Slashdot posted an article by an independent game developer, named Cliff Harris, who is asking why people pirate his products and digital content in general. I’m going to try and summarize the responses:
The product is defective:
[ul][li]I want to try it before I buy it and there isn’t a demo available, or the demo is insufficient[/li][li]The product was improperly made (e.g., doesn’t work, damages my system, not made for my OS, overly burdened by copy protection schemes, has features I don’t want or lacks ones I do, etc.) and the pirated version works better[/li][li]The sales and delivery process is badly designed, takes too long, is overly burdensome, or I couldn’t find the product for sale anywhere[/ul][/li]The creator is unworthy of payment:
[ul][li]The publisher is still making plenty of money and/or is overcharging[/li][li]I wouldn’t have played the game if I had to pay for it, so the publisher didn’t actually lose a potential sale[/li][li]The publisher is overreacting by filing suits and attempting to criminalize pirates and deserves what they get[/li][li]I’ve spent money on similar products I didn’t like and I’m subsidizing those losses[/li][li]The publisher is a big, faceless corporation and not significantly injured by my actions[/li][li]Digital products are not the same as physical ones, because they can be infinitely reproduced at little to no cost[/ul][/li]Arguments with intellectual property laws:
[ul][li]The copy protection scheme is overreaching or I have a philosophical objection to the current intellectual property laws in general[/li][li]I wanted to make a backup for my purchased copy and the easiest or only possible way was to use a pirated copy[/li][li]I lost my original copy and want to replace it[/ul][/li]Personal reasons:
[ul][li]My parent/ spouse/ employer/ government does not permit me to own this particular product so I need a clandestine copy[/li][li]I am embarrassed to purchase this product through proper channels[/li][li]I like being a part of an underground movement[/li][li]I just didn’t want to pay (and it was easy and consequence-free not to)[/ul][/li]------
Some of the above arguments and justifications hold water, some don’t.
I don’t see anything wrong with using a pirated copy as a demo, but I doubt that happens that often. If you went to the trouble of obtaining a pirated copy you’re likely going to get more use out of it than a mere demonstration of its contents. The defective design and sales arguments hold a little more water. If you make a product and then put up too many roadblocks to people acquiring or using it you have to expect them to try and knock some of those obstacles down.
Arguments transferring blame to the creator, publisher, or distributor don’t sway me. You can’t take something just because you don’t think the owner won’t miss it or because you don’t like them personally. And frankly, companies like Microsoft or Viacom are screwing us no more than Royal Dutch Shell or Pfizer or most other major corporations. The only difference is that it’s a lot harder to steal a tank of gas or a bottle of boner pills than it is a copy of Vista or a bootleg video of Iron Man. Does the ease of theft of a product somehow make it less valuable? I can’t see why it should.
I do think that intellectual property laws have been shifting in favor of property holders. Fair use is under attack, patents, trademarks, and copyrights are being issued faster than they can be stamped and for a broader scope of things than ever before. Penalties for infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) have been expanded, as has the leeway for property holders and the government to use ever more invasive means of investigating piracy. Digital Rights Management (DRM) and other copy protection schemes are more and more prevalent and onerous. End User License Agreements (EULA) read like the sign your life away papers you have to fill out before going sky diving. I don’t think the intellectual property arguments excuse piracy, but they certainly help explain, if not partially justify it.
At the end of the day however, I think the last argument, “just didn’t want to pay,” accounts for the vast majority of piracy. If you looked at a hundred people with a pirated copy of Word on their computer, I’d wager at least 90 of them just borrowed their friend’s disc because they didn’t feel like shelling out for their own copy and have no pretensions of righteousness.
Unfortunately for publishers of digital content we are in the process of a major transition in the way their products are sold and there is no good solution to the problem of piracy. They will try new locks, but the pirates will invent new lock picks. They will try asking the customers for voluntary payment as Radiohead so successfully did. They will push for draconian laws to investigate and penalize pirates like the RIAA is doing. They will try asking the pirates to meet them halfway as Cliff is doing here. But, ultimately I think they will just have to recognize that a certain percentage of their sales are going to be lost to piracy and it really amounts to a cost of doing business in digital goods.
