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Sort of a Devil's Advocate point here - This analysis is a great way to frame the discussion, but I think it is worth noting that it really depends on your use

Sort of a Devil's Advocate point here - This analysis is a great way to frame the discussion, but I think it is worth noting that it really depends on your user makeup by segment. As an example: HN Reader | Very small % of population | Really good with torrents and pirated software | Higher Average Income | More likely to sleep better after not pirating Non HN Reader | Really big % of population | Really bad with torrents and pirated software (on avg) | Lower Average Income than HN user | Less care about programmer well being Obviously things would be easier without DRM, but some programs may (or may not) benefit from DRM for profit maximization because they derive far more revenue from the latter group. A non DRM product can easily be shared by the mainstream where a DRM product is still fairly hard to share for the mainstream.

finnw 15y ago
Even if I did not care about programmer well-being, I would be reluctant to use torrents and pirate sites because of the threat of malware. But then I have one Windows PC that I use for both games and online banking. Maybe that's rare among HN readers.
- Zirro 15y ago
  I stick with TV-series, and I've never seen an infected file. If I had been downloading software, sure, I would have been slightly more worried, but even so most sites have comments and ratingsystems. Looking at them probably helps you find out if a torrent is malicious or not. TL;DR-version: In my experience, with some sense, your risk of running into malware in torrents is slim.
  - vibrunazo 15y ago
    That's because you're knowledgeable enough to not click on the misleading ads yelling "download here". Average users might not be. Offering a safe easy medium does have an appeal to many users, as shown by the success of Steam.
  - hamoid 15y ago
    How would you know if a program you downloaded had been modified to send files from your hard drive to a server? I think it can be easily done without an antivirus noticing.

finnw 15y ago

Even if I did not care about programmer well-being, I would be reluctant to use torrents and pirate sites because of the threat of malware. But then I have one Windows PC that I use for both games and online banking. Maybe that's rare among HN readers.

Zirro 15y ago
I stick with TV-series, and I've never seen an infected file. If I had been downloading software, sure, I would have been slightly more worried, but even so most sites have comments and ratingsystems. Looking at them probably helps you find out if a torrent is malicious or not. TL;DR-version: In my experience, with some sense, your risk of running into malware in torrents is slim.
- vibrunazo 15y ago
  That's because you're knowledgeable enough to not click on the misleading ads yelling "download here". Average users might not be. Offering a safe easy medium does have an appeal to many users, as shown by the success of Steam.
- hamoid 15y ago
  How would you know if a program you downloaded had been modified to send files from your hard drive to a server? I think it can be easily done without an antivirus noticing.