toasters…

Wake up

… committed piracy on public domain.

AC

Notable futurists do not support piracy. However they wisely tend to avoid such arguments altogether because they look further ahead than conventional thinkers. In the future they see the tools of production as becoming more democratised. Ray Kurzweil is perhaps the most significant thinker in this area.

The point people really need to grasp here is that conventional industries cannot sustain themselves once the means of production is democratized unless they create new business models. Over 25% of people on the planet now have access to the internet. These rank as the wealthiest people in the world, the sort of people conventional music, film and gaming industries have targeted. But societies are essentially moving away from being meritocracies to those that promote individual excellence and the pursuit of personal goals for financial returns. In other words the nature of work and society is changing. This is why individuals can now make music, films and games on a limited budget and sell their products online. Piracy affects everyone that is now moving forward into this brave new world. This is why developing a sensible attitude towards it is so necessary.

The real issue here is to obtain an understanding of the forces that are at work. This homemade video that lasts around 20 minutes helps explain this process. It is called Robots vs Luddites. If you have the time it is worth watching.

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh2cyOX8sCA&feature=related
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLpHdGFxEMw&NR=1.

This is the form of democracy Kurzweil was hinting towards. Essentially the core issue behind combating piracy revolves around companies maintaining the monopoly of production. However, because society now seeks liberation from production costs, it means that production itself now has little value. Rather the only real value is in the time people have taken to make the master product. This represents the human value, not the duplication of it. This means sales should have little impact on profit because they rely on duplication that is now essentially free. This of course is already changing the premise of capitalism. Market forces themselves are establishing the rules here. The new world we are entering into will have a new economic basis. It will be very different from what we are familiar with and be far more liberating.

While democratisation is coming, do understand the nature of law has not yet changed to accommodate it. The shareholders behind the large corporations have much to profit from resisting this change, because in the end it has been their money that has funded many of the ventures and they have profited from it. The Luddites smashed the looms because it threatened their livelihoods. Never make the mistake of thinking a board of directors will not instigate legal action against you for downloading material without a valid software license if their shareholders press for action.

At this point in time the law supports producers. If you pirate their products they are within their rights to involve the authorities, private investigation firms or legal professionals. The impact of this on your life if you are convicted could be significant. But do not take my word for it, instead read it from the people who have been convicted themselves http://global.bsa.org/faces/index.html. But of course, let us not forget that companies and governments also pirate too.

All internet users need to make themselves aware of the issues. Given that tracking software exists Torrentfreak now highlight a new service for torrent users http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-ipredator-vpn-opens-to-the-public-090120/. For €5 Euros a month (That is about $7) you can now allegedly conceal your torrent downloads. This new service will come from IPREDator and it is by the founders of Pirate Bay. So the real question you need to ask yourself is this. Why do you need to pay have anti tracking software in order to download from a torrent if it is legal?

Of course, the authorities can track payments to IPREDator, so anyone who is foolish enough to subscribe to it will be offering evidence that will allow the authorities to prosecute them. Ownership to such software will be seen as an affirmation of intent to commit software theft the same way as having possession of specialised locksmith equipment.

Today millions of people are prepared to be martyrs to petty causes. Be sensible, allow someone else to be convicted over game piracy. Instead try education and start shopping for products that understand consumer needs. This means the most effective way to encourage good software is to only buy from companies that offer a good product for a sensible price. If they fail to do this then use your consumer powers to choose not to purchase the product. Of course, do understand if you elect to download a pirated copy without a valid license you will be committing software piracy. In the case of products from Activision this is a PLC with shareholders. In fact here is the current share value http://investor.activision.com/stockquote.cfm. A shareholder has a business interest and as such only a complete fool would advertise the fact that they have

AC

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) http://www.bsa.org/country.aspx?sc_lang=en-GB deems the use of any unlicensed download as piracy as you can see in their definition below:

“What is piracy?

Software piracy is the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted software. When you purchase software, you are actually purchasing a license to use it, not the actual software. The license is what tells you how many times you can install the software. If you make more copies of the software than the license permits, you are breaking the law. Whether you are copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies of software onto personal or work computers, you are committing software piracy.” BSA

This is a very helpful definition because it helps us understand that anyone involved can be reported to the authorities. This is why the BSA offers financial rewards of up to one million dollars for information that can lead to the arrest of people who have pirated software. With such extensive rewards on offer, software pirate investigators have already become a reality.

Activision hired a private investigative company http://ipcybercrime.com/ to assist them track down Christian Del Amo, this is one of the better stories http://venturebeat.com/2009/11/06/how-investigators-tracked-down-a-modern-warfare-2-cyber-thief/, but this shows how he did it http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/06/activision-catches-both-pirates-and-thieves-in-modern-warfare-2/. Do note that he stole material goods from his employer in order to do this. As it is believed that all torrents originate from his pirate it means that those who have downloaded Modern Warfare 2 are party to supporting the actions of Del Amo. As he in currently in police custody and his lawyers are declining to comment, it is rather foolish to support his actions online. As you can see Activision uses private investigators that work with the police authorities. The police are now holding hard evidence that could permit them to track the torrent users so this case is far from over. In fact it has only just begun. It really depends on how much Activision wants to push.

However, there is a contradiction in the notion of general piracy. It has been alleged on numerous occasions that software producers have used piracy as a tool to capture market share. Have a look at the interesting comments made by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, in this video and start to spot these for yourselves, check chapter 7 entitled piracy http://fora.tv/2009/09/23/Free-Conomics_with_Chris_Anderson#fullprogram. Do note that Chris Anderson makes it very clear that he accepts the law and does not make the mistake of encouraging piracy. Instead he explains how Microsoft changed their marketing approach because they understood that their traditional attitude towards piracy was unsuccessful. He therefore offers an intelligent viewpoint.

In Mike Masnick’s article, he argues that people who download from torrents have not committed theft. Given the fact that Everiss was directly giving reference to Activision, the company behind Modern Warfare 2, this argument is moot in contrast to the police events that have led to the capture of Del Amo. However, Masnick does not stop here, he then goes on to make four key claims:

1. He claims downloading is acceptable due to DRM
2. He claims that consumers should fix the price of products not producers
3. He claims downloading can be justified as a means of sampling a product
4. He claims producers should find alternative means of obtaining their revenue

With regards to point 1 it is known that the US Congress is considering new laws in this area, however these have nether been made nor passed. However a few companies have made unilateral agreements with their customers in this area, this is encouraging to see.

With regards to points 2, 3 and 4, these are an oversimplification of a series of mature views that have been emerging within intellectual circles for many years now. It would be a mistake to assume that Masnick’s views on this are legally acceptable at this point in time. While I appreciate the logic that exists behind these intellectual arguments it is not appropriate to encourage readers to commit a crime.

Actual theft was involved behind the piracy of Activision’s product, Modern Warfare 2. This is because Del Amo stole physical goods in order pirate Modern Warfare 2. As his pirate is believed to be the father of all Modern Warfare 2 torrents, anyone who has downloaded it is therefore party to supporting this theft. I doubt Chris Anderson, who speaks highly of Masnick, would be foolish enough to endorse this type of behaviour. This is because there is a difference between freedom of expression and endorsing a crime.

>By what standards are they juged? Is it sales? Is it reviews or feedback?

In a literal sense, you are perfectly correct – games (or films, books, etc) are often described as being AAA class or whatever, when in fact few, if any at all, are universally agreed to be excellent.

But I think that maybe here Joao simply meant games that were well received and generally agreed to be of good quality, which to me is fair enough. I’d object when a seller describes a game as AAA class if it’s not, but I think a general statement such as Joao’s is acceptable, since it doesn’t mention any particular game or even a particular range of games, but instead he’s saying that there are AAA games available for different machines for reasonable prices, which I don’t think anyone could honestly disagree with, given the full range of used or reduced price games now available.

What gives a game an A, or AA or AAA or A+ rating, or any of the other different tags added to them.

By what standards are they juged? Is it sales? Is it reviews or feedback?

I question the validity of any statement claiming any of those tags on a game.

If people don’t have money or don’t want to spend it them don’t play it! There is many many AAA games out there at 10€-20€ (in promotions or classic editions) that anyone with a PC or console can pay.

Not one of those companies went bust due to software piracy, though in some of those cases piracy played a small factor. Most of them are still around today in some form and those that died, died because they made crap games and/or were poorly managed.
In fact I cannot find a single company in all of gaming history that could honestly say that piracy was the primary cause of the demise of the company, sure for some it was A factor, but not even the straw it has always been a minor issue.

In fact some of the most pirated games in history have been made by some of the most successful companies in history.

But to equate piracy to success is a stupid as equating it directly to failure. There are often far larger factors involved in the success and failure of a company. Some of these you have spoken about in previous articles.
Perhaps you need to go and re-read your older articles on the game industry and why it fails and stop getting so hung up on these more recent piracy and related issues?
Easy thing to do.. been there myself.

This is getting tedious. Can you not see that you are making my point for me? Dozens of companies either went bust, gave up on games or got taken over. And theft was a massive contributing factor.

I admit that Elite have a few casual flash games on a website. But Codemasters got taken over, like I said. They were never the same after PS1 piracy crippled the company. And I was there so I saw exactly what happened.

It is inevitable that when theft gets over 90%. And it does. That a publisher no longer has the expected income. Jobs go, projects go and often whole companies go. No money = no wages. It is that simple. The thieves kill the industry.