Does piracy offer anything good? (aside from the bad)

[FormerlyDickensC]

Does piracy make the hobby any more accessible to an audience that might not otherwise dabble in the rpg arena? Answer: Probably no, not to a great extent.

Yet, I think that having the easy access that piracy affords DOES offer some support to the industry...similar to how music piracy increased CD sales.

I haven't looked all through the threads, so there may already be a topic for this. But how do ppl feel about this issue??

I've also read the inevitable creator problems with piracy. People who create do not want ppl stealing their work without paying the creator money. Despite the holier then thou attitude, I can easily see this argument.

But I think that my point is that ppl who pay for titles will pay whether or not they pirate first. And ppl who do NOT pay for titles will NOT pay whether or not they pirate....therefore, every pirated copy is not a lost sale, but is instead something akin to a free trial. Given that not every case works out this way, I am arguing that most cases out there in world do work such as this. Does anyone agree, or is this forum mostly the creator folks who see every pirated title as a lost sale...and nothing good?

 

[Imban]

Does piracy make the hobby any more accessible to an audience that might not otherwise dabble in the rpg arena? Answer: Probably no, not to a great extent.

I know a good few people who were only "converted" from freeform roleplay to dabbling in RPGs with... you know, rules and all because of the availability of pirated books, but I'm primarily an online roleplayer, and in online circles piracy is more prevalent and you can't have people just lend their books to the new player to read over and make a character to try out the game, because the new player may be a thousand miles away from any other players and the books might not even be physical in the first place.

But I think that my point is that ppl who pay for titles will pay whether or not they pirate first. And ppl who do NOT pay for titles will NOT pay whether or not they pirate....therefore, every pirated copy is not a lost sale, but is instead something akin to a free trial. Given that not every case works out this way, I am arguing that most cases out there in world do work such as this. Does anyone agree, or is this forum mostly the creator folks who see every pirated title as a lost sale...and nothing good?

"People who do not pay for titles will not pay for them whether or not they pirate" is only the case for some people. There are certainly sales directly lost as the result of piracy, but there are so many nuances that I couldn't even tell you how likely it is for people I know well, much less attempt to extrapolate that over the entire market for any good. The only people who try to make hard assertions are either pirates trying to rationalize their acts of banditry or industry folk trying to overblow the problem for PR reasons or to seek greater damage in lawsuits.

 

[Solodan]

Talk like a pirate day.

 

[Imban]

Because otherwise we couldn't do what we want.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzpByR3MvI]YouTube - You Are A Pirate (Lazy Town)[/ame]

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Stardock has profited quite nicely off of pirating.

 

[darkwing]

The only thing worse than everybody wanting your product for free is nobody wanting your product for free.

The ease of access for pirated d&d material is basically free marketing.

• Some will download it and never look at it again.

We don't care much about this group anyway because at best they were good for 1 impulse sale.

• Some will like what they see enough to purchase a hard cover book (or a legit pdf).

No harm, no foul. The "free" advertising worked.

• Some will grab it and not buy it.

This group is the most interesting because money can still be made if they enjoy it. Examples:

A group of 12 year olds breaking the law now, because their parents won't spend money for some dungeon game, but those 12 year olds eventually become 24 year olds starting out good careers and using their paychecks to buy D&D 8th edition and assorted accessories.​

Some cheapskates will get the pdf for free, but buy other accessories like minatures or the character builder because they like the game.
​

Still other cheapskates will have non-cheapskate friends that they play with. D&D is a team sport. Perhapes their campaign (and related book sales) wouldn't have existed had the cheapskate friend not participated. Not everyone will search for groups just to play a particular game, but many will play a game if their friends are into it (it just so happens that sometimes friends are cheap).​

So yes, if anyone has any marketing sense whatsoever, they will at least tolerate free digital versions floating around of their product.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Piracy does nothing but good for the game. It's free marketing. Ethically, it may be wrong, but the results are always extra sales.

 

[nnms]

I got my start with RPGs when a friend gave me a photocopy of his red box basic D&D set. The sheer amount of books, miniatures, dice, maps, tiles, novels and the like that I've bought over the last couple decades are a direct result of that.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

To me its like a preview. I dont like to use PDFs, and will never pay for them. But take the Old World of Darkness. I love that game and didnt get into it till like 2000. Those books are rare or sold for insane prices. If I can get them free I will. And in this case its the only option, whether or not I like playing from a PDF.

Some people are poor and wouldnt have bought it anyway. Some people are cheap and never would have bought it anyway.
Some are gonna never look at it again after reading it and finding they didnt like it.
Some like paper versions but want to know what they are getting for a variety of reasons. Lack of money, or being cheap. They get the free PDF and see they like it, they buy the print version.

There are many sides to this argument. But the truth is that unless we get to see actual numbers and get some really smart people that can be objective to look at the numbers and determine that it is indeed bad I wont ever say downloading pdfs for free is wrong.

 

[Shades of Green]

Piracy does nothing but good for the game. It's free marketing. Ethically, it may be wrong, but the results are always extra sales.

IMHO, while copyright infringement is clearly illegal in all cases, it may or may not be moral depending on the case. There are several types of people who commit this infringement:

1) People who use illegally downloaded books as free previews; if they like them, they'll buy them, if they don't, they won't use them in any form.

2) People who download books illegally but can't or won't buy them for whatever reason, even if the illegal download did not exist.

3) People who download books illegally, but would otherwise buy them (i.e. they can and will buy the books if there was no illegal version available).

4) People who copy/counterfeit other people's books and sell them commercially for their own profit.

Of these, 1 actually benefits the copyright holder (free advertisement!), 2 does no harm (they won't buy the books otherwise, so no money is lost), 3 is immoral (and causes actual damage) and 4 is downright criminal (making profit out of someone else's work).

The problem with most assessments of copyright infringement is that you can't really prove how many of the downloaders belong to group 1, 2 or 3 (and thus how much real damage is caused); only group 4 could be clearly identified and quantified if caught (because they make actual money out of it).