Blog #8: Piracy!

Authors: Anvith Potluri, Kevin Li, Kevin Nguyen, & Varad Thorat

Piracy: “the unauthorized use of another’s production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright” (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary). In a very fast consumer world, the technology sector suffers from pirating and consumers getting their hands on “cracked versions” of software. This in turn, could lead to millions of dollars of revenue losses for companies in general, and affect their ability to even survive as a company, especially if they are in the early stages of a company that dedicates distributing software products for the consumers.

Mainly, the consumers benefit from software or other digital media piracy, but who you are affecting is much much more in the grand scheme. In a consequentialist framework, a pirater would be inconsiderate on the companies, developers, and authors that they are affecting in a negative way and in a duty-based framework, their intention is solely on benefiting themselves and enjoying the developer’s hard work with unauthorized use without compensating the author.

By no means is pirating ever helping the authors, but for consumers, it is different and to their advantage, if they can get away with such an action. Technology has not done such a good job punishing piraters (such as ISPs sending copyright infringement notices but it is getting better) therefore, with the mindset that consumers could get away with it, consumers might consider this an option every time there is new software released to the public for sale.

The consequences for this type of behavior calls upon tactics used by companies, especially game companies, to account for this. Such strategies include pay-to-play and free-to-play games, providing a “subscription service” where you would have to subscribe to even get online support for the service (like Netflix) or even integrated advertising inside the software. These are just some of the strategies companies might use due to the nature of piracy. Companies/developers/authors will find a way to survive somehow.

Sources:

• Patrick, What happens when pirates play a game development simulator and then go bankrupt because of piracy? (Links to an external site.), Greenheart Games Blog, April 29, 2013.
• “Piracy.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy.