Warez - What's a developer to do?

[DillRye]

[Dan East]

The CD -> MP3 -> P2P scenario is a poor comparison to software piracy for several reasons.

Music of the sort that is traded regularly is purely for entertainment value. Of course games are for entertainment, but the most valued and expensive Pocket PC software are utilities that are true commodities. Without them it is impossible to perform certain tasks or create certain things. They are often productivity related, and are often tools for generating other products that can in turn be used for profit (consider a high-end Pocket PC paint program which is used to create images which are sold).


Further, everyone with access to a $10 FM radio has free access to the majority of the songs which are traded (at least the popular ones). What people are stealing is essentially the convenience of playing the music on demand, instead of waiting for it to be played or calling up a radio station to request it. Computer software is nothing like this; it is normally not free, and besides an evaluation period, is not available to the general public free of charge. It certainly is not broadcast worldwide via multiple conduits for general consumption as is music and music videos.

The real issue with music sharing is that the recording industry utterly failed to properly utilize the most powerful communication medium ever created - the internet. They did not innovate and embrace it, so the public basically found their own methods of accessing music over this preferred medium. You can't begin to draw that correlation with commercial software, which has actually become less expensive, more competitive, and easier to access because of the internet.

I most definitely am not condoning illegal trading of music or movies, I am pointing out why that is in truth an extremely poor comparison to warez.

Dan East

[golan_trevize_x]

I, like many others here, have had a change of mindset since joining the world of the developer, and getting a job.

Truly, it is stealing, and people do it because they can. What is the reason you don't frequently walk out of a toy store with Lego you haven't paid for? Like some games, Lego is expensive. Obviously the reason is that you CAN. If stealing Lego from a toy store could be done with no chance of being caught, there would be people doing it, just as there are people who steal software.

The same goes for expensive products like 3DSMAX. I don't steal the most expensive set of paintbrushes from an art shop and then justify it by saying that they should be cheaper. No, I look for a cheaper set.

To Spam and his lads: The idea that you run a community of people who help developers and test games is great. If this is your goal, why not make it completely legal and simply give links to where you can buy the games, rather than providing your community members with stolen copies? What is your reason for not wanting to do this?

Or you could present yourselves to developers as a kind of beta-testing forum service, so as to receive beta versions legally from them?

[Jim_Dwnunder]

[Ieg]

[refractor]

[Spam]

[refractor]

[TechMage]

[Spam]

[Dave]

[BurningSheep]

[Spam]

[Ieg]

[Malmer]