Piracy is not killing PC games

[Remodeling Maidiac]

How Bad is PC Piracy Really? Article • Page 1 • Articles • Eurogamer.net

Despite Being Pirated 4.5 Millions Times, 'Witcher 2' Developer Refuses To Annoy Paying Customers With DRM | Techdirt

Maximum PC | Valve's Newell:

This stuff is amazing. It is worse than I thought. I read through other stories that linked off of your links.
I didn't know it was this bad.
My son and I have been talking about getting away from the lowly X-Box with it's 1990's graphics and hair-pulling annoying wait times for multi-player.
I have been looking at some builds from Cybertron and thinking of getting back to PC gaming and away from the ancient technology of consoles.
Reading this stuff has me thinking twice.

Our xbox has about 200 bucks in downloaded music and videos. Paid for in full. Oddly enough if the xbox isn't connected to the internet the music fails to load or play. And its on my hard drive. As soon as I reconnect to xbox live it works fine.

I also read an article a couple weeks back that the new xbox set to launch in 2014 will prohibit the use of used or rented games.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

There are many inherent questions and dilemmas surrounding intellectual property claims over what is essentially just a number - a long line of 1s and 0s.

Nevertheless, I think it's pretty safe to say that there's little to justify pirating of software as "free speech".

 

[Bleipriester]

There are many inherent questions and dilemmas surrounding intellectual property claims over what is essentially just a number - a long line of 1s and 0s.

Nevertheless, I think it's pretty safe to say that there's little to justify pirating of software as "free speech".

Yeah, it isn´t "free speech". However, I am not going to give control over my software to debasement tools like steam.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

There are many inherent questions and dilemmas surrounding intellectual property claims over what is essentially just a number - a long line of 1s and 0s.

Nevertheless, I think it's pretty safe to say that there's little to justify pirating of software as "free speech".

Free Speech?
I haven't had much coffee yet....what are you saying?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

A note on piracy.
Steve Jobs understood piracy better than anyone. And because of it, with iTunes and the iPod...he built the first and most successful music purchasing vehicle in the digital age. And revolutionized how people obtained music.
Paraphrasing jobs talking to music moguls - "“We believe that 80% of the people stealing stuff don’t want to be, there’s just no legal alternative. So we said, ‘Let’s create a legal alternative to this.’ Everybody wins. Music companies win. The artists win. Apple wins. And the user wins, because he gets a better service and doesn’t have to be a thief.”

I remember Napster well. It was amazing. I had a collection of about 1200 songs, some I still have today.
At the time, there was no way to buy or listen to the music YOU wanted. Music CD's had become ridiculously expensive, music companies were forcing bands to release albums way too fast. Bands had contracts that included multiple albums in a single year...and..oh...you need to go on tour too! Music suffered. Albums sucked. They would have a couple good songs and the rest was garbage. The record companies could care less. The consumer was not the priority.
If Napster had never happened, then we would not have the wonderful options you have today to listen to music free - and purchase. Indeed, like a lot of people, I buy more music today than I did before Napster.
All due to piracy.
And today we have the "cable revolution". 10% of American households have internet, but no cable or satellite TV.
And the numbers are growing. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones have quickly became the most pirated items in history. Thankfully the entertainment companies remember what happened to the music industry and do not want to suffer the same fate.
The result? Both of these shows are available streaming without a cable contract. Along with many others.
Piracy can be the consumers only weapon against industries that forgot them.

 

[Bleipriester]

The music selling business is almost dead and the money is made with tours and merchandising.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

The music selling business is almost dead and the money is made with tours and merchandising.

Not necessarily.
It is "purchased" in different ways.
Sirius Radio....almost 26 million subscribers.
Beats and Pandora combined for over 25 BILLION streams in 2014, paid for by advertisement.
Things have changed. America no longer has the 'debt as income" borrow-till-your-banrkupt" mentality.
Wages/earnings are down for everyone but the super wealthy...there is just flat out not enough loose change in people's pockets to continue to pay exorbitant prices for ever diminishing quality of products.

 

[Bleipriester]

The music selling business is almost dead and the money is made with tours and merchandising.

Not necessarily.
It is "purchased" in different ways.
Sirius Radio....almost 26 million subscribers.
Beats and Pandora combined for over 25 BILLION streams in 2014, paid for by advertisement.
Things have changed. America no longer has the 'debt as income" borrow-till-your-banrkupt" mentality.
Wages/earnings are down for everyone but the super wealthy...there is just flat out not enough loose change in people's pockets to continue to pay exorbitant prices for ever diminishing quality of products.

I am unsure. The next danger is looming:
Next subprime bubble to burst auto loans New York Post

As for the Music, streaming is indeed a new, successful form of distributing but I don´t think that it is lucrative for the musicians. And altogether, the people are going to Youtube for their songs.

 

[Ringel05]

There are many inherent questions and dilemmas surrounding intellectual property claims over what is essentially just a number - a long line of 1s and 0s.

Nevertheless, I think it's pretty safe to say that there's little to justify pirating of software as "free speech".

Free Speech?
I haven't had much coffee yet....what are you saying?

There was a "activist" who was posting and went off the deep end when I disagreed with him/her. It claimed that pirating (file sharing) was "free speech".

 

[iamwhatiseem]

There was a "activist" who was posting and went off the deep end when I disagreed with him/her. It claimed that pirating (file sharing) was "free speech".

Wonder if he is still in his parents basement?

 

[Ringel05]

There was a "activist" who was posting and went off the deep end when I disagreed with him/her. It claimed that pirating (file sharing) was "free speech".

Wonder if he is still in his parents basement?

Probably.
All the posts he made (and I in response) went bye-bye as I'm pretty sure he did too....... Guess he missed the part about threatening other posters.......