Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony1988
Its illegal but as far as I can tell it still runs rampant. Things need to be better defined and enforced.
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Businesses faced with potential losses from infringement have two options - attempt to minimize infringement or to maximize revenue. The two are mutually exclusive. You can find a balance, but you can only make one your primary focus.
Part of the problem here is that you can only go so far towards attempting to curb piracy before it starts cutting into sales. Game companies have seen this first-hand in cases where draconian anti-piracy schemes not only cost sales, but fostered piracy because it was almost impossible to play the game thanks to the "protection scheme" - so that legitimate customers were downloading pirate copies so they could play the games they had already paid for.
One of the biggest problems right now is that there is a fundamental disconnect between the general population's view of casual infringement and that of the media corporations. For most people it's a minor peccadillo, like speeding or jaywalking; in other words, not very serious. According to the media corporations it's a serious crime, ranking up there with murder and kidnapping.
Most of the evidence seems to indicate the perception of the general populace is closer to reality than that of the media corporations.
Yes we need to implement and enforce laws against infringement, but at the same time we need to balance the cost of enforcement against the harm done by the infringement.