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That last bit has well-accepted precedent: Game consoles. They do exactly that. Ever since the NES, game consoles have been designed not to play open content
by T-hawk 14y ago
That last bit has well-accepted precedent: Game consoles. They do exactly that. Ever since the NES, game consoles have been designed not to play open content but to verify some sort of signature (not necessarily cryptographic, could be in the physical media like the NES's lockout chip.) Pirating on a game console has always required modification; a hardware modchip for older consoles or a software jailbreaking exploit for newer ones with an operating system. But the market accepted that just fine. Such a restriction doesn't perfectly prevent piracy, but is broadly effective.
- chii 14y agoYet, the piracy market for consoles are so large that dedicated pheripheral sellers (these mod chip sellers) can exist. This just points to the fact that software is notoriously difficult to keep safe via DRM, and that people _want_ the content, just not at the price point that large publishers are selling at, and people _think_ that the price point should be lower.
- jiggy2011 14y agoThe amount of piracy of console games is minuscule compared to piracy of movies , MP3s and PC games. If you force people to jailbreak or hardware mod their equipment it drops the rate dramatically. The issue is that the lower price point in the case of piracy appears to be free. People still pirate $1 iphone apps.
- chii 14y ago> If you force people to jailbreak or hardware mod their equipment it drops the rate dramatically. this is a very key quote - it indeed drops the rate of piracy. But does it increase the profits earned correspondingly? that is, did the anti-piracy measures contribute positively to profit? I am unsure what the case is in reality, since its so hard to compare. Most pirate's intuition is that anti-piracy measures don't increase the profits (or unit sold, so as not to complicate currency+accounting issues). Companies that use anti-piracy measures seem to think the exact opposite.