Ryan Sumo, former (well actually current-but-lazy) Asian editor of Intendo and lover of all things rice-based, has created some ripples on the Escapist with an article dealing with piracy in the 3rd world. Since we've already established that I'm a lazy motherfucker, here's some flavor text from Gamepolitics:

In a novel, if certainly controversial suggestion, Filipino game design artist Ryan Sumo argues that video game companies should compete with bootleg sellers in poorer countries by selling products with minimalist packaging and even allowing the pirates to burn the actual discs.

Sumo makes his argument in a guest column for The Escapist

Piracy's been on the industry's min lately, and their effors to combat it have rally met with little success.  My solution's fairly siple.  Just match their prices.  Read on to find out more.

Will Hollywood get it?

I went to the Death Star a couple of days ago.

That's what some call Creative Artists Agency's building, which is this ridiculously intimidating behemoth of architecture in Century City. If you've never heard of CAA, you probably don't read Variety. They represent Brad Pitt, David Beckham, Justin Timberlake, Lebron James, George Clooney, and, uhh, New Kids on the Block, among others.

But I wasn't there for my pretty face. Rather, Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemma, was speaking and I went with my friend Ryan to attend.

Here was Mason, speaking in the agency's theater to an assortment of Hollywood types whose entire wealth and success comes from monopolized intellectual property, asking the question, "Do we fight pirates, or do we learn from them?"

Obviously, he was promoting the latter, convincingly presenting a case that pirates—those on the periphery, that buck the status quo—are innovators in a remix generation. Compete with them, he stressed. Sell the thing that pirates cannot; the experience, the convenience.

But Ryan and I were pretty skeptical that anyone would really take the advice to heart. After all, these were the same people that encourage lawsuits and DRM, the ones that majored in Take-Down Notification in college.

One guy, during the question and answer session, even asked if innovation and strategic competition with pirates would simply make them go away, kill the remix revolution. You know, after Mason had previously explained that Hollywood was founded by piracy (see: William Fox) and had been around for hundreds of years. Some sounded genuinely scared of technology.

I previously wrote about Dr. Horrible, Joss Whedon's latest foray into writing and directing. As a brief summary, Whedon (UPDATE: who is actually represented by CAA. Seriously, what the hell?) is currently releasing the videos in three acts for free, a sequence every couple of days, and then will take down the videos after they have all aired. He's also made them available for download on iTunes and the video is currently the store's No. 1 video download. Here is someone firmly ingrained in the Hollywood culture, though he has historically been pretty anti-establishment with it, innovating from within. Just giving it away for free, paired with a simultaneously release of download. And you know what? People are BUYING something they can readily stream, taking a souvenir (more on that) of their experience to keep.

Mason offers his book online for free, but it still is selling well internationally. Seth Godin was one of the first to try this method, offering Unleashing the Ideavirus for free. His advice is similar to Mason's:

If your product is digital, it's awfully hard to charge a lot for it. But a souvenir; the t-shirt, the hardcopy book, the autograph, the live concert, the seminar, is priceless, and you can charge accordingly.

The thing is, Godin is approaching it from a marketing standpoint exclusively. But it'd be idiotic to forget Regis McKenna's seminal "Marketing is Everything". Your product has to be something the consumer wants.

Hollywood isn't producing moving pictures or CDs. We don't give a shit about that kind of stuff. It's an idea of not selling the shiny little plastic disc, but the music or movie—IDEAS—hidden on them.

I'm excited to see what type of ideas that the music, film, video game, content-creating industries create in the future. I think it'll look radically different in the next five years. Mason's seminar had the perfect audience at the Death Star to realize that.

Let's just hope that they listened to Mason and decide to stop suing their fans.

(A very similar talk given by Mason is given here.)

Click here, to read the rest of the article by Brandon Dimmel.

Source: Infopackets.com

So often, music fans complain about the lack of quality bands in the market. Whilst this is in fact quite true, it must be said that it will be even harder now for all of us to find our favourite artists’ albums in record stores. Labels just don’t sign artists anymore, unless they have guarantees that the band will perform miracles on the music charts. The record industry is on a downslide and it’s mostly due to the digital sphere. Sites like Pirate Bay allow for internet users to download entire music albums for free, sometimes even before they are available in stores – but do not forget that is called piracy. I’m sure many of you are chuckling and giggling right now, possibly feeling like the record industry has walked its own plank, after it molested the consumers’ wallets for too long.

While the consumers may feel like they have thrown a spanner into the cogs of “the machine” and caused the downfall of an empire, the picture is not as rosy as we may believe it to be. So many bands need the security of a label’s signature to allow them to follow their passionate dream. Let’s be realistic here – Motley Crue or Rolling Stones would not have been around for so long if they had not been signed and received a cash injection to create albums, tour, pick up groupies and do hard drugs. There is only so much that you can do independently before you will require a huge cash injection, which will allow you to take it to the next level of superstardom and success.

How many times have we seen our favourite bands disband after they have been dropped by their labels? Way too many times, if you ask me. These artists often are the head of their households and need to support their families. They will ultimately need to make decisions, which will put food on the table and not just smiles on the faces of adoring fans. While I also believe in the “follow your dreams, despite the odds” way of life, it’s a different story when you have certain responsibilities i.e. wife, kids, house, dog, mistress, drug and alcohol addictions.

We may feel like we are sticking it to “the man”, by downloading music or copying our friends’ CDs, but just think about who we really are screwing over in the process. Yes, there are so many crap albums out there that don’t even deserve to be copied because they are so terrible. But if you really enjoy an album, support the artist – it’s the only way that the labels will be satisfied enough to open up their cheque books to the artists. Otherwise, we will just be forced to put up with anything that the A&R department finds trendy – can anyone say ‘Macarena’ and ‘The Ketchup Song’?

Sergio Pereira

(Promo photo from the Oasis' official website)

OASIS fans should not expect Radiohead-style free albums from the Mancunian rockers.

Noel Gallagher is apparently looking to make his money back.

The elder Gallagher brother says fans will have to pay full whack for the band’s next album, Dig Out Your Soul, and dismisses Radiohead’s honesty-box policy of selling albums as “a great way of getting a load of marketing for free”.

He said: “That’s not our bag. I didn’t spend a year in the most expensive studio in England, with the most expensive producer in America and the most expensive graphic designer in London, to then give it away. F*** that.”

Source

Something happened to our car.  It was making an increasingly loud ‘wooing’ sound as we pulled into the parking lot of Walter Mart yesterday.  Yes I do mean Wal-TER Mart.  In the Philippines that’s the name of an ever-enlarging chain of Malls capitalizing on the Wal-Mart name which is known pretty much all over the inhabited world.

I know as much about automobiles as I do about breeding gophers but I had a dim memory of my mechanic friend John Wightman telling me when I was about 19 years old that ‘wooing’ sounds usually had something to do with overheating.  Likely the radiator was boiling, or at least what’s inside the radiator -- which in this country is just plain water.

So I shut the car down, the ‘wooing’ subsided, I looked under the hood without managing to touch or even see anything and went inside to make our purchases, my wife and I.  Worried.   I bought one of those big 6000 milliliter plastic jugs of drinking water – one with a handle around the top for easy pouring -- my wife bought the items on her grocery list and we returned to the car, started the engine running and opened the hood.

I had the good sense to use an old rag we found in the trunk/boot to use while unscrewing the radiator cap which, as is always the case when these ‘wooing’ problems occur, blows off in a great geyser of boiling water and steam.  You’ve been there, right?  The trick is not to get scalded or struck with the rad cap which has taken on the guise of a misshapen ballistic missile.  I believe ‘quick on one’s feet’ is the applicable term.

The radiator filled with the water, we quickly drove the eight kilometers home by which time the ‘wooing’ sound was back with a vengeance and water was pouring out of somewhere and puddling beneath the engine in the carport.  The temperature gauge was full-on red and there was little doubt that the next time the car went anywhere it would be to Mario’s place.  Our Mechanic.  Close by.

--

Now here’s the point of this whole thing.  Mario checked under the hood and found that something had burned out and would have to be replaced.  We’re talking an 11 year old vehicle here.  In order to replace the part that was frizzed I had multiple choices.  I could purchase a brand new, factory made gizmo from Japan at 10-thousand pesos which would be bullet-proof and nationwide; I could buy a brand new factory produced clone made in China for 4,000 pesos -- slippage; I could buy one that “Mario knew where he could get it” for 1500 pesos which had obviously fallen off the back of a truck -- or I could get a rebuilt job for 600 pesos that would have to be ‘slightly altered’ to fit my Toyota.    

I picked number three, the no-questions asked choice.  The price was right -- Bloomis, Mario’s go-get-it man -- knew where to find the part and my wife and I hopped in one of our tricycle taxi’s and went home; Mario would deliver the car when it was finished which turned out to be a shade over three hours.  I hesitate to say such quick service or price variety would have been available in many Western Countries but this is the “Developing World” and things just ain’t the same, dude.

I can’t really speak for Paraguay or the Central African Republic but in my corner of the “Developing World” one is literally besieged with choices.  At least half, maybe more, are illegal but the thing is … nobody cares.  Not at my level anyway.  Maybe Toyota’s Vice-President in charge of Manufacturing up in Aichi, Japan would look askance at my dealings with Mario but nobody even bothers here.  That’s how business is done in the Philippines.

Take computers.  The unit is assembled in the Philippines with parts from Japan via Indonesia.  The machine comes bare bones to the computer store and you tell them what you want.  Windows is usually installed (if you aren't buying a Mac) and it is not licensed.  When you go on line and Microsoft sniffs you out and wants to send updates you ignore them until such time as you have to go back to the computer store and get Windows newest version installed – or rather a copy of the newest version.

If you want any of a variety of programs, the computer store has them all on CD’s – all unlicensed – but again, nobody cares.  It’s open and shut piracy.  Other than large businesses and the occasional honest individual, almost everyone owns pirated product.  I confess to breaking down and buying a legit copy of Windows.  I had reasons -- they weren’t necessarily wrought of an impeccable nature -- I mean why try to be a sheep in a field of goats -- I just wanted the licensed product because I spend a lot of time on my machine and felt the updates were neccesary.

Anyway, regarding piracy … the general rule to follow is:  if you are using pirated equipment, know somebody -- a geek pal who works at a computer store.  And be sure to tip generously.  Ghastly isn’t it?  The Philippine government even run these television commercials with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan damning the souls of computer pirates.  Lip service, nothing more.

--

In Hong Kong, the problem is less daunting to the offshore manufacturer.  It has what is known as the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and although their main purpose seems to be watching for illegal pig carcasses smuggled in from China proper, they keep an eye open for piracy as well.  Should such an agency ever find a home in the Philippines, the members of the Commission would have bulging pockets.  Can you spell graft?

The problem is not endemic to the Philippines alone.  Most “Developing Countries” are the same.  How else are the people going to keep up with the brilliant glow of modernicity they see in their TV commercials that come in with sporting events such as straight-line hook ups to the World Cup or the World Series or a variety of other television fare? 

I don’t blame them.  They want that carrot dangling in front of their nose.  I, as a Westerner, do not condone their practices, only sympathize; I spent most of my life in “lands of plenty” and my years in this impoverished country have stood me in good stead to look the other way, perhaps even indulge.

I paid Mario about 35 US dollars (including labour) for a job that would have cost in the neighborhood of $200 in San Francisco.  I checked.  Mario doesn’t come bouncing out with a worksheet on a clipboard, a pen and a ticket for a cup of coffee in the lounge while the problem is assessed.  But he smiles a lot, he’s super-fast and he’s super cheap and he does a good job.

Small price to pay for cleaning the grease off my automobile’s steering wheel.   

Talent borrows genius steals

I propose - if it hasn't been proposed already -  a new rule in the vein of Rule 34, only far less explicit.

It's essentially this: If something can exist digitally, someone is pirating it right now.

I mention this in light of situation surrounding textbooktorrents.com, which, last I checked, had been taken down by DreamHost. Textbook torrents, a torrent tracker that, until recently, provided students with free, largely illegal textbook torrents was named in a Chronicle of Higher Education report about textbook piracy.

Now, I've been trying to rationalize two particular facets of the situation - why it exists, and why it matters - and I've reached a few conclusions.

Why it exists should be fairly obvious. The situation is a perfect storm of financial disincentives and technological prowess. As anyone who has ever been a student certainly knows, textbooks are expensive, often excessively so, and nearly out of the range of the wallets of most college students But that's not exactly unique for textbooks. Technological prowess factors in when we realize that the group that high textbook prices affects the most is also the group that knows the most about illegally downloading material via the Internet. Thus, textbook piracy becomes an act that we can bind fairly well to a certain group of people - college students.

But why does this matter? Unlike, say music or movies, textbooks are often vitally important to successful completion of a course. When you look the average price for a college textbook it should start to make sense why students would pirate them - they are bloody expensive. This is not reason to condone piracy or any act that takes money away from authors, but it certainly reveals something about the financial situation of the average college student. This is why it should be looked at a bit differently than music or movie piracy.

I wonder if this difference can explain the publishing companies' comparatively  tame anti-piracy tactics, which usually involve threatening emails to the sites that host content rather than crusades against the people who download from them.

Gamers have always wanted a way to get around the retailer. While I enjoyed, in the past, going to EB Games and GameStop (back when they weren’t the same company) there was always the problem of actually going to the store. I had to get dressed and leave my house, which cuts into the all important gaming time, which nowadays is extremely limited (curse become an actual adult instead of just one on the outside). Steam eliminates that trip that now I would rather not make. It also removed the middle man, the overeager salesperson whose sole job is to try to get me (the customer) to buy a bunch of useless crap I really don’t need (like pre-owned games, magazine subscriptions, and company “bonus” cards). Steam doesn’t sell me crap I don’t need. Sure, there are the bundle packs that give you a handful of games from the same company or same genre, but you can also buy each of those games individually or get them all much, much cheaper in the bundle. This is drastic change from the retail bundles, which usually contain very little stuff you actually want, trick you into thinking you are getting more than you actually are, and only save you $5 to $10 than if you purchased each item you wanted individually. I hated these things about retailers, but with Steam they are eliminated.

Granted, they are also eliminated with Amazon.com, and granted that is where I buy all my console titles, but digital distribution is a godsend to me.

I don’t have to store countless (and mainly useless) boxes, manuals, and extra crap that came with the game. I don’t have to worry about scratching the disk or losing it. That has always been the biggest worry for me, that I would lose or scratch that one disk beyond usability. I would, more or less, lose the game I paid for if that happened. This has become more of an issue with all the new anti-pirating software that is making copying disks to make back-ups for that exact reason more difficult to do. The industry doesn’t trust us. There was a great article by an adventure game company; the lead developer basically said they don’t use any copy protection or anti-pirating software because it doesn’t matter. This is absolutely true; no amount of copy protection will stop hackers and pirates from getting their hands on your game and redistributing it everywhere. I actually love Steam’s anti-piracy software compared to other games. I would much rather just have to connect to the internet once, to verify my game and download any patches, and be done with it. Anti-piracy on PC games today does nothing but inconvenience the customer, the person who actually paid for your game. It doesn’t stop pirates. At best, it just slows them down a few days until they crack it and that’s the end of it.

Another great thing about Steam is the way it updates all my games at the same time without me having to individually find and apply all the latest patches. I can’t imagine how much time and frustration that saves me. I open Steam (connected to the internet) and “poof”; all the patches start downloading and applying in the background. I can cancel them if I really wanted to (like if I needed the extra bandwidth because I’m getting lag in Team Fortress 2), but I rarely, or rather never, do. It is just something else I enjoy about Steam.

Steam is also a godsend to independent developers and indie games. The biggest problem with these companies and games is exposure. They don’t have the marketing resources to put their game in every store and on the best spot on the shelves. Steam delivers their game extremely cheaply to a large audience (very similar to the way I-Tunes do to new upcoming artists). I like being able to find these games much easier. Audiosurf was an awesome find. It is probably one of my favorite games at the moment (I’m fickle).

Audiosurf Formula:

Games with the ability to add your own soundtrack = Great!

Games that are about your own soundtrack = Totally Awesome!

It’s like Guitar Hero/Rock Band/DDR but with only songs you actually like . . . which I’m sure Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DDR will quickly copy.

Back to Steam, I also really enjoy the community services they offer. The friends list, voice chat, text chat, and all that jazz are a great addition. I’m not going to hype them too much, because at this point in online gaming they are pretty much required and expected.

Now, I’ve heard all the negative stories about Steam. I’ve heard the myth that you have to connect to the internet every time you play the game, which is false, you can play nearly every game in “offline mode”. I’ve heard the myth that you can’t make copies of your game, which is also false, you can. You can create backup copies of the games you’ve purchased, you just can’t play them (if you install it from the backup) until you connect to Steam once to verify the game.

I’ve heard everything there is to hear about the reasons Steam is “evil”. But, like most things in life, it is mostly bullshit spouted by people who would complain about something no matter how flawless the system was. The same thing is happening with Vista, granted a good number of those problems are, in fact, real problems but I would say 80% of Vista’s “problems” are user error blamed on Vista. I’m not supporting Vista, at all (I actually think it was released way too soon with too many flaws and bugs), but I am supporting the fact that most people saying bad things about products online are completely full of shit. A great example is: “Vista fried my motherboard.” That just makes me laugh. I find it extremely unlikely “Vista” had anything to do with it. Having the wrong drivers (or not updating your drivers) would not “fry” the motherboard, ever (unless you had some completely ridiculous and improperly set-up over-clocking going on – which again would be “user error”), and that’s pretty much the only thing Vista would screw up on the motherboard to begin with. The same thing happens a lot with Steam. Users are usually pretty stupid and if they can’t figure out what the real problem is right away, then it must be Steam (or Vista).

The success of Steam can be seen in the new “services” popping up that more or less just copy Steam’s method of delivery. The only problem is . . . they aren’t Steam. They don’t have the reputation, the stability, the games, or the player-base to compete (right now at least). I don’t understand why companies are trying to start their own version of Steam, just use Steam, period. I really don’t want to have logins, passwords, and my account information tied to more services than I need to. Steam works, and it works great for most people, including myself.

These upstart Steam knock-offs are only going to create panic over digital distribution. All it is going to take is one of these “B” services to fall through, and the players to lose the games they paid for, to cause panic in the entire market. The main reason people don’t use Steam is because “what happens if the company goes under? Will I still be able to play my game?” With Steam, they have a system in place in case that ever happens. They plan to release a patch that removes the need to connect to their servers to verify your game, effectively removing the need for Steam, if they ever get to that point. The other companies don’t all have this contingency plan (some due to some level) and that is, in the end, going to ruin these types of services.

If I were working on Steam I would be doing everything I can to get as many companies and games on the service as fast as possible. Digital distribution would work much, much better if there were only one or two (or three) different services to go through. My money is on Steam, and I hope that is the winning bet.

So, to all you PC gamers out there: Use Steam, it is totally worth it.

Brendan Scott July 08

A frequent meme in piracy trash talking is that piracy is linked to malware (example). If your child is downloading pirated material (so the argument goes) they will be downloading it from a malware infected site and infecting their own computer resulting in poor performance, data loss and ID theft.  A variant of this argument is that the downloads expose the kids to evil pornographers.  Therefore piracy is bad and the government should pass laws to stop it.

Neither malware nor pornography is present on legitimate sites. If children are avoiding legitimate sites it is because the prices charged for the material are unreasonably high. It is these high prices (combined with marketing and network effects driving demand for these products) which are causing children to visit illicit sites to acquire software. No children are infected by malware when acquiring open source software. There is no pornography on open source websites. All open source software is legitimately available from legitimate sources. If all software was open source, this problem would not exist.

Increasing penalties for infringing copyright will do nothing to change this dynamic. Indeed, it will make it worse. Any expansion of copyright further, or more rigorous enforcement of existing rights, simply insulates copyright holders from competition, permitting them to raise their prices further, thereby pushing more children towards illegitimate sites. Increasing penalties or enforcement in the hope of reducing malware infections would be like pulling the control rods out of a reactor in the hope of shutting it down. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.

We can concede that malware infecting children's computers is not only a serious problem, but also a problem on which the government ought to take action. However, further subsidising the closed source software industry is not the solution - these subsidies are the problem. If government wishes to protect children from these evils it would use only open data formats for data storage and interchange and strongly promote the widespread adoption of open source software.

Today's Lists
- 10 Things you shouldn't say to a tall woman. (Asylum)
- 5 famous sci-fi weapons they're actually building. (Cracked)
- 10 Weirdest Pizza Toppings (Asylum)
- 13 MORE things Women Can Get Away With, But Men Can't. (Von Darrien)
- Seven tips on how to end an office romance gracefully. (Asylum)

Today's Household Tips
- Lemonade, Remade. Several Lemonade recipes. (Real Simple)
- 25 Ways to Beat the Heat (Real Simple)
- Lawn Tips from the Ninja (Tutorial Ninjas)
- 7 Super Snacks That Heal (Yahoo Health)
- Chill Out with These 6 Simple DIY Freezer Treats (Wisebread)

Today's Interesting Reads
- Why Commercials Before Movies is Worse than Piracy (The Movie Blog)
- Why Women Need To Stop Watching Romantic Movies (The Movie Blog)
- How to (and not to) pick a DVD with your girlfriend. (The Movie Blog)
- Why do so many of us like kinky sex? (Times Online)
- Birth-Control Extremeists (Style)

Article

Armed pirates hijacked a Norwegian flagged bulk carrier off southern Nigeria on Wednesday, roughing up the crew but releasing them after two hours, officials said.

The suspected pirates climbed aboard the ship in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, early Wednesday morning, Norwegian Rescue Service spokesman Stein Solberg said in Oslo. They "pushed around" the 22-member crew, all Indian citizens, but no one was injured, he said.

The hijackers escaped with valuables after threatening the crew, said Jarle Ellefsen, a spokesman for the Bergen-based Spar Shipping company.

"They took money, PCs and radio equipment — stuff like that," he said. "They also wrecked some of the inside of the ship and broke doors."

The ship, the Spar Gemini, had anchored near the port after arriving with a shipment of dry goods from China, he said.

The Nigerian coast has become another hotspot in the world for piracy aboard large commercial cargo ships. What used to be limited to oil service vessels operating in the Nigerian delta has now spread to include increasingly brazen attacks against larger and larger vessels.

As with all things technology the net is changing fast, too fast for some ... and consumers aren't paying attention.

Sure ... most people are just living their lives ... maybe they look up some movie info or search for old friends, read a blog or two. To them the net works fine. It's not that they don't want to use all the conveniences the net has to offer ... they just flat out aren't aware of them.

For instance ... you can print postage and ship a package from your house and even schedule the post man to pick it up ... no gas guzzling trip to the post office to wait in line.

You can pay your bills online on exactly the day they are due. It doesn't cost anything ... no stamp ... no more late fees ... you even earn more interest.

Drop that $75 a month cable subscription (save $900 a year) ... if you have a PC and a TV with a VGA input (like the most HDTV's) you can watch most TV shows available on cable for free on hulu.com or one of the many other TV providers on the net ... and the commercials are shorter.

Got broadband ... everyone should use VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) for local and long distance phone service ... you can still use your regular phone and the quality is indistinguishable from the phone company ... plus you get voice mails to your email and call forwarding (no "extra" charges like the phone company) .... you can even take your phone on vacation with you. You can get a Magicjack for $20 a year .... and save that $70-$100 a month phone bill.

Backed up your computer online ... house burns down.... yeah that's really bad for the house but those cherished baby pictures you backed up online are still safe ... and if you have kids those pictures are what you value and would have missed the most from that fire.

You say ... all that sounds really good ... so why am I so scared? I'm scared because all of that is really good and getting even better and we are going to see it ruined by corporate greed and consumer ignorance.

You've probably seen some of these headlines "Comcast throttling bit torrent" "Verizon shutting down Usenet Newsgroups"  "RIAA cracks down on Piracy"  "Time Warner testing bandwidth caps in  Texas"...

Those headlines are all really about the same thing. Big money media resisting change to their business model and doing a sneaky end run around the consumers ... fake right ... run left ... phase it in.  Lets face it ... what will happen to the cable providers when  all their subscribers start watching free TV on the Internet instead of subscribing to cable TV? Actually its not just TV and movies on hulu.com  ... people are forgoing cable TV for online gaming, YouTube videos, Podcasts, and tons of other content like online news. Print media is in the same boat as cable TV ... have you seen the size of PC Magazine's printed edition lately ... its pitiful ... I've got a thicker directions pamphlet  with new my weed whacker.

I have said it before and I'll say it again ... "Free TV comes over an antenna. The internet is your new Rabbit Ears". The huge difference ... you aren't limited to a 10 mile radius and 5 stations like your old rabbit ears.

So Verizon and the cable companies are working via several fronts to move you to a model where you pay them for Internet selections the same way you did for cable TV ... and friends I have to tell you they will kill the Internet. Bandwidth caps will bring innovation and free TV on the Internet to a crashing halt.

They cry that costs are too high ... Let's see I paid them about $1300 a year for 10 years ... hummmmm how much infrastructure did they build with my $13,000?  (You guessed right if you said none.)

Actually most large providers have deals where the actual bandwidth costs them little or nothing (according to Leo Laporte on TWIT).

Lets forget a minute about the "unlimited" service they sold you ... fact is this Internet utility is  just like the local telephone service ... some people use it more than others. If I remember correctly ... its been quite a while ... local phone service was the same amount whether you talked all day or made one phone call a month. Now they are also bemoaning Bandwidth hogs "5% of the users are using 95% of the bandwidth" to make those using the net normally look like the bad guys. Fact is eventually all those folks who are just checking email or the weather are eventually going to find out about all the other great stuff on the Internet and start using it as it was intended to be used. Then we can all be considered bandwidth hogs? Comcast-Time Warner-Verizon would be delighted if everyone just used the net for email and browsing ... its like giving them $45 a month for nothing.

What they need to do is build out their network infrastructure to handle the full capacity of the subscribers  ...  As it is now I think I heard they have 500 people signed up using a connection built for 25 people... ( I could be wrong please feel free to comment with actual figures).  "There is plenty of bandwidth available in the US" (According to Leo Laporte on Twit).  They need to update their network to accomodate the changing times and they need to do it with the money you and I have already been paying them for years and years on their slightly (sarcasm) overpriced services. Not to mention the huge amount of money the government gave them years ago for just such a purpose.

Somebody ... please ... worry with me!

Old model: I want to watch a tv show. I look through the tv guide to find it. Take time out of my schedule to watch it when it airs on tv. I sit though tons of commercials and enjoy the show.

Users Revolt: I want to watch a tv show. I search for a torrent. I download it and watch the show when I want with the commercials edited out.

Hulu has done a great job of making tv available and still generating ad revenue. They give the viewer the flexibility to watch the show when they want and since it's in streaming video format, there's no lag time - one can start enjoying the show immediately.

I was watching some shows on Hulu last night and realized a great opportunity. Some food ads were running and I was hungry. Unfortunately, the restaurant being advertised was not even available in city I live. Even if it were available, it would have been closed. Hulu should present restaurant ads based on location (easily seen from ip address) and time. They could take it a step further and provide the local phone number to place an order. Even better, though, would be a one click option which would utilize voip to call my cell phone and the restaurant and connect us two parties.

By data mining the ad responses and using pattern recognition software, each ad would be more relevant to me and should thus command a price for advertisers since it has a higher probability of resulting in a sale. This would also improve my viewing experience since I'm not watching some ad totally useless to me (like tampon commercials).

Using short, non-annoying ads that tightly link the consumer and advertiser (like my restaurant suggestion) would take a lot of thunder away from the whole 'piracy' deal. Get creative, put your customers first, and let the old business model die like the dinosaur it is. No amount of government lobbying or silly ISP lawsuits will bring back the 'good old days' of tv shows running on a schedule set by media companies.

So there you go. Quit crying about pirates and start making money.

Game: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Platform: DOS
Developer/Publisher: LucasFilm Games (known today as LucasArts)
Year: 1989
Also available for: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Fujitsu FM Towns

This is one of those LucasArts adventure games I mentioned in this blog awhile ago. This game is well-regarded in the adventure game community but not quite considered to be in the top half of LucasArts adventures, according to adventuregamers.com. I played The Secret of Monkey Island awhile ago and this game is quite similar to it, made only a year earlier. I'm still pretty unfamiliar with classic PC gaming so some elements of this game proved pretty alien to me. For instance, unless you somehow have the original manuals for these kinds of games you're going to HAVE to use an online guide at some point. Why is that? Because back then they were so scared of piracy that certain portions had elements that require you to consult the manual to find the information to proceed.

I'm not too familiar with adventure games but this game seems pretty linear to me to be an "adventure". In most situations, there is a specific solution required to advance without many alternatives. If you do something that's not in the basic "script" of how events should play out, the game won't even let you do it. For instance, if you want to do something as simple as set your whip down on a table top you'll get a message from Indiana Jones like, "No, I don't think I want to do that." To actually find all the solutions on your own requires much more in the way of PROCESS OF ELIMINATION than logic or brains, which kind of sucks.

And how does the game succeed as an adaptation of the movie it's named after? Also a mixed bag. The plot of the game follows the plot of the movie rather closely. The prologue adventure featuring a younger Indiana Jones is just an opening credits movie but when the game begins Indy is at his college in NY, then meets with Donovan, goes to Venice, visits the Castle Brunwald, heads to Berlin and finally to the temple at Iskerunde. While the plot is identical the particulars are quite different. Remember the library scene where Indy notices the big X and moves onto the next scene? In the game, the clues are much more complicated and pretty vague. Meanwhile, cool scenes like the tank battle in the desert are completely gone. The Jones boys just stroll into the temple. The other thing holding back the game as a translation of the movie is the tone: it's just too silly. Lots of jokes, stupid gags, corny dialogue.

In spite of my criticisms, if taken on its own merits this is still a pretty decent game. The art is very attractive, the sound is decent, and some of the puzzle areas are pretty cool and actually make sense. I feel they would have been better off working with an original story instead of making this adaptation, which they eventually did with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. The grade for this game isn't going to be awesome, but I liked it well enough and will probably play the sequel.

Grade: B-
Conclusion: Don't believe the hype!

Game: Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Publisher/Developer: Broderbund
Platform: DOS
Year: 1990

Ah, yes, the classic. OR IS IT?! This version is actually a graphical update of the famous game released 5 years earlier. I had the game for Commodore 64 when I was a kid and I thought it was pretty cool but maybe that's because I was really stupid and bad at geography. If you have decent knowledge of geography the game is a cinch because there are only about 16 countries in the whole game. So you basically end up going to the same places over and over and hearing similar clues. As you keep playing the clues get SLIGHTLY harder but it's still easy. I'm not sure how long you have to play to "beat" it or if you even can but I've solved about a dozen cases with no end in sight. It has its charms but it's not very engaging.

Grade: C+
Conclusion: Curse you, childhood!

Game: Oregon Trail
Developer/Publisher: MECC
Platform: DOS
Year: 1992

Yes, that's right, 1992, which means this sure ain't the original version. I'm not sure if it's just a graphical update or if there's more to it. The original version came out in the mid-1970s and was strictly text-only but the most famous version is the Apple ][ version from the 1980s. This review applies only to the early 1990s DOS version.

I'd like to say that I think this is a great concept for a game. It's kind of an adventure game, kind of a strategy game, and there are even action elements in the hunting sequences. I'd also like to mention that this game is PRETTY EASY, which blows my mind because I thought it was so hard when I was a moron kid. I played through the game 3 times over the last few days, each time much more quickly and easily than the last. I never died or failed. The first time I played as a doctor, which I later learned gives you the benefit of a lot of money and quick healing times for your party members. I played it somewhat conservatively until I realized I was so slow I wouldn't get to Oregon before winter. I played as a teacher on my 2nd playthrough. The teacher only has 20% of the money the doctor has and no special skills. I played pretty conservatively and relied on hunting for food. 2 of my party members died, one with NO WARNING AT ALL. Grrrrr. Still, we eventually waddled our way into the magical Oregan valley and won. I started to realize that hunting is really the key to beating the game, at least this version. So the 3rd time I played as a teacher and bought nothing but bullets and oxen. Nothing conservative this time - we travelled at the fastest speed and ate like kings. I hunted constantly and we traded surplus food for whatever supplies we needed. I still had 2 assholes die but we made it to the end in record time and spent the rest of our lives loafing and fucking in the fertile valley. The End.

kicknz

The recording industry and U.S. radio companies have squared off for decades about whether AM and FM radio broadcasters should pay royalties to singers, musicians and their labels.

But now the debate is getting meaner; there's more at stake as the recording industry seeks new income avenues in the wake of wanton peer-to-peer piracy and declining CD sales in part due to the iPod and satellite radio. A U.S. House subcommittee could vote as early as Thursday on a royalty measure.

On Monday, the recording industry sent the National Association of Broadcasters -- the trade group representing the $16 billion a year AM-FM broadcasting business -- a can of herring to underscore that it believes its arguments against paying royalties are a red herring. The NAB says its members should not pay royalties because AM-FM radio "promotes" the music industry.

The herring present followed another gift -- a dictionary, a bid by the recording industry to explain what it saw as the difference between fees and taxes. The NAB describes the latest royalty proposal as a tax.

And two weeks ago, the recording industry, under the umbrella group musicFIRST, sent the NAB four digital downloads: "Take the Money and Run" by the Steve Miller Band; "Pay me My Money Down" by Bruce Springsteen; "Back In the U.S.S.R" by Paul McCartney and "A Change Would Do You Good" by Sheryl Crow.

Broadcasting music without payment is akin to piracy, the industry says.

"It's a form of piracy, if you will, but not in the classic sense as we think of it," said Martin Machowsky, a musicFirst spokesman. "Today we gifted them a can of herring, about their argument that they provide promotional value. We think that's a red herring. Nobody listens to the radio for the commercials."

The coalition includes the Recording Industry Association of America, Society of Singers, Rhythm & Blues Foundation, Recording Academy and others.

The argument boils down to this: Radio is making billions off the backs of recording artists and their labels; and the recording artists gain invaluable exposure because they're on the radio, so royalties should not have to be paid.

A House subcommittee is expected to approve a royalty bill perhaps as early as Thursday. The measure, HR 4789, sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-California, would move to the full House Judiciary Committee -- legislation that the National Association of Broadcasters said would cost the industry as much as $7 billion annually.

An identical proposal, S 2500, is in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rates under both proposals would be negotiated, although small and public stations would pay a flat $5,000 annually.

Internet, cable and satellite broadcasters pay royalties to all participants involved. Singers, musicians and the labels get no royalties when AM-FM radio broadcasters air their songs.

That would change under both the Senate and House proposals. Composers and songwriters, however, do get AM-FM royalties, which are set under a complicated and negotiated rate.

"If it wasn't for radio play, most of the performers wouldn't be known," said Dennis Wharton, a NAB vice president.

The group says that free airplay generates as much as $2.4 billion a year for the recording industry.

The means are definitely justifiable, but the way is too limited. As I said before, people have to realize that there's a need for new solution.

Won't have time for any additional posts this weeks, but will be back earlier next week, for the first official installment of my recurring column, Culture Conundrum.

Senate approves proposal that typifies crimes on the Internet

Piracy, paedophilia and unauthorized transfer of data are included; providers will have new rules Piracy, paedophilia and unauthorized transfer of data are included; providers will have new rules

Vallone Giuliana, Giuliana estadao.com.br Vallone, the estadao.com.br

SAO PAULO - The Senate approved the night of Wednesday, 9, a draft law that has the objective to adjust the laws of the country to crimes committed on the Internet and thus more rigid way of punishing these irregularities. The project typifies the crimes on the Internet, helping to Justice to try them, extends the penalties for violators and requires providers to store the data of connecting its users for up to three years. The project typifies the crimes on the Internet, helping to Justice to try them, extends the penalties for violators and requires providers to store the data of connecting its users for up to three years.

Such information can be accessed by police if necessary, through a requisition order. Such information can be accessed by police if necessary, through a requisition order. Moreover, the text puts responsibility as the provider inform the authorities about any evidence of crime on the network. Moreover, the text puts responsibility as the provider inform the authorities about any evidence of crime on the network. Those who do not comply with the determinations are subject to fines, which can vary between RS 2 thousand and $ 100 thousand. Those who do not comply with the determinations are subject to fines, which can vary between RS 2 thousand and $ 100 thousand.

The amendments adopted in plenary address also the more controversial issues such as piracy and activity of paedophiles. The amendments adopted in plenary also address the more controversial issues such as piracy and activity of paedophiles. The new text typifies the crime of access to facilities or networks with the breach of security in environments that have "expressed protection." The new text typifies the crime of access to facilities or networks with the breach of security in environments that have "expressed protection." Similarly, the criminal will be considered unauthorized transfer of data and information on units or systems which access is restricted and expressly protected. Similarly, the criminal will be considered unauthorized transfer of data and information on units or systems which access is restricted and expressly protected.

The project also considers crime falsifying public documents or electronic data and real; falsify data or private documents and true; create, distribute or maintain files with pornographic material containing images and other information involving children and adolescents; does estelionato; capture passwords from users ecommerce and disseminate images of private character. The project also considers crime falsifying public documents or electronic data and real; falsify data or private documents and true; create, distribute or maintain files with pornographic material containing images and other information involving children and adolescents; does estelionato; capture passwords from users and ecommerce disseminate images of private character.

Services of public use

Among other crimes provided by the substitute is also of undermining the safety or operation of the department of water, light, power, heat, information, telecommunications or any other public utility. Among other crimes provided by the substitute is also of undermining the safety or operation of the department of water, light, power, heat, information, telecommunications or any other public utility. It also will be punished crimes involving the interruption, disruption of telephone service, telephone, electronic, computer and other telecommunications devices. It also will be punished crimes involving the interruption, disruption of telephone service, telephone, electronic, computer and other telecommunications devices.

International treaties international treaties

Changes in legislation will allow the United States participate in international agreements and treaties on the subject, making the global fight against crimes on the Internet in Brazil Changes in legislation will allow the United States participate in international agreements and treaties on the subject, making the global fight against crimes on the Internet in Brazil One of these treaties, the Convention of Budapest, was ratified by all European countries in the Hungarian city, November 2001. One of these treaties, the Convention of Budapest, was ratified by all European countries in the Hungarian city in November 2001. This is a document of Public International Law and that, despite its European origin, has become universal with the accession of countries from outside the European Union, such as the United States. This is a document of Public International Law and that, despite its European origin, has become universal with the accession of countries from outside the European Union, such as the United States.

One of his goals is to promote the equalization of criminal laws that address the topic in the countries in view that this is essential to have efficient means of combating such crime. One of his goals is to promote the equalization of criminal laws that address the topic in the countries in view that this is essential to have effective means to combat this type of offence. Moreover, the agreement specifies specific mechanisms of international cooperation in the area of cyber crime. Moreover, the agreement specifies specific mechanisms of international cooperation in the area of cyber crime. Countries that join the Convention become part of an international network of cooperation in the fight against crimes committed via the Internet. Countries that join the Convention become part of an international network of cooperation in the fight against crimes committed via the Internet.

The country's accession to the Convention of Budapest would allow international cooperation in combating crimes on the Internet, such as paedophilia and racism and even financial scams. The country's accession to the Convention of Budapest would allow international cooperation in combating crimes on the Internet, such as paedophilia and racism and even financial scams.

The matter is now for the Chamber of Deputies. The matter is now for the Chamber of Deputies. Below the main points of the project approved on Wednesday: Below the main points of the project approved on Wednesday:

The three goals of the draft law: The three goals of the draft law:

Tipificar link the crimes on the Internet (which are classified and what they mean) Tipificar the crimes on the Internet (which are classified and what they mean)

Larger link the penalties for violators Increase the penalties for violators

Fighting link in a wider network in the crimes Fighting in a wider network in the crimes

Crimes:
Unauthorized access to the network of computers - imprisonment of 1 to 3 years
Get, carry or maintain data without authorization - imprisonment of 1 to 3 years and fine
Dissemination of information or misuse of the database - detention of 1 to 2 years and fine
Insert or send malicious code - imprisonment of 1 to 3 years and fine
If the crime results in destruction or damage of the network - imprisonment of 3 to 5 years and fine
Copy or falsify instrument which allows access to the network - imprisonment of 1 to five years and fine
Be offensive to the security service of utilities (water, light, etc.) - imprisonment of 1 to 5 years
To publish, sell or provide personal information improperly - 1 to 2 years and fine

The responsibilities of providers:
Maintain data connection of users for up to three years
Information will be provided only through judicial requests
linkInformar no evidence of crime on the Internet

Subject to a fine of $ 2 thousand to $ 100 thousand more claims for damages.

www.stealthisfilm.com

"These are strange times indeed. While they continue to command so much attention in the mainstream media, the 'battles' between old and new modes of distribution, between the pirate and the institution of copyright, seem to many of us already lost and won. We know who the victors are. Why then say any more?

Because waves of repression continue to come: lawsuits are still levied against innocent people; arrests are still made on flimsy pretexts, in order to terrify and confuse; harsh laws are still enacted against filesharing, taking their place in the gradual erosion of our privacy and the bolstering of the surveillance state. All of this is intended to destroy or delay inexorable changes in what it means to create and exchange our creations. If STEAL THIS FILM II proves at all useful in bringing new people into the leagues of those now prepared to think 'after intellectual property', think creatively about the future of distribution, production and creativity, we have achieved our main goal."

(One may also be tempted to continue this with a reading of corporations personified, as is done in the 2003 documentary The Corporation, the opening lines of which inspired this post, but I will not delve into that here, though I would agree this should have some significance.)

In a posthumanist-Marxist terms, that is to say in a future-oriented Leftist movement, then, the revolution problem becomes a problem of overthrowing the corporation from its current dominant state -- not dismantling the entire system altogether, since such a vision continuously turns out to be an impossible task and renders itself as a project with an already presupposed loss, done for somewhat perverse masochistic pleasures. And after all, we did not have to dismantle the Catholic church altogether to make way for the Reformation. This gesture should in turn provide the Left with a bit more confidence -- all we need to do is to start institutions that have appeal to the public that would eventually overthrow the corporate form as the dominant institution. It would again serve well to read Hegel at this point, as many good Marxists do.

Surprisingly this task gets even more simple. Already we have an institution that is growing in popularity, very much against the interest of corporations. Yes, you guessed it: the populist side of Web 2.0 -- its P2P networks, free software movements, wiki systems, etc. Steal this Film provides a great documentary on this matter (though I doubt you still need more proof). And although they approved ACTA, I think the matter will continue to be a controversial polemic. As I mentioned in this post, the 21st-century subject needs a new institution, a new system other than global capitalism.

What is to be done? I will not be naive and suggest to continue the piracy and open source usage and so on -- I know that we have so much more problems ahead of us -- but understanding that we are in a moment of tension in which the Left can fully take advantage of should bring forth some hope and perhaps even a renewed sense of dualistic class (bourgeoisie vs proletariat becomes corporate vs pirates) needed for real social change. As the famous Friedmanite idea often quoted by Naomi Klein, in times of crisis, "the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around" -- the best way to read this is not only to be prepared as Klein suggests, but also to produce better ideas ourselves. We have a world to win. Pirates of all countries, unite.

Piracy and the Underground Economy

There is a clarion call that has been building up in the voice of game developers in recent years.  They claim that piracy is laying ruin to their livelihoods and costing them billions in sales.  It's the same banner that software developers, record labels, and the movie industry have been flocking to for the past decade or so.  Their rhetoric insists that they are merely defending the rights of the developers and artists to get paid, and that if you continue to support piracy you're not only committing illegal acts, you're also robbing and pissing on the very people whose product you enjoy.

Fair arguments I'm sure, but what I want to do is introduce you to an entirely different point of view; the fact that piracy supports an underground economy and the livelihood of thousands of people in Asia, especially in countries where most people live below the poverty line.  And that said underground exists primarily because their target market cannot afford the ridiculous prices tacked on by game publishers.  It's a point of view that doesn't get raised much in American or “industrialized” media.    It isn't their fault really, they've just never had the opportunity be surrounded by piracy on a day to day basis.

Welcome to the developing world

I was born into video game piracy.  Ever since my first console, the “Family Computer”, I had been bred on games that were illegally manufactured by video game pirates.  In fact, I had no inkling of video game piracy until late into the PS1's life cycle, when I spotted my first original game in a store window and made some curious inquiries.  By that point it was too late really, as I'd collected hundreds of pirated games, many of them from my favorite Pirate company Players (they had rather aptly pirated the logo of the Indiana Pacers and ingeniously replaced the team's name with their own).  Still, I resolved to do the right thing.  I believed in people getting paid for what they make, and I loved the games that these developers made.  So I walked into a store that sold original  games and nearly got a heart attack after finding out how much they were really worth.  The original PS1 games at the time cost almost 30 times as much as a pirated copy!  Imagine how you'd feel if for all your life you bought games a dollar apiece then you suddenly found out they actually cost $30.  Like many a Filipino gamer I couldn't afford it, but I sure as hell wasn't gonna stop playing games so I just went back to the pirates.

That was many years ago, and unfortunately things have not changed very much.  I'm now personally involved in the videogame industry, so my views on piracy have altered somewhat.  But it doesn't change the fact that the majority of Filipinos and other people in the region continue to buy pirated games simply because a) it's all they've known and b) even if they knew better they simply cannot afford original games.   Publishers and console manufacturers like Nintendo are convinced that once they stop piracy the money from all those lost sales will suddenly come flowing into their coffers.  For whatever reason they never take into account their prospective market's spending ability.  And thus, an underground economy has been built around the needs of the low income Asian gamer to help them support their addiction.  Look if you had $300 a month to spend on rent, food and all of your other expenses how high would a $60 game be on your list?.

In many malls in the Philippines you will still see rows upon rows of stalls hawking pirated games.  Plenty of them are sold in generic DVD cases and sport shoddy photoshopped covers drawn by 5 year old children, but a few have decided that a more subtle approach is best, and they'll only take out a folder of their pirated games if you ask them to.  The popularity of the PSP and the DS has also introduced an even more subtle method of piracy: ROMs.  Side by side with these pirate stalls are cellphone repairmen with computers that hold the latest wallpapers, mobile apps, ringtones, and more often than not the entire DS and PSP library in what is probably the most cost efficient way to do business ever.

These people make no effort to hide what they are selling, make no bones about the fact that these games are “copies”, the more politically correct term for pirated.  You might think they're criminals, or that they shouldn't be taking jobs that steal from other people, but the fact of the matter is that to them this is just business as usual.  Like me, they grew up in an environment where piracy is the norm so telling them that what they're doing is wrong or criminal just doesn't resonate as much as you'd hope it would.  And when you attack their source of livelihood, well, let's just say you won't have many sympathetic ears.

Doing the numbers

Let's do a little math.  Let's say 50 malls and commercial centers in Metro Manila (a very conservative estimate, as we seem to be on track for the record for the number of shopping malls put up annually), and that each mall on average will have 20 stalls that sell pirated games.  Each stall will employ around three people; one to man the register, and two to entice and deal with customers.  Let's throw in the owner of the stall into the equation, since he also depends on piracy for his livelihood.  That means in Metro Manila alone there are at least 4000 people (50 x 20 x 4 =  4000) who rely on piracy for their livelihood.  These people also have families, and the Philippines, amongst other Asian nations like India, are notoriously bad at having less than five children. So that's roughly 20000 people in Metro Manila alone whose lives are partially if not totally dependent on money earned from piracy.  Now I'm going to take a huge leap and multiply that number by 10 to account for all the urban areas around the Philippines.  That equals 200000 people who directly benefit from piracy, or rely on it to make a living. 200000 may not sound like a huge number to you, but consider that the Philippines is a country of 80 million people, roughly 30% (24 million) of which are below the poverty line. Employment isn't easy to come by either, with the latest unemployment rates at 8% and underemployment at 20%.  This is also a country where the per capita income is roughly $3500.  To put this into perspective, an entry level game programmer in the United States earns an average of $50,000 a year.

Before these numbers overwhelm you (or underwhelm, as the case may be), my point is simply that in the Philippines, as in many other Asian countries, piracy isn't a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of survival.  To eradicate piracy also means depriving people of jobs generated by piracy.  It means eradicating the businesses that employ them and the taxes that get funneled to the Philippine government (ostensibly for use in developing infrastructure and social services, but that's another matter entirely) because of their existence.  Developers and publishers will claim a huge victory but they'll soon notice that those billions of dollars in lost sales aren't exactly showing up on their bottom line because people can't afford their games.  Everyone loses.

Tapping the Pirate network and the $5 dollar game

So how much would a game have to cost for the average Filipino buyer to even consider including it in his daily expenses?  First, let's calculate the ratio of a $60 current gen game to the US per capita income, which was roughly $40,000  ($40070 rounded down to $40000) in 2006.  When you divide 40000 by 60 you get the rather amusing ratio of 1/666 (To anyone who's ever thought the price of games is evil, there's your proof).  That means the cost of a video game in the US is 1/666 of the average American's income.  Let's apply that number to the per capita income of the average Filipino, which is $3500 (3430 rounded up to 3500).  If you take 3500 and divide it by 666, you get the interesting amount of $5.  Why is this interesting?  Because the cost of a pirated Xbox 360 game is around 200 Pesos, which when converted is roughly $4.60.

Now you've got a dollar figure to work with.  If you sold at $5 per game you'd have a price point that is easily accessible by your market.  Of course it costs much more for a publisher to develop, market, produce, and release a game than it does for a pirate to rip a CD and burn it a hundred thousand times.  So let's take our cue from the market and cut costs.  For the past 10 years Filipinos have consistently bought games with shoddy covers and no manuals, so they've proven that they're not picky about the quality of the material product: As long as it works when they stick it in the console, they're happy.  Get rid of manuals, CD cases, and elaborate covers with marketing talk.  Sell the discs in vinyl sleeves with a sticker cover of the game in front.  Eliminate as much cost as possible in the production of the actual CD by having the pirates burn the CDs themselves and simply supplying them with the cover material, then sell them as usual.  The public might not even have to know about it.  No fanfare means no marketing costs.

Extracting profit from a $5 game may not sound like it's feasible, but you'd never lose a sale to piracy again, more people would be playing your games legally, and nobody would have to lose a job.  And the Philippines is just one small representative of this equation.  Many countries in the South and Southeast Asian region, not to mention the middle East, have the same kinds of issues when it comes to videogame piracy, so profit is there to be made, just on a much smaller scale than most publishers are willing to accept.  My ideas may sound ludicrous, but the fact remains that despite the best efforts of corporations and governments piracy still runs rampant in many regions.  Maybe it's about time they try something new.

Byline:
Ryan Sumo is a starving pixel artist in Manila currently working on the next big thing to hit the DS.  Or at least it will be once a publisher decides to pick it up.

What I find interesting about this video (aside from the usual "what's a floppy?" reaction) is the stark contrast to today's anti-piracy media.  While "Don't Copy" is cheeky, fun, and very tongue-in-cheek (I think the "rapper" in this video is about as effective as Steve Ballmer selling Windows 1.0), the 21st Century Pirate is depicted as older, more sophisticated, and inherently criminal.

While I could go on for about the absurdist, asinine comparison of BitTorrent users to car thieves, as well as the ethos of BitTorrent and "downloading," I'll save it.  It's the same idea in both ads, although the context of each sends a very different message.

Ad #1 takes us on a PBS-que kids show adventure through the magical land of computer piracy, while Ad #2 takes the innocent, game-playing children from the first ad and gainfully turns them into felons.  There's no logical explanation, either, no "why" or "how" or "here's what happens when you download a song from the Internet;" it slams you into the wall by your shirt collar, and says "If you download that Simple Plan song, I swear to God, you're going straight to Federal prison."  If nothing else, I have to question the credibility of the organization which tells, instead of explains, in a grotesquely Orwellian fashion.

The first ad, by contrast, at least tried to set the record straight.

The revelation to me is that the "War on Piracy" is really only as bad as whatever XXAA dictates it is.  From what I understand about the statistics of sales of software, music, and films, the impact of piracy on the entertainment industry has been negligible.

In a lot of ways, I think the industry benefits.  The price of CDs has fallen significantly over the past couple of years, which means I'm going to go out and buy the CD (which I usually do anyway) instead of pirate it.  I don't mind spending $10-$13 on a band I think is worth paying for.

For the most part, Yes, some publishers are having a huge amount of trouble with pirated games. Even though various technologies have been introduce to prevent pirating, for the most part these strategies are failures.

Then what is a successful strategy against pirates?

Here is where the real post begins. There is no successful strategy against pirates, unless the revenue comes from a service. Video games are essentially a manufactured product. Once the game has been created, it is copied to various discs and sold in retail stores/online. Because it is a product, it can be pirated. But the industry is transforming itself into a service, a service of connecting people. Something that is extremely difficult to pirate.

Over the past several year, the industry has been quite successful in transforming itself from a "product" to a "service". With the advent of the internet, the change was inevitable. People want to enjoy and play games with other people. Instead of providing game aka product for people to play, the industry started to provide a interactive environment aka service where people interact with others. This transformation for the most was difficult to notice because most games are still bought upfront. People generally don't consider something a service unless there is a recurring cost or direct interaction with other people. But in reality, video games had transformed into a service with an upfront fee of $50. The best example is StarCraft. Once the game has been bought, customers can go online and play against a variety of opponents for "free".

This flat fee, unlimited play for the same game model is currently the most prevalent business model within the industry. But this is also slowly changing, to one where it is video games become a continuously evolving world with a subscription aka World of WarCraft.

This is one way of combating piracy, by providing a service instead of a product.

While the reports are unverified, would it really surprise anyone that much if it were true? It certainly wouldn't be the first shady tactic this association has used.

Link:http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/07/08/riaa.limiting.pc.stereo.in/