There is cake and a video at the end of this entry. If you don't want to read... you should REALLY watch the video at the end (and get some cake). If you are even to lazy to watch the whole video... then jump to around 11:20 and watch a very interesting point of view on Copyright. (you'll get cake too).
Everybody that knows me knows that I don't believe piracy is the big problem the media industry describes everyday. Every year they report billions of dollars being lost because of the people that downloads music, software, movies, TV shows, games ... but they lack the ability to understand the figures.
First than all (sometimes they forget or they simply don't known): NOT THE WHOLE WORLD IS NORTH AMERICA!!!
Get this into your minds, THERE IS PEOPLE WHO CAN'T AFFORD 60$ FOR A GAME!!!!** But, trust me, you DO want to get your game to that place. Every time I download something, it is because I want to study from it or I can not pay it or I would never pay for it (a 30 Minutes to Mars CD just because of this one song). They serve as a complete demo. The first time I played WoW was with a pirated copy in a private server with a couple of friends in the university. Guess what, after a month we all bought the game and have been playing since then. See, I wouldn't even considered buying WoW, nor pay the monthly fee if I hadn't try it first for the real thing (In one week you don't get to really get what all the game it is about). If you want to get money from those markets, then you should try to deliver a cheaper version of the game (maybe curtail some features, length or online interaction). That way you would be protecting yourself from people buying the game abroad in order to save some bucks.
Second: I BUY MUSIC, but not everybody does.
I love music, I love CDs, I love them and buy them. But that doesn't mean I haven't downloaded a record. I have a CD collection, and every time a CD I want its on the music store, I go and buy it. But there is other music I like but I wouldn't buy the CD, simply because I don't like it that much. When the cassette was in every audio system in the world I remember people recording songs from the radio. Was that piracy? YES, but you wouldn't get the money from them anyway. Nowadays its the mp3 and the music streaming over the internet. The world changed, so should the industry and their business model. And last time I saw, every time someone downloads your song BAM! free promotion to the song. Everybody should listen to the song, because that means one more potential lover and concert GOER. YES! CONCERTS! remember that? well because that's were the money and fame is. And of course advertisement.
Third: Copyright and Copyleft
If you have a good idea, it is great to see money from it. But that doesn't make you lord of the idea either. Ideas are everywhere, if you check the LASER history, there are 3 possible "inventors" because simply there were 3 important groups working in the same principle. You should be the owner of the design and implementation, no the idea, physic/mathematical principle behind it. The more we share, the more the world develops. Lets take a video game example. Imaging you just invented Maze Wars, and patent the first person shooter concept. Great thing... we are all screw... Battlezone wouldn't had existed unless you want to. Right now Nokia is suing Apple for several patents that seems pretty general like "enhanced speech and data transmission, using positioning data in applications, and antenna configuration enhancements" and Apple is striking back with "List scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display".
Just to end this... I'm gonna post the video.
**:(In Venezuela, as an Engineer I would earn around 428$ a month, and the rent is 400$ in the not that SHITTIER places of Caracas (but still shitty), the food is 130$, an a BIG MAC in Mcdonalds is 12$)
BTW: The cake is always a lie.
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