Identifying the Problem

Piracy is a problem that has always existed ever since property was created, but with the digital age, piracy has taken on a new form that is still very confusing to people. Piracy's affect on the video game industry and others can be almost crippling at times, causing producers to come up with draconian ways of protecting their property in order to prevent massive loss of profits. So what exactly defines piracy and why should anyone care about it?

When I talk about piracy here, I'm not talking about pirates that go "yarrrrrr, shiver me timbers," but actually piracy is based on the act of copyright infringement of intellectual property such as software/games, music, books and movies. Any time we share a game online or in-person, we infringe on the copyright of the owner and that is illegal in the United States and many parts of the world. There goes one sale that the producer will never make and the cost of development for anything they make becomes a higher risk as piracy increases.
So why would you care if they loss a little bit of money when a full release video games costs $60, not to mention any Down-loadable Content (DLC) they release that is also over priced, right? Well the harsh reality is that many people just don't care about downloading digital content and at least for video games, there has really been no motivation to not pirate the game. The thing that has made it a more obvious issue for users ever than before is the incorporation of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software into a game, that can limit the use of the product if they can identify that you don't actually own the product legally. DRM has become a valuable tool for game companies to motivate players to buy a product. DRM includes simple things as having the user register the product once, login to a games online server, or in the worst case scenario, be connected to the internet at all times.

Despite the use of DRM, people still find ways to bypass the restrictions put on the game to ensure that it isn't pirated. With this constant struggle between the user and the game developers, the restrictions are increased in an effort to ensure that the product is actually legal and users will create a bypass for it and then distribute it to others.

As I continue this blog, I will take a look at the continuing struggle between users and developers over the use of the product. The goal is to show the arguments for both parties and in the end to find a solution to the problem. There will always be those who don't want to pay for something, but it needs to be made clear that just isn't the way to go and create incentives for legally obtaining a game.

Read Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/01/splinter-cell-conviction-future-ubisoft-pc-games-to-use-intern/