Piracy

[Michael 290]

I recently watched a video from The Escapist Magazine in one of the JIMQUISITION videos. The topic was Piracy and it basically covered how the Music and Video industries have for the most part reduced piracy where as the Video Game industry has yet to address these issues in a logical manner and not with laws.

He goes to mention that limewire (a P2P program that was used to pirate illegal music, videos and such) was a lot more convenient than going to buy a full music album for just a couple of songs, but has now switched to paying for music through online stores like iTunes. It is a lot more convenient because it gives you the ability to only purchase the songs you want, no viruses, convenient, and most of all you know what you are getting.

Services like netflix seems to be going in the right direction. If I can spent $8/month to watch any movie or tv shows as much as I want, you can bet your ass I will pay that fee, I would even pay more! Unfortunately licensing holds these services back as they don't have such a robust video library to offer. It is a lot more convenient to have everything in front of you vs. having to go find something and hope it's the right movie or good video quality.

It's services like Netflix and iTunes that ultimately will aid the defense against piracy. Not laws and sending people to prison.

With video games you have some services like steam that offer everything in front of you, game demos, daily/weekly/holiday sales, you buy the game and you own it and can install it on any computer (given the computer has to meet the requirements). Though some games inside of steam or outside feature DRM features or require you to create an account in order to play (think ubisoft) take away from convenience and in response leads people to go pirate the game patched so you don't have to do all that bs. I just want to play the damn game.

The video covers a lot more:

<div style='width:650px;font-size: 12px;'><embed src="http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.7.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.themis-media.com/videos/config/5308-7a233a5127ce51972e735dc2d9a088d8.js%3Fplayer_version%3D2.5%26embed%3D1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="650" height="391" wmode="opaque"></embed><div><a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com'>The Escapist</a> : <a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition'>Jimquisition</a> : <a href='/videos/view/jimquisition/5308-Piracy-Trying-To-Kill-It-Makes-It-Stronger'>Piracy - Trying To Kill It Makes It Stronger</a></div></div>

[Teto 2609]

Yar har fiddle dee dee

[pheonix561 2080]

Actually I'm really, really close to joining the Pirate Party

[Chimetals 344]

tbh, i have a flashcart for japanese ds games. ive bought some games that were completely playable without any language skills, and then ive bought some that required fluency to actually advance in the plot. and theres no way to tell which one youre getting until you have it in your hands. factor in that im an impulse buyer, so hell if im gonna spend $50 on an impulse game, wait four weeks, and then upon arrival, discover that i cant play it, and wonder why the hell i wanted it in the first place. that, and i wouldnt find half the games i do if i was to order them--if im gonna order something, im already searching for something specific, and am not gonna crash into anything else.

on the other hand, i think steam has the right idea on this--they have demos, and you only have to sign up once. sure, im not thrilled on having to boot steam in order to boot anything /else/ i wanna play, but having built-in security in their games means that even if theres a patch for it, the version being distributed p2p style might not be the patched version. and if someone gets the patch and the game in two separate files, theres a decent chance that theyre not used to the whole patching/pirating business, and would either be unsuccessful in their attempts and/or become frustrated and just buy the stupid game.

steam also doesnt require you to go to the store to get their stuff, although that saves you the download time. imo, if they could get a steam user-steam user p2p set up, they could potentially speed up that process, if theyre hypothetically able to only distribute so much bandwidth per person. based on their any-computer thing, they already have a system where the game is tied to your name, and not if it exists on the computer already. purchasing, also, could be the only way to reveal the torrent link. and if anyone downloaded it without buying, it would still be run through steam, and just wouldnt work.

im not so big on netflix, as they have the monthly fee thing. then again, im not a heavy movie watcher, and just dont like annual fees for anything. so in my case, itd be cheaper to just rent the movie.

[2356 23]

Most of the things I downloaded haven't even reached this side of the world in any way.

[Arachne 25]

Oh, you go on the Escapist too, Tappy? I started watching the Jimquisition videos a couple months back, and while he can be annoying, he makes some good points.

I think he really hit it on the nose this week. Right now the two places where I really see game sales flourishing are on mobile phones and on online stores like Steam. They're convenient and they're affordable.

I still buy CDs because I don't really like using iTunes. It slows down my computer quite a bit. But I'm considering finding an alternative.

[Chimetals 344]

I still buy CDs because I don't really like using iTunes. It slows down my computer quite a bit. But I'm considering finding an alternative.

i forget, when you rent CDs, are they somehow protected from being ripped to computer?

though thats a really limited, crap way to get them :< worse if you want something from overseas.

"can i order _____?"

"how do you spell that?"

"can i see some paper?"

*writes in japanese*

"what is this i dont even"

[2356 23]

Also, CDs from Japan would put a very large dent in my wallet; and that's a CD with only two songs on it. Two. Twooo....

(Though, I enjoy that iTunes has a bunch of Vocaloid songs too)

[Chimetals 344]

itunes is essentially the reason american CDs are so cheap. who would wanna pay $40 for a 15 song disc when you could get each song for $1? and whatif you only wanted one song? thats why it flourishes. so CD prices had to plummet in order to compete.

[T1g 1503]

hahaha im a horrible person

[Ganny 285]

If I might quote the great economist Jonathan Coulton on the subject:

Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan.

[Skridovaste 11]

I don't mean to 'bump' this thread, but I have a question. There is a lot of stuff online which I want to torrent, however I am worried that my ISP will catch me and then send a letter, and, even worse, possibly send the police to arrest me if I continue (I am probably going over the top, but I have a feeling it could happen.) What advice do you have, should I not download at all, or should I download with caution and not too often, or is my theory of what might happen almost completely impossible, then I can just download as much as I want?

Thanks in advance

[Chase 390]

You always run the risk of getting caught, especially if you torrent from a high traffic area (such as a school, military base, or anywhere where the wifi is shared by lots of people). If you torrent from home you're less likely to be caught, but there's always a chance.

My suggestion? Just buy and play things legally. Nowadays there are plenty of ways to try games without purchasing them. Steam often has huge sales where big name games (fallout, assassin's creed, call of duty, etc) are marked down to near nothing. I bought Transformers: War for Cybertron for 2.98 during a sale.

[Skridovaste 11]

It's not really games, more applications, TV series and Movies. I am planning on torrenting a big box of Anime, at least 70GB. Does file size increase the chances of getting caught?

[Arachne 25]

I occasionally download things, but it's usually when I can't buy them in the first place, or the only copies are outrageously expensive. I doubt they're going to go after someone who only downloads a couple movies or TV series per month.

Speaking of which, let's see if Ilsa: She Wolfof the SS is affordable. No new copies, used copies are about 40$, or else in a bundle that costs 150$. I'm torrenting.