I was watching this video on tomshardware.com where they were discussing about piracy on console games. (http://www.tomshardware.com/console-piracy,video-310.html) The presenters have discussed in detail about how piracy affects sales bla – bla – bla… after which I read the comments. One comment that stuck a cord in my brain was:

“Considering most consoles have emulators and the industry trend for “console only” releases, is it not possible that PC pirates are targeting these games?

Also, people forget there are a lot of crackers and pirates who do so just for the challenge of it – of to make a statement about DRM and anti-piracy measures. Thus, the more measures a company takes to prevent piracy, the more prestige stands to be gained by cracking it.

Then there is the profit motive. Considering the level of premium pricing a consumer is willing to spend to get a legal or illegal copy of a not-quite-yet-released game, the greater the motive for cracking it. There is also a fair amount of money to be gained selling illegal copies at a discount after a game release. Consumers don’t care – they’ll do anything to get the “must have” game of the year (like the one poster who essentially said ‘so what if you fubar your system, steal 3 games and you paid for it – so mess up one or twice, it’ll pay for itself’).

However, the part I find MOST interesting is the resignation that the future of gaming is going to be a “rent, not own” model.

Expand this view to all digital media, and it leaves a lot of ambiguity and power with the corporate producers. Take games, music, or movies – when you buy or download these products, what are you actually buying? Is it the physical disk? No. (Obviously.) Is it the digital content on the disk? No. (Otherwise you should be able to create a backup of this digital content, something the game companies, RIAA, and MPAA say is quite illegal.) Is it usage for a time period of the digital content? No. (Every rental agreement I have ever encountered specifies the price per time unit – I would be floored if a landlord rented me a place but said after five thorough clean-ups of the property my lease would terminate.)

It is kind of like all three, yet none. It is what benefits the company’s profitability the most. You are only renting the code, so the company can restrict the number of activations before revoking your rights to use the software – but then in order to get the rental rights you must first buy a piece of circular plastic and be in possession of it. The disk is truly meaningless except as acting as a limited-term lease agreement (sometime with hidden virus-like software – I guess like the bonus cockroaches in an rental property). If you take the data off the disk, they can sue you – even if you own a legitimate copy. If you crack it so you can load it after your number of activations are used up, they can sue you. However, ask them to specify the usage so you know what you have to do to avoid being sued, and they say “read the terms of usage” – which, of course, you can only do after buying the product. This is like a landlord telling you the terms of the lease can be found after you sign it and pay the first months rent – but not before.

Guess this is why I stopped buying music (physical and digital forms) a few years ago, stopped buying games a few months ago, and will probably stop buying movies shortly. Guess I’ll stick to books – at least I know what I am buying when I purchase a paperback.”
By MDillenbeck (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/profile-332358.htm)

Courtesy – Tomshardware.com

All of us know that piracy is a big issue all around the world. Two reasons that I think are responsible for the rise in piracy is (in the context of developing countries):
1. Availability – when is the last time you saw any of these games or software’s on the shelf of any retail store?
2. Affordability – Look at those prices when you see them on thr retails stores or on the websites.

People in India think twice about spending Rs.50/- over a meal – why would they spend around Rs. 2500/- on a game? People will gladly download it from the internet or buy it from the street for Rs. 50/-

This new story of renting out the software is also nasty – as mentioned in the comment – the users rights are not clearly spelt out – and even if they are spelt out – the number of activation and other authentication stuff that the user has to put up with again discourages the customer from going the legal way. Though I have a Licensed copy of Windows XP Pro – I prefer installing the cracked version – I don’t have to connect online and activate it every time I reinstall. And after a certain number of re-installations it will only let you do a telephonic activation – and the number of stupid questions that I have to put up with every time I do a telephonic activation is really depressing for me!

Piracy is here to stay and the electronic industry has to accept it. No matter how much they fight it – as the internet grows – piracy will also grow. The only way to beat piracy is to answer the customers basic questions – in the developing countries case – it is the affordability and availibility. When Moserbeer started selling legal copies of movies for Rs.50/- half the question was answered. We need more and more of these electronic gaints to realize this. Like for example if MS Windows XP Pro was being sold for Rs 200/- instead of 6000=00 odd rupees (By the way this represents more than one-third of the cost of the hardware) would you rather buy an original copy or still borrow one from your friend?