3 ms·

Before Poland joined the EU, one of leftovers from communism was that IP laws resembled these in China - in reality there were none in effect. Imagine farmers'

by voytec 3y ago

Before Poland joined the EU, one of leftovers from communism was that IP laws resembled these in China - in reality there were none in effect. Imagine farmers' market but with bootleg VHS and audio cassettes, CDs, brand clothes etc. In every major city. On a weekly basis. Great majority of Poles were poor as shit and buying original copy of music or video cassette was a very distant thought. Piracy was "normal". I was introduced to The Prodigy by my math teacher, who lent me a copy-copy of their Music for the Jilted Generation. I learned English from pirated movies. Got to know a lot of great music and TV shows. I now own all of Prodigy's CDs as well as hundreds of other legal music CDs and BluRay sets/boxes. Not a chance in hell I'd buy all this without a taste of a product beforehand. Looking at this from 2023, I believe that our access to affordable (pirated) creations of western culture allowed up to leave Soviet (or communist as we were not a part of CCCP) mentality behind more quickly.

wslh 3y ago
Argentina was not poor as shit but have the same experience as Poland and many other parts of the world. I think it is more connected to the culture and economic "platform" than to economic means: piracy is linked to the "fungible" nature of media and software. I think now less piracy is connected to subscription services where you never own the software. On the other hand, anti-piracy means for software such as Microsoft Office or Adobe should be considered malware.
ilyt 3y ago
I remember my friend basically paid for all his PC upgrades by investing in CD writer and just ripping stuff for people for equivalent of $5 a pop. If we didn't pirate we wouldn't "buy more games", maybe once a year, coz we were poor. Once steam become a thing and once I started earning wages and just bought stuff, it was easier and it come with updates. Piracy is mostly a service problem. And it also enables gamepass-like usage, download, play for 2 hours ,if you don't like it just delete it. I guess Steam refunds cover that angle well now. Sure, from time to time someone will go "fuck you Squeenix, I won't pay $70 for port 2 years after the release", but overall people who massively pirate usually can't afford most of what they pirate in the first place.
- LorenPechtel 3y ago
  Yeah, I think piracy harms the guys who rely on tons of DLC on a good base product.
  - ilyt 3y ago
    I dunno, having to re-download next pack (if game is popular enough to even get that) every time new DLC comes isn't a bad motivation to get the game on next sale instead of continuing pirating.
matheusmoreira 3y ago
Similar situation here in Brazil. There are little markets selling random stuff in pretty much every city, including counterfeit physical items and infringing media of all kinds. Sometimes the US screeches loud enough for police to mount operations against these things but it doesn't seem to do much more than temporarily disrupt their operations. > Great majority of Poles were poor as shit and buying original copy of music or video cassette was a very distant thought. Piracy was "normal". Yeah, I know what you mean. Minimum wage here in Brazil is about 256 USD. People who make minimum wage can barely support themselves. Very few people will purchase video games at $50+ price points.
bluedino 3y ago
There are flea markets and party stores where you can buy the same in the US. I don't really think it leads to people buying more of the legitimate stuff. Except in the case where the bootleg quality is really, really bad (hand-held camera in a theatre vs a DVD rip for example)
908B64B197 3y ago
> Great majority of Poles were poor as shit and buying original copy of music or video cassette was a very distant thought. Were originals even available for sale? One of Gabe Newell's best insight was that piracy was often caused by content simply not being available for purchase at all.

by voytec 3y ago

wslh 3y ago

Argentina was not poor as shit but have the same experience as Poland and many other parts of the world. I think it is more connected to the culture and economic "platform" than to economic means: piracy is linked to the "fungible" nature of media and software. I think now less piracy is connected to subscription services where you never own the software. On the other hand, anti-piracy means for software such as Microsoft Office or Adobe should be considered malware.

ilyt 3y ago

I remember my friend basically paid for all his PC upgrades by investing in CD writer and just ripping stuff for people for equivalent of $5 a pop. If we didn't pirate we wouldn't "buy more games", maybe once a year, coz we were poor. Once steam become a thing and once I started earning wages and just bought stuff, it was easier and it come with updates. Piracy is mostly a service problem. And it also enables gamepass-like usage, download, play for 2 hours ,if you don't like it just delete it. I guess Steam refunds cover that angle well now. Sure, from time to time someone will go "fuck you Squeenix, I won't pay $70 for port 2 years after the release", but overall people who massively pirate usually can't afford most of what they pirate in the first place.

LorenPechtel 3y ago
Yeah, I think piracy harms the guys who rely on tons of DLC on a good base product.
- ilyt 3y ago
  I dunno, having to re-download next pack (if game is popular enough to even get that) every time new DLC comes isn't a bad motivation to get the game on next sale instead of continuing pirating.

matheusmoreira 3y ago

Similar situation here in Brazil. There are little markets selling random stuff in pretty much every city, including counterfeit physical items and infringing media of all kinds. Sometimes the US screeches loud enough for police to mount operations against these things but it doesn't seem to do much more than temporarily disrupt their operations. > Great majority of Poles were poor as shit and buying original copy of music or video cassette was a very distant thought. Piracy was "normal". Yeah, I know what you mean. Minimum wage here in Brazil is about 256 USD. People who make minimum wage can barely support themselves. Very few people will purchase video games at $50+ price points.

bluedino 3y ago

There are flea markets and party stores where you can buy the same in the US. I don't really think it leads to people buying more of the legitimate stuff. Except in the case where the bootleg quality is really, really bad (hand-held camera in a theatre vs a DVD rip for example)

908B64B197 3y ago

> Great majority of Poles were poor as shit and buying original copy of music or video cassette was a very distant thought. Were originals even available for sale? One of Gabe Newell's best insight was that piracy was often caused by content simply not being available for purchase at all.