Re: Why Must People Crack Games
Regarding the idea of just deactivating the oldest licensed machine once an account hits a cap—here's the problem with that. Say I buy a game, then hand my account out to four of my dearest friends, thereby robbing Out of Money Games of $80 in potential profit (yes, potential profit, not actual profit—see below, btw, for my thoughts on the whole copyright infringement/stealing nuance). Now, we've activated on five machines. Then I take another $20 of potential profit away from OOMG and give my account to friend #6. He activates, and poof, my account, as the oldest one, is reauthorized. Well...next time I want to play, I just authorize my account, and poof, friend #2's account is reauthorized. So he authorized next time he wants to play, and so on. So I suppose this method could work—but only if the machine is permanently de-authorized. In that case, yeah, it seems like a reasonable system though there may still be some weaknesses.
Regarding the distinction between using something you do not have the right to (i.e. public performance of a copyrighted song without a license, enjoyment of a digital download without a license, etc.) This may be distinguished from theft in a legal sense (thank you so much for providing such detailed resources for understanding the issue, by the way—that's really fascinating). But I would contend that it is still theft on a conceptual level. The only difference is that what I am stealing is the right to perform or use the product. Other people are paying money—what are they purchasing? They are purchasing the right to perform or use the product. So if I do so without purchasing said right, I am stealing said right. At least that's the way I see it, in concept.
And for what it's worth, I wouldn't have much of an issue with the idea of account sharing if it wasn't depriving a dev of potential profit. If there is literally no possibility that user X's desire to play a game would ever be responsible for the developer earning money (even inadvertently) then sure, sharing an account with User X is not robbing any potential profit. But the reality is that there is *ALWAYS* the potential that user X could generate profit for the developer. User X could generate profit by asking someone to buy the game, and them agreeing. User X could generate profit by benefiting form a giveaway. User X could generate profit by waiting until their situation changes and they come to a position of being able to purchase the game. The idea of a user who does not represent the potential for profit seems to be an idea that doesn't exist in the real world. And so imagine you're having a discussion with your development team and are saying, "We want to do this—we want to make high-quality games and continue to provide entertainment for blind gamers, and continue to close the gap between games for the blind and games for everyone. But we can't keep doing it if we aren't working toward making a living on it, so we have to figure out how we can actually support ourselves on this." These are the sorts of discussions that indie developers have, and even more so developers with as small of a market as audio game developers. Now imagine you're looking at your profits and realizing that there's no way your current profits can sustain you. Now imagine that there is two, three, five times as much potential profit that you have lost because of accounts being shared with people who may or may not have ever resulted in actual profit. The fact that there's no guarantee that potential would ever have been actualized is no comfort—because while there was no guarantee that potential would have been actualized, now there is a guarantee that it will never be actualized, and you've forever lost the possibility of capitalizing on that portion of your very small audience. This is the reality for developers trying to take this space to the next level, and this is why this is such a personal, touchy subject for those in the development space.
Which is part of why I'm happy to see such lively and, for the most part, civil discussion about the matter. It's complex, and it's important. Keep it up!
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