Ten Golden Rules of videogame piracy

[Kasz216]

Garcian Smith said:

Kasz216 said:

 

I disagree... the closest common analog would be if someone bought Rice Crispy Treats... and then copied the recipe, made Rice Crispy Treats and gave them away.

Which actually isn't illegal to my knowledge. Only if they sold it... I think maybe.

There is a great story about Pepsi reporting a guy who tried to sell them Coke's secret Recipes.

Piracy is just illegal because it's so easy.

Or for the pirate. Getting your baked goods from your friend instead of your local bakery because they are of the same quality and the baked goods you are getting are free.

 

As per the Rice Krispy Treats analogy: That analogy is far, far too simplistic, but perhaps it can be salvaged. Say that the individual Rice Krispy grain represents a byte of information. Now, say that the creator of the first Rice Krispie Treat - we'll call him The Krispy King - organized those grains in such a way that, when organized in that exact manner, they produce something that is greater than the whole - not just a bundle of Rice Krispies, but a well-engineered, cohesive snack treat that he spent millions of dollars moulding into that exact shape.

Now, nobody starting from scratch could duplicate that exact Treat unless they, too, poured millions of dollars and thousands upon thousands of man-hours of dev-time into their own Treat. Furthermore, The KK begins to release exact replicas of this Krispy, with all of the byte-grains arranged in the exact same manner, to the public for, say, $5 each.

However, bad things start to happen when Jim-Bob in Dubuque, IN invents the Krispy Duplicator program. This program allows Jim-Bob, and anyone else who downloads the program, to duplicate any Rice Krispy, exactly how it was. Jim-Bob offers the "KD" online for free. Soon, Jim-Bob gets ahold of The KK's particular Krispy design and begins to duplicate it, offering up the duplicated Treats for free.

Potential consumers of Rice Krispy Treats now have two options: They can either buy from The KK, spending $5 in the process, or they can take one from Jim-Bob for free. Which do you think they'll do? The answer, of course, is that, whether or not they would have originally paid $5 for The KK's Treat, they'll just take one for free from Jim-Bob instead.

As you can see, though it may seem counter-intuitive if you haven't thought it through, there is a reason why copyright infringement - or piracy, if you prefer - is illegal. It protects innovators like The Krispy King from bankruptcy, while preventing people like Jim-Bob from enriching themselves at The KK's expense. In other words, to borrow a phrase, it enables a man to be entitled to the sweat of his own brow.

Do you understand now?

No.  Because food scientists do exist.  Who do spend LOTS of time and money coming up with the exact recipes used in Rice Krispy Treats and many other products.

When said recipes come out, the only person punished is the person who let the recipe out.  Not the people who are now making their own recipe.

In fact you are basically proving my point that the only reason it's illegal now is because it's too easy.  There is nothing inherently wrong with making your own game... or even your own copy of a game... like if you went by hand and hand programed your own exact copy of Too Human or something.

The problem is that it's too easy and going to hurt the guy who invented it.

The truth therin is that this is a imperefct law created to help the status quo.  When in reality what should happen is that people like the Krispy King should find a new way to get paid for their brilliance.

For example, by getting paid upfront before inventing the perfect rice krispy treat.

Or by packaging each free Rice Krispy treat full off adds for products that can't be duplicated eaisly like certain kinds of food, clothing and TVs.

Much like EA's exepirment with that new free Battlefield game.

The truth is... Piracy isn't ever going to be stopped unless DRMs and other things are taken to near orwellian in nature.... in which case.  The solution is worse then the problem.

As such... If the Mountain won't move to Mohhamad, Mohhamad must go to the mountian.