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"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving

"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." - Gaben

jjk166 6y ago
But providing a service people are willing to pay for is so much less lucrative than finding ways to force people to pay for inferior service.
- betwixthewires 6y ago
  Less lucrative at first. Eventually it catches up to you. Look at blockbuster as an example.
Mindwipe 6y ago
This is the same Gaben who runs a store with a bunch of DRM on it that has a variety of mechanisms to prevent account sharing yeah? It's a nice soundbite, but even he doesn't believe it.
- Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
  DRM on its own isn't always necessarily bad. Gaben's quote on piracy was about 2 1/2 years after the big Spore DRM debacle [0], which affected legitimate customers. I've been using Steam for who knows how long and have never had the DRM be an issue, even after several computer upgrades and motherboard replacements. I just have to log in and I can redownload all my games with no issue at all. Yes, Steam is DRM, but it's sane DRM. > has a variety of mechanisms to prevent account sharing yeah? Well...yeah. You aren't supposed to share accounts. > It's a nice soundbite, but even he doesn't believe it. It's not just about DRM. When he talks about it being a "service problem", it's not just about the ability to simply play games. When you buy from Steam, you get automatic updates, cloud saves, community integration (such as the Workshop for installing mods and other user-made content), built-in screenshot management features, and more. If you pirate the game, you get none of that. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)#DRM_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)#DRM_co...
- idsout 6y ago
  Steam gives me auto-updates, not worrying about malware being packed in cracks, and an easy way to invite my friends to the same game server I'm playing on. Gaben was absolutely right.
- tpxl 6y ago
  Afaik Steam does not mandate DRM, you can have DRM-free games on it. It's just very minimal and convenient for devs I suppose.
refurb 6y ago
Let's use the same analogy for a young struggling artist - "The best way for me to stop buying $1 copies of your $100 paintings is for you to give me a service that better than what I get from pirates." This is why we can't have nice things. Because people feel entitled to others people's work.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- justwalt 6y ago
  I don’t think that’s the right takeaway. I think it’s more accurately described as a situation where the original offering just isn’t enticing enough.
- betwixthewires 6y ago
  Pirates don't pirate because they can get it cheaper. Some do, but not by and large. If that was the case, streaming services wouldn't have become a multi billion dollar a year industry that revolutionized the music, movie and TV industry. I guarantee you every single 30 something with a Netflix account had limewire or bearshare or something on their computer as teenagers, but now they don't, because the money was never the prime motivator. Pirates pirate because of bad UX, which Netflix solved for them and others copied, which the entire industry now seems hell bent on breaking again. And they think their size and the DMCA and the learning curve to pirating nowadays can prevent it from happening, so sure, let's abuse our customers now that we think they can do nothing about it. But this will fail. If it is easier to learn how to use torrents and mega and whatever else than it is to navigate the plethora of services to find what you want (at the current rate we will need TV Guide again soon) and call your girlfriend at work to get the 2fa code they just sent to her phone, people will do it.

"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." - Gaben

jjk166 6y ago

But providing a service people are willing to pay for is so much less lucrative than finding ways to force people to pay for inferior service.

betwixthewires 6y ago
Less lucrative at first. Eventually it catches up to you. Look at blockbuster as an example.

Mindwipe 6y ago

This is the same Gaben who runs a store with a bunch of DRM on it that has a variety of mechanisms to prevent account sharing yeah? It's a nice soundbite, but even he doesn't believe it.

Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
DRM on its own isn't always necessarily bad. Gaben's quote on piracy was about 2 1/2 years after the big Spore DRM debacle [0], which affected legitimate customers. I've been using Steam for who knows how long and have never had the DRM be an issue, even after several computer upgrades and motherboard replacements. I just have to log in and I can redownload all my games with no issue at all. Yes, Steam is DRM, but it's sane DRM. > has a variety of mechanisms to prevent account sharing yeah? Well...yeah. You aren't supposed to share accounts. > It's a nice soundbite, but even he doesn't believe it. It's not just about DRM. When he talks about it being a "service problem", it's not just about the ability to simply play games. When you buy from Steam, you get automatic updates, cloud saves, community integration (such as the Workshop for installing mods and other user-made content), built-in screenshot management features, and more. If you pirate the game, you get none of that. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)#DRM_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)#DRM_co...
idsout 6y ago
Steam gives me auto-updates, not worrying about malware being packed in cracks, and an easy way to invite my friends to the same game server I'm playing on. Gaben was absolutely right.
tpxl 6y ago
Afaik Steam does not mandate DRM, you can have DRM-free games on it. It's just very minimal and convenient for devs I suppose.

refurb 6y ago

Let's use the same analogy for a young struggling artist - "The best way for me to stop buying $1 copies of your $100 paintings is for you to give me a service that better than what I get from pirates." This is why we can't have nice things. Because people feel entitled to others people's work.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
justwalt 6y ago
I don’t think that’s the right takeaway. I think it’s more accurately described as a situation where the original offering just isn’t enticing enough.
betwixthewires 6y ago
Pirates don't pirate because they can get it cheaper. Some do, but not by and large. If that was the case, streaming services wouldn't have become a multi billion dollar a year industry that revolutionized the music, movie and TV industry. I guarantee you every single 30 something with a Netflix account had limewire or bearshare or something on their computer as teenagers, but now they don't, because the money was never the prime motivator. Pirates pirate because of bad UX, which Netflix solved for them and others copied, which the entire industry now seems hell bent on breaking again. And they think their size and the DMCA and the learning curve to pirating nowadays can prevent it from happening, so sure, let's abuse our customers now that we think they can do nothing about it. But this will fail. If it is easier to learn how to use torrents and mega and whatever else than it is to navigate the plethora of services to find what you want (at the current rate we will need TV Guide again soon) and call your girlfriend at work to get the 2fa code they just sent to her phone, people will do it.