Simple question. How much piracy would be turned into purchases, if piracy was stopped completely, tomorrow?
Options: (as anything over a couple of letters for each option makes the post fall over)
A: Hardly any / very little. People would not have brought it if it was not available for free. The industry would see hardly any revenue increase if piracy was stopped. I.e not worth the effort currently being put in to combating it.
B: Some. Industry might have lost some sales. Not the in the 1:1 ratio they believe it to be. Industry might see some revenue increases if piracy was stopped, but the cost of stopping that piracy will probably cancel out the revenue increases.
C: Most of it. The industry would see 50% to 75% more revenues, because people mostly pirate what they would have paid for, if piracy did not exist.
D: All of it. The industry have lost sales in a nearly 1:1 ratio. I.e Pirates would have brought everything they have pirated, if piracy was not an option. Industry would see the revenue increases they say they are losing if piracy was stopped. So the cost of stopping piracy is easily more than than the cost of stopping it.
E: Other
F: Less. Some here have mentioned that abolishing piracy may decrease sales. So here it is as an option. Sorry to those who would have voted for this for it's late inclusion
In all the discussions on piracy I have seen here lately, there is one thing I have not seen discussed. That is, is combating piracy worth the effort it takes? Bear with me....
Content providers logic says that piracy is doing them financial damage. They see that their product has been pirated, say a million times. Their logic is then that these pirated copies have cost them a million sales. That means they lost 10 million dollars (assuming actual product is worth $10) due to piracy.
Their logic is based on the principle that if there were no pirate copies of a product available then all those who pirated, would have purchased instead of pirating. What I'm asking is, is this true? I have never seen type of question asked in any surveys.
I think here is a good place to ask as I believe members of the Escapist forums at least have some experience with piracy. So if someone who has pirated in the past but only things they would never have paid for otherwise, that would equate to the industry getting no revenue increases if piracy was stopped.
The concern is a cost benefit one. The content industry are pushing for more draconian and expensive to enforce laws to stop piracy based on the idea of how much extra money they will make if piracy is stopped. If it turns out that stopping all piracy would result in low increases in revenue for the content industry because they have incorrectly assumed pirates would turn into paying customers if piracy was not an option. Then it may actually turn out that the cost of stopping piracy actually outweighs the extra revenues that would be generated by stopping it.
Now we could have as discussion about morality, but I believe it is a side issue because if piracy resulted in no financial damage the morality angle would not be pressed so much. This is easy to see when, you consider that piracy has existed for a long time, without the same clamor about it we have today. Before the Internet piracy obviously did not have the same perceived impact so mostly a blind eye was tuned to it. It was still as immoral as it is today, but the perceived damage was not as much.
Obviously feel free to expand on any answers below.
Note: I have no idea whether I will get some moderator wrath for this topic. I hope not as I in no way advocate piracy, I just think it is good to try and get an idea of the actual damage it is doing, so I hope people will bear with me.
Edit: Whole topic changed. I wanted this to be a mini survey about how much of what people have pirated, they would have brought, if they could not get it for free. Obviously that might have gotten people into trouble. So it is now about people using their own experiences of piracy to work out how much the industry would gain if people could not pirate anymore. I.e if you would not have brought anything that you have gotten for free, then the industry would not gain much from stopping your piracy.
Edit: Added less sales option.
Options: (as anything over a couple of letters for each option makes the post fall over)
A: Hardly any / very little. People would not have brought it if it was not available for free. The industry would see hardly any revenue increase if piracy was stopped. I.e not worth the effort currently being put in to combating it.
B: Some. Industry might have lost some sales. Not the in the 1:1 ratio they believe it to be. Industry might see some revenue increases if piracy was stopped, but the cost of stopping that piracy will probably cancel out the revenue increases.
C: Most of it. The industry would see 50% to 75% more revenues, because people mostly pirate what they would have paid for, if piracy did not exist.
D: All of it. The industry have lost sales in a nearly 1:1 ratio. I.e Pirates would have brought everything they have pirated, if piracy was not an option. Industry would see the revenue increases they say they are losing if piracy was stopped. So the cost of stopping piracy is easily more than than the cost of stopping it.
E: Other
F: Less. Some here have mentioned that abolishing piracy may decrease sales. So here it is as an option. Sorry to those who would have voted for this for it's late inclusion
In all the discussions on piracy I have seen here lately, there is one thing I have not seen discussed. That is, is combating piracy worth the effort it takes? Bear with me....
Content providers logic says that piracy is doing them financial damage. They see that their product has been pirated, say a million times. Their logic is then that these pirated copies have cost them a million sales. That means they lost 10 million dollars (assuming actual product is worth $10) due to piracy.
Their logic is based on the principle that if there were no pirate copies of a product available then all those who pirated, would have purchased instead of pirating. What I'm asking is, is this true? I have never seen type of question asked in any surveys.
I think here is a good place to ask as I believe members of the Escapist forums at least have some experience with piracy. So if someone who has pirated in the past but only things they would never have paid for otherwise, that would equate to the industry getting no revenue increases if piracy was stopped.
The concern is a cost benefit one. The content industry are pushing for more draconian and expensive to enforce laws to stop piracy based on the idea of how much extra money they will make if piracy is stopped. If it turns out that stopping all piracy would result in low increases in revenue for the content industry because they have incorrectly assumed pirates would turn into paying customers if piracy was not an option. Then it may actually turn out that the cost of stopping piracy actually outweighs the extra revenues that would be generated by stopping it.
Now we could have as discussion about morality, but I believe it is a side issue because if piracy resulted in no financial damage the morality angle would not be pressed so much. This is easy to see when, you consider that piracy has existed for a long time, without the same clamor about it we have today. Before the Internet piracy obviously did not have the same perceived impact so mostly a blind eye was tuned to it. It was still as immoral as it is today, but the perceived damage was not as much.
Obviously feel free to expand on any answers below.
Note: I have no idea whether I will get some moderator wrath for this topic. I hope not as I in no way advocate piracy, I just think it is good to try and get an idea of the actual damage it is doing, so I hope people will bear with me.
Edit: Whole topic changed. I wanted this to be a mini survey about how much of what people have pirated, they would have brought, if they could not get it for free. Obviously that might have gotten people into trouble. So it is now about people using their own experiences of piracy to work out how much the industry would gain if people could not pirate anymore. I.e if you would not have brought anything that you have gotten for free, then the industry would not gain much from stopping your piracy.
Edit: Added less sales option.
