Poll of the Day > Explain how piracy hurts content creators/developers/ artists

(+) Yeah! (+)

It can't be a lost sale if the person wasn't going to buy it anyway.

Yeah, the assumption that poor people or mildly curious haters would have certainly invested is stupid. I'd give them a "one in ten" ratio, and that's being generous.
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It can be a lost sale if the person would have bought it but then decided to get it for free.


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Why would a man steal tampons?

Probably wouldn't, because they don't need them, therefore wouldn't want them.

To say pirates weren't going to buy it in the first place is a weak argument. If they don't want it, why steal it?

Piracy hurts content creators the same way stealing hurts producers of other consumer goods. It's lost revenue. This isn't rocket science. Stealing is stealing.
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It used to hurt them a lot less since pirating old materials that have gone out of print was really just hurting resellers. But now that a lot of things are sold digitally, it's a bigger deal.


It's pretty naive to think that people only pirate things they wouldn't have bought anyway. There are plenty of people who aren't poor who pirate things they actually like. It's not just a thing people do when they can't afford it or want to hate-consume something.

DorkLink posted...

It used to hurt them a lot less since pirating old materials that have gone out of print was really just hurting resellers. But now that a lot of things are sold digitally, it's a bigger deal.


It's pretty naive to think that people only pirate things they wouldn't have bought anyway. There are plenty of people who aren't poor who pirate things they actually like. It's not just a thing people do when they can't afford it or want to hate-consume something.

This

Support your local Jeff from Utah, buy Mario Sunshine in acceptable condition off ebay.
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I am not sure hurt is the right word but it is still lost revenue nonetheless. As Far-Queue stated, stealing is stealing regardless of whether or not said creators/developers/artistes can take the hit.

I know some folks justify it by saying demos are no longer available so they can't try out the game before buying it or not. That might be true in some cases where the person gives up on a game soon after but how many folks actually buy the game within a reasonable amount of time after beating it? Buying said game years later for a fraction of the cost after you have already beaten it isn't exactly the same thing in my opinion.

To am actually glad Steam is becoming a bit more lenient now with their refund policy. Two hours of play outta be enough to get a feel for the game to decide if it is right for you or not.
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Difference between buying a game used and piracy:

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Yeah, the assumption that poor people or mildly curious haters would have certainly invested is stupid. I'd give them a "one in ten" ratio, and that's being generous.

This, tbh. Doubly so since a lot of pirates are kids who don't even have the means to buy all of that content.

Yellow posted...

It can be a lost sale if the person would have bought it but then decided to get it for free.

And, tbh, it's possible that a person who wasn't ever going to pay for it could help a potential purchaser pirate so there's harm there as well.

Far-Queue posted...

To say pirates weren't going to buy it in the first place is a weak argument. If they don't want it, why steal it?

Piracy hurts content creators the same way stealing hurts producers of other consumer goods. It's lost revenue.

Except if nobody is going to purchase in the first place, you've lost no revenue. If a person wasn't going to buy it, you don't lose a sale. There's a huge difference between caring a little and caring enough to buy something. Advertisers spend billions every year to try get people who are interested a little in something to actually buy that something. There might be a few hundred products I might see during a grocery and express mild interest in, but half the time I can use a 20 items or less lane.

And, frankly, most pirates COULDN'T buy everything they pirate. Even overlooking that the largest segment for piracy is usually the youngest demographics which don't necessarily have much money at all, pirates tend to download massive amounts of content.

Piracy is wrong, but let's not pretend that it's something that it isn't.

Yellow posted...

Support your local Jeff from Utah, buy Mario Sunshine in acceptable condition off ebay.

I chuckled, tbh. However, it does highlight something that does demonstrably hurt companies: used sales. Used sales takes customers willing to spend money and keeps them from buying from the company. It's the real public enemy number one! (Well, if you overlook that used sales *can* support new sales in terms of giving people with limited income the ability to sell or trade in their older games so they can buy new ones.)

InfestedAdam posted...

I know some folks justify it by saying demos are no longer available so they can't try out the game before buying it or not. That might be true in some cases where the person gives up on a game soon after but how many folks actually buy the game within a reasonable amount of time after beating it? Buying said game years later for a fraction of the cost after you have already beaten it isn't exactly the same thing in my opinion.

To am actually glad Steam is becoming a bit more lenient now with their refund policy. Two hours of play outta be enough to get a feel for the game to decide if it is right for you or not.

It's also worth noting that a lot of pirates haven't even touched a fraction of the things they've downloaded. Others may play it once for less than an hour then never again. While what they've done it piracy, it's fundamentally not different from your demo.
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Does it count as a lost sale if a person buys the game, but returns it because they found a way to pirate it?

I don't really care that much if people pirate things here and there, but the ones who act all self-righteous about it and make a bunch of excuses are annoying

Far-Queue posted...

Why would a man steal tampons?

Probably wouldn't, because they don't need them, therefore wouldn't want them.

To say pirates weren't going to buy it in the first place is a weak argument. If they don't want it, why steal it?

Piracy hurts content creators the same way stealing hurts producers of other consumer goods. It's lost revenue. This isn't rocket science. Stealing is stealing.

That makes no sense for digital property though.
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Because every time you do it it robs labels and publishers of millions and they can't afford to trickle down whatever change they give creators per unit.

DorkLink posted...

I don't really care that much if people pirate things here and there, but the ones who act all self-righteous about it and make a bunch of excuses are annoying

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y

EvilMegas posted...

Far-Queue posted...

Why would a man steal tampons?

Probably wouldn't, because they don't need them, therefore wouldn't want them.

To say pirates weren't going to buy it in the first place is a weak argument. If they don't want it, why steal it?

Piracy hurts content creators the same way stealing hurts producers of other consumer goods. It's lost revenue. This isn't rocket science. Stealing is stealing.

That makes no sense for digital property though.

It does, because the digital property is being sold for-profit. It's still stealing if you pirate it. No different than swiping a candy bar off of a supermarket shelf.

Yellow posted...

Support your local Jeff from Utah, buy Mario Sunshine in acceptable condition off ebay.

Big difference between buying something secondhand and out-right stealing.

DorkLink posted...

I don't really care that much if people pirate things here and there, but the ones who act all self-righteous about it and make a bunch of excuses are annoying

And this ^

If you're trying to assuage your own guilt for being a scumbag thief, or trying to justify being a scumbag thief with some convoluted logic, look elsewhere. Piracy is theft. No bones about it.
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Pirates are not one single hiveminded group.
Some pirate content that they would never touch otherwise.
Some pirate content that they are interested in and would have paid for it if it wasnt free to pirate it.
Some pirate content as demos and buys it if they like it.

So they are losing money because they get less sales, but each downloaded copy is not equal to one lost sale.
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Yellow posted...

Support your local Jeff from Utah, buy Mario Sunshine in acceptable condition off ebay.

i already have a copy of that somewhere...

sorry jeff from utah.
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