Confessions of a pirate

[JMan]

The more people that pirate, the less quality software is available.

Let's take a look at china as an example. It's a massive market. How many software developers are catering to the Chinese market? Ever played a CRPGs? Do you ever talk about importing one of those awesome Chinese games? Rhetorical questions. I'm sure there's probably some, but it isn't on the same scale as in those countries where more people purchase than pirate the games. So china, by its rampant piracy, has actually decreased the quality of "made for Chinese" games.

ferret: Intangibles have value that can be lost when reproduced. Copyright & Trademarks have value and is actually an item appearing on balance sheets as an asset of the company. Usage without permission degrades both. In that way, someone can take something from you without having taken any physical item.

For example. Let's say you took a picture of a really sexy woman that was going to be sold to the coca cola marketing division, and somebody copies it and sells it to pepsi co and it is used in their marketing campaign before your deal is sealed with coca cola. You can no longer sell it to coca cola and it has lost its value. It's entirely your choice to pursue the person. If you just want to be annoyed instead, that's your choice. But most professionals would pursue damages, if for nothing other than to discourage other people from copying their images.