Survey Reveals That More Than Half of PC Users are Pirates

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This Just In:

"PC users appently willing to pirate software they need when they cannot afford to pay the rediculous asking prices for it"

Who woulda known?
 
Yes yes, show the piracy lost income and show next to it the sold software income..and tell us after how bad is piracy.
Also, considering microsoft's attitude towards windows operating system piracy, i will just have to say, these guys are the best, they let the pirated OS to work even when diagnosed as pirated, because that way they keep the pc area monopolized almost in OS.
It would be good to see the money pouring in the software houses, unfortunately most of the money goes to middle companies and rights, fake stuff that just feeds thousands of yappies (see EA, Activision etc).
 


Everyone keeps trying to make this example, but that is completely faulty logic. First off, not every dealer allows test drives. Chances are you aren't going into a Ferrari dealership and expecting them to hand over the keys for a test drive. Second, any dealer that does let you test drive does so of their own free will. There is no law or anything that entitles anyone to a free test drive. Having a test drive is a priviledge afforded by the dealership. Third, if you are allowed a test drive, it is usually with a dealer representative in the car with you and they're going to limit what you are allowed to do with that car and how long you're going to get to play around with it. You're not going to get to take it to a race track and run it for half an hour, an hour, running the engine to max revs or top speed, testing out the limits of breaking and all that good stuff. Finally, if you go and test drive your friend's car, that's just that. There isn't somehow a second car being driven around. The accurate comparison would be going over to your friend's house and using their copy of that software, watching thier movie, listening to their song, not stealing a copy claiming you'll return it once you've used it and decided if you want to keep it or not. You can't go into a dealership and drive away with a car if they won't let you test drive it and then tell them you'll bring it back and pay if you want to keep driving.

Look, I get it. Some of these companies are blatantly ripping off consumers. But the capitalist system works by individuals choosing what they do and don't pay for. And if you don't want to pay for it, you just find a way to do without it. You find free, legal, software and use that. You don't steal what you want and make thin excuses later. That's just juvenille. As I said in my previous post, I do sympathize with those who are being squeezed on all sides, but people have to get off this feeling of entitlement and just make due. Nine times out of ten these are luxury items being taken, things you don't need but just want. I have little sympathy for anyone who is caught and convicted for this kind of thing. It's just too easy nowadays to legally find out what you need to know about a movie, a game, a song, to make an effective decision about buying it or not. It's too easy to run it through until you've gotten as much use from it as you like and then just cliam you didn't like it so you can avoid the guilt of not paying. The companies may be bad for overcharging, but piracy is just worse. Rather than putting efforts into handling complaints, these companies focus on stopping pirates. The rest of us get burdened with loopholes to jump through either because of a legitimate concern, or because these companies are given a viable excuse. You know what piracy tells them? That the only problem they have is getting people to pay for it. Because by the logic offered, no one is going to pirate some bad movie, or bad program, or bad game. They're pirating the good stuff that is made well and enjoyable.
 
[citation][nom]Maxor127[/nom]These companies all think short-term too. They don't consider that someone pirating something out of curiosity could lead them shelling out real money. Instead, they try to fleece you every way they can.[/citation]

I agree with what you wrote, but wanted to touch on this specifically. When it comes to games and game series, in particular - I feel like its hard for people to spend $60 for the first game in the series (or for any game...) because its "new". But if the game is good, I know I would just go ahead and buy it and probably just go ahead and buy the next one in the series. Some of these companies just don't seem to understand that if you make good products - most people will just buy it.

Also, I know that some games/software/movies/etc aren't worth the initial asking price, but may still be great products. It doesn't seem unreasonable to pirate the game and officially buy it when the price drops a little.
 
[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]Goes to show you that the vast majority of piracy is actually based on wealth or rather the lack of.This really puts a dent in the argument that piracy = loss of sale as the largest %'s are in places where the average person could never afford the software they pirate.[/citation]
Or, since it's not a material thing, they don't find it worth it.

That number quoted in the review is pretty accurate for India. Here, since the majority of computer users who could actually use most of the software are under thirty. So either they don't earn much, or are looked after by their parents.

Very few of our parents (i'm 19) grew up with computers around them. So most of them don't think that games and all are worth spending money on. More important things in life. So even though i earn a bit and save, if i buy a few games or some hardware then my mom usually ends up saying something like "you're wasting money" etc. But again, i've some amount of financial independence (and very few things to spend on) so it doesn't really matter. For those who don't have this luxury, pirating tends to be the only way.

Plus PC games used to be under $20 here till BF3 came out. Now they've started coming out between $40 and $60. I earn about $100/month, it's become too expensive for me too. I had stopped pirating, but in light of the recent flop AAA titles, i think i'll have to resort to the try-before-you-buy method. Which involves piracy of course, no demos these days after all.
 
I only "pirate" TV shows which aren't streamed internationally and the TV networks are not losing any money because they usually stream these shows for free in the US anyway.
If they just streamed and enabled ads it would more than make up for the cost of the bandwidth, not sure why no major TV networks do this.
 
If I, a student aged 16, could afford the numerous software that I want to learn then I would but is it truly my fault when I want to do 3d animation and design purely for hobby purposes a.k.a. non-commercial purposes and can't because I don't have ten thousand dollars in my pocket. I've recently uninstalled all the pirated software I have and decided to go completely legal with it. Am I limited because of this? Yes.

When companies don't offer some sort of educational license that EVERY student can use it's quite unfair on myself and any other interested student. I'm taking advantage of every possible educational offer available yet there are still plugins that I can't use and other software I can't access.

I find it truly unfair that only grown-ups get to access this software. Am I wrong to ask for something suitable so that students can learn how to use this software freely? Someone please tell me what is truly wrong of me to ask this.
 
It's surprising, some companies don't complain about it so vocally, look at Remedy and Alan Wake on PC, one Dev was quoted as saying, "Of course we hope people will pay for it, but if they don’t, at least enjoy the story," he said. "Maybe they’ll get something else in the Alan Wake universe somewhere down the line."

Source: http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/remedy-to-alan-wake-pc-pirates-enjoy/#ixzz1voL84YCs

And it sold very well on release, making the cost back in I think it was 3 days.

I do own Alan Wake so please don't assume I took it as an okay to pirate it. You can see the Alan Wake steam page open in Steam with this window in the background here-> http://i.imgur.com/nJHAv.jpg and I'll even be purchasing American Nightmare soon as well.

 
If they know who pirates the most (China, Kenya, India), why don't the studios, film industry and game industry, go after them first???? Why go after the smaller percent offenders? It is because they are a bunch of greedy lying ass hypocrites that will use any excuse to get money the easy way.
 
In my country (Kenya), Steam is actually the only reason people buy games. Importing retail copies is like buying collectors editions for the rest of the world.
 
I'm pretty sure more than $9B a year is pirated in the U.S., but I guess that's just counting software?

If you count media content (eg: movies, music), then I'd guess it's a lot higher, especially when studious value blu-rays at $29.99.
 
I understand the need for developers to make money and feed their family too. But, I don't think software needs to be priced at what it is now.

Steam and a bunch of other vendors have repeatedly proven that when you cut a software's price in half, sales skyrocket like crazy. Why else would they be having annual Christmas sale in addition to sales at random times of the year?

Another good example is Photoshop Lightroom 4. I could get it for $79 with student discount, and I'm strongly considering purchasing one now.
 
[citation][nom]warezme[/nom]If they know who pirates the most (China, Kenya, India), why don't the studios, film industry and game industry, go after them first???? Why go after the smaller percent offenders? It is because they are a bunch of greedy lying ass hypocrites that will use any excuse to get money the easy way.[/citation]
because no one gives about copyright in india and china. companies can only do something if the government cooperates.
 
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