Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
But they might well have bought other, cheaper, IP if they couldn't pirate the expensive stuff. In other words, pirating IP might not be a loss of sales for the IP owner who's being pirated, but for other IP owners.
Or are you suggesting that the pirates would just not consume IP if they couldn't pirate?
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If a sudden unbreakable DRM-method appears then I guess it's possible that they might actually pay for cheaper IP media once they have no other options. What's most likely is that this would be limited to 2nd hand sales though - still not an actual sale for the publisher/author or they might be forced to actually start usign libraries again. Free books, CD's, movies... although it won't be the latest releases.
The thing is true pirates have the ingrained mentality that they don't want to pay for ANY IP unless they are absolutely forced to, and chances are that they will bypass that product and look for alternatives they can pirate.
'Pirates of necessity' (those users willing to pay for something but aren't allowed to by restrictions/availability etc.) are a whole different breed. They pirate because they don't have another option. Given the chance they'd gladly pay for the product. These are actual lost sales. NOT due to the piracy, but because of publisher's (Big Business) inability to provide them with a legitimate way to obtain the product.