"Piracy hurts the user as well as the creators..." or does it?

[zen5887]

As I said in my original post, DRM is an obvious problem. But that is actually only in a small part of the overall entertainment industry.
As for music, as you mentioned, the music industry is really not helping their own cause. They have been trying for years to force "their way" on to us.

All companies want to have the most control as they can over their product, because that way they can dictate the course of it. But when someone comes along and offers a better deal for the customer, the customer will change their attitude.

For a long time we bought Music on CDs. Then the internet came, along with MP3s. So a lot of people started to download music, because it was more convenient and free.
Some smart people recognized this change in customer behavior, and found a way to make a profit off it. I-Tunes is an example of this.

Personally I use Spotify, which is a great program for music. Sadly it is not available in many countries yet. But what it has done is changed the way I have access to music, enabling me to enjoy more music for free or at a higher quality for a fee.

I doubt Spotify would have existed, if the industry was always in control of how we as consumers have access to our entertainment. Because right now Spotify isn't making much money, but give products like this a chance and we might see that there are huge profits in this.

Yet another example of how piracy has lead to something better for the consumer.

DRM a small part of the entertainment industry? Not as small as you being able to see a movie a few months earlier.

You say companies are trying to "force their way" onto us. All that means is they are trying to make money off what they should be making money off. When the nature of a product changes, the people selling them have to adapt, thats why iTunes is around.

It pretty much comes down to "Are you comfortable stealing from people who create these things." Sure some people can try to justify it, and some of them even make sense (I got the CD a few years ago but I lost it), but these are in the minority.

 

[Marter]

Piracy certainly hurts the developers, but most of the time has little effect on the user. I can't remember a game that couldn't be completed or had to have a significant loss of content due to the lost dollars from pirated games.

 

[Mcface]

I totally agree. I am sick of territories outside of the US being screwed over with release dates, or in some cases, not even receiving releases.

Why? If a company in the US creates something, it's not their job to even try to sell it in Europe. You should be thankful you get it at all.

STALKER took forever to come to the states with an English version. I didn't *****, i was happy when it did come, even if it was bugged out the ass. Same with Way of the Samurai.

 

[benoitowns]

Wait....wha?? Getting stuff for free is hurting me? LOL that is counterintuitive......

 

[TelHybrid]

I totally agree. I am sick of territories outside of the US being screwed over with release dates, or in some cases, not even receiving releases.

Why? If a company in the US creates something, it's not their job to even try to sell it in Europe. You should be thankful you get it at all.

STALKER took forever to come to the states with an English version. I didn't *****, i was happy when it did come, even if it was bugged out the ass. Same with Way of the Samurai.

Eh it's cool. Guess by your logic America should be thankful to nearly every country in the world for their culture and food. Thanks for clearing that up. =]

 

[Jared Veeser-Lynn]

actually a DVD still costs less then a 4 gb or 8 GB flashdrive (some DVD are two layered) but the industry has been ridiculous not releasing in a more digital format. I know disney has been releasing sd cards with music on them for a while, They failed because you needed their reader to listen to the music, but we need a better and cheaper way to get the music and games, like bringing in our flashdrives to buy the game or movie at the stores, skipping out on the DVD completely.

 

[Gather]

I totally agree. I am sick of territories outside of the US being screwed over with release dates, or in some cases, not even receiving releases.

Why? If a company in the US creates something, it's not their job to even try to sell it in Europe. You should be thankful you get it at all.

STALKER took forever to come to the states with an English version. I didn't *****, i was happy when it did come, even if it was bugged out the ass. Same with Way of the Samurai.

Eh it's cool. Guess by your logic America should be thankful to nearly every country in the world for their culture and food. Thanks for clearing that up. =]

Hey, hey, Sweet and Sour Pork is awesome, thank-you!

 

[Tharwen]

If you pirate a game, you don't play it so well. By that I mean you just skim over it and don't play in depth.

 

[KaiRai]

Well, apparently video hosting of things online is piracy, right? Such as watching American Dad or family guy, etc on Megavideo, only to find that it's been taken down due to copyright infringement? Well, it's perfectly legal to watch it online on Hulu, but only if you've had the good grace of being born inside the US. Everyone outside the US has to wait longer for box sets to come out too. Does piracy hurt me? Heeeeeell to the no, I love it.

 

[Aurgelmir]

You say companies are trying to "force their way" onto us. All that means is they are trying to make money off what they should be making money off. When the nature of a product changes, the people selling them have to adapt, thats why iTunes is around.

It pretty much comes down to "Are you comfortable stealing from people who create these things." Sure some people can try to justify it, and some of them even make sense (I got the CD a few years ago but I lost it), but these are in the minority.

Neither itunes or other similar products would exist if not for outside influences made onto the music industry. None of these products are made by the industry, and frankly the industry tries very hard to limit them. So yeah they are forcing their ways on us.

Thing is, yes they shall have their money, that is why I am saying they need to come up with innovative ways to distribute their products. Spotify being an example of a product that works very well for the consumer, but still need some refinement before it can be profitable.

This has never been (at least not meant to be) a discussion about is piracy right or wrong, because it is not right. This discussion is meant to shed some light on the positive things gained because piracy exist.

Consider a piracy free world. Sire games would be easyer to play on the PC, but would we had gotten innovative music solutions like itunes and Spotify or any similar product? I highly doubt it.

Another example of how the industry is trying to control the markets, because there are other stake holders present is Regions on DVDs and Blu-Rays.
Why does regions exist? to control who can play a DVD, so that the importers get the majority of the market in their territory. The reason for this is that Region 1 might be released before Region 2. If all regions was released at the exact same time, then there would be no reason for Regions, because the self imported Region 1 DVD cost you more than the store bought Region 2 DVD anyways.
So is this system good for us consumers? No. It is a control device, restricting choice and entertainment.

 

[RicoADF]

actually a DVD still costs less then a 4 gb or 8 GB flashdrive (some DVD are two layered) but the industry has been ridiculous not releasing in a more digital format. I know disney has been releasing sd cards with music on them for a while, They failed because you needed their reader to listen to the music, but we need a better and cheaper way to get the music and games, like bringing in our flashdrives to buy the game or movie at the stores, skipping out on the DVD completely.

Some of us are happy and prefer to purchase DVD/Blu-ray copy's rather then a Digital version (after all if I have to download it why buy it when I can download it for free?) Having a hard copy that I own is the reason for purchasing the game/movie.

 

[Mcface]

I totally agree. I am sick of territories outside of the US being screwed over with release dates, or in some cases, not even receiving releases.

Why? If a company in the US creates something, it's not their job to even try to sell it in Europe. You should be thankful you get it at all.

STALKER took forever to come to the states with an English version. I didn't *****, i was happy when it did come, even if it was bugged out the ass. Same with Way of the Samurai.

Eh it's cool. Guess by your logic America should be thankful to nearly every country in the world for their culture and food. Thanks for clearing that up. =]

What? how is that the same?
You are bitching about getting video games a few days late.
Im saying you, for some strange reason, feel entitled to everything. Be glad your country is getting the game at all.

 

[Rednog]

I totally agree. I am sick of territories outside of the US being screwed over with release dates, or in some cases, not even receiving releases.

I hope you realize that games aren't simply shipped overseas and distributed. Other companies come into play with translations and local laws. These are extra hoops that developers have to jump through and the only way for them to get it out on time would probably have to finish the game a month or so ahead to get everything done for an over sea release. It makes more sense to finish a game and release it as soon as you can to the customers that it can reach directly instead of a bunch of games sitting in a warehouse waiting for other companies to get there act together for a world release.
Japan has the same thing, why not cry about that too, why point the finger solely at the US?
And things have gotten significantly better in terms of release, honestly if you can't wait a week or so for a release anymore than that is more of a personal problem instead of a problem with the company.

It's purely bitterness over stuff like for example the fact we never got Chrono Cross released here ever, didn't get Chrono Trigger until the DS port, didn't get any Final Fantasy games until VII.

I'm sorry I upset your corporations. Don't need to defend them anymore. It's ok...

I hope you realize that Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy are made by Square/Square Enix which happens to be a Japanese company. So you might want to direct your bitterness elsewhere.

 

[kickyourass]

Not directly, but think of it, company makes a great product, company releases great product, due to pirates distributing free copies the company loses sales, the company does not make as big a profit as it needs and goes out of business and is no longer able to produce great products. So now not only are many people out of a job, you are cheated out of any future products they could've made.

 

[TelHybrid]

I totally agree. I am sick of territories outside of the US being screwed over with release dates, or in some cases, not even receiving releases.

I hope you realize that games aren't simply shipped overseas and distributed. Other companies come into play with translations and local laws. These are extra hoops that developers have to jump through and the only way for them to get it out on time would probably have to finish the game a month or so ahead to get everything done for an over sea release. It makes more sense to finish a game and release it as soon as you can to the customers that it can reach directly instead of a bunch of games sitting in a warehouse waiting for other companies to get there act together for a world release.
Japan has the same thing, why not cry about that too, why point the finger solely at the US?
And things have gotten significantly better in terms of release, honestly if you can't wait a week or so for a release anymore than that is more of a personal problem instead of a problem with the company.

It's purely bitterness over stuff like for example the fact we never got Chrono Cross released here ever, didn't get Chrono Trigger until the DS port, didn't get any Final Fantasy games until VII.

I'm sorry I upset your corporations. Don't need to defend them anymore. It's ok...

I hope you realize that Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy are made by Square/Square Enix which happens to be a Japanese company. So you might want to direct your bitterness elsewhere.

It was at companies in general... not at the US.

Fuckinghell I wish I never posted on this thread the amount of stupid replies I keep getting.

 

[FrankWestRonove]

If you don't think you'll like a game you could always try renting it first, whenever you buy anything there is a chance you won't like it, that's how it is and always will be.