Has anyone read this: "The Economy of Piracy", as in (video/pc game piracy)

http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html
from GalCiv2 Forums

I found this: 

http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html

posted on the Egosoft website in one of their discussion threads on DRM.  That thread carried on two pages before it was locked by the moderators there.  They have virtually zero tolerance for DRM or any DRM related discussions. 

 

I thought the article is interesting and a bit lengthy to put it mildly.  I was wondering if anyone including anyone from Stardock has read it.  It also discusses the merits of having DRM as a necessity to protect intellectual property vs, having none at all.  Also it raises the interesting issue of whether the decline in the production of quality pc game titles can be attributed solely at the feet of game piracy.

10,006 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Short answer: Yes. That has come up repeatedly in discussions on these boards.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I never knew someone went to such a length as to write a big essay on software piracy.   

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I thought I saw an article up on this site awhile ago about that very same thing.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


I thought the article is interesting and a bit lengthy to put it mildly.  I was wondering if anyone including anyone from Stardock has read it.  It also discusses the merits of having DRM as a necessity to protect intellectual property vs, having none at all.  Also it raises the interesting issue of whether the decline in the production of quality pc game titles can be attributed solely at the feet of game piracy.
End of quote

Has there been a decline in the production quality of pc game titles? That is a matter of opinion, but I have a hard time seeing how someone can say that with a straight face. Production quality, from voice-acting to in-game cinematics to gameplay devices, is crazy high these days. Games are more stable and prettier than ever before.

Now, has the quality of innovation been up to par? I think you could argue that has not been the case. Frachiseitus, the most horrible of plagues, has gripped PC gaming and will not let go. But this has nothing at all to do with piracy.

Yes, it is morally and legally wrong to download a product without paying the people who produced it. But people only download products illegally because there is something stopping them from buying the regular version, be it the price of some kind of buggy DRM that can only be stripped out by using a cracked version. Remember: every game illegally downloaded is not a sale lost.