Ethics of Software Piracy

One of the most fascinating things about software piracy is the number of nonsensical justifications offered up for it. Most people simply don't like owning up to the fact that they are leeching off of the talent and effort of others. It seems that there is a sense of entitlement that comes with mastering the oh-so-difficult act of using the google searchbar. Look at any internet forum when the subject of piracy comes up, and you invariably here some version of the following excuses, some legitimate, others less so: 1) Piracy is harmless, I wouldn't buy this anyway 2) I don't think it's worth what they're charging 3) I'm just trying it out, I'll buy it if I like it 4) This is a protest against DRM 5) Nobody sells it anymore. 6) I already own it! These are the most common arguments for pirating software. Let's go through them in turn, shall we? 1) Piracy is harmless, after all, people who pirate don't buy games. I wouldn't buy this game anyway, so the company isn't losing anything by me playing it.

This one often leaves me speechless. Really? You wouldn't buy it anyway? If you're interested enough in downloading and playing the game, clearly you would buy it. Some thing's keeping you from it, though. It could be the price is too high, or it could be that you're a lecherous leech The thing is, most publishers are going to decide that you didn't buy the game because there was not enough DRM to make you buy it. So what are they going to do? Increase DRM.This doesn't just inconvenience legitimate buyers, though, because DRM costs money to implement, meaning less money put towards development. In addition, unless you're playing singleplayer only, without downloading any updates, you are causing damage. Multiplayer games are launched with official servers, and pirated games take up just as much bandwith as legitimate copies. Pirates also expect technical assistance, put strain on update servers, and all after-launch support in general. Don't believe me? Ask Stardock.

Only 15% of the 120,000 people clogging the servers of Demigod had actually bought the game. And this is Stardock, the people who published the gamer's bill of rights, the guys who refuse out of principle to put DRM on any of their games. They're leading by example, and what example are they setting? If you make your game DRM free, 85% of people will steal your game and cost you tons of money and bad press due to server strain. So if you think that you're not causing any harm by pirating a game that you "wouldn't have bought anyway," fuck off. 2) This game isn't worth $50! That's so expensive! I can't afford that! Really? You could afford a $500 graphics card but you can't afford a $50 game? You pay $30 a month for internet but can't fork over $20 for a budget title? You can't afford $6 for a GOG release? If this is true, you either a) have some messed up priorities or b) are still under the legal care of someone else who pays for all the above but wants you to buy games out of your allowance. Or of course option c) are a lying bastard. You know, there's a very simple solution to this problem: If you don't feel a game will be worth the asking price, don't buy it. Wait. All games have a price drop at some point. It's the principle of capitalism. If the supplier sees that demand isn't great at $50, but is huge at $25, then the supplier will try and meet that demand. If you pirate, then the publisher sees that there is still a demand at the $50 price point, but that piracy is preventing that demand from translating into sales. Is this always true? No, but it's a valid conclusion that can be drawn from the data, and the most common one. And seriously, folks, this is the textbook theft. Someone wants a good, but doesn't want to pay for it. Stop beeing a leech. 3) How am I supposed to know if I'm going to like it? I want to try before I buy! Same way you decide if you're going to like a movie before you go see it: Trailers, screenshots, reviews, and word of mouth. Yes, most AAA game reviews are glorified blowjobs administered by supplicant "journalists" in exchange for advertising dollars, but you have at your disposal THE ENTIRE INTERNET. Somewhere on the internet you should be able to find enough information to decide if the game was something you're interested in, and if it was executed competently. Most games even release a demo, allowing you to play a small portion. And even if you don't end up liking it, the fact remains that you are not entitled to every single dollar you spend being repaid tenfold in terms of enjoyment. If a developer ganks you, then be more wary about buying from them in the future. The thing is that I'm very sympathetic to this viewpoint, and actually consider it somewhat legitimate in some cases- especially where the "will it run on my computer?" issue is concerned. The problem is that very rarely do people actually go out and pay for a game after they've pirated it, because that takes morals. Leeches don't have morals - and the vast majority of pirates are leeches. See, the problem with "try before you buy" is that you have to occasionally buy something. I'll admit to doing this from time to time. For example, I thought Sins of a Solar Empire sounded cool, but I wasn't sure if it was something I was into. So I borrowed a copy and played a few skirmish games to try it out. I found it wasn't my cup of tea, so I deleted it and haven't played it since. Same with Dead Space, Fallout 3, and others. I played maybe 1-2 hours of each, then stopped. I played through Crysis' entire singleplayer campaign, so I bought it, even though I didn't think it was the greatest game ever. In fact, to make up for the fact that I bought it after it's price had dropped (I pirated it when it was full price) I ponied up for Crysis: Warhead, too. Lots of people will play through a game and say, "Well, I didn't have multiple orgams every other minute while playing this game, so I don't think it deserves my hard-earned cash. Especially since I won't be playing through it again, why should I buy it?" So it's a good idea in theory, but rarely ever works out that way in reality. 4) This is a protest against DRM. Down with DRM! Down with DRM! Yes! Down with DRM! Down with Stardock! That'll teach them to release the Gamer's Bill of Rights! Or those money-mongering bastards behind World of GOO! As you can see, pirates steal from everyone, from indie developers who feel every lost sale (though World Of Goo's developers have taken an extremely enlightened approach against DRM), to principled publishers who are taking a risky stand against DRM. There's no morality involved. In fact, piracy as protest is extremely counter productive. Remember Spore? Remember the absolute shitstorm that EA's draconian DRM scheme kicked up? I remember a flurry of activity on the internet, as Principled Pirates did their best to make a statement by downloading the game as much as possible, even if they had no interest in it. I believe my good friend Jean-Luc Picard expresses it best: I hate to break it to you folks, but nobody gives half a damn about Internet protests. First off, anonymity removes any impact from the movement. Protest only works if it takes effort, whether it's organizing a march or depriving yourself of a product due to a boycott, protests get attention because somebody goes through a lot of trouble and expends effort to set them up. Sorry to break it to you, but it doesn't take any kind of skill to Google search "(name of game) torrent" and click the first link. Boycotts, especially, are only effective if you are refusing to purchase a product, not stealing it. If you don't want to buy Spore because of its DRM, then you don't get to play spore. Simple as that. Think about it. What does EA executive think when he sees the number of pirated copies of Spore? Does he think, "Man, look at all of the potential buyers that we scared away because we used too much DRM. Clearly, we should change our policies to be more accomadating to the end user. Perhaps if we remove all of our DRM, like Stardock, then we shall enjoy no piracy whatsoever, also like Stardock!" No. He's thinking, "Man! Look at all those people who would have bought the game if we only had stricter DRM!" You see, despite the Angry Internet Man getting all up in arms and filling Amazon with negative reviews and stealing the game left and right, the game still sold over two million copies in three weeks. EA makes massive profit from its policies, and now has incentive to make even stricter DRM schemes. Nice work, fellas. 5) Nobody sells the game anymore! This case is special - in fact, I don't consider this Piracy. If a publisher no longer wishes to support a product and make it easily availible, then they really can't complain if people find alternative ways to get their product. Simple as that. In fact, the Cool Thing of The Week this week is all over this. I feel the same way as Jake does about music, in that if the original creator no longer benefits its OK to pirate. Considering how volatile the software industry is it's surprisingly hard to get ahold of older games (one of the things preventing gaming from being recognized as Art, I believe.) The term for this is Abandonware, and while it holds no legal standing I consider it to be morally A-OK. 6) I own the damn thing! Now this might suprise some people: If you own it, why are you pirating it? I can think of several reasons: *No-Cd cracks are some of the most common, making playing games you own much more convenient. *Improving performance: some forms of DRM degrade performance performing disk-checks, etc. *You lost your copy This last one is a sore issue for me. Most games contain an EULA stating that you have purchased a licence, not a physical product. If that's the case, then once you've purchased your licence, you should be able to obtain a copy of your software through any means you see fit. For example, I have bought every Command and Conquer game from the original through Generals and its expansion multiple times, mostly through buying software bundles when I lost my old disks. I felt perfectly fine torrenting a copy of The First Decade for several reasons: 1) It was a total hack job, if they had done anything more than drag and drop all of the games onto one CD I would have bought it 2) I own copies of all of these games. The single installer makes backing them up that much easier. 3) It consolidates the patching process for all of them Westwood (and later EA) has gotten my money multiple times. I think I own 4 or 5 licences to each game. So I don't feel a shred of guilt doing this. So that's my views in a nutshell. Check back later today for the Cool Thing Of The Week.