Alternative to Piracy

[Kagim]

Well alternatives that could work would be programs that allow for both full purchase and single purchase songs for cheap and DRM free. As well as allow buyers to view entire movies for a small fee, make it on demand to. We could also incorporate these two ideas into one smooth program that accepts both credit card and pre-paid cards you can buy pretty much everywhere.

Itunes doesn't just give you the song for free, no DRM attached. They watermark the files with your email and creditcard information.

That would be a problem if it wasn't for the fact you don't need a credit card to buy from itunes.

As well the fact even if it did i don't give everyone and my dog files i download.

That's not destructive DRM. If you don't mind people knowing your personal info you can give it to anyone.

It doesn't matter what you pay with. You need a credit card to get an iTunes account in the first place. Now, you can sign up for iTunes with a prepaid gift credit card, but I'd be pretty sure you didn't.

Still though. It's not a destructive DRM and i don't see a major issue with it. It discourages you from giving out the song without having to limit your ability to use it. While someone can steal my credit information by hacking my account or stealing my ipod they could just as easily pull the info from my computer or just take my wallet.

As well its by far probably one of the least offensive DRM's out there. Its a step. Rather then pinpoint a problem work to make it better.

I'm a bit confused by this DRM - it puts you credit card info into the songs you buy? For what purpose? So that you can only play them on your account or something? What happens if you want to put them on an MP3 player to listen to out and about? Or if you change cards?
Does a program check your details every time you use the song? If not, then what's the point? If it does, is it not conceivable that the program could be told to disable your music collection?

Personally, with music I'd get the CD and rip it - wow, music that I can listen to without worrying about offending some software somewhere. No DRM, no bullshit, just the product I wanted.

Then again, that might just be me.

No, it just means if you hand out the song to people for free and they know what they are doing they can extract your account info from it.

No random checks, nothing invasive. I have my music on several different ipods around the apartment and on two different computers. It has nothing to do with checks and guess work.

Nothing to do with your card, nothing at all. Its a watermark like the other poster said. Nothing else. Its not going to suddenly disable your collection. You won't be offending some software somewhere because its not software.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

There are several alternatives to piracy, developers don't use them for whatever reason.

-An Ad Sponsored version of the game that's basically the full game for free, but you have to sit through ads inbetween levels, and little watermarks on your screen, ect ect. Advertisers pay the company for their losses.

-A fucking demo. Is it really that hard to release a fucking demo?

-Time trial versions. You get to play for an hour/2 hours/ect ect, and once the time is up the game locks up. If you liked what you saw you can follow a link to buy it, at which time the game unlocks, and since it's already on your computer, no lengthy installations or DRM bullshit to go through.

the problem with time trial versions is that someone will find a way to hack away the restriction

 

[Wicky_42]

Spoiler: le snip

Well alternatives that could work would be programs that allow for both full purchase and single purchase songs for cheap and DRM free. As well as allow buyers to view entire movies for a small fee, make it on demand to. We could also incorporate these two ideas into one smooth program that accepts both credit card and pre-paid cards you can buy pretty much everywhere.

Itunes doesn't just give you the song for free, no DRM attached. They watermark the files with your email and creditcard information.

That would be a problem if it wasn't for the fact you don't need a credit card to buy from itunes.

As well the fact even if it did i don't give everyone and my dog files i download.

That's not destructive DRM. If you don't mind people knowing your personal info you can give it to anyone.

It doesn't matter what you pay with. You need a credit card to get an iTunes account in the first place. Now, you can sign up for iTunes with a prepaid gift credit card, but I'd be pretty sure you didn't.

Still though. It's not a destructive DRM and i don't see a major issue with it. It discourages you from giving out the song without having to limit your ability to use it. While someone can steal my credit information by hacking my account or stealing my ipod they could just as easily pull the info from my computer or just take my wallet.

As well its by far probably one of the least offensive DRM's out there. Its a step. Rather then pinpoint a problem work to make it better.

I'm a bit confused by this DRM - it puts you credit card info into the songs you buy? For what purpose? So that you can only play them on your account or something? What happens if you want to put them on an MP3 player to listen to out and about? Or if you change cards?
Does a program check your details every time you use the song? If not, then what's the point? If it does, is it not conceivable that the program could be told to disable your music collection?

Personally, with music I'd get the CD and rip it - wow, music that I can listen to without worrying about offending some software somewhere. No DRM, no bullshit, just the product I wanted.

Then again, that might just be me.

No, it just means if you hand out the song to people for free and they know what they are doing they can extract your account info from it.

No random checks, nothing invasive. I have my music on several different ipods around the apartment and on two different computers. It has nothing to do with checks and guess work.

Nothing to do with your card, nothing at all. Its a watermark like the other poster said. Nothing else. Its not going to suddenly disable your collection. You won't be offending some software somewhere because its not software.

In that case, why bother with the watermark? Why not just give you the damn song without all the personal data attached? Or is the idea meant to be to scare you into not sharing your music as your info is available in the files?

 

[Motiv_]

-An Ad Sponsored version of the game that's basically the full game for free, but you have to sit through ads inbetween levels, and little watermarks on your screen, ect ect. Advertisers pay the company for their losses.

-A fucking demo. Is it really that hard to release a fucking demo?

I agree with you about demos. As far as adds go though, don't lots of games these days put them in to the version they sell? I am under the impression that just adds won't pay the development costs of a modern big budget game.

Well at the time of this writing, there are several games and apps that do it well. For example, Plants vs Zombies, Fraps, ect ect. Yes, it would be hard to make up the losses, but far from impossible, and I highly doubt many would be so cheap as to be willing to put up with a 30 second ad between each cutscene or level.

 

[Kagim]

Spoiler: le snip

Well alternatives that could work would be programs that allow for both full purchase and single purchase songs for cheap and DRM free. As well as allow buyers to view entire movies for a small fee, make it on demand to. We could also incorporate these two ideas into one smooth program that accepts both credit card and pre-paid cards you can buy pretty much everywhere.

Itunes doesn't just give you the song for free, no DRM attached. They watermark the files with your email and creditcard information.

That would be a problem if it wasn't for the fact you don't need a credit card to buy from itunes.

As well the fact even if it did i don't give everyone and my dog files i download.

That's not destructive DRM. If you don't mind people knowing your personal info you can give it to anyone.

It doesn't matter what you pay with. You need a credit card to get an iTunes account in the first place. Now, you can sign up for iTunes with a prepaid gift credit card, but I'd be pretty sure you didn't.

Still though. It's not a destructive DRM and i don't see a major issue with it. It discourages you from giving out the song without having to limit your ability to use it. While someone can steal my credit information by hacking my account or stealing my ipod they could just as easily pull the info from my computer or just take my wallet.

As well its by far probably one of the least offensive DRM's out there. Its a step. Rather then pinpoint a problem work to make it better.

I'm a bit confused by this DRM - it puts you credit card info into the songs you buy? For what purpose? So that you can only play them on your account or something? What happens if you want to put them on an MP3 player to listen to out and about? Or if you change cards?
Does a program check your details every time you use the song? If not, then what's the point? If it does, is it not conceivable that the program could be told to disable your music collection?

Personally, with music I'd get the CD and rip it - wow, music that I can listen to without worrying about offending some software somewhere. No DRM, no bullshit, just the product I wanted.

Then again, that might just be me.

No, it just means if you hand out the song to people for free and they know what they are doing they can extract your account info from it.

No random checks, nothing invasive. I have my music on several different ipods around the apartment and on two different computers. It has nothing to do with checks and guess work.

Nothing to do with your card, nothing at all. Its a watermark like the other poster said. Nothing else. Its not going to suddenly disable your collection. You won't be offending some software somewhere because its not software.

In that case, why bother with the watermark? Why not just give you the damn song without all the personal data attached? Or is the idea meant to be to scare you into not sharing your music as your info is available in the files?

Pretty much. I find it significantly better then most any other system out there. Just don't share your files you downloaded with strangers. It's not even easy to get a hold of the info in the first place. The only people who could get that info is someone who can crack DRM.

 

[Fritzvalt]

The only real and viable alternative to piracy and DRM is making a physical product that the consumer WANTS to purchase. Maybe something packaged with the product or maybe just making a better product. DRM is a lazy solution that causes more problems than it fixes, but that's a whole different topic.

What physical object? A book that a pirate will scan and add as a pdf to his torrent?

If people won't pay for creative works, adding more creative works to "sweeten the deal" won't entice a pirate into buying it. He'll just pirate the whole goddamn treasure trove. People aren't going to pay $60 for a cheap figurine and an art booklet when they want to play a game.

Demanding more stuff isn't an answer.

That's true. People are going to pirate, that is a problem which won't be fixed. People will continue to steal so long as they can. I'm simply saying that you want to convince people that they should spend money on it rather than pirate it. It's idealistic, I know, but I still believe that if you make a high quality product and sell it for a fair price, that most people will pay for it.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

The only real and viable alternative to piracy and DRM is making a physical product that the consumer WANTS to purchase. Maybe something packaged with the product or maybe just making a better product. DRM is a lazy solution that causes more problems than it fixes, but that's a whole different topic.

What physical object? A book that a pirate will scan and add as a pdf to his torrent?

If people won't pay for creative works, adding more creative works to "sweeten the deal" won't entice a pirate into buying it. He'll just pirate the whole goddamn treasure trove. People aren't going to pay $60 for a cheap figurine and an art booklet when they want to play a game.

Demanding more stuff isn't an answer.

That's true. People are going to pirate, that is a problem which won't be fixed. People will continue to steal so long as they can. I'm simply saying that you want to convince people that they should spend money on it rather than pirate it. It's idealistic, I know, but I still believe that if you make a high quality product and sell it for a fair price, that most people will pay for it.

People are already making high quality products. That's why there are people who go online and take their content.

 

[adledog]

The alternative is glyde.com. you can get games for significantly cheaper and sell old crappy ones you dont want anymore

The aftermarket is more damaging to the industry than piracy. As those are actual tangible quantifiable lost sales.

Exactly, its the legal alternative to piracy=P