1) You're assuming here that every download equals a lost sale, which is far from reality.

A study I once read concluded that most people who download/buy bootleg copies of media are teenagers, college students, and people who live in poorer countries(which should be obvious). These people probably wouldn't have bought the stuff anyway due to lack of funds.

There's also the fact that a lot of the media is out of print/discontinued, so it wouldn't be available to purchase even if these people wanted to.

Lastly, some people just download because they can. I think we can say with certainty that someone with 50GB of music or 100GB of movies or 50 PS2 games or 35 full anime series never would have bought all that stuff. Any of those scenarios is an investment of over $10,000.

2) The idea that it's turning the industry into shit is absolutely false. If that were true, then the Virtual Console shouldn't be bringing in any money for Nintendo because roms and emulators have been widely available for years. The same goes for the music industry because it's been possible to download any artist's entire discography in mere hours for a good while now.

-twesterm edit-

I have no idea why all that white space was there but I removed it.

The only analogy that comes even remotely close is counterfeiting.  And "nonprofit counterfeiting" is a pretty damn good analogy, actually ... if only someone would use it.

Haha, funny read, Pirates ruin things for everybody.

1)  Sweet, I get to link to another one of Sterlings 10 golden rules!

http://www.destructoid.com/ten-golden-rules-of-the-anti-videogames-lobby-84638.phtml

Pay special attention to rule #3.

2)  I'm not sure what you're getting at with the VC.  Are you trying to saying since roms and emulators are readily available that automatically means everyone uses them?

As for the music industry, their business model is quite different from the gaming industry.  Long story short: they do not only make money from album sales, games do.

1) Every download IS a lost sale...if you played Crysis and didn't pay $50 for it, that's 50 potential dollars gone.  I'm not saying piracy will put companies in the red (though it certainly could put one game's margin in the red), but you're simply just playing a game for free instead of paying something...ANYTHING.  $50 too much for you?  Send them a $20 check or something...free is simply outrageous though.  There is simply no way a gaming industry like the one we have today can work if the games are free.

The only reason it does work is because there simply aren't that many pirates yet.

2) You kinda changed my point there.  I said pay for something in order to support it.  If somebody pirates all their games, they're not supporting the gaming industry at all.  If tons of people buy a good game from a company, they'll make another good game with those customers' interests in mind.  If only the Barbie's Horse Adventure customers are paying, then we get Barbie's Horse Adventure over and over.

As for ROMs and emulators, there's simply enough of an audience that prefers the ease of playing those games on their console, even if they're experienced piraters, like myself.  I've downloaded a bunch of VC games for the controls, ease of TV hookup, easy multiplayer, etc.

It's the same reason Steam thrives even with the PC game piracy.  It's got enough protection from piracy, but what makes Steam succeed with 15 million users is its ease of downloading and saving games, integrated multiplayer services like server lists, ingame chat, a friends and matchmaking system, etc.  If it's worth it to the consumer for the experience, not just the game alone, then it works.  This is not a case for why piracy is ok though, same with VC games.

Also, stop bringing up poor countries, poor people, discontinued media and stuff that is really hard to find.  I've already said I don't care about that, and I don't think anybody cares about that.  Nobody's gonna come knocking on your door if you downloaded Doom or Descent.

Piracy is a factor as to why prices are so high in some countries...but whatcha gonna do.  If I lived in Australia or Brazil or some high-priced country, I'd be pirating games all day.

If you live in North America, most of Europe, Japan...you don't really have an excuse, ok?  So let's stop that argument...nobody's really arguing with you there.

Uh, tell me how you plan on copying a car and taking the copy.  Or copying a loaf of bread.

I didn't say stop with analog comparisons, I said stop with the analogies.  'Tis different.  I know you can copy a tape and whatnot, that's not what I'm talking about.

Stealing a car is different than pirating an mp3.  I'd say stealing an object is worse, since it's more of a hit to the creator...but I probably say that simply because it's so much easier to get caught and punished for stealing an object than it is to pirate something digital.

They are both illegal though, and I believe both should be.  There needs to be protection on intellectual property.

If you created an important idea or document, or program, that only exists in the digital realm, shouldn't you have the right to sell it, if you wanted?  If this program cost you $100,000 to make, wouldn't it piss you off, or beyond that, bankrupt you if it was easily piratable by torrents and whatnot?

If the concept of digital piracy did not exist, you could probably make a profit on your program much, much faster than you could with half your userbase downloading without paying a cent.

Anyway, I'm rambling.  I'm just saying this is different than a physical object, where you steal it and it's gone, and they've lost whatever they had to pay for that object.

Here we're talking about potential sales, and people or companies paying to make something, like a game, and then not having every download paid for.

I cannot express my dissapointment for you twestrn. I can now say I would never want to meet or know you in real life.

If you think rule number 10 is true, go throw away your wallet, work a minimum wage job support a family and try and afford games. On top of that if you called me a cheep fucker to my face, I can tell you one thing.

You would start apologizing really fucking fast.

Get a life, get a grip, but most importantly get a fucking brain.

Such a pathetic post/thread and view of life. God damn.

I'll let twesterm respond to you, Valknut, because if that was pointed at me I'd have a few choice words.

As it is I'll just let that fly and see what someone else says this time.

No offence man, but if I called you a cheep fucker. What would you have to say about it?

You're taking him too seriously ... I hope.  I mean, he's not joking but this is not a dead serious article he posted.