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I can give you a better perspective from gaming, since it was much more onerous for that to become nice, but it has already solved the problem. Games tend, on

I can give you a better perspective from gaming, since it was much more onerous for that to become nice, but it has already solved the problem. Games tend, on average, to be on average about the size of a whole, uncompressed CD. Roughly 700 MB. That means the first challenge is actually getting the thing to me. For a while i had two options: Either i could go out into the store, and buy it there (spending 2 hours + cash), or if they didn't have it, order it and come back later (another 2 hours). Or i could torrent it at home, spending no cash and 2 hours waiting for the download to complete while i do other things; and live with the possible risk of a letter from my ISP. So now i have the thing. The next challenge is to get it on the computer and running. With the store-bought medium i have to hope that it is physically sound, and i need to ensure it stays that way; I also have to hope that my drive is compatible with their copy protection; and to add insult to injury, i need to keep the disc in my drive to play it, meaning i have to handle the things a lot, and have my drive uselessly make noise. With the torrent, i unpack it and install it, maybe needing to spend an extra 5 minutes to find the right crack; and live with the risk of contracting malware. And the last issue: Software updates. This time the two options are almost the same: Find the latest update, download and install it. Torrent updates come with a risk of malware again. Now, when i was young specifically the first and second thing led me to pirate most of the games i got. Not because i didn't want to spend the cash; but because i didn't want to spend cash, just to have to spend my own time to get the thing and live with the constant annoyance of keeping the right disc in my drive, constantly rotating. This is especially borne out in current times. Steam is now here and while the prices are similar to physical game sales (the value of my steam library is estimated at $7000), i gladly and happily spend the money for it, since Steam solves these problems: 1. Games are downloadable. 2. The copy protection is either my online status, or a specific steam token. (In practice i've never not been able to access the games.) 3. Updates come automatically. 4. As long as Steam doesn't crash and burn, i'll be able to access the things i bought in perpetuity without needing to cat herd a gaggle of physical storages. The "culture of free" doesn't revolve around free. There is a cost in any "free". Usually the risk of legal action or malware. The "culture of free" is winning because people hoping to make money fail to provide solutions that actually address customers' needs. Steam has recognized and solved that issue. In the music industry things like Google Play Music, Spotify, etc. are starting to solve it.

radmuzom 12y ago
Games are not a good example because - 1. Most games now have online activation and require continuous online checks to work - for example, none of my Mass Effect 3 DLCs work if Origin cannot verify the status of the DLC online every time I try to play them. 2. Something similar to above implemented for music will mean that you will be able to listen to a song only when an online service authorizes it - everytime you want to listen to it. Then people will start complaining how DRM is evil, and the big companies are ripping them off. I don't have a solution for this, but I don't think games is a good analogy. P.S Most modern games requires GBs rather than an old-fashioned 700MB CD. For example, Far Cry 4 requires 28GB of disk space to be installed.
- Mithaldu 12y ago
  > 1. "Most" is a massive exxageration. Origin is a small sampling of all that's on the market. > 2. Steam has solved this, and so has Google Play Music: Cached authorization. I'm not entirely sure how they do it, but on both services i've been able to access the games and music even when i was entirely without service for long periods of time. Plus, there's always GoG. > P.S I said on average. Even in this day and age you'll have games that are around 50 MB and less. Maybe you need to stop focusing on AAA titles so much. :)

radmuzom 12y ago

Games are not a good example because - 1. Most games now have online activation and require continuous online checks to work - for example, none of my Mass Effect 3 DLCs work if Origin cannot verify the status of the DLC online every time I try to play them. 2. Something similar to above implemented for music will mean that you will be able to listen to a song only when an online service authorizes it - everytime you want to listen to it. Then people will start complaining how DRM is evil, and the big companies are ripping them off. I don't have a solution for this, but I don't think games is a good analogy. P.S Most modern games requires GBs rather than an old-fashioned 700MB CD. For example, Far Cry 4 requires 28GB of disk space to be installed.

Mithaldu 12y ago
> 1. "Most" is a massive exxageration. Origin is a small sampling of all that's on the market. > 2. Steam has solved this, and so has Google Play Music: Cached authorization. I'm not entirely sure how they do it, but on both services i've been able to access the games and music even when i was entirely without service for long periods of time. Plus, there's always GoG. > P.S I said on average. Even in this day and age you'll have games that are around 50 MB and less. Maybe you need to stop focusing on AAA titles so much. :)