It's a long, long read about why this one dude pirates things. It's not quite an endorsement of piracy, but rather a message that people want to hand over money to companies in exchange for stuff, but are finding it difficult to do so. A line that really struck a chord with me was something like "I don't pirate to stick it to the companies, but I pirate because the companies try to stick it to me." Good stuff.

Agreed. Also, regional restrictions and convenience. If you don't provide the service to me yourself, don't cry if I pirate your stuff.

House M.D., for example. Digital versions are being sold through Apple's iTunes only. I cannot use it to buy stuff, so I pirate every episode. /care if they lose their jobs because of me pirating, and not buying it. They are the ones who're restricting me from buying in the first place.

This is like a short book. I Read some of it, skimmed through some of it. I agree with a lot of it.

I know Mike Masnick didn't write that letter, but he has been going on about this for years. Here he points out that when record labels started to put copy protection on CDs, it just made him want to use file-sharing services even more, even though he wants to be law-abiding and pay for the content.

I hate region locks almost as much as I hate piracy.

I can easily mod and pirate but I choose not to, you know why?

Because I'm lazy.

I also just skimmed the story sorry :P but yeah it's honestly about how good your service is. If you provide a good enough service less people will pirate your product. A great example of how bad service can make people want to pirate is this origin mass effect 3 bs. EA is pushing this origin thing so hard and I don't want to use their stupid platform to play a game. I refuse to pay for it and the only way I'm ever going to play me3 is if I pirate it.

My brother is playing it on an Xbox 360 without much hassle. He used to play and enjoy games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Morrowind, and Aliens vs. Predator on our parents PC. Some people go the console route, I guess. <shrugs>

I dunno.
Was that letter convincing enough to make the content creators think "hey this guy is right. If we meet all his demands we will be making way more money!"

I actually read through the whole thing. (Some applause please ;-P).

I find most of it agreeable and it fits with my experience. I don't have such a big problem with Steam and DRM on videogames as he has, but I get his point. Hell, I'm buying all the Ubisoft and Steam titles, so he can gladly pirate them.

I think he has a point in that the piracy can be battled best with service, not DRM. Steam has showed that in Russia (yes, I am aware of the irony of that statement). The most important fact is probably that a pirated game is not a lost sale. (A game sold on 75% off is also not a full lost sale, but I digress).

In the end, I'm willing to believe that this whole "internet piracy thing" is, when everything is accoutned for, has a beneficial effect on the entertainment industry and those big bosses simply fail to see the bigger picture. There are many people like me or the author that pour 200$ each month in the entertainment industry because they were/are avid pirates. If not for piracy, I wouldn't be a gamer and would spent my time on other things right now. Eg. sex.

I've been having that argument with developers/publishers for a couple of years now. In the end, I've pretty much resorted to using VPNs and buying (via gifting) affected games only when dirt cheap.

Only when a game is complete unobtainable via the above method/importing, etc., will I consider more dubious methods of obtainment.

At least in my case, one DD store has been kind enough to not reverse a temp change they made to my account while I was helping to test download speeds for them. So on that site, I'm treated as a US based customer (so I can buy Capcom, etc., games from them at least).

But yes, it's bloody ridiculous that both publishers and some services are going out of their way to make it impossible for customers in specific regions to buy from them.

Of course not. When I read it the first time, I thought "gee, this guy is just trying to justify being a dick" and his language comes off as such, but then it's more of a lament on how far from reality the industry is.

Personally, I do download TV programmes - I don't own a TV, the channels here (CTV, CBC, etc.) take forever to put up new episodes for streaming, and even then, there are more adverts than is tolerable. Also, 90% of the shows I watch are British, and the BBC doesn't like giving people who live out of the UK any way to watch TV shows after broadcast, which makes no sense given that the Internet exists. What makes them think I will even remember to watch some BBC4 show six months later when it's finally on basic cable in Canada?

I don't have Netflix anymore so I don't watch a lot of films, and like the writer of the letter, I usually just download full albums instead of listening to some fucking stupid 30 second preview. However, full-length album streams are getting popular - I streamed an album on an artist's website before buying it since I enjoyed it so much. It helped that it was DRM-free 320k MP3s that I was buying.

Not just that, but there have been sales figures that show that even though the industry screams that they're losing money because of the pirates, that just isn't true because sales have increased. And even though Megaupload was shut down, people still did their pirating elsewhere and still bought music, films and games. I bet the movie industry loses more money from a shitty movie that didn't break even than they do from the pirates who still uploade those shitty movies for everyone to watch.

well the article with the link to the letter says " How to Get His Money" and " It's an argument for how content creators can do better -- something that we've been seeing more and more content creators figure out. Content creators who understand this letter will recognize that it's not about piracy so much as about how to satisfy a market and make money doing so"

It's just preaching to the choir. We've known for years how they can do better, but do they listen?

In the end of the day, these companies need to pool their resources together (no more stupid Nintendo Europe/US/Japan bullcrap for example), and think globally.

Thats one of the reasons why I love GOG. They are globally competative.
They realise that the games industry is a GLOBAL market, and they sell their products with no descrimination.

The "gaming" culture is more important demographic to serve.
Geographical barriers have no place whatsoever on the internet.
If you have internet access, you can be connected to anyone, anywhere.

It doesn't matter about what people can or can't afford in X country, because if people want a game, and its reasonably priced, then there is a good chance they will buy it.
(Hence why Steam, Indie Bundles, and GOG sales draw in crazy money)

If they can afford to be on the internet, there is a good chance that they can afford to buy a game of it.
(and if not, then they are irrelevant to your business. So tech savvy kids who pirate because they have no/limited pocket money, or Chinese Knockoffs are at this moment in time, are not customers. There is no way that you can sell your product to them, you're best hope is that if they like the game, they will spread the good word to someone who CAN afford it, and they might buy it, (depending on their tech savvyness and local culture,economy ect.).
Hell, if you can inspire brand loyalty, then in the long run, that is infinitely more valuable than any short-term profit.)

Its pretty much why DRM is just useless. All that does is diminish the quality of the product for your customers, and what reasonable company would ever want to sabotage their own product?

People can, and will vote with their wallets.
I haven't bought any game with UbiDRM, and I don't want to buy Street Fighter X Tekken since most of the DLC is already on the disc in a locked space.
(I'd buy if they weren't on the disc, as I would be paying to DOWNLOAD that data. Something with substance. Thats important, but lets not go off the track here)

EDIT: Just a little side note here:
Why can't game companies release a game Internationally with English and Japanese, (possibly digitally), then release localised version later (patching that language into a digital copy)?
A lot of people know English as a first or second language so it seems illogical to me to delay the product from areas that have loads of English speaking people becuause its not an official language or is near another country that doesn't have it as an official language.

Of course, being from the UK, I naturally get a lot of butthurt over the fact we have to wait aaages for a version of the game the Americans get earlier thats virtually the same, but I'm certain us UK people aren't alone in this.. :/

EDIT: I mean, thats if we get it at all!
How do these companies know that X product will fail in X country?
If they can release digitally, then there is no excuse.
If a publisher didn't want to release an American Xbox 360 game in the UK retail market, then I don't see why they couldn't release that game on say, they Xbox Live On Demand service.
The costs are mitigated, reducing risk, and if reasonably priced, I'm sure people all over the globe would bite at it.
Sure it might not sell nowhere near as well as a retail copy, but it doesn't HAVE to, thats the point.

Tales of Vesperia. A hard to find 360 game, is very nicely priced On Demand at about £15.
I bought that the moment it landed on the service.
Considering retail copies go for like £40+ USED, and its a freakin' RPG, its excellent value for money.
(Whereas Mortal Kombat, which on Demand is £45 is just ridiculously priced. Even moreso considering a retail version WITH ALL THE DLC is coming out soon for A LOT CHEAPER)

As sales on Steam show most of gamers don't care about DRM. As sales of Bethesda games show most of gamers don't care about regional locks. So why publishers should care? Of course there are a lot of loud people "I pirate because of..." but they are just loud, nothing more.