Piracy: How would you stop it?

[2fish]

Step 1 unplug the internet.
Step 2 uninvent electricity
Step 3 giggle
Step 4 no more pirates... well of media anyway

So easy I am surprised none of you posted it. Otherwise just try to be more consumer friendly and recognize demos as a risk but a positive as long as your game is not complete crap. As a consumer it is hard to find reviewers that I agree with on all types of games and demos would make my life easier.

 

[Tyelcapilu]

If no property belongs to anyone whatsoever, then piracy can not exist.

 

[CaptainKoala]

You'll never eradicate it completely, but to lower it as much is it is ever going to go content creators have to make their content more convenient to buy than to torrent. For example, people would pirate games a lot more if services like Steam didn't exist.

Games on Steam are cheap, they're convenient (just download them, and you get a lot from the service other than just the ability to play games.

If content creators followed this model, and made their content worth buying, people will buy it. I'm not saying that if someone doesn't follow this model it's okay to pirate their stuff, quite the opposite. I'm just pointing out one way to make piracy rates go down.

 

[Harley Q]

Some sort of technological tracking bugs that follow the pirated something or others.

Then use assassins, deadly overt assassins, who would leave an insignia or possibly a note stating that the cruel and unusual murder was the result of piracy. Pfft, they don't even have eyepatches anymore. wimps.

 

[Weaver]

If they made convinient distrubution methods, DRM free, at affordable prices; I think this would go a long way.
Steam did this mainly (though it's DRM) and Valve is rolling in cash.

If I could simply go to a website, type in a movie name, and buy a 1080p copy for $2 - $3 I promise you I will have spent $100 by the end of the night. Of course, under the assumption there is no DRM so I can play it on any device I want, and that I can re-download said movie as many times as I desire.

I also think music albums are hilariously expensive. I'm a hobbyist musician, I know making a great song takes a lot of work (I know because I've put a ton of work into absolutely shit songs ). But at the end of the day, asking someone to pay $1 for a 3 - 5 minute track of music is just a lot of money, IMO. A few dollars an album seems more in line with expectations now-a-days.

Simply put, the perceived value of media is massively decreasing. Even if, say, you own a netflix account for the $10 a month or whatever it is; you're going to completely balk at a $30 blu-ray. You can steam a massive collection of movies, in HD, for 3 months at the price of one blu-ray. It's just so completely unappealing. This doesn't even go into the prices of anime: The whole season of Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica costs $200 on blu-ray... it's 12 episodes long; that's $16.67 an episode.

 

[zumbledum]

Now plenty of people on the Escapist have made it clear that piracy is wrong.
But I now pose a new question to you:

How would you go about preventing piracy without having the majority of the internet want to track you down and slit your throat?

There's been plenty of stuff like SOPA and it's ilk, and even an attempt to impose a government on the virtual world, but does anyone here have any other ideas that would be less detrimental to the world?

As a CIA plant fellow Escapist and internet user, I'd like to hear your ideas.

Captcha: river styx - Fine that'll be plan B.

Close off the unfairness in the current system that promotes piracy/makes it viable

As it stands people who create mass media have a monopoly over their distribution through the patents. this lead to some obscene price gouging like charging 10 bucks for an 80mb album that had a unit cost of around 15 cents. same happens with movies and games, all the things that suffer from piracy.

So i would change the patent laws covering mass media giving the creator monopoly powers for the first period of time , say a month , this is there because there is production costs and once that expires anyone is allowed to distribute that media for any price but they have to kick back a percentage to the patent owner.

basically i would allow supply and demand and market forces settle on a price rather than keeping these old loopholes allowing monopolies to price gouge then whine when people do what they are encouraged to do.

See valves business practice for good ways to deal with pirates. offer a better service at a competitive price!

 

[verdant monkai]

6 month Prison sentences for anyone who tries to hack information, pirate media or steal anything digitally.

6 month prison sentence and a 2 year computer/internet access ban for anyone found making any kind of malicious virus.

I don't care if it seems harsh I just cant stand scrawny little twerps stealing from people via the internet. I'd like to see them try to steal something without the aid of a keyboard.

 

[Phlakes]

Shoot a satellite into space that emits a constant stream of Don't Be A Greedy Asshole rays all over the planet.

Problem solved on all ends.

EDIT: I should probably clarify that by "all ends" I mean "yes the publishers and distributors are also not handling it the way they probably should". But that still doesn't excuse pirates from also being greedy assholes.

Act in a way that actually encourages consumers to buy your products.

You mean like making and distributing those products in the first place? Or does that not matter anymore?

 

[The Lunatic]

Act in a way that actually encourages consumers to buy your products.

 

[FrostyChick]

It's simple, we kill the Batman Pirates.

 

[m19]

All piracy can't be stopped. But... provide good service & solve poverty.

 

[conmag9]

Step 1) Treat customers with respect (no DRM, it'll be cracked anyway and the only people to suffer would be the none pirates, stop generally treating them like criminals in general)
Step 2) Sell at decent prices (embrace technology and the insane cost reduction that comes with using the internet. It's going up there in hours anyway, so do it on your own terms). Make it convenient.
Step 3) LISTEN to your customers. They're the ones whose money you want.
Step 4) Make money hand over fist. It's hard to care too much about what piracy DOES go on when you're building your newest mansion out of fandom love and ludicrous sums of money.

Basically, do what Steam does (well, with SOME DRM, but nonetheless very good).

CAPTCHA: Hunky dory. Why yes, Captcha, it is.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

You can't stop it. All DRM does is make it more difficult for it to be initially broken and hamper those that don't pirate. In order to compete with the pirates, you must offer a service better than the pirates. Most people who pirate do so for fairly trivial matters, such as ease of use. Respect those who buy from you and give them a reason to keep buying from you.

 

[The_Echo]

Piracy can't be stopped. So I would not try to stop it.

As for working around it... well. I honestly don't have any ideas off the top of my head. I think I had a really good idea a while back, but I can't remember it.

 

[Something Amyss]

I wouldn't.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Zachary Amaranth, you are against piracy. Why wouldn't you try and stop it?"

Because I'm firmly against the notion of doing more harm than good. Piracy is a fact of life now, and it's not going away. To spend resources to harass people who may or may not be guilty and foster bad will for doing so just wastes time and money and leaves EVERYONE unsatisfied.

Except the pirates, because they're relatively unharmed.

There's no real way to stop piracy. What we've got here is a war of consumer attrition.

 

[HellbirdIV]

Economic reforms in Somalia and other pirate-heavy areas to help stabilize the region and reduce the profitability of piracy versus legit enterprising for healthy young men.

... Oh, you mean INTERNET piracy? Well I guess I'd just limit myself to more standardized DRM like CD keys, logging on to an online website to register your copy (with none of that "limited amount of installs" bullshit) etc. For music, I'd put some of my songs for free on YouTube and use that to advertise my albums and iTunes sales.

Keeping it simple makes customers happy, and happy customers are more likely to buy my product rather than pirate it. A lot of web piracy comes about because people are dissatisfied with copy protection and feel the need to circumvent it.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Now plenty of people on the Escapist have made it clear that piracy is wrong.

Uh, no. No they haven't. That is an incredibly complex issue and neither side is entirely correct.

To answer your question, you can't.

A vast percentage of piracy is person to person file sharing. I have a copy of Dredd. My friend wants it. I rip it and send him a copy.

Thus, the only possible way would be total access to every computer on the planet which is not only impossible, but would cause a well-deserved riot.

The only option companies have REDUCE pirating is to make their stuff more accessible and user friendly.

6 month Prison sentences for anyone who tries to hack information, pirate media or steal anything digitally.

6 month prison sentence and a 2 year computer/internet access ban for anyone found making any kind of malicious virus.

I don't care if it seems harsh I just cant stand scrawny little twerps stealing from people via the internet. I'd like to see them try to steal something without the aid of a keyboard.

You're lucky we have such strict rules about directly insulting people...

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Force companies to provide the service for their products in such a way that makes it more convenient to use than piracy. It isn't hard to achieve this, just remove any pointless DRM and add in something which auto updates their game/program/whatever.

Work on better ways to detect and track down pirates and then dish out some punishments to them, fines most likely, show them that there are some actual consequences to their actions. People who would never commit crimes in the outside world might commit piracy because they have the anonymity of the internet to hide behind.

 

[Lunar Templar]

You don't.

You can fight it though, unlike most 'thefts' (shut up, I know its not theft) you can take a large chunk out of the piracy rate by providing good customer service. Ripping the DRM out of everything is a good place to start since beating that is a game to them, not a deterrent. Online passes need to go to, cause again, beating that is just another thing for them to figure work around for. Disk Locked Content shouldn't exist anyway so that can go. Lastly, price, bring that shit down some as well.

Course, none of this will happen. The Big publishers would rather wring every last cent out of us, while pissing and moaning about how 'piracy is hurting them' when they done more to push people to it them away from it.