Anti-piracy groups are lying to you.

A new OECD report indicates that organizations like ELSPA, MPAA and RIAA are wrong in there estimates by, in a best case scenario, a factor of three.

don't beleive everything you read in news papers :-P
but maybe they are right, no idea.

Heard someone from MicroSoft spouting on about this on the radio, this week. Of course they span it to make it sound like it was customers that were losing out and that MicroSoft wasn't actually too bothered about the loss of revenue. Yeah, right.

I did wonder how they compiled these piracy statistics, since, by the very nature of pirated software, you can't register it (legitimately), and you don't shout out that you're using dodgy software.

Lying or not, the bottom line is people shouldn't be stealing software.

I would be much happier knowing that a person who pirated my games or apps or anyones elses games or apps would face a nice amount of time in jail.

Downloaders of pirate software are not the first issue. The people who crack, patch and release the pirate software in the first place should be the no 1 target.

If I go in to a bank and steal money I'll go to jail. If I robbed someone of there belongings on the street I would go to jail. If I steal someones software, games etc and affect their livelyhood I should go to jail.

The sooner ISP's start actively cracking down on illegal P2P traffic, the courts hand out permanent Internet bans, or have some method of Blocking access to website that facilitate in pirate software the better it will be for the majority of software developers who struggle and lose out to some dick who couldn't be arsed paying for a £10 app or £30 game.

Yeah the RIAA may be lying and Governments may spruce up claims of piracy but the truth is there'd be no RIAA if people weren't so eager to download warez than pay for stuff.

CD#s with Anti copy technology exist because when they never had any copy protection everyone and all people on their MSN lists were trading copyrighted material illegally.

I'd like to see how many people continue on their daily warez downloading when they've been handed a ban preventing them from using the internet.

I'm surprised anyone would think to take the RIAA's statistics at face value in the first place.

I buy more CDs when I have access to mp3s online. Nine Inch Nails released their entire new album on their site, in a low-quality format. I listened to it, determined that I liked it, and bought the CD. Who wants to listen to mp3s all the time? They are okay sometimes, but if I like a CD, I want the real thing playing on my good sound system.

Without mp3s, my interest in music stagnates, and I don't buy anything. Record company profits actually took a dive after Napster was shut down. Where else am I going to hear new music? The radio? Pop radio is arguably worse now than any time since it came to be.

Regarding the legality of the issue, I could make the case that the U.S. does not enforce its own immigration law (we are now passing laws stating that existing laws must be enforced) so U.S. law no longer has any relevance. Break into the U.S. and live ilegally with no documentation of who you are? No problem. But by god, if you download the latest Britney Spears tune, there's going to be hell to pay!

Ugh....FlameDuck's been googling again... =p

Amon: There is a big difference between stealing something and copying something. Technically a developer doesn't lose anything by someone downloading their software, unless you say that the downloader was a potential buyer, but that isn't true most of the time anyways.

Personally I'm ambivalent to people downloading software for their own personal use. I've only really got a problem with people who distribute pirated software for their own financial gain - and only then in developed countries.

Yeah. I have a long-running gripe with eBay for making profit from the advertisement and sale of illegal software.

Seems nobody is bothered about doing anything about it, though.

This joke fit here.

You would not steal a car, but if a friend rang you and offered a free copy of a car?

I have been programming for leisure since I was a little kid. I've been programming for money for about a decade. Sometimes the money I've earned form programming has been supplemental to my income, sometimes it has been my main income and sometimes it has been my sole source of income. I am not sympathetic to pirates.

This, however:


is ridiculous. The punishment simply does not fit the crime. You cannot solve every problem by packing jails fuller and fuller of mostly honest and productive citizens. Someone who steals my latest shooter or shares with a friend the registration key to my latest web building application does not deserve to spend the next three or four years of his behind bars. The damage done to me does not justify that type of punishment.

SpaceAce

EBay actively encourage and assist the crooks.

In the past few months, I've had several listings removed because they got complaints from someone who pays for an EBay store that I was selling the same item cheaper than he was. So they removed my items to help protect his monopoly.

Then I bought a Sony Pro Duo memory stick which was obviously counterfeit ( I used EBay's own guide. ) I complained, but they found in favour of him because I couldn't find a certified "expert" to adjudicate that it was a fake.

Then he issued a complaint against me for non-payment. I replied that this was faintly ludicrous since they had taken the payment through PayPal, and sent them the PayPal transaction ID for verification. I also mentioned that they had investigated my claim for a refund which would have been hard to do if I hadn't paid anything or received anything. They found against me again, and issued me with a non-payment strike which has never been removed.

Did I mention that he's sold thousands of counterfeit memory sticks on EBay, earning them a big fat chunk of change?

the car metaphor works, actually. When you buy a car, you are paying for the manufacture and design of the car. If someone else built one by hand, that would be acceptable. Now, they couldn't sell it under the same brand, and the design might be reserved, but there is nothing stopping them from building it themself.

If you could replicate one ala-startrek, that again would be perfectly acceptable.. You aren't -stealing- the car.. you are making a copy.

Digital products aren't manufactured goods. There is no price per quantity. So all these people that act like it is, are stubborn, money-grubbing, ignorant fools.

You can't fight the nature of your own product. If someone genetically engineered a tribble and sold them as pets. They can't then tell people they have to kill off all it's spawn, that's mind-bogglingly retarded.

I want to pay the people that make my music and TV. They don't offer me any options that suit my needs. I rarely buy CDs anymore since AllofMP3 can't accept credit card transactions anymore. I used to preview music there, then buy the CD if I liked it, only to support the music.

I've decided now, unless I can get mp3s or other formatted media to use as I wish for a small price. I just won't buy.

My biggest problem with how piracy is depicted by the media, is how they keep telling us that the number of cd's sold was indicative of piracy. If less CD's are sold, then piracy must be up.

The problem with that is that CD's are not a necessity, as food and shelter are. When people are forced to prioritize, they buy less entertainment, they go out less, and they focus more of their attention to basic needs.

From 2001 to 2006, the world economy just wasn't good. It's the old Maslow hierarchy of needs. If your company is downsizing, and you don't know if you are next, then shelter and food are more important than buying the new CD.

Of course, the quality of music is declining as well, but that's another story.

Andy

So copying software is bad, but lying about it makes it perfectly acceptable?

Copying software is wrong why? Because the author expects to get paid.

Your average pirate simply does not have the cash to buy the software they download/copy/use. People who can afford to buy games, do buy them!

I believe that a software author that thinks 'every pirated version of my software, is a lost sale', is misguided and shouldn't worry so much.

There's the issue of people who sell pirated software, I doubt even that's such a big thing these days as broadband internet access is everywhere, so no need for the 'middle man makin money'

Many games are bought after a pirate has already downloaded & played them. There's many advantages for a pirate to buy the software they've downloaded ilegaly: being able to play it online with others on official servers, tech support, access to SDKs and exclusive communities/forums.


To a game author I would say this: Make a good enjoyable game, use casual & non-instrusive protection if you must, sell it at an affordable price, and don't be so worried about piracy affecting your income because it's probably no where near as bad as the big corporations would have you believe.


Just my opinion.

honestly.. I don't understand the logic behind the thought that a pirated copy of a game is a lost sale.

This isn't the case in the retail world. Stolen merchandise isn't considered lost sales. They fully recognise that preventing theft only saves them inventory lost costs, it doesn't force the theif to pay for what they stole. (Although, if you are caught in the act, some store's will give a thief the option to buy whatever they stole to avoid prosecution, which costs the store money)

A pirated OS is almost certainly a lost sale, though.

I don't think the numbers of pirated OSs are really that grand. 99.999% of people just get the OS with the PC...

I think Windows 'loses' more sales to Linux... Certainly to Mac.

You think most people buy a new PC every time MS release a new OS?

I always pay, honest and straight-up is the best policy

Every 5 years? Yeah probably - if they need the new OS, they'll also need a new PC to run it anyway. More importantly tho' lots of people buy a new PC with the same OS they already have (but are not legally allowed to use thanks to licensing issues). Personally I've bought XP 4 times since it was released, for my TabletPC, my Desktop PC, my old Laptop and my new Laptop.