CBC Radio show Spark, hosted by the lovely Nora Young, has an interesting segment with indie game designer Cliff Harris, who asked “pirates” why they were pirating his games.
One of the top answers is: “Because of Digital Rights Management…”
It’s not scientific by any means, but I hope Brian O’Leary & others who *are* doing scientific work in this area might add this angle to their analysts. That is: asking the pirates why they pirate.
The Spark interview starts at minute: 26:45.
And here is Cliff Harris’ “Talking to Pirates” page, in which, on the subject of DRM, he writes:
People don’t like DRM, we knew that, but the extent to which DRM is turning away people who have no other complaints is possibly misunderstood. If you wanted to change ONE thing to get more pirates to buy games, scrapping DRM is it. These gamers are the low hanging fruit of this whole debate.
Note that his findings regarding pricing is interesting: he dropped his prices, and is still selling the same number of games, just making half as much money.
In any case, the publishing industry, about to start tilting at the windmills of pirates, would do well to study DRM’s successes and failures elsewhere, and I hope that they make their decisions based on facts and data about what is best for the business, rather based on moral abstractions and vendor pressure.
5 Comments
Thanks for the mention. In each of the presentations I’ve given on this topic (not a vast number), at least one person has asked a variation of “what motivates people to do this?” Because we conceived the research to measure behavior rather than intent, I’ve been a little at a loss to answer.
It would be fun to expand the research to capture both behavior and intent or motivation. The data would be most helpful to capture on an ongoing basis, as the snapshots age, sometimes more quickly than we realize.
I think motivation on both sides would be worth studying:
-why do people copy and make available media
and
-why do people download unauthorized copies of media
From anecdotal evidence in my circle, it seems:
-for most people, the last thing on their mind is uploading media on from their machines to pirate sites (meaning that the average joe is not posting media to the web; meaning further that the pirates are “not average joes” and breaking DRM is part of the fun)
-media occasionally gets shared among friends, but that is no different than making a tape of a record in the old days, lending a book, or lending a movie etc…most of which is perfectly legal
-to the extent that people download/watch/consume pirated content, it is because pirated content is available in the format they want when they want it, at reasonable price (aka zero) …
I would love to see a study that looks at these questions:
1. who uploads infringed content to pirate sites
2. why do they do it?
3. who downloads infringed content from pirate sites
4. why do they do it?
And then, the trick would be to craft your business strategy around customer’s desires, rather than around your own.
Well, since it’s a study, let’s all just weigh in!
My personal experience with this: I have recently become a torrenter of old movies (also Christmas TV specials). For me, your questions are in the wrong order. It goes like this:
4. I can’t get the movie in question in a reasonable combination of availability/price/format (case in point: The Wizard of Oz, which—given reasonable convenience—I could only find legimately in a $100 super-whiz-bang boxed deluxe edition). Plus I HATE dvds — they get scratched and dirty; they force you to watch the stupid intro bits; and so on. So, weighing all options, grabbing a 400-odd MB file from the torrent sites turns out to be way easier.
3. That makes me the infringing downloader.
2. As I watch the movie arrive from a dozen seeds, and I notice that the more seeds there are, the faster and more convenient the whole thing is, I contemplate and realize that I could do somebody else a good turn by leaving the thing up on my machine so that others can use me as a seed.
1. Which makes me the uploader too.
Note that my initial inclination is just convenience: I want the movie. The torrented version becomes by far the most convenient way to get it/keep it/archive it/etc.
Note that what turns me then into the uploader is something of a moral impulse: these people helped me out; I should in turn help other people out. So I become part of the community, which makes the system work better and faster for people who come after me.
The genius of bittorrent is that it makes this system of exhange (not just of files, but of system resources) super easy—it’s no trouble at all for me to help out the next guy, so I do. That’s an ecology; a successful agora.
If somebody could sell me the movie and make the experience something like that, and make me feel good about it, I’d gladly pay for it. But in the current arrangement, where the entire business of purchasing media is fraught with distrust and barbed wire… it’s a non-starter.
if you had interacted on sites where books are “pirated”,
you’d know the answers to the questions you’re asking:
> 1. who uploads infringed content to pirate sites?
book-lovers. who else would take the time to scan a book?
and then go through the effort of doing o.c.r. and formatting?
> 2. why do they do it?
because they love books, and want to have some to trade.
> 3. who downloads infringed content from pirate sites?
book-lovers. especially those who like to read electronically.
> 4. why do they do it?
because they love books, and want to have some to read,
usually from a specific author they have loved in the past.
-bowerbird
There’s many reason why a lot of gamer pirates.Same with movie,episodes and software.
The main reason it’s probably money . No they’re not all poor or student.It’s could be because they’re indeed big gamer and can’t afford them all.Hell a lot of ppl simply prefeer to watch walkthrough or playthrough over purchasing another product for 70 bucks that they will play once.
Software like window.. Probably because it’s indeed very expensive and most of the time .. It’s simply easier to pirates than surfing in 10 shop to find the right update or whatever version you need.
Yes yes .. DRM and all the other crap.Simply put .. It’s often easier and safer pirating than purchasing it.I have my share of horror story.Buying a product and can’t use it because of anti-piracy software.Kinda like window 1 time install(OEM) .Who want to purchase the same OS 2-3 time?Sure you can purchase the retail version.But that often 400-500 bucks for the professional product.
Has for movie.Lot of ppl hate going to the videostore and with streaming etc it’s easier to watch video without moving.
Pirating always existed.PPl used to copy old VHS tape (Rented movie) .. Or simply copy broadcasting movie on special channel(which was illegal)
The main reason it’s because it’s easy.After 4-5 click you can find what you want .. download it .. install it and play it.Easier than wasting 10 bucks of gas to find the game or pay for shipping and wait 1 week to get it.You click , you download and you install.