No Pity for the Masses

Ars Technica had a couple of interesting posts in the last couple of days. Post1 & Post2. Basically a gentleman by the name of Cliff Harris of Positech games made an open call to pirates asking them to explain why they pirate his software. Personally I believe this was less for the greater good and more about seeking publicity but that is neither here nor there.

While the list of reasons for piracy are nothing new the fact that someone might listen is. Here is the list as taken from the Ars Technica post:

1. The information wants to/free anarchists think copyright shouldn’t exist.
2. Games are too expensive.
3. The quality of gaming is too uneven.
4. DRM is hurting the legitimate customers.
5. Going to the shops is annoying.
6. Because piracy is easy to do with low risk for getting caught..

In response:
1.) “The information wants to/free anarchists think copyright shouldn’t exist.”

If anarchists get their way and information is completely open would they still be anarchists? Wouldn’t that then just be the status quo. Whatever the case this type of thinking is too 1-dimensional. Information should be free, I don’t disagree with that assertion. But pirates aren’t just stealing information, they are stealing fully fledged products made from that information. I say we give them what they want. The next major game out of EA should be released with the complete source code. Only the programmers should rearrange every line in the code. For the non-programmers reading this blog: Source code has to be organized in a specific way or it doesn’t do anything. Well I guess technically it could do something but it won’t be what you wanted.

Example: Here is a really dumb example that just spits out the letters to the phrase “Suck It.”

char *buffer = new char[256];
sprintf(buffer ,"Suck it");
 
for(int i = 0; i < strlen(buffer); i++){
    printf("Letter[%d]: %c\n",i,buffer[i]);
}

And now:

printf("Letter[%d]: %c\n",i,buffer[i]);
for(int i = 0; i < strlen(buffer); i++){}
sprintf(buffer ,"Suck it");
char *buffer = new char[256];

If you don’t program then none of this will mean anything. Take my word for it, that last chunk of code won’t work. BUT it does contain all of the code from original example AND it’s free.

2.) “Games are too expensive.”
I agree. Then just buy them from the bargain bin in a few years.

3.) “The quality of gaming is too uneven.”
Again, I agree. Games are too often over-hyped and under performing. Do your research first. No one needs the newest game the day it comes out. One of the piracy arguments I hear all the time is “I’m just demoing the game, if I like it I’ll buy it.” If thats true then great. Honestly though, if you beat a pirated game in 2 days you aren’t likely to go drop $50 dollars on that game.

4.) “DRM is hurting the legitimate customers.”
I 100% agree. DRM’s are the biggest fucking joke in the gaming industry. Imagine someone sold you a house. That house can only be opened with one key which is provided when you purchase the home. Now imagine that the key you receive doesn’t always work and, when it does, it often requires you to perform odd actions before it actually does anything. Now imagine some guy says he’ll give you the key and the house for free, period. Which option would you take? Yeah the guy is shady as hell but.. well… it’s free.

That’s basically how DRM’s work. They install themselves almost like malware, often opening up vulnerabilities in your computer. Sometimes they don’t work at all unless you uninstall some of your other programs. DRM’s must stop the pirates though right? HAHAHAHA!!! Sure, and I’m made of fucking pixie dust. DRM protected games are pirated and released at almost the same time as the actual game. Maybe the effective DRM’s will push that time back by a day but more than likely not. So who suffers? The legitimate consumer. Those of us who pay for our games because we get stuck with the DRM bullshit. Most of us will buy the game and then download the pirated version so that we can run it at any time.

5.) “Going to the shops is annoying.”
If you’re this fucking lazy then buy the game through EBGames streaming content, Valve’s Steam service, or pay the 5 fucking dollars for 2 day delivery and order the thing online. Who is this lazy?

6.) “Because piracy is easy to do with low risk for getting caught”
I can’t argue with this mentality because it’s true. Piracy is easy and the risks are almost negligible. The only thing I would ask is that you remember that the more games are stolen, the higher the costs will become to the consumer. This will drive down the demand and eventually the industry will need to come up with a better solution or games won’t be nearly the viable industry they are now. I don’t that will ever happen but one never knows.

Here is a fun response to a post I made on the Ars forums:

If I don’t give you 100 dollars just because you’re a nice guy, does that also mean I’m depriving you of revenue? What if you wear a blue shirt today? If I don’t give you 100 dollars for that am I depriving you of revenue? Money you wouldn’t make either way doesn’t make you deprived.

One of my all time favorite piracy arguments: “Money you wouldn’t make either way doesn’t make you deprived.” How many assumptions go in to this one sentence? If I steal a game and then say that that person would never have made money off of me is that an argument since, by stealing, I’m providing the basis for my own argument?

If you follow the first link I posted to Ars Technica you’ll see my posts under ‘Jerdak’. It’s also good fun reading through for the arguments by ‘Fiendish.’ He strikes me as your typical mid level college student/pirate with a smattering of education and a real need to prove piracy is ok to justify his own moral shortcomings.

What is the solution? Who knows, it’s hard to say at this point. Valve seems to have a good solution with their app. Steam that requires constant connection to validate. Of course their games have been pirated too but they do a good job of providing exclusive content that I think outweighs the desire to pirate.