Is piracy a serious issue for game developers?

[Christoph the Magus]

I'm sorry, is that related to gaming, is it a term to alienate or degrade someone? If my question seemed odd or offense, my apologies, it was not meant to be so in any way. Nor was it to enlighten/inform anyone of these facts. I figured piracy was a widely known and large enough problem as it, and especially to the educated folks of this forum, that i wouldn't be rattling anyone's nerves by posting this.

It's a term that means this poster knows that there are widely varying opinions on this subject, and more often than not this type of discussion ends up in locked threads.

You're going to get 3 basic answers here (or anywhere you post this, probably): 1. Yes, it hurts the industry and must be stopped. 2. It might hurt the industry, but there's nothing you can really do to stop it. 3. It doesn't hurt the industry at all so suck it up, power to the people, stick it to the man, and all that.

Good luck sorting through everything.

 

[Morrus]

You're going to get 3 basic answers here (or anywhere you post this, probably): 1. Yes, it hurts the industry and must be stopped. 2. It might hurt the industry, but there's nothing you can really do to stop it. 3. It doesn't hurt the industry at all so suck it up, power to the people, stick it to the man, and all that.

Nah, you forgot the side-tangential semantics arguers: the "It's not technically theft because nobody loses anything" people vs. the "It is theft, whatever the legal term may be" people. They crop up and have their own little argument alongside the actual argument, but nobody else cares.

 

[Turjan]

The vast majority of people who use p2p services to download media do not consider their activities theft; if they did, they wouldn't be doing so in the first place. You should hear the rationalizations that real thieves use to defend their activities and define them as anything but theft.

But why do you insist on using the words "theft" or "thieves", although they are completely inappropriate? Use "copyright infringement". This sloppy wording leaves the doors open for broadsides that have nothing to do with the core of the problem . The number of people who deny "copyright infringement" being illegal is actually pretty low on this board. The number or people who frown upon twisting the English language in order to prove a point is significantly higher .

As for the problem itself, I agree with the answers who state that companies who publish in pdf only have probably more problems with illegal downloads. Print publishers cater to a mostly different market with customers who often don't like pdf's, anyway.

Edit: I wanted to feed something to Morrus' meta-discussion .

 

[Psionicist]

Nah, you forgot the side-tangential semantics arguers: the "It's not technically theft because nobody loses anything" people vs. the "It is theft, whatever the legal term may be" people. They crop up and have their own little argument alongside the actual argument, but nobody else cares.

LOL!

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Oh, I wouldn't say that, necessarily! Driving dangerously is wrong, driving fast is not neceessarily so.

It's certainly illegal, though.

Hmm… I see what you are saying, but I don’t completely agree. Driving faster than the posted speed limit is wrong and dangerous. However, I’ll agree that most people don’t see it as dangerous.

I still maintain that people will do things that they know are wrong, if they think they can get away with it.

Psychological research shows that often, when people do things they know are wrong, they either engage in some sort of justification strategy such as: "These publishers and big companies make millions. They are ripping off the common man, I'm just like Robin Hood!"

Or they disassociate themselves from the actual act. Experiments done using mirrors to heighten a person's self awareness show that when a person is highly self aware, they are less likely to engage in "wrong" behavior, because although a person might have high ethical standards, they can, and often do, ignore, justify, or equivocate their apparently dissonant behavior. By heightening their self-awareness, it becomes more difficult for them to justify their transgressions and ignore their own ethical standards.

Of course, they might also adjust their ethical standards to be more in line with their behavior. People who commit crimes habitually see their behavior as part of their personal self-concept. Committing criminal acts reaffirms their self-concept as someone who is smarter that the authorities, someone who can do whatever they want without worry about the law. So they keep engaging in reaffirming behaviors because that's who they are and what they do.

 

[S'mon]

Oh, I wouldn't say that, necessarily! Driving dangerously is wrong, driving fast is not neceessarily so.

It's certainly illegal, though.

Often, driving at or below the speed limit is wrong. Eg in the UK the motorway speed limit is 70 miles/hour, but normal traffic speed is ca 78 miles/hour. If you were to drive at 70 miles/hour you would be going significantly slower than the general flow of traffic and posing an an appreciably increased danger to yourself and others.

I tend to think it's morally wrong to harm Bloodstone Press (eg) by downloading his work in .pdf without paying for it. I am a bit agnostic as to whether downloading the latest Shania Twain single without paying for it is morally wrong - before they started offering reasonably priced music downloads I'd have said not, on balance, now I think it may be a teensy-weensy bit wrong, maybe 50 cents wrong. Much less wrong than downloading Dungeon Master's Guide II or Van Helsing (the movie), though. I am certain that downloading a 30 year old song that's not even 'legally' available is not morally wrong. In fact the copyright law which forbids this is what's wrong.

 

[S'mon]

The number of people who deny "copyright infringement" being a criminal act is actually pretty low on this board.

I'll deny it - although it's being progressively criminalised, I don't think all copyright infringement is legally a crime, even in USA. Certainly in UK it's not, it's a civil tort.

 

[S'mon]

Oh, putting Dmitri Skylarov in jail was wrong, as was trying to jail DVD-Jon. Much wronger than creating software to enable format-shifting of legally acquired works, which I'd say wasn't wrong at all.

 

[S'mon]

Bloodstone Press, I have a question for you. Is it wrong for the Waynesboro TN PD to run a speed trap where they put a 30 mile limit on a clear four lane highway, and rake in thousands of dollars from people who don't slow down in time? Or is this ok because it's done legally?

 

[Turjan]

I'll deny it - although it's being progressively criminalised, I don't think all copyright infringement is legally a crime, even in USA. Certainly in UK it's not, it's a civil tort.

Okay, I'll change it to "illegal" then. Using sloppy wording myself doesn't actually strengthen my point .