Ten Golden Rules of videogame piracy

[iclim4]

Garcian Smith said:
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?

Let me add an analogy.
Personally I think piracy goes something like this.
And this is by no way a faith lesson, it just makes the point easier to convey.
Let's say a baker, after 3 years of trial and error finally finished the recipe for a very good and tasty loaf of bread.
So after 3 years of heavy research and working very hard the baker has a grand reopening of his shop and sells the bread.
About 20 people buy a loaf just in the morning.
One person who bought a loaf heard a story of a man that can make miracles come true named Jesus.
He came to the field where there was a crowd and where Jesus was preaching.
The man was impressed so he decided to donate the loaf.
After which Jesus puts the loaf in a basket and passes it around the crowd to eat.
The bread somehow never runs out and everyone got to eat the bakers bread.
Everyone at the field got to eat the bakers bread, without paying and without taking the bakers resources.
Did the baker lose sales? Unfortunately, yes.
The baker got the short end of the stick, lost sales and his hardwork didn't pay off as much.
Should the people eating the bread be thrown in jail?
Should Jesus be thrown in jail?
Should the person who bought and donated the bread be thrown in jail?
Should something be done to help the baker?