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>Gabe Newell: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a
by rhino369 11y ago
>Gabe Newell: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
And yet trackers are filled with content available on Steam, iTunes, Amazon instant, etc.
The idea that piracy is only a service problem is just as big of a myth as the idea that it is purely a pricing issue. It's can be both or either depending on the person.
- cynix 11y ago> And yet trackers are filled with content available on Steam, iTunes, Amazon instant, etc. At least for video/audio content, none of these paid services can match the quality (e.g. bitrate) of pirated torrents.
- BookmarkSaver 11y agoThere is no way that any significant portion of music piracy is due to audio quality qualms. I only have my own perspective, but outside of niche online communities I never even hear about things like "audio quality" or "bitrate" get talked about, but piracy is a massively widespread phenomenon. People pirate for money and convenience, rarely quality unless their ISP isn't reliable enough to stream.
- baddox 11y ago> piracy is a massively widespread phenomenon is a different statement than "piracy is a problem"
- _benedict 11y agoYou realise those services aren't universally available, right? Not that there aren't going to still be pirates anyway; there are plenty of people in the world who cannot afford those services.