WEBVTT - Game Piracy

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<v Speaker 1>A report out of the European Unions just that the

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<v Speaker 1>trend of video game piracy may actually be a net

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<v Speaker 1>positive for the industry. I'm Jonathan Strickland, and this is

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<v Speaker 1>Tech Stuff Daily. In general, it's pretty easy to understand

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<v Speaker 1>that taking something that doesn't belong to you without the

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<v Speaker 1>permission of the rightful owner is wrong. That seems clear,

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<v Speaker 1>But when it comes to pirating video games, plenty of

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<v Speaker 1>people seem to find endless justifications for doing just that.

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<v Speaker 1>They range from the technical, with arguments like it's just

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<v Speaker 1>a copy of some digital code, so it's not like

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<v Speaker 1>they don't still have the game that they can sell

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<v Speaker 1>to other people, all the way to the economical arguments

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<v Speaker 1>with something like this is a fifteen dollar game and

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<v Speaker 1>they're selling it for sixty bucks. There's no way I'm

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<v Speaker 1>gonna pay that. I'm just gonna take it. And then

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<v Speaker 1>there are tons of other arguments, and whether you find

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<v Speaker 1>them justifiable or not, it's safe to say that the

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<v Speaker 1>video game industry in general is firmly in the piracy

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<v Speaker 1>is bad camp. Video game developers and publishers have worked

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<v Speaker 1>hard to fight against piracy. On the technical side, they

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<v Speaker 1>have incorporated various strategies to copy protect games. It's called

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<v Speaker 1>digital rights management, or DRM, but it tends to boil

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<v Speaker 1>down to some sort of technology based approach to making

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<v Speaker 1>sure the game the person launches is in fact a

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<v Speaker 1>legitimate copy. Now, in the old days of classic games,

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<v Speaker 1>you might encounter a title that requires you to consult

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<v Speaker 1>the game manual and type out a certain word on

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<v Speaker 1>a certain page to prove that you bought the game.

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<v Speaker 1>Later on, games included digital keys that required players to

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<v Speaker 1>activate their copies by authenticating the game through some centralized

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<v Speaker 1>security system. These days, many games require players to have

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<v Speaker 1>a persistent online connection to verify they are playing a

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<v Speaker 1>legitimate copy of the game, even if it is a

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<v Speaker 1>single player experience. On the legal side, video game companies

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<v Speaker 1>have hitched their wagons to the efforts from other forms

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<v Speaker 1>of media to protect intellectual property. In the United States,

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<v Speaker 1>video game developers rely on copyright laws such as the

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<v Speaker 1>Digital Millennium Copyright Act or d m c A to

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<v Speaker 1>provide protections from transgressions against their intellectual property. These companies

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<v Speaker 1>fight so fiercely in part because technology makes it pretty

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<v Speaker 1>easy to duplicate and distribute software on a large scale.

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<v Speaker 1>Peer to peer networks and broadband internet speeds take much

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<v Speaker 1>of the time and effort out of transmitting large data

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<v Speaker 1>files across systems. There's a virtual army of hackers who

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<v Speaker 1>make it their mission to crack these protection systems that

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<v Speaker 1>are connected to games. Sometimes that makes the game easier

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<v Speaker 1>to play without an Internet connection and unfortunate incentive for

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<v Speaker 1>anyone who wants to avoid the hassle of always staying

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<v Speaker 1>connected to the Internet just to play a game on

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<v Speaker 1>a local machine. If we take a simple view of

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<v Speaker 1>the problem, it seems clear that piracy hurts video game

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<v Speaker 1>companies bottom lines. After all, those pirated copies represent laws sales, right,

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<v Speaker 1>According to multiple studies, that's not necessarily the case. It's

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<v Speaker 1>a complicated issue. In two ten, the United States Government

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<v Speaker 1>Accountability Office published a report titled Observations on Efforts to

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<v Speaker 1>quantify the economic effects of counterfeit and pirated Goods. The

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<v Speaker 1>report explained that estimating the losses from pirated goods is

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<v Speaker 1>practically impossible, as it requires making assumptions that could be wrong.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, let's say a video game company has a

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<v Speaker 1>big title coming out that gamers have been anticipating for

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<v Speaker 1>a while. Some hacker has managed to infiltrate the game

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<v Speaker 1>company and made copies of the game's source code, then

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<v Speaker 1>uploaded that code to a piracy site. About a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>thousand people have downloaded the illegal copy. That means the

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<v Speaker 1>video game company suffers a one hundred thousand copy shortfall

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<v Speaker 1>right well, not necessarily, As the report pointed out, it's

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<v Speaker 1>impossible to know how many of those one hundred thousand

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<v Speaker 1>people would have purchased a legitimate copy had there been

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<v Speaker 1>no piracy. It's possible none of them would have, which

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<v Speaker 1>means the video game company would have suffered no loss sales.

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<v Speaker 1>It's also possible that some people who downloaded the illegal

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<v Speaker 1>copy later purchased a legitimate one. Ultimately, the report said

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<v Speaker 1>that the arguments these companies present when they lobby for

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<v Speaker 1>tougher legislation against piracy are based off of figures with

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<v Speaker 1>no foundation. In reality, it's not that the companies don't

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<v Speaker 1>have a valid complaint, but rather that the losses they claim,

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<v Speaker 1>which are often used when prosecuting hackers as a way

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<v Speaker 1>to convince judges to hit those hackers with hefty fines

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<v Speaker 1>and sentences, aren't necessarily realistic, and that brings us to

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<v Speaker 1>this new report from the EU. That one is a

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<v Speaker 1>three hundred six page long document titled Estimating Displacement Rates

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<v Speaker 1>of Copyrighted Content in the EU. Like the g a

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<v Speaker 1>O report, this one didn't find a correlation between piracy

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<v Speaker 1>and losses. In fact, the report suggests the opposite might

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<v Speaker 1>be true. According to the report, quote illegal consumption leads

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<v Speaker 1>to increased legal consumption end quote of games, so a

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<v Speaker 1>rise in piracy seems to bring a rise in sales

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<v Speaker 1>along with it. The report suggests that the industry is

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<v Speaker 1>getting better at converting people from someone who will download

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<v Speaker 1>an illegal copy of a game into a legal customer. However,

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<v Speaker 1>this report relied heavily upon surveys, meaning the researchers were

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<v Speaker 1>asking people to self report on their gaming habits and behaviors.

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<v Speaker 1>Critics point out that this does not always generate the

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<v Speaker 1>most reliable data. Without means of authenticating the results, It's

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<v Speaker 1>likely many in the video game industry will eye this

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<v Speaker 1>report with skepticism. Does this mean you should rush out

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<v Speaker 1>and download all the games you want from piracy sites?

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<v Speaker 1>Well not at all. For one thing, many of those

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<v Speaker 1>games can be host to terrible malware that will infect

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<v Speaker 1>your machine in nasty ways. For another, the whole point

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<v Speaker 1>of the report was that people were converting over into

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<v Speaker 1>legal customers. You could save yourself a step and just

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<v Speaker 1>go the legal route. My personal philosophy is if a

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<v Speaker 1>game seems too expensive, I won't buy it. I'll wait

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<v Speaker 1>for it to go on sale, or I'll just skip

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<v Speaker 1>it entirely. If I think a particular company's approach to

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<v Speaker 1>d r M is bad, I won't buy that company's products.

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<v Speaker 1>If enough people do that, it sends a powerful message

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<v Speaker 1>to the company, which is sure to re examine its

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<v Speaker 1>approach to protecting its own intellectual property. Ultimately, we have

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<v Speaker 1>to accept that just because something exists doesn't mean we

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<v Speaker 1>have a right to it. Hopefully video game companies will

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<v Speaker 1>also ease off on their policies to protect their intellectual property.

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<v Speaker 1>It's fine for a company to try and make certain

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<v Speaker 1>it's not pirated out of business, but some of the

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<v Speaker 1>lawsuits against people who have been found guilty of piracy

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<v Speaker 1>include absolutely draconian requests for punishment. No one looks good

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<v Speaker 1>coming out of that situation. To learn more about intellectual property,

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<v Speaker 1>digital rights management, or something fun like video games, be

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<v Speaker 1>sure to subscribe to text On. In that podcast, I

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<v Speaker 1>explore topics like these in much greater detail. That's all

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<v Speaker 1>for me for now. See you next time. Wonder