts just the same. If Brazil lowered its tax rate, I'm sure more people would work in the games industry on the legal side of the fence. As it stands, they're just biding time trying to make ends meet with the little money they have.

-edit- Also, these guys seem to understand.

[synkr0nized]

@Bluez: Yeah, I read the Wikipedia entry, too. But that's not really a source, so I went on to the copyright law entries and some of their references. I get the relevant terms and definitions and how the communities create distinctions among them; I wanted to know if there were rulings I didn't know about or hadn't come across (eg: if Orphan Works law had been applied directly to "abandonware" or similar). I guess not**. Until then, it will remain, as you say, a gray area to most people / the sites involved should continue to distance themselves from "oldwarez" and avoiding copyright law issues.

Oh well. Back to the DRM piracy discussion.



** some of the comments and responses to the US Orphan Works bill, which you can read in that last link I had, are interesting, as they try to directly address this topic; doesn't seem to have made it into the bill

[Aerozord]

Piracy is wrong as it hurts developers, makes it harder for new games to be made, and is a real insult to their hard work. Producers, typically the ones that put in DRMs do have a right to do so

however, piracy cannot be stopped. Its actually like my arguement on airline security. You cannot prevent it without doing something so extreme no one will want to go through the hassel. DRM discurages those taht want it legitly. All you can do is trust that the consumer will want to support you

not saying that because of optimism, but because it really is the only option

[Loyal]

While there are plenty of people who are just too cheap to buy the software, the fact of the matter is that these days, there's a strong enough argument for pirating just to get past the DRM, which hurts the consumer and will never slow down the pirates for very long. Is it 'right'? No, but it's still a valid argument. When we get to the point that pirated software is absolutely superior to its legal counterpart, the motivation for staying legal grows thin.

At this point, the consumer can either
a) buy the software and deal with the DRM that does nothing but hurt the consumer who paid for it,
b) pirate the software, which has been cracked to do without the DRM, thus allowing you to play the game unhindered and for free,
c) Not buy the game, and not play the game.

While morally and legally your choices are limited to a) and c), as far as the company's assets are concerned there is no difference between b) and c).

Unlike stealing a loaf of bread from the grocery store, a game's data will always exist and can be copied an infinite number of times at no cost. Whether the consumer pirated the game or simply ignored it, the company gains nothing and loses nothing from that particular consumer. What's more, the company has no way to track the difference between the two.

Conclusion: Do away with DRM, or at least anything more complicated than a CD-Key. Pirates who steal to save money will be unaffected either way, but at least the legal consumers won't feel inclined to follow their example.

[Eltargrim]

My 0.02$:

I tried to pirate Superpower 2. It appeared to have a virus. So I bought Superpower 2.

It turns out AVG false-flagged the patched .exe that you need to get around the DRM and play the game you bought as a virus.

So, indirectly, DRM made me buy the game, but it later made me spend about 3 hours trying to actually play the fucking game.

Fuck DRM.

[DFM]

Came in to say what Loyal said and that I've purposefully misread every instance of "DRM" and that because of it this is my favorite thread.

[Ecks]

Originally Posted by DFM

Came in to say what Loyal said and that I've purposefully misread every instance of "DRM" and that because of it this is my favorite thread.

Wish I could say the same. Both leave a bad taste in my mouth *cough*VampiretheMasqueradeLP*cough*

[Azisien]

Well I didn't notice this until recently, but Steam entries actually describe what kind of DRM the game you're purchasing has. I like the Assassin's Creed 2 one:

Originally Posted by Steam

3rd-party DRM: UBISOFT REQUIRES A PERMANENT HIGH SPEED INTERNET CONNECTION AND CREATION OF A UBISOFT ACCOUNT TO PLAY THIS VIDEO GAME AT ALL TIMES.

You go girl! P.S. nice typo!

[EVILNess]

I think the DLC code in the package thing is a step in the right direction. I also remember a time when you got actual swag in with your purchase. A cloth map or a piece of DLC might not seem like much, but I think its better than online locking your stuff.

Hell, a good alternative to ALWAYS having an internet connection would just be locking out the multiplayer without a valid CD-key.

Or password protecting a CD key. When you authenticate to the server you associate that CD key with YOUR account and you gotta have YOUR credentials to install the game, effectively locking out the CD from other users. Sure it would require an internet connection to install, but once again its better than having one be required all the time.