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Comments on news posted 2013-05-20 08:13:52: A new joint study by Aalborg University, Northeastern University, and the Copenhagen Business School has found that piracy of video games on BitTorrent networks has been unsurprisingly over-stated by industry. ..


fatpipe
join:2011-10-02
Austin, TX

fatpipe

Member

Meh

I must say, it takes the Aalborg university, Northeastern University, and the Copenhagen Business School to come to the conclusion to what the majority of users such as myself know that piracy is not the earnings killer that these whining software companies contend.

More to the point, is that these spurious arguments are and will be used to institute draconian control methods upon the users of the Internet. Of course, ostensibly, to control piracy and as always to "protect the children", we can't forget about the little ones.

Skynet is coming for you...

JMHO42
@verizon.net

JMHO42

Anon

Re: Meh

Quite to the contrary, these moronic content owners make more money due to "piracy": piracy = sharing = word of mouth (but control freaks and micro-managers will never learn how to be anything other than what they are: morons).

cableties
Premium Member
join:2005-01-27

cableties

Premium Member

Most know this....

"...found that piracy of __________ on BitTorrent networks has been unsurprisingly over-stated by industry..."

I think you can replace games with software, music, videos,...
The numbers have always been inflated to create a shock of the "potential" costs/loss. Not of the actual...because they can't!

Sure, there is a loss at some point, but doesn't accounting factor that into the MSRP? Those that pay retail, fund the loss. Or it is depreciated at the end of the year. Piracy gives a option to a write off. Just like theft and shoplifting in retail.

TBB. Try before buy. Simple to sample. Those that downloaded music "illegally" have also been the ones that purchased the most. (there will be those that will never pay, but you would never want them as a friend or customer). And there are those that will buy and play robinhood...uploading because they can.

Didn't need a study and I am sure the likes of RIAA, SBA, MPAA... will have their "own" counter study...

PapaMidnight
join:2009-01-13
Baltimore, MD

PapaMidnight

Member

As an aside...

The following is complete sarcasm...

You mean to tell me platforms other than PC experience piracy? But that flies in the face of everything publishers like Ubisoft has been telling us for years!

»www.bit-tech.net/news/ga ··· piracy/1
»www.eurogamer.net/articl ··· -delayed
»www.joystiq.com/2011/11/ ··· oncerns/

Sarcasm complete. Now back to your regularly scheduled broadband reports.

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

3 recommendations

Duramax08

Premium Member

Heres a better pic Karl

intok (banned)
join:2012-03-15

intok (banned)

Member

Re: Heres a better pic Karl

Still the best would be politician ever! He so should have won just for the amazing gems that he would have dropped!

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan

Premium Member

The question that is oft ignored is...

...would the title have otherwise been purchased by the pirate? A downloaded title is not automatically a lost sale by any stretch of the imagination.

The same goes for music, movies and other easily pirated IP. I know pirates that just seem to collect. They grab stuff just because it is there but have no serious interest in the content.
TheMG
Premium Member
join:2007-09-04
Canada
MikroTik RB450G
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TheMG

Premium Member

Re: The question that is oft ignored is...

This may not be quite as prevalent with games as with movies/music, but how many people have "pirated" content that they already own a copy of?

I myself have downloaded quite a few movies that I own a legitimate Blu-Ray copy of, for the purpose of putting the movie on a portable device. Much easier when someone has already done the work of ripping and converting the movie, than to have to do it myself from my own discs.

One possible scenario for games would be downloading an old version, for compatibility reasons with old user content or mods that no longer work with the latest versions of the game. Other possible scenario is where someone has a damaged game disc.

So yeah, definitely one downloaded copy is NOT equal to one lost sale!
dra6o0n
join:2011-08-15
Mississauga, ON

dra6o0n

Member

Re: The question that is oft ignored is...

The issue is the factor of 'potential revenues'. Which is the idiocy of the debate on both sides.
You don't know how many sales would have been made if the game weren't even pirated. Heck if it's a crappy game why would anyone pirate it, much less buy it?

It's exactly like the used game market. People not wanting other people to take their potential profits, or profiting on them.

Vchat20
Landing is the REAL challenge
Premium Member
join:2003-09-16
Columbus, OH

Vchat20 to TheMG

Premium Member

to TheMG
Another is try-before-you-buy's for games that don't bother to offer any demos which both I and the late dadkins See Profile have advocated for.

I had this come up recently with Borderlands 2. I wasn't so sure if any of my computers could actually handle it. Really wanted the game but I wasn't going to plunk down the $60 without confirmation it would actually run. Pirated a copy of it, tested it, found it wouldn't actually run on any of my hardware so uninstalled and deleted. Had it actually run playably I would have gladly paid that $60.

There isn't a black and white 'pirating is bad' as much as the entertainment industry would like people to believe. The problem is they often don't give people options which lead people to take their own path.
dra6o0n
join:2011-08-15
Mississauga, ON

1 edit

dra6o0n

Member

Re: The question that is oft ignored is...

Umm, no. Unless the higher ups in a corporation believes that an action is profitable, they won't act.
So if the action is the opposite, or in this case 'loss of profit' in their minds, they take action.

Basically them reading a report of piracy of their game, and them comparing it to the cost of the game in profits. They 'realize' they are losing money (when in fact they didn't even sell) and starts whining.

If they want a profit, they should go out and see it for themselves on how the market works, not sit on their chairs sucking on their thumbs.

Some of the issue is from how they get their information, so in a corporation's standpoint, the higher ups gets information from the ones under them at times, or from the internet on a biased viewpoint.

Like for instance some site starts showing torrents and stuff, and some employee talks about games and what site they got it from. Managers may go 'wait that's not a site whom's names ring any bell' and may look it up, then come up with some crazy story on how pirates are stealing their profits.

Vchat20
Landing is the REAL challenge
Premium Member
join:2003-09-16
Columbus, OH

Vchat20

Premium Member

Re: The question that is oft ignored is...

I guess I should rephrase that bit of my post. It does go both ways a bit. The reports are, indeed, stacked towards the heavy anti-piracy numbers because as you pointed out one case will turn into hundreds into thousands and so on. Scaretactics and FUD.

On the other side of the coin though while they won't eliminate piracy entirely, they could mitigate it by giving people what they want and not dragging their heels in the old and tired business models. This is especially relevant with the TV industry. The music industry, shockingly, has started moving in the right direction. TV industry seems to be stuck in place but begrudgingly moving like a snail in the right direction. Video game industry is going headlong in the wrong direction, at least from my perspective.
BiggA
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Central CT
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BiggA to skeechan

Premium Member

to skeechan
Or how many people would have legally purchased it if it was available at the crack of dawn the next morning in iTunes in HD for $3? But yes, that's an important question too. And how many other people get HBO but find the torrented copy convenient if they miss an episode? Certainly not all, but that all eats away at the piracy argument.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
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join:2000-01-17
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KrK to skeechan

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to skeechan
This. Back in my teenage days, it seemed that the piracy clubs were like a big epeen kinda deal. It was about collecting and gathering.... NOT ACTUALLY USING.

In fact, it would be backed up and archived.... and never touched again 99% of the time.

It was more about impressing your other friends with your collection and networking then actually using the software.

Obviously, some things were pirated for use, namely OS and applications, but the vast amount of games and other apps were just for gathering and collecting. That was the conclusion I came to a few years later after I stopped trading as well. It was not really the having, it was the getting. Weird, but this is accurate.

Long time ago. I think it's still true today though.
bgraham2
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY

bgraham2

Member

Try Before You Buy

I have done "try before you buy on P2P" quite a few times before buying non name brand software. Why blow $29 or $49 on something that after a few hours of using, you find that there is a major limitation or some part of it just does not do what you want.

I won't name names, but I bought an engine analyzer a few years ago. The software is useless without the adapter, but every other time I used it the serial verification failed and I ended up emailing the company to get the serial number renewed. Thankfully I found a "fixed" version on P2P.

We have Netflix and for whatever, $12 a month I think. I could not be bothered about pirating movies. Netflix probably has done more to stop movie piracy than the MPAA ever will.
TheMG
Premium Member
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Canada
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TheMG

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Re: Try Before You Buy

said by bgraham2:

Netflix probably has done more to stop movie piracy than the MPAA ever will.

And it could do even better in Canada if it weren't for the CRTC and other content licensing issues.

Our Netflix selection is pretty sad compared to the US. Lots of people using US VPNs to get in on the US Netflix content. Oh, and then there's Hulu.