Who can say really about the effects of piracy.
To me, they seem to have almost no effect. Take the Nintendo DS for example, the real reason that 90% of us are even here for. It seems that Piracy on the NDS is worse than any other system in history. Its so cheap, easy, and cost effective. However, games like New Super Mario Bros and Pokemon still manage to sell tens of millions of copies.
Nintendo sells more copies of the Soul Silver and Gold remake, than the originals. Mario Kart DS is still one of the best selling games on NDS, and also one of the most pirated, 5 years after its release. Pokemon 5 sold a million copies in its 1st day. I would argue that piracy does so little harm to the video game industry, that it costs more to fight it, than it does to simply let it run its course. Dragon Quest 9 managed to sell 5 million copies worldwide by the time it released in the states, and I don't expect it to have done better if piracy wasn't a thing.
Piracy or not, ALL great games ALWAYS turn a profit, and the great games that don't sell well, have nothing but to blame themselves because their producers and marketers didn't market their product well enough. I mean do you remember all those English Okami and Okamiden commercials and magazine ads? Oh you don't? Thats because there were none. Its no wonder that Okami has the guiness book record of best critically acclaimed game that didn't sell well.
Whether its DS, video games, music, or movies, when you read articles that say "x industry loses y amount of money" its 99.9% means that they just "lost profit" that they only "predicted." The truth is they already made millions in profit, that the industry is BOOMING, and that they're butt-hurt that they didn't make more money.
Its like if you won $75 on a scratch off lottery ticket, and then curse God that you didn't win the $100 prize. Coming out better off than you were before is a good enough concept for most of the people on this Earth, but does not fly right with buisness. Its all about making more money, more profit, to buy more advertisement in order to make more money. The fact that "they" don't make as much money as they predict/want, is enough to blame lack of success (even though they are successful) on piracy. Its like mom's who blame music for troubled teens, they just want a punching bag to point fingers at.
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Nintendo DS piracy argument asside, its actually been proven that the effects of Napster and other media sharing services had NO impact on the music/record industry. In fact, it actually went up until the point that iTunes and like-services started offering digital downloads that could be sold by song rather than albumn.
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And personally, as in my experience with piracy, I would have NEVER even tried or given Golden Sun the time of day if it weren't for Visual Boy Advance. Golden Sun Lost Age was my 1st Non-Mario and Zelda game on GBA. I also would have never got into Final Fantasy for that matter. Before ROMs, I had no interest in RPGs, and since then, I've purchased more RPgs than any other game. I would have never bought Shantae's Risky Revenge if it weren't for pirating Shantae on GBC. Because of piracy I've learned to like, want, and buy other game franchises out-side of Nintendo. Playing the N64 Animal Crossing Rom was a factor in buying it for NDS.
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Lastly, its hardly ever mentioned that piracy affects the Now, not the Then. Lets say you played Klonoa 2 back in 2002. If you bought Klonoa 2 then, surely your money would support future decisions to bring more Klonoa games in the future. However that game has been out of print for sometime. So even if you buy it "new" or used, your money goes to the seller, it does NOT contribute to the developers. Its in this instance that piracy DOES ABSOLUTELY NO HARM FOR SURE. Whether your copy of Klonoa is physical or digital, it sure as hell wasn't going to contribute to the developers if the game has been out of print. Developers only make money off the copies THEY distribute, so if THEY stop distribution, then THEY cut off ties to their income. Its in this example when piracy is ok is not only morally acceptable, but I myself just full-blown advocate it. Its not a crime if there are no victims.
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Also, if this topic has anything to do with SOPA, SOPA's focus is not just to stop this kind of piracy, but any and all forms of copyright infringement. Like turning Anime Music Videos into a federal offense. We already have laws that are supposed to fight the other methods of piracy listed above. They're there to stop the distribution of unauthorized distribution of medias for commercial purposes. But the media industy has never been satisfied with clarifying whats "right and wrong" whats "legal and illegal." SOPA and PIPA are just revised propositions from last year's fiasco, which was then a revised thing of 2002's fiasco, which was then revised from several other legal fights dating back to the way early 1900's
I mean there used to be campaigns to outlaw/ban VHS and cassette players because they could be used to record. The media industry spent millions just to demonize VHS, and now they're spending millions to billions of dollars to turn any form of "copy" like an anime music video into a crime.
Anyways, done typing. and semi-unrelated and outdated, this is an interesting video for the semi-uniformed
http://www.ted.com/t...a_bad_idea.html
Luckily SOPA is over for now, but it will come back soon-ish in different clothing. We'll be fighting the fight against sopa-like threats for the next 100 years or more until the point that they either win, or they give up on us giving up (very unlikely).