Murdoch: illegal downloading is like stealing a handbag

I'm not saying its right or wrong to pirate but here's my thoughts. Note that NONE of these are excuses to pirate. This pertains to software.

1. Start making a better finished product.
To many games get released 80% finished then just left un-supported by its developers.

2. Lower the prices some.
$60 for a game is very much over priced.

3. Release demos for people to try the product out.
NFS Shift was one of the most pirated games of last year. A huge chunk of it was because people wanted to try it out before they bought it(and also to see if their systems could even run it). But EA didn't even announce a demo until a bit after the game was out. Was already to late.

4. Copy Protection.
Many pirate the games because of extreme/intrusive copy protection that is completely un-needed. What's the point when they can just download the game instead? Any and every protection can and will get cracked. Keep it simple. All your doing is hurting your paying customers and giving the crackers 5 more minutes of work.

There's some more but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

As far as games go, all the money is in mmo's now. Just look at Blizzard, they bring in over 2billion a year just off WoW alone.

WoW is a great example of making a game less piratable. everything is stored server-side and you need an authenticated CD Key to play. And the cost per month is a great revenue stream and allows upkeep of dedicated servers.

Bootz said:

As far as games go, all the money is in mmo's now. Just look at Blizzard, they bring in over 2billion a year just off WoW alone.

That is a great point but you can't forget the income Microsoft brings in through Live as well. You can argue that piracy is hurting Microsoft but I have to counter argue. Most gamers want to play online and to do that, you have to process an original copy of the game. Playing online with a modified console will get you banned or at least the console.

antharr said:

Bootz said:

As far as games go, all the money is in mmo's now. Just look at Blizzard, they bring in over 2billion a year just off WoW alone.

That is a great point but you can't forget the income Microsoft brings in through Live as well. You can argue that piracy is hurting Microsoft but I have to counter argue. Most gamers want to play online and to do that, you have to process an original copy of the game. Playing online with a modified console will get you banned.

Over 1 million people were banned last year in this exact manner.
1 Million Xbox Live Players Banned -- InformationWeek

DarkNovaGamer said:

Kari said:

Product FRED said:

Pirating doesn't make you a bad person. There are legitimate reasons to pirate, or...pseudo-pirate. Apple, for example, doesn't allow you to test out Appstore apps. Google, on the other hand, has a 24-hour return policy for applications. As long as you delete them, you get your money back. How else would you know what you're paying for? The industry is taking measures, but these measures don't work and just end up hurting honest consumers. Pirates have no problem cutting through DRM.

I wholeheartedly, honestly detest that argument.

Sincerely, Kari

You may detest the argument, but I agree with it. Apple aside, not everyone can afford to buy every application they want. Sometimes the free alternatives do not meet their needs either. I wonder how many GFX Team members here that use Photoshop actually purchased it.

That is another great point. If you stopped the pirating of Photoshop, how many people would buy it at it's whopping price. I think they would settle for something like Gimp instead. What do you do then........go after all open source software for infringing on copyrights?