News UK 'needs plan B' for internet piracy

Absolutly useless action designed to bend over for the media conglamorites.

Want to stop piracy? If the below was available the world over I'd not have to pirate anything.

Music: since Spotify I have not pirated one single mp3.
Movies/Documentaries/TV Shows: once Netflix and Amazon on-demand video is available in the UK I won't pirate said media
Video Games: Valve and Games for Windows etc etc should have a Netflix like model for games as OnLIve now does (correct me if i'm wrong) so I'd pay a monthly few and can play whatever game I like but never own the game. And/OR Video game companies need to provide more/better demos.

I believe online is moving into streaming movies, tv shows and music which would be killer for a one stop shop for pay/month content of any ilk.

 

So many different forms of 'piracy' that there is no one fits all solution.

Maybe it's time to admit that the concept of copyrighted material is dead and replace it with a global tip jar
for fans of any work to show their appreciation. The Internet is already a proven distribution system, who needs publishers/record labels/film studios they are only upset because while they were snorting coke of the bonnets of their Ferraris the world changed and they are not required any more.
So please **** of quietly, plenty of good art in all forms will still be released, and people will become famous without the old industry middle men taking 80%

 

Another helpful solution to the problem would be to stop shipping shite/broken games and blaming poor sales on pirates.

 

Agreed - I've largely stopped buying DVDs due to the annoying ads/trailers. What set my blood boiling most recently was with the DVD releases of Waiting for God - a BBC produced, licence-payer funded series yet you have to wait 25-30 seconds for that stupid 2Entertain logo to play at the start of each disc - since it is several times longer that the subsequent BBC logo I guess that means their egos are several times larger too. Dumbwits.

As for HD, with all hardware subject to the HDCP kiss-of-death (aka key revocation) I've chosen not to spend a penny on it. The leak of the HDCP master key may make HD a "safe" purchase (from a consumer perspective) in future, but I'm not holding my breath.

If you've not already done so, check out Good Old Games where you can purchase genuinely DRM-free downloads. They run discount offers on most weekends (a mixed bag of games at 30-50% off this weekend). The downside is their more limited catalogue compared to D2D or Steam but there's no danger of you losing past purchases if your account is disabled either (as long as you keep backups of your downloads).

At the moment, piracy seems to be the main driver pushing content providers into providing better products (aka listening to what consumers want) at sensible prices. When DVDs first came out, British consumers were routinely charged 50-100% over the odds compared to the US for inferior products (most notoriously with the Armageddon DVD where the original UK version was a double-sided disk requiring viewers to flip it over near the film's climax compared to the dual-layer US version that contained the full movie on a single side) and had to wait several months longer for some releases. Things haven't completely leveled out but they do seem better - however the fear of piracy seems to have been a bigger factor in this for the film industry than caring for their consumers.

On the other hand, we have what seems to be a militantly consumer-hostile book industry in the UK trying to rip off purchasers even more blatantly on e-books that they have been on the dead-tree versions. If piracy (and consumer boycotts) can kill off such thinking, then more power to them.

 

They are gunna have to do better than that... Block websites all they like and people will just use IRC or some new Kazaa/Limewire equivalent. They need an all inclusive ban, or it just wont work, and I can't see them managing to pull it off. The ISP's will drag their heels as best they can, and they can do it good enough.

That made me lol

 

the great firewall of china going up?

 

As with every thread based on piracy, I'd like to point out that not every pirate is going to change because of lower prices or higher quality, or even ease of finding legal material.

That's certainly a huge part of it, sure. Plenty of gamers don't consider newer games to be worth $60 for rehashed sequel gameplay. Plenty also go to the ease of downloading a torrent, so easy it couldn't be wrong, right? The music industry is hit hardest by that, unlike pirated games which may need some setup pirated music works right away. Provide a reasonably priced and accessible system and you'll likely see a drop in piracy.

But that is a very long way from eliminating piracy. As much as people may hate to admit it, there are people who pirate things simply because they don't want to pay any amount for any quality of content. Without some sort of safeguard, the genuinely uncaring "free lunch" pirates will keep on pirating regardless of whether the oh-so-noble vigilante pirates stop or not.

On topic, can't say that having ISPs block illegal download sites is really the way to go about that. Too much room for error, due to the nature of the internet even legit sites may get some bad uploads and "bad" sites may still have some legal content.

 

I think you're totally wrong i only pirate some games as they have no demos if they are worth purchasing i purchase them as i mostly want games for online anyay and you can't pirate most multiplayer games and the ones you can i am too lazy since steam and the sales i have brought an awfull lot more games and i am loyal to certain franchises such as crytek and and THQ with the dawn of war franchise i only pirategames that i know are gonna be god awful dribble just to test them out since the full price tags are a rip off for a half made crap game if games were cheaper i would definitely buy more and so would the majority of people the main thing that puts consumers off purchasing is overpriced half asses finished games.

 

This is the same discussion over and over again. You guys here clearly agree that piracy is here to stay and that game developers and music producers only release junk that you wouldn't buy anyways. And that they all blame it on piracy.

What is new now?

 

Child porn is a far worse thing than piracy, but what are they doing to stop that!!!!!!!!!
They only care about the piracy because they are losing money, what about the poor children that are being abused every day.
They should be filtering the ISP's for child porn and stopping the perverts around the world.
STOP the abuse first and then think about your money.

 

I never pirate games as I only buy good games at a price I feel I get good value at. The problem with tv shows and movies is you are charged a lot more per hour of enjoyment so I never feel I am getting value. With no real decent solution to provide my tv and movie needs at a suitable price point (or even something remotely close) then I will continue to not partake in the legal forms of acquisition. Piracy and cracking will always be around, companies need to move with the times and adapt and even embrace it like the music industry has mostly and they will still see great returns.

 

OK, but here's the question...

Do they matter?

The whole piracy argument swings on the theory of piracy=lost sales. It assumes that people would buy the product if they couldn't pirate it. For some people that's true, and the move to make legal downloads easier is having an effect on those people, as so many have said. For those who wouldn't buy the product under any circumstances, such as the ones you're talking about, there is no lost sale. Arguably they're stealing it, but that theft doesn't impact the IP owner in any way I can see.

If you make life difficult on the people who are willing to pay in an attempt to stop those who aren't willing to pay, then the willing will go back to choosing not to.

Yeah, pretty much, but if we didn't repeat ourselves what would we have to talk about?

 

There are 4 types of pirate:

1) Those that can't afford to pay - These are temporary pirates as sooner or later they will get a job and buy what they want. Minor hit on sales in the long term. Most lost sales would never have been purchased at all.

2) Those that would never have bought the item to begin with - No lost sales at all here.

3) Those who want to 'demo' things first before they buy - Very few sales lost here as most people only demo what they are interested in to begin with. Minor hit on sales .

4) Those that will pirate because they can - Reasonable loss, but relatively speaking it's still pretty minor.

Perhaps I give humans too much credit, but I feel most fit into the first three categorys. Thus little is actually lost to piracy. It's all a big QQ by the big companys. I don't condone piracy..but I also don't feel it deserves the coverage it receives.

 

I've started buying Triple play edition films for the digital copy to put on my iPod touch / iPhone.

It doesn't help the media companies case when you start getting things like Warner's digital copies which don't work on iTunes (at all) or the digital copy code activation is time restricted (the last Harry Potter film is advertised on the box as having a digital copy but in the small print on the back of the box it has an expiry date of December 2010 and, again, does not work with iTunes (which it doesn't mention anywhere on the box)).

 

Totally agree with all the comments about Steam etc.

I have never pirated anything (as far as I recall). However, since getting into Steam I have spent an order of magnitude more on games than I ever did in the retailstore days.

Same story for music. Since discovering iTunes and the Amazon MP3 store (which is typically a bit cheaper than iTunes and integrates directly with your iTunes library - worth checking out if you haven't), I have spent a huge amount more on music, and have discovered so much more new music, than I ever did in the days of buying CDs.

It is blindingly obvious that the solution to the apparent crisis in the various entertainment industries is to run with the technology rather than fight against it. After all, it was technological evolutions that gave birth to all these industries in the first place.

 

those who place too much emphasis on the piracy=lost sales argument (i'm thinking the sadly out of touch music industry, but as is evidenced here it's lots o media) are focusing on a very small loss and missing a goldmine. as you've mentioned, for those who wouldn't buy under any circumstances (the largest potential market) the only approach is free trial. try it free (or for a very low cost) and you might like it. you might even one day buy it and even become a regular customer. nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

A question, then: Do you think piracy is wrong?

You obviously admit to pirating games, and you have plenty of excuses, but the fact remains. So what makes you any different than someone with no excuses other than being unwilling to pay?

To pull out the same card, does it matter if they make or lose money? You're totally right. Those kinds of pirates, if magically stopped by a perfect DRM, would simply not buy the game at all. Still zero gain for the developer.

I, for one, don't like piracy because I find it hugely immoral (in addition to the immorality of breaking any legal restrictions). It's taking someone else's work and using it without giving them their due compensation. Letting people get compensated for their work is always close to my heart, stopping pirates even with no profit is part of that.

It's a luxury item. Wait until you have enough, or don't play it.

If you don't have the money then don't play it.

If you aren't sure without a demo then check reviews, rent, borrow, etc. And if you're still not sure then either take a gamble or don't buy it. Their fault for not convincing you.

As always, just don't play it.

You'll notice that every argument relies on the basic idea that the gamer is entitled to play any video game he or she chooses, at any time. That's simply not the case.

 

You seem to have missed the point with two of my points. You also seem to think I was referring solely to gaming piracy, which I wasn't.

Point 2: 'If they wouldn't have bought the item anyway'. It's got nothing to do with a lack of money. A person may try a game/film/album if they can get it for free that they would never have been interested enough in to actually spent money on.

Point 4: 'They will pirate because they can'. You say just don't play it? That comment makes no sense. People who pirate because they can are going to do it regardless of anything.

I also never said anyone was entitled to play anything, nor do I see a connection to that with the examples I gave. I merely outlined the 4 types of pirate as I see it.

 

"Hugely immoral"? How does robbery or assault measure on your scale then, given that they involve actual harm to someone? (let alone the likes of rape or murder).

Presumably you would be happy to label game publishers like Activision as pirates also, due to them passing on cracked .exe's without crediting those responsible?

I agree with Fizzban here - he was providing a detailed explanation of why piracy has limited financial impact and you missed his point by a mile, treating it as justification.

As an aside, how would you view people lending games to someone else? That has much the same effect as piracy (potential gain in sales if the borrower decides to get their own copy, actual loss if they decide it's a crock of shite). Also for second hand game sales - would you consider these immoral also?