Is piracy a serious issue for game developers?

[The Persian]

Not sure how effective you've seen it been used, but the program i've seen has very very few fake or *bugged* releases. I'm not lying here, I have no reason to make this up - i've seen it. Maybe Kazaa and Limewire are infested with that garbage, but they are incredibly mainstream, which means the chances of trash are higher than most other low-key P2P services.

By the way, the people that just "go for the data" are likely hoarders as others have mentioned. Anyone with half a brain knows how to avoid a fake.

Lastly, for every "caual/opportunistic" person who can't figure it out, they have others, or go to others for what they want

 

[Psionicist]

Okay, so you folks against piracy can accuse people here are thieves, and you are also free to install viruses on peoples computers, but I cannot mention a word that actually means "fear" in latin? That's odd. And who are you to judge me, you don't have a moderator title.

Awhile ago I did an experiment (Some of you may remember it) regarding Limewire, which is hooked into all the P2P networks.

I took the free downloads of various products, inflated the PDF size, added a small EULA when it was opened that basically had tucked in it (The User Agrees that upon opening this product they have consented to take part in a poll and data gathering experiment) that made the small "crippled" virus installed in it active.

I call shenanigans. PDF's are not network aware, I've read the specification and written a small parser. You cannot create a PDF that "phones home" according to the 1.6 specification. You can defenitely not embed executable files in the document.

 

[Mercule]

Ah, terrorism. That probably works.


terrorism

n : the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear

Oh, look. It's Godwin's Law for the new millenium.

 

[Sammael]

I've inflated the demo copy with the words: "I'M TOO CHEAP AND WORTHLESS TO BUY THE REAL THING!" splashed across each page, and hit it onto the networks.

It works. It's harder and harder to find the real product nowdays.

But sadly, nobody in the PDF business listened to me.

//shrug//

Those are excellent points, and perhaps the only worthwhile way to reduce piracy. Note that there is no way to actually stop piracy, but I believe it can be significantly reduced by using the measure recommended above.

If I were an independent PDF publisher, I'd create 6-10 PDFs filled with garbage, identical (or very similar) in size to my own PDF, and post them on the p2p networks several days before my real product hits the online stores. I believe that WotC is currently doing the very same thing with their books. I'm pretty sure that, after downloading 2-3 fakes, most people on p2p networks give up. Some actually don't bother to delete the fake stuff, which adds to the confusion.

If you do a search for a recent popular WotC product (DMG2) on one of the p2p networks, you'll find the real thing (two versions of it, actually), but you'll also find a bunch of fake files similar in size. Fake files were released the same day that DMG2 hit the shelves. Coincidence? I think not.

On the other hand, some companies really need to do something about their books being available on p2p networks. I do not particularly care for Malhavoc Press, but their PDFs appear to be incredibly popular (probably the most popular d20 products) on p2p, and they are all readily available from PDF stores at very low prices. I'm not sure how big of a hit in sales Malhavoc is taking, but it's got to be there.

On the other hand, I've never seen some other publishers' PDFs on p2p networks. I don't think this is necessarily a good sign, since it may mean that people either don't know about them or don't care about them enough to pirate their stuff.

For the record, I do download PDFs, but only of books I actually own, or so that i can check them out before I order them online. I don't have a local gaming store, and the closest gaming store is about six months behind on release schedule. I'm probably one of the biggest buyers of RPG products in my country at any rate.

 

[Storm Raven]

Okay, so you folks against piracy can accuse people here are thieves, and you are also free to install viruses on peoples computers, but I cannot mention a word that actually means "fear" in latin? That's odd. And who are you to judge me, you don't have a moderator title.

Whipping out the "law is terrorism" silliness is not a new, or particularly insightful tactic. You get derision for using it for the same reason that people who pull out the "taxes are theft" or "government is oppression" rhetoric get derision: those sorts of arguments are worthy of derision.

 

[The Persian]

But when the power handed to it, and it's tactics come close, or parallel it in some aspects, why not mention it offhandedly?

 

[Psionicist]

Whipping out the "law is terrorism" silliness is not a new, or particularly insightful tactic. You get derision for using it for the same reason that people who pull out the "taxes are theft" or "government is oppression" rhetoric get derision: those sorts of arguments are worthy of derision.

Ah, you failed to mention those who say "copyright infringment" is "theft".

That probably evens it out though.

 

[Storm Raven]

But when the power handed to it, and it's tactics come close, or parallel it in some aspects, why not mention it offhandedly?

It wasn't mentioned off-handedly. It was put forward quite strongly.

And nothing has shown that"it's tactics come close, or parallel it in some aspects", at least not in this instance.

And, labelling legal enforcement "terrorism" essentially ignores all the nuances of government that differentiate civilization from barbarism.

 

[Storm Raven]

Ah, you failed to mention those who say "copyright infringment" is "theft".

Nope. You haven't differentiated copyright infringement from theft in any meaningful sense. Differentiating fining you for violating the law from terrorism intended to force you into ideological agreement is pretty easy to do.

 

[Psionicist]

It wasn't mentioned off-handedly. It was put forward quite strongly.

And nothing has shown that"it's tactics come close, or parallel it in some aspects", at least not in this instance.

And, labelling legal enforcement "terrorism" essentially ignores all the nuances of government that differentiate civilization from barbarism.

I never said law enforcement is terrorism. I said trying to get rid of piracy by instilling fear (of say lawsuits) to the public is terrorism, instead of working out a solution together.

Edit: The reason we have laws against murder for example is because the majority of a society think that's a good idea. This is not the case with piracy. Especially not in say Asian countries.