This entry is mostly about Nintendo but it is applicable to others as well.
The best way to hurt a content company is avoiding their content and tell anybody to do the same (while providing reasons).
Nintendo for example shows much anti-consumer behavior (beyond being extremely extreme at protecting their content). It wasn't always like that. They have many good lawyers and decided to go after everybody while providing bad service to paying customers.
Big companies had influence on many laws, especially copyright, which made said laws one-sided and problematic. Copyright as it is now has little to do with the good, initial idea; the why it first came up. They can influence laws. They can even bend laws because normal individuals don't have the money to fight a long legal battle. But there is one thing they didn't achieve yet and hopefully never will:
There is no law mandating consuming media (music, movies, games...)
A company that behaves like an axe in the forest towards consumers should simply be avoided. Simple as that. Nintendo made great games in the past in my opinion. I have no idea what it is like now and frankly I don't even care because of their behavior. Buying hard- and software from a company this evil is out of question.
Furthermore I do not condone so-called "piracy" - a stupid word by the way. Better say "copyright infringement" or "obtaining illegal copies". It is simply illegal and fueling anti-consumer campaigns and will be the reason for even more strict and absurd laws beyond sensible protection of intellectual property.
As long as things like the Switch are a great financial success nothing in the behavior will change. It would roughly take four weeks to get rid of all of this -- if people were smart enough to avoid evilness. Not buying, not obtaining illegally, not even talking about it. Simply ignore them. In a month or so they would come around, fall down on their knees and beg people to come back promising to behave better. Hurt them at their wallet. I know it is illusory to hope enough average people would ever do it. Sadly this will stay a Gedankenexperiment (thought experiment).
I stopped buying new content many years ago (while NOT obtaining illegal copies). Renting access (streaming) was never an option. Sometimes I made exceptions from that rule, especially for small developers but over the years my spendings on content went down to pretty much zero now. There is so much public domain content (books) that I don't see the need for anything new. Movies and games bought decades ago will continue to entertain.
Saves a lot of money and nerves.
Being proud of and saying things like "I am a pirate and it is morally okay to pirate Nintendo games!" is dumb and contributes to make the situation worse.
The best way to hurt a content company is avoiding their content and tell anybody to do the same (while providing reasons).
Nintendo for example shows much anti-consumer behavior (beyond being extremely extreme at protecting their content). It wasn't always like that. They have many good lawyers and decided to go after everybody while providing bad service to paying customers.
Big companies had influence on many laws, especially copyright, which made said laws one-sided and problematic. Copyright as it is now has little to do with the good, initial idea; the why it first came up. They can influence laws. They can even bend laws because normal individuals don't have the money to fight a long legal battle. But there is one thing they didn't achieve yet and hopefully never will:
There is no law mandating consuming media (music, movies, games...)
A company that behaves like an axe in the forest towards consumers should simply be avoided. Simple as that. Nintendo made great games in the past in my opinion. I have no idea what it is like now and frankly I don't even care because of their behavior. Buying hard- and software from a company this evil is out of question.
Furthermore I do not condone so-called "piracy" - a stupid word by the way. Better say "copyright infringement" or "obtaining illegal copies". It is simply illegal and fueling anti-consumer campaigns and will be the reason for even more strict and absurd laws beyond sensible protection of intellectual property.
As long as things like the Switch are a great financial success nothing in the behavior will change. It would roughly take four weeks to get rid of all of this -- if people were smart enough to avoid evilness. Not buying, not obtaining illegally, not even talking about it. Simply ignore them. In a month or so they would come around, fall down on their knees and beg people to come back promising to behave better. Hurt them at their wallet. I know it is illusory to hope enough average people would ever do it. Sadly this will stay a Gedankenexperiment (thought experiment).
I stopped buying new content many years ago (while NOT obtaining illegal copies). Renting access (streaming) was never an option. Sometimes I made exceptions from that rule, especially for small developers but over the years my spendings on content went down to pretty much zero now. There is so much public domain content (books) that I don't see the need for anything new. Movies and games bought decades ago will continue to entertain.
Saves a lot of money and nerves.
Being proud of and saying things like "I am a pirate and it is morally okay to pirate Nintendo games!" is dumb and contributes to make the situation worse.
