Saturday November 21, 2009 7:24 PM AEST

Piracy. Greed or grievance?

  • Email a Friend
  • Print Page
Piracy. Greed or grievance?
By Vito Cassisi
Jan 23, 2009 | 10 Comments
Tags: piracy | drm | security | bittorrent

Opinion: Meet my wealthy Uncle, Torrence. On piracy and why it happens, and what can be done about it.

Piracy is one of many pastimes in the technological world. From the good ol’ recording music off the radio onto magnetic cassettes, to torrenting the latest copy of Windows - for some, such acts are a part of living. Despite its social acceptance, piracy violates copyright law, however, and is arguably an unethical act. Because of the daunting prospect of loss of sales, companies add DRM technologies to their products in an attempt to thwart pirates. Of course, this does little to prevent piracy, and instead deters legit users who find it increasingly difficult to use their purchased software and data. Meanwhile, pirates download a freshly cracked fully functional version from their choice of P2P network.

It’s not surprising that many users are now opting for the illegal solution for the ease of use, if not the conveniently missing price tag. Nonetheless, a question must be asked. Is this phenomenon a case of greed, or the global outcry of users for a system that works for the people’s and not the companies’ best interest? And do these companies really know what their best interests are?

The act of piracy is spurred by many factors. Want and greed are the obvious ones, in addition to retaliation against DRM, and just plain old lack of funds. Pirates tend to attract criticism that typically fills only one of these criteria, instead of tackling the whole spectrum. For instance, the music industry focuses on the greedy, without considering those who just want a better product without the accompanying copy protection induced mental trauma. Convenience is also a contributor to piracy, as game publisher Valve recently identified. There are people who don’t want to scout their large CD collection for a game in order to satisfy genuine checks. Similarly there are those who don’t want to go out and buy games from a retail store, nor do they want to wait for the courier if they decide to purchase online. It may be laziness, convenience, or a generous splash of both; nonetheless it’s another reason for piracy. It’s easy, fast and simple.

It’s becoming too easy to justify a visit to Uncle Torrence. Some refer to it as their duty to keep vendors in-line. If there’s DRM, alternate distribution paths are found devoid of it – legit or not. By doing this, the publisher loses profit, the end user is happy, and DRM will never see the light of day again. Right? Probably not, but it’s a nice fantasy, and the perfect alibi. Others just claim they need the software for work or study, while the rest just want a freebie. Whatever the reason, the industry fights back the only way it knows how - DRM. Too bad they’re fighting the wrong crowd.

Publishers hell-bent on combating piracy are causing legit users issues. The likes of SecureROM (and other assorted flavours of misery) are far from perfect in any sense. DRM is easily cracked, so essentially any hardship that was intended for pirates is only felt by users with legit copies. Since DRM is fundamentally useless, it would seem logical that it shouldn’t be included at all. But this is where the issue lies. Do you, as a publisher, risk having no security on your products?

You could argue that computer illiterate persons will be unable to locate cracked software, or bypass modern DRM. Assuming this to be the case, DRM is effective at this small sector of the market. However, the majority of computer users will know how to obtain cracked software, or know of ways to find out. A suitable solution may be to implement a basic form of DRM, one which will prevent common disc ripping/duplicating software from achieving its goal. This will thwart home users from distributing discs to friends and family. Unfortunately, this won’t solve piracy in its majority. What it will do is allow legit users to use their software without fancy DRM enacting its mystical ways upon the PC. And if legit users are happy, they won’t feel the need to obtain DRM free copies.

So how do you stop people from cracking DRM and distributing copyrighted material? The fact is, you really can’t. Where there is a will, there is a way, and there is definitely no exception when it comes to piracy. What can and should be done is alter the attitude of those who are out to obtain said pirated data. Price, convenience, and variety: service. Instead of selling a ‘game’ or some ‘music’, sell service. A great example is Valve’s Steam system. Steam has a large variety of games which can be purchased and downloaded with little effort. Yes, Steam games are known to be easily pirated, but how many people really do this? Surely there’s a clique of people who do so – tight arses – as you’d expect. After all, burglary in society is still existent; there are those who want without giving. Nevertheless, does this effect Steam? Not at all! Most users are willing to pay for their games because of the great service, if not the decent prices on offer.

When Valves Jason Holtman recently stated “Pirates are just underserved customers”, I thought ‘vague, but true’. Vague in that pirates aren’t one big community you can apply a stereotype to. You’ve got people who pirate for many different reasons, and yes some of them might do so because of limitations in distribution and DRM, but there’s always the human attribute of greed. And that is where the problem lies, a problem which rests in human instinct. Unfortunately this can’t be fixed, unless of course, you believe in the possibility of a Utopian society. Fortunately, Holtman identified a large part of the issue, and probably the only part that can be solved without resorting to drastic measures.

Let’s hope other distributers follow suit, for their sake, if nothing else.

 
 
The latest issue is on sale now!

Want to learn all about Diablo III? Want to find out what the best Solid State Drive is on the market today, and how to look after it? Want to catch up on the latest hardware, games and in depth tech from Australia's best enthusiast mag?

Get your copy today :)
10 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
iamthemaxx
Jan 23, 2009 4:37 PM
There is definitely a ground swell of piracy common sense of late (if you can call it that).
A lot of companies are finally realising that it's not the pirates that are the issue, it's their business model.
Athiril
Jan 23, 2009 5:29 PM
Just like the VCR destroyed hollywood, so will p2p.. oh wait the vcr was the greatest invention sinced sliced bread as far as the film industry goes, causing a massive explosion in growth, the opposite of what the CEO of MPAA said (who was still CEO until a few years ago and held the same opinion about p2p).

Big media industries want to combat p2p and other shaing services to stamp out the growth of independants, and prevent the almighty dollar shifting away from the big center's of business.

This is where they are truly hurting, not from consumer piracy (record piracy -and- record box office profits anyone?).
H3VIW8
Jan 23, 2009 9:56 PM
i know companies have to make money, its how they work, but i feel they charge too much for said services, or at least in the long run, eg, my dad wanted to buy the notting hill cd, this movie was released in 1999, thats nearly ten years ago, and the cd was still 30 bucks, really, after ten years, i think companies need to focus on a pricing structure that diminishes over time, say 1 year at full price, then goes down 40% then so on, im not saying this would kill piracy, but it, i think anyway, lead to less piracy.

and as for DRM, i think its like saying to a kid "no you cant have that" its just going to lead to more piracy, if even just to say to the company F you. just for spite.
MrInsaneBuff
Jan 24, 2009 12:06 AM
If Australian TV networks actually invested in decent TV shows rather than the pure shit they program 24/7 i might not need to visit my uncle torrence.
mohawk
Jan 24, 2009 8:57 AM
Also, if Australia had an "R" rating for games, uncle torrence would have less visits.
Jonesy200916
Jan 30, 2009 6:25 PM
What about netbook laptops with no dvd drive, if you want to put a couple of small games on one?
Foolz
Mar 9, 2009 1:42 PM
Good read! I do question the legitimacy of "greed" being a negative for the user, but not for a company selling a product. If something is illegal or not should not have an affect on one's moral value, because laws are often unjust.

Really, the biggest difference the internet has made to piracy and violations of copyright law is given more people access to it. Surely everybody has borrowed a film or a book or a game from a friend in the days before one could go out and see Uncle Torrence. That violated copyright law too, but publishers simply had to accept it and plan for a loss. You don't publish something and expect that nobody is going to experience it without paying for it, and if it is information then that's not necessarily such a bad thing. You've got to budget with that in mind, which most publishers are unwilling to do with the internet in the equation, so they resort to measures that simply push more people away. But things will change eventually I'm sure. Piracy isn't the only area the internet has had a drastic effect on in today's society.
hello0011
Mar 27, 2009 9:00 PM
if the fucken aussie tv stations invested in some decent programs then perhaps we would have no need for 'uncle torrence' ,
the government should stop sooking about this problem and harden the fuck up! .... if they wanted to stop this problem it is easy as just filter all the shit at the isp level...
mulder
May 1, 2009 9:32 PM
See with Movies that are cammed or ripped from DVD/Bluray . Some movies are released in USA or UK 6 months before we get it on our screens . Now by the time we get the movie in our cinemas , the dvd of that film is usually already out and online .So why would you want to pay $30+(this includes the overpriced drinks and lollies, etc) to see that movie,in a cinema , when you can relax in your own home and watch it a number of times .So REALLY what should happen is WorldWide releases for movies , and also worldwide DVD release , it wouldn't kerb all piracy . Maybe , but , maybe it would reduce it .

Windguy
May 13, 2009 9:48 PM
For games it would be easy to eliminate piracy especially since the ease of downloading. All you would need to do is only allow people to download the demo for free, in the demo would be a secure link to other buyable levels for small amounts of money each. They can then either buy all of the levels in one hit, or they can purchase them separately. The way it could be protected is when the original demo is downloaded it automatically chooses one of how many codes (made up of your computer type then other various factors such as the last four digits of your credit card to create more than a million combinations) it sticks to it and when it downloads the levels they have to be encoded with that code from the website. So that stops you just downloading the other levels for free. The coding stops people just downloading and adding levels. If the program detects it is not on that specific PC (i.e. someone has transfered the program to another PC after they've downloaded all of the levels) then it just shuts down with a message the need for the person to connect to the company website. The person may need to prove they purchased the program through the website, possibly with personal details such as certain figures on their credit card. Only three times can this occur then there is no more restarting that program. Cracking and removing the code could remove some of the encryption protocols on some of the program and render it useless.
Login or register to submit a comment.
 
 
 
Atomic Magazine

Issue: 107 | December, 2009

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
Latest Comments
"Yeay! :D It's good to see someone with their head screwed on properly."
by colganaitor | Nov 21, 2009 7:20 PM
 
"Holy shit, batman.

*runs"
by colganaitor | Nov 21, 2009 7:17 PM
 
""sudo preupgrade"
...failed to download installer metadata
------------
So ..."
by wlayton27 | Nov 21, 2009 8:16 AM
 
"I thought Vista outlived it's usefulness about the same time it was released , lol"
by mr.gargoyle | Nov 21, 2009 12:28 AM
 
"^ I find with CoD4 that I can jump on an empty server and be joined by 6-12 others before the ..."
by Ezekill | Nov 20, 2009 10:10 PM
Latest User Reviews
Shenmue II
10%
asdfasdf
 
EVGA X58 Classified
90%
great board, a few things could be better
 
EVGA X58 Classified
90%
Gorgeous looking
 
Sapphire 4890
90%
So good, I immediately wanted a second one!
 
MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard
90%
Allmost the prefect gaming board