> Hi Dark, *snip* > if I buy a Cd for say ten pounds, only about a pound of that will go to the > actual musicians, and that is even assuming the musicians in question earn a > royalty on individual cd sales and weren't given a fixed amount by the > publishers. Therefore, if you copy a Cd, the prophets you most affect are > those of the distributors, promoters and publishers, not of the musicians, > indeed I've heard various professional musicians say they make more sales > through people copying cds from their friends and then wanting to buy the > next one themselves than they do through standard adverts. > Same with books, indeed even more so, you don't pay the author, but the > publisher. > *snip*
That line of thinking is essentially saying, it's perfectly fine to steal small amounts from several people, but not fine to steal a larger amount from an individual. This is highly flawed thinking. And, the music industry has and continues to change rapidly. More and more artists, even highly popular ones, are cutting ties with the record industry and selling their own music via iTunes, Amazon MP3, etc. Publishing is a very expensive endeavor. While I agree that author's should get more for digital publishing than they do, it costs money to manufacture physical books, purchase materials, binding, etc. Not to mention the editors who proofread, the artists who create cover art, and so forth. Ultimately, it is a naive and ignorant line of thinking. There are problems with many industries, and piracy exacerbates those problems. *snip* > One reason I think people often pirate games, is that people do not realize > there is! no large distribution company involved, just one or two people > working themselves, since as you pointed out, activision, E games are huge > coorporations with massive markup, who pay their programmers a fixed income > while the prophit goes either into developing more prophit or into the > pockets of the management, indeed I am told by someone who worked at one > point for E games, that as programming jobs they are deeply unsatisfying > since you basically get no creative leeway anymore, since all of the design > is done long before the game is programmed, and the rpogrammers are basically > just geach given a very menial individual task to do, (the days when someone > like Inafune could design Mega man in his spare time are long gone). > *snip* I don't think the average person puts that much thought into it…if any at all. Something is available for free, they'll take it for free. And, those days are not long gone. On the contrary, the iOS and Mac App Stores, and to a lesser degree the Android Marketplace, have brought that kind of design back with a vengeance, especially with games. Many of the hugely popular mobile apps are made by single individuals or very small companies. Angry Birds? Instapaper? Twitterific? THe list goes on and on. By giving individual developers and small companies a safe and simple mechanism to sell their wares which also helps limit casual piracy without inconveniencing honest users, Apple has brought this back in a big way. You should catch up with the times, and I think you'll like the direction that things are going. *snip* > Generally blind people are not treated well by coorporations (the tale of > myself and trying to obtain accessible scifi books despite Uk copywrite law > and the publishing industry is a long and unpleasant one), not to mention all > those massive multinational chains that do much at all for access even in a > small way, heck, do mcdonalds have braille menues? > *snip* I have no love for giant corporations, but I think you're putting far too fine a point on all of this. The vast majority of people who pirate casually are not doing it because of grand philosophical ideals, or out of some sort of mis-placed sense of vengeance on faceless corporations that have done them some wrong. They're doing it because they want something right now and they can't afford it right now. *snip* > I'm not condoning the actions of people who pirate games, I'm just thinking > that perhaps one major motivating factor is that they do not realize that > they are pirating games made by individuals, not! by massive companies. > *snip* I think the community is very much aware that audio games are made by single individuals and/or small companies. I think Draconis has the most number of folks involved in the making of our titles in various capacities and to various degrees, and even we have only a handful. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
