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‘Good’ Pirates Help Companies Sell More Products

torrentfreak.com — If you are downloading stuff you wouldn ’t have bought in the first place, according to economist Karen Croxson, you are probably doing the company that owns the product a big favor. You, Mr ‘Good’ Pirate, are telling your friends, adding to the media ‘buzz’ and driving up sales.

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say592, on 03/25/2008, -9/+48Suck on that, Anti-Piracy lobbyists!
- TheMime, on 03/25/2008, -9/+3***** the RIAA?
  - toxicityj, on 03/25/2008, -5/+16You've got to say it with confidence! Like this--
    ***** THE RIAA!
- ThirdPrize, on 03/25/2008, -7/+4Yep, we are all really adding to the media ‘buzz’ around M$ Office and PhotoShop aren't we? What a crock of $#!t
  - blahtastic, on 03/25/2008, -3/+3Meh, if I had to pay for Microsoft Office...I wouldn't. I'd use Open Office instead (and I do on one of my computers-other had office already). That and I always thought Photoshop would benefit from a lower price. It's an amazing program, and it seems that if it was priced lower the increase in people willing to buy it (as opposed to using gimp/other free programs/pirated copies) would increase enough to make up for less profit. Photoshop Elements is decently priced though, and really all most people will need.
    - dacheetah, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2I agree, I couldn't afford to buy photoshop, and without having used it as much as I have, certainly never would have wanted to either. Now that I have used it so extensively, as well as other graphics programs, I wouldn't mind having a legal copy of the software, and should I come wind up with enough money to justify it, then I will buy it. For the moment I'm limited to recommending it to anyone who would benefit from what PS can do that the GIMP won't do.
- runescape1143, on 03/25/2008, -1/+3i love the way pirates jump on articles like this as justification for their existence.
samkline, on 03/25/2008, -5/+29You're welcome!
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/25/2008, -2/+8"If you are downloading stuff you wouldn’t have bought in the first place, according to economist Karen Croxson, you are probably doing the company that created the product a big favor."
  
  See we need more on this train of thought.
AsSubtleAsABrik, on 03/25/2008, -14/+10They summed up my entire argument defending piracy very well. Especially when it comes to music. I rarely buy CD's and refuse to pay money for a bunch of 0's and 1's from iTunes. But 75% of the shirts I own are from bands I like and I go to their shows. The music I do buy is mostly on vinyl, it's such a better medium than CD's. They are actually collectible and hold their value fairly well.
- blahtastic, on 03/25/2008, -6/+5Vinyl-
  I'd rather have high quality audio that won't wear out and is remotely hard to destroy (Yeah, you can scratch cd's, but thats what making copies is for) than a collectible frisbee. If I really, really liked a band or specific album, was a dj, or had a ***** of money to throw around, I may see your point.
  - jeuhrn, on 03/25/2008, -4/+1Vinyl is high quality audio, and with the upswing in the vinylmarket after the 90's, a lot of old releases are remastered and released on heavier vinyl records.
    
    Also, the coverart is as big as intended, and if you treat em properly, they will retain their quality/information unlike CD-s.
    - blahtastic, on 03/25/2008, -0/+3Don't they still decay with regular play though? The very nature of a reading mechanism that employs friction would cause them to decay regardless of treatment. Unless you have one of those laser turntables, which were $15,000 two years ago (not sure at the moment, can't be cheap though.)
      - jeuhrn, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1I don't know how many times you can play an LP before wear becomes audible, but you are wrong, the very nature of the pickup/arm is to provide as little friction as possible, which is why it rests on an adjustable counter-weight.
      - AsSubtleAsABrik, on 03/25/2008, -0/+1"Don't they still decay with regular play though?"
        You admitted yourself previously that CD's get scratched. Same thing. You are thinking about just owning the vinyl, and that is not what I'm saying. I'm saying if you are going to pay money for it, get the vinyl. You are allowed to rip CD's to your computer that you buy, so don't feel bad downloading the same album (and actually as I said before a lot of vinyl these days come with a free download of the album). I don't see the point of buy a CD when you can just make that yourself, like you said. I personally cannot make a new 12", so I buy it from someone who can.
      - blahtastic, on 03/25/2008, -0/+3Cd's don't get worn out by poor care, not playing them, and if the needle didn't rub the record there would be no sound. I know it isn't trying to grind away at it, but it still has to rub.
        
        But as I just said below, with the free download part for the convenience and whatnot I understand your point now.
  - AsSubtleAsABrik, on 03/25/2008, -0/+2"Yeah, you can scratch cd's, but thats what making copies is for"
    Then why not get the damn vinyl? Most new vinyl these days comes with a free download of the album. So just make copies of that? If you aren't going to use the original anyway I'd rather have something different.
    - blahtastic, on 03/25/2008, -0/+2Ah, didn't think/wasn't aware of the free download part. That changes my dislike opinion. Still probably wont invest in them, but understand it at least.
    - jrowny, on 03/25/2008, -0/+0with my Vinyl is more of a collectible thing... like baseball cards. I have this rare LP by Ugly Casanova that's got the most beautiful engraving on the back of the record, it's amazing just to look at. It's one form of art on another form of art. Of course, 99% I don't listen to that record, I listen to the MP3s on my computer.
- cliffski, on 03/26/2008, -0/+2Indeed. I refuse to pay money for a bunch of carbohydrates and proteins, which is why I do a runner from restuarants and shoplift food. ***** the people who own the stores, why should I care if they lose their businesses and the staff lose their jobs?
  
  You ***** idiot.
austinnowlin, on 03/25/2008, -8/+32DAMN they are slow to come to grips with reality!
WE'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS!
dupswapdrop, on 03/25/2008, -8/+14piracy is free advertising!
- TypeEE, on 03/25/2008, -2/+5Exactly, I always thought piracy is essential for console to be successful
  Successful console with pirate game very early on: NES, SNES , PS1, PS2
  Unsuccesful consoles with hardly any pirates: N64, gamecube
  
  It made me wonder, if gamecube is very similar to wii, Nintendo know exactly how to protect its games, yet, the wii had a mod chip within half a year after the machine is released. This made me wonder if they purposely made it easier to hack.
- buddamus, on 03/25/2008, -2/+2I remember as a kind I had a pirate Gameboy game with 99 games on it lol, only had 9 really but it was cool
matx, on 03/25/2008, -6/+17however, MPAA and RIAA would not admit that piracy helps them by giving them free advertising. I have downloaded music and sometimes ended up buying it because it was really good but I have told friends about these bands I have found. I would not have found them if I could not download their music for free to see if I liked it or not. However, last.fm has been great allowing to play complete songs on their streaming site and it is a shame that pandora is blocked in the uk :(.
My point is, if the RIAA and MPAA admit that that piracy helps sell music, they will become obsolete and die. They just want to take as much money as they can before they are gone.
- NathanielJ, on 03/25/2008, -1/+8Pandora being blocked outside of the US is the worst thing to ever happen to music. I still haven't found another radio service that comes close.
  - yetAnotherCroc, on 03/25/2008, -1/+3they unblocked it again. Go check it out. They even kept the old accounts!
    - NathanielJ, on 03/25/2008, -1/+3I check every week or so - it's still blocked in Canada.
  - vipertech, on 03/25/2008, -1/+2*cough* Proxy/Tunneling *cough*
    - NathanielJ, on 03/25/2008, -1/+2Have you ever tried that with Pandora? I can get halfway through the plugin loading, and then it says "Pandora is Experiencing Technical Difficulties, Please Try Again Later".
- oxdeltaxo, on 03/25/2008, -0/+7Money which the artists never see.
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/25/2008, -2/+2750$ a song according to the RIAA.
- dacheetah, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Basically they want free advertising, and then on top of that, free money from the people offering free advertising, as well as money from those "stealing" from them. Free advertising means more money for the artist, which means more money that can be paid to the RIAA/MPAA, plus more money from the "advertisers" plus money from bad pirates equals lots of money the arists will never see, but is good for lining the pockets of a buisness that shouldn't really exist.
kmotiv1, on 03/25/2008, -4/+9...some compensation would be appreciated...
fotbr, on 03/25/2008, -4/+25Skip the blog, read the source: http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2008/080317 ...
thanakar, on 03/25/2008, -14/+7So its okay to steal anything that you weren't going to buy in the first place?
- Cyberdactyl, on 03/25/2008, -3/+7I would say material items are off limits.
  
  However the digital media producers, across the board, HAVE GOT to wake up to the new IT age. They can continue to fight it, or they can structure their endeavors around what is inevitable. That being, digital media will. . .eventually. . .find its way out of its monetary cage.
- NathanielJ, on 03/25/2008, -2/+16The problem with stealing is that someone inherently gets hurt by it under what people generally mean by "stealing". If you steal a loaf of bread, someone else is now out a loaf of bread that they should have.
  
  If you 'steal' a song, does anyone get hurt if you weren't going to buy it anyways? No.
  
  Seriously, where were you people back when I was 7 and recorded songs off the radio onto cassette? No one seemed to care then.
- theaceoffire, on 03/25/2008, -2/+9It is not stealing, it is copying.
  - thanakar, on 03/25/2008, -7/+2No, it is copying if you have the original bought and paid for. This is nothing but stealing. It doesn't matter if you're hurting anyone or not. Stealing is stealing. People who download music, apps and other digital media have no plan on paying for it later, so please, quit using that excuse.
    - DemonWasp, on 03/25/2008, -1/+7In what way are they harmed? If person A downloads something they would never have bought from company B, in what way is company B hurt? They haven't lost any sales, but they have got someone else using their product. In the case of software, that's valuable, as they'll end up wanting to use that software later on, when they're at a company that'll actually pay for the software.
      
      Further, I have actually bought stuff after downloading it. The most recent example is Call of Duty 4 - I downloaded it, then went and bought it off of Steam. Your argument that "people who download...have no plan on paying for it later" clearly has an exception.
      - HonoredMule, on 03/25/2008, -1/+4Piracy's advertising value comes from the genuineness of the promoters of pirated content. A pirate can (and often does) sample everything that's available without consideration of price (and that means neither caring about high costs, nor being artificially impressed based on market price). The pirate's choice quickly gains reputation as the /best/ product (or more accurately, the /smartest/ information). The people who hear about these products from the pirate or from information flowing out of pirate-friendly waters know that the stamp of approval is coming from sources that have seen/tested the alternatives and had no motive save to find the best product for themselves. It's like eating your own dog food, on steroids.
        
        90% of the time, when a company that had been previously catapulted into popularity by piracy starts to fight it (i.e. adobe, Microsoft), It's because the pirates are promoting alternative products too much, hurting not the company's pocketbook, but their reputation.
        
        In that context, I find it ironic how the fight against piracy so closely resembles Microsoft's fight against Open Source. Microsoft is trying to stem the flow of both Open Source AND pirated MS software, to silence impartial, non-invested voices. If the day comes that the average consumer believes (for example) that Linux is AS GOOD AS Windows for their personal needs, Microsoft will be finished...regardless of how many or few people use pirated or open source software. Adobe sees too many competitors on the sidelines for the /average/ consumer's dollars, and don't want too many comparisons drawn to simpler products against which Photoshop isn't priced to compete.
        
        Software in general has severely failed to to price discriminate effectively...unless you count piracy in your market model. Vista was the first prominent software package to do so at all. Marketing departments worth their pay know that you put the product in the consumer's hands at whatever price they'll pay, and back down only when the price won't cover manufacturing/operating costs. But software companies haven't yet figured out how to achieve this in their marketplace. Pirates always fill the gaps between what's available and what consumers want, and often promote obscure but innovative businesses to the forefront in the process.
      - cliffski, on 03/26/2008, -3/+1what was wrong with the demo you ***** thief?
        who the hel do you think you are kidding with these pathetic excuses?
    - insertAliasHere, on 03/25/2008, -1/+8No, there is a distinct difference between piracy and theft. Piracy deprives the victim of neither a good/service or monetary value. I an not stealing a physical object, I'm copying bits that can be reproduced infinitely. Also, since I wouldn't have (couldn't have in many cases) payed for what I copied, there is no monetary loss. My piracy hasn't hurt a single person in any physical or monetary way.
      
      Now I'm not saying what I'm doing is morally right, or that anti-piracy laws shouldn't exist, just that calling it stealing is ignorant.
- TypeEE, on 03/25/2008, -0/+1Can you buy anything and refund even if you don't plan on keeping it?
  - Kelmon, on 03/25/2008, -0/+1A little unethical but usually allowed by quite a few retailers. It's like buying clothes and returning them when they don't fit and that's OK.
  - lrdntwnd, on 03/25/2008, -0/+1Many stores have started refusing to accept opened software packages. So, if you do buy it and you don't like it, you, often times, can't take it back. So, no, you can't buy anything and expect to get a refund if you take it back...
- kudos, on 03/25/2008, -3/+7It's not really stealing, you're not depriving the owner of the original item. The simple fact is, it doesn't cost the owner anything if you pirate their material, unless you would have bought in the first place.
  
  As far as music is concerned, I've paid the industry enough money (about 400 cds prior to p2p). When they decide to start charging reasonable amounts for music, I'll start paying for it again. €1.29 per song is a ***** joke, I'll pay €0.29 if they want, no more.
- toxicityj, on 03/25/2008, -0/+2If I can find a torrent for that new HD TV, then yes.
- andj, on 03/25/2008, -2/+3how do you steal a copy of something?
- Kelmon, on 03/25/2008, -4/+3I wouldn't recommend using that excuse in court.
  
  Personally, no, I don't believe it is OK because it's clearly theft in any definition. You either pay the asking price or not - it's that simple.
  - insertAliasHere, on 03/25/2008, -1/+4Once again, no it's not clearly theft. There's a reason new laws had to be made to deal with crimes like this, because they aren't like a regular theft. It still may be morally/ethically wrong, and illegal, but it isn't the same as stealing a physical object, or stealing money, because piracy deprives you of neither. I didn't take your copy, I copied it. And I was never going to buy it anyway, so you aren't out any money.
    
    Not quite as simple as it seems.
    - cliffski, on 03/26/2008, -1/+1you are such a retard if you genuinely think that makes any ***** sense.
      If its not worth buying some music, its not worth listening to, stop kidding yourself.
KnightMareInc, on 03/25/2008, -4/+7this has been my excuse for years now.
mentallyinhell, on 03/25/2008, -5/+13More pirates, less global warming.
- TypeEE, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1more pirates, cure AIDS
- SteveIsTheDude, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1Are you SURE it will cure AIDS??? (come on Cartman, this is your chance)
  - blahtastic, on 03/25/2008, -0/+2Ugh," I'm not just sure, I'm HIV positive."
    
    Happy?
    - SteveIsTheDude, on 03/26/2008, -0/+2Yeah, thanks :)
TimDigg, on 03/25/2008, -1/+4They still need to come up with a solution for apps you only use like ONE time....***** I wouldn't mind paying a buck...

I also think express editions are a good idea.... A version that you can play with
- BinaryFragger, on 03/25/2008, -0/+1That's what demo or trial versions are for.
  - dacheetah, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Many demo or trial versions are limited in such a way that you can't test teh full functionallity.
    The good ones limit the number of times you can run a program before it expires, but provide a reasonible number of runs, so you get a chance to test the program reasonably.
wexmajor, on 03/25/2008, -3/+5That's what most pirates do. 'Good' pirates my ass.
mooseofshadows, on 03/25/2008, -5/+5Honestly, I'm glad someone is bringing this idea up nowadays. I've always felt that if I downloaded a band's songs and really like them, I am much more likely to support them through concerts and things like that, and I can say with confidence that I would not know about most of my favorite bands if I didn't have a source for free music.
godplaysdnd, on 03/25/2008, -2/+4“Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.”
z28com, on 03/25/2008, -3/+6That article is very accurate. I have downloaded TONS of stuff and do nothing but give free advertising for them. I test software and then recommend it to companies that I work for and get them to buy it because I had good experience with the full versions and know the pitfalls and what not.
I just think that everyone should get sued, wait for the judgment and then file Chapter 7 on their asses.
my10cent, on 03/25/2008, -7/+3I can not pay thousands of dollars for software, it is impossible so if I wanted to try lets say Photoshop I have no choice but to download it, that being said I am also not pirating software because I am not willing to pay the consequence of me doing so.
- BinaryFragger, on 03/25/2008, -1/+3If you really wanted to just "try" Photoshop, you can download the trial. People download expensive software simply because they don't want to pay for it.
  - lrdntwnd, on 03/25/2008, -1/+2Or they can't pay for it.... And, sometimes you need the software for a while (like when you're in school). Companies like Adobe and Autodesk do offer educational-priced packages for students, but those are still hundreds of dollars (like $500 for Adobe CS3 Web Premium). That's a lot of money for a student who is taking out $20k in loans each year to pay for tuition, room and board, and books (which will cost them almost as much as that one software package). So, many students resort to pirating the software instead. What would make more sense is to do what Microsoft is doing with their development software: give it to the students for free while they're in school. Then, when they graduate, they'll have had the necessary experience using the software to either work somewhere that uses it or suggest it to their employer. That's pretty powerful advertising. I don't think it would really cause these companies to lose much money, they wouldn't be punishing potential customers and they might even drive in more sales of the full-priced versions. It ends up as a win-win. So, what do they have to lose?
- Kelmon, on 03/25/2008, -3/+3My heart bleeds for you. I generally can't afford expensive software either but I don't think that give me the right to steal it. If you want to try Photoshop then the demo will let you do that but there's not much point if you have no intention of buying a copy later. Just do without - it's not like you really NEED it anyway since there are free or very cheap alternatives.
  
  Needless to say you are indeed pirating software by downloading a cracked copy or otherwise not buying a license.
Morghin, on 03/25/2008, -2/+4It's pretty obvious, and has been so for ages. What the money-grubbers want is to hype the problem so that they can sell more anti-DRM schemes, and try their best to make money on those that wouldn't have bought it if it didn't come along for free.

They see the "lost"/potential income, not the possible income from word of mouth. Word of mouth can't be quantified, therefore it does not exist, atleast it didn't use to. Now they are starting to take a good look at quantifying it so that they can use it for statistics and numbering.
buddamus, on 03/25/2008, -4/+4We need original good music to buy, not mass produced crap, I mostly buy unsigned band CD's now
jlabs, on 03/25/2008, -3/+8"Suck on that, Anti-Piracy lobbyists!"

One random article by a guy that makes a point that justifies your piracy doesn't make it the truth. It may help them sell more products, but only if the product they are trying to sell isn't the product being pirated (which is the case with most software and music piracy). But, piracy does do one thing: It makes it even more difficult for small businesses to survive. Big businesses can take the hit and just add the loss into the cost of doing business. It can literally put a smaller company out of business.

So, don't complain when all that is left of the music, software, and movie industry is large RIAA/MPAA like companies..because the "fans" did it to themselves.
- vipertech, on 03/25/2008, -3/+1Quality control at work. If you sell a good product (or manage to market it well) you will get profit! YAY!
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/25/2008, -3/+6I think you missed the point of the article.
  If I never would have bought Photoshop in the first place, say ... it's way way too expensive, then me pirating it and using it is actually a benefit to adobe.
  
  It's the old Microsoft strategy. "If they are going to pirate an OS, it better be our OS."
  
  Because in this case, it's not a lost sale. The sale was never, and would never had existed anyway.
- bdbr, on 03/25/2008, -2/+4@jlabs: So, don't complain when all that is left of the music, software, and movie industry is large RIAA/MPAA like companies..because the "fans" did it to themselves.
  
  In the music business, the RIAA labels are shrinking, and the indie labels are growing.
- lrdntwnd, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1You should listen to Wil Shipley's take on piracy. While he doesn't encourage it, he doesn't fight it either. It helps to build hype for his product. As he said in his talk on hype, don't be afraid to give away free copies, you'll probably get those people to buy the upgrade or at the very least, they'll tell some other people about it. By the way, Delicious Library is one of the most popular 3rd-party apps for Mac OS X. You can find his talk on hype here: http://www.viddler.com/explore/rentzsch/videos/4/ I think it's towards the middle that he talks about piracy and free copies and such.
chrismgtis, on 03/25/2008, -3/+2Finally, someone says something that makes plenty of sense.

And just so that you know, if I download a game online I would NEVER have purchased it, so you would have never gotten a sale from me anyway. And as you said, I do tell people about the game. The good qualities and the bad. I've recommended plenty of games that I never actually purchased, BUT when I like a game I usually buy it.

I actually own two copies of Battlefield 1942. I purchased Battlefield 2 after playing the demo. The same goes for a lot of other games that I enjoyed.
- cliffski, on 03/26/2008, -0/+1how the ***** do you KNOW you wont like the game enough to buy it before you even played it?
  ***** hypocrite.
ElvisNixon, on 03/25/2008, -5/+11I suspect when some of you enter the workplace and create something, and some spoiled pimple-faced clown steals your work, you might feel differently. Go ahead, digg me down. That's what I WANT you to do.
- matx, on 03/25/2008, -5/+4You can steal my work if you want, but I already been paid to write it and it has been released as open source.
  - cquinnd, on 03/25/2008, -0/+6So you're okay with them removing the credits and redistrubuting it without the source too?
- trombonist15, on 03/26/2008, -3/+0Does that mean they claim it's their work and they alone made it?
Krpano, on 03/25/2008, -6/+2just for the record: ***** RIAA/MPAA
polyGone, on 03/25/2008, -2/+2I wouldn't have bought an iMac, if I didn't get to play with the hackinotsh before hand.
buddamus, on 03/25/2008, -0/+4Don't Copy That Floppy
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4837609090 ...
Vtorch, on 03/25/2008, -6/+6Buried for unbelievably and economically stupid
CraveThought, on 03/25/2008, -4/+1Do what you want cause a pirate be free; you are a pirate!
doobes, on 03/25/2008, -2/+11Many, many years ago (pre-internet) there were two major competing PC based drafting programs, AutoCAD and Cadkey. Both were ridiculously expensive (~$3k) and both were protected via parallel port dongles. For whatever reason, Autodesk decided to remove the copy protection from their new version (v2.15 IIRC). Within 12 months AutoCAD was the defacto standard and Cadkey fell by the wayside.

Why? Because all the PC jockeys at the time shared the disks, took them home and learned how to use AutoCAD. Then they came to work and talked the boss into buying a copy (or two).

Everyone has heard of AutoCAD. Ever heard of Cadkey?
- cquinnd, on 03/25/2008, -0/+3Isn't AutoCAD famous for their corporate lawsuits against companies accused of pirating their software?
indiekiduk, on 03/25/2008, -1/+4I give my friends the pirated copy
Kelmon, on 03/25/2008, -5/+7What a load of nonsense. If you've downloaded something for free, what incentive is there for you to obtain a legal version? If your friends know that you've downloaded something for free, what's the incentive for them to download a legal version? This might work if the versions available for download are crippled in some way but beyond that I don't expect people's sense of morals to ensure that they eventually pay if they already have what they wanted.
I'm sorry but there's no such thing as a "good pirate", just pirates in general. And, no, you're not doing the world a favour.
- error2k2, on 03/25/2008, -2/+4I downloaded a pirated version of dbpoweramp, damn kick ass transcoding tool. When I bought my new laptop I decided to just buy it, anyone asks me an easy tool for transcoding? I recommend dbpoweramp and most buy.
- Mothrog, on 03/26/2008, -1/+1"If you've downloaded something for free, what incentive is there for you to obtain a legal version?"
  
  The incentive of ensuring that those producing quality work get rewarded for that work? Some of us really do just download to try something out, and buy it later if we enjoy it.
GeneralFailure0, on 03/25/2008, -0/+8In my experience, the person telling you about the great music they just downloaded will likely be willing to burn you a copy.
BrainedChild, on 03/25/2008, -2/+2I've bought a lot more stuff because I could download it and try it first. Come on, there is way too many movies, games, software and music out there to just buy stuff blindly, or with a pitiful trial or demo. I bought the Orange Box because I could try it first.

I would love for artists to hand out 128kb music. Then, sell the 320kb version. I download crappy versions of music now, decide if I like it, then go buy off Beatport or something similar. I've learned about more artists downloading random songs from people's folders than I ever did browsing through websites.
LLLSecretChimp, on 03/25/2008, -2/+2If it ain't worth stealing, it ain't worth having.
Philluminati, on 03/25/2008, -2/+2I downloaded Full Metal Panic and Full Metal Panic Fumoffu. I've now brought them on DVD (which cost me over £50). If I didn't download it first, I'd never of thought it was worth buying. I don't like taking chances of films I haven't seen and I don't know if I'll like something (especially Anime) until after I've watched it.
kaniz, on 03/25/2008, -3/+2I used to work for a web start-up. When I started there, they were not very 'legit' - most of their software was pirated. As they earned more money and became legit - they started to purchase licensees for all of their software. Now, they have a fairly strict anti-piracy policy at work (since they are now a Microsoft Certified Partner)

Sure, they could of used freeware / opensource / cheaper alternatives until they cold afford the tools they really wanted. But then they would be going through a whole cycle of re-training/etc as they moved over to newer software.

If someone is familiar with using XYZ software package (even if they pirated it), they are more inclined to stick with it once they start paying for it. If someone uses ABC until they can afford XYZ - they are far more likely to stick with ABC.

Or say, while I downloaded all of the Wonder Showzen episodes - after showing them to two friends who are a bit less internet-savvy than myself, they went out and bought the box sets shortly after. There is a good chance if they had not been introduced to the show at my place first - they would have not gone out and bought the box sets for themselves.

While ultimately I do agree that software writers, artists, producers, etc deserve to make a fair living doing their job (I write software for a living also) - to try and equate a direct "one download = many lost sales" seems like quite a bit of a stretch. For many of those downloads, they had not intent on ever buying it in the first place - and for who knows how many of those downloads, may of lead other people to buy it instead.
timeshifter, on 03/25/2008, -1/+5Who could have imagined that an article justifying theft of intellectual property would be popular on diigg?
doomedpr0digy, on 03/25/2008, -3/+2ive been saying this for years.
ProjectGSX, on 03/25/2008, -2/+3Piracy discussion? Id like to introduce you to our friend logic. Thanks for joining us.
itzdiceman, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1I've been pitching this argument since I first started pirating from IRC all those years ago.

IRC is still the least likely place to get caught illegally download.
- cliffski, on 03/26/2008, -0/+1lol yeah right, because you cant track the IP of a DCC transfer. HAHAHAHAHAHA
  dream on
carlvjack, on 03/25/2008, -0/+3Wait if you pirate something and your friends see it and go "oh cool I want to get it I will run out and buy it right now" total B.S. They would just ask you for your pirated copy.

Same thing with DVDs I buy a movie and really like it my friends ask to use my copy they rarely go and buy their own. Or they add it to their NetFlix que.
missilesilo, on 03/25/2008, -1/+2I would buy everything but it's available on The Pirate Bay so I just get it from there instead.
eldust, on 03/25/2008, -1/+2I'm gay.
Schmapdi, on 03/25/2008, -1/+3I'm not a big pirate - I just download something every now and then - but it has only increased the amount of stuff I buy. Particularly music, but also software.
retssgusa, on 03/25/2008, -1/+3So using the same logic, if I go and steal all the groceries I need for the week and then tell everybody I did it and how wonderful the food was that means I'm doing the store a favor? Just exactly how does that work now? Isn't the store still out the money they would have made if I, get ready for a shocker, paid for them? Stealing is stealing no matter how you justify it.
- SpacePoet, on 03/25/2008, -1/+2Well, to be fair, the store does not carry cloned copies of its' food that whether it was sold or not made no difference to the bottom line of the store. Some people don't consider music a product, like a solid physical item. Unless I'm paying to see music live, it's just a recording of a recording of a recording. The artist didn't make each copy, they made one copy that was divvied up almost infinitely. Some people don't feel that music is something that should be sold like a commodity, but it is art, and I can see the way it can be construed as theft. As you can see, I'm on the fence about this issue...
ausoff2, on 03/25/2008, -0/+2Okay...i've been hearing this for a while, but every time i hear it a red ***** flag goes up in my head. If, say, I downloaded Photoshop, I'm going to walk around talking about how awesome it is, sure, but all my friends who would get it would see me as the free way to get it. So instead of advertising, what I'm doing is providing more customers...for the torrent, and not for adobe.
- SpacePoet, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1That's funny, I might have done this exact scenario... *whistles and quietly walks away
SpacePoet, on 03/25/2008, -1/+190% of what I listen to I NEVER would have even heard of if it wasn't for Napster and the earlier DL sites...
VinnieDaMac, on 03/25/2008, -0/+2At long as you never intended to buy it in the first place, but how do you know if someone never intended to buy it. If companies were to go out looking for people who never intended to buy their product, most people would say they had no intent, even if they did, so they could get a free copy.
ZurMacht, on 03/25/2008, -1/+1Case in point... this just recently happened to me w/ Sins of a Solar Empire.
rmeddy, on 03/26/2008, -0/+2Excellent article reflects my personal views exactly, Piracy should be used for quality control. if you make crap I don't want to give you any incentive to make more crap.Why do I buy Valve and pirate EA, the reason is simple.
icedm, on 03/26/2008, -0/+0I think most retail associates are good pre shoppers
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