I think companies are going to be absolutely baffled when their sales actually decrease if/when all these piracy rules finally do pass.
A huge majority of people who pirate things would have never purchased the product in the first place. That effectively costs the companies nothing.
Another chunk does it to effectively demo things. If they like it enough, they will go out and purchase hard copies, and possibly even purchase future games from the same company because it was so enjoyable.
The percentage of people pirating stuff that would actually go out and purchase that material immediately given that pirating didn't exist is miniscule.
Plus, none of this costs the economy a damned thing, so people need to stop saying that. Phantom sales that you think you would have had is a bullshit thing to base stuff off of.
I also couldn't resist figuring out that if this costs the economy $100 billion annually, where is every single American magically going to have $333 more to spend on stuff, when the average person already spends every last penny they make? Yea, I know that part of this spending would equate to profit for companies, therefore some people having more money, but not even close to all of it will...so they just think it will magically appear out of nowhere?
Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.
