GotGame.com: I think you’re argument is flawed in a couple of ways. One, if you take a look at all of the content on the web, you’d probably find that most of the creators don’t know that they own the copyright to their works, and yet they made them anyway. People want to create. It’s in our nature. Now whether or not they would also want to create much larger, much more complex projects, it’s not clear, but let’s say for the sake of argument that the professional-quality projects wouldn’t have been made if not for the copyrights that are associated with them.

Then, two, just because copyright might provide such an incentive, which we’ll argue is a good thing, it doesn’t follow why copyright management systems would also be a good thing. I wouldn’t go so far as too say I “fully” support them as quite a few are draconian and treat the customers horribly.

Right now, copyright is “enforced” by making paying customers deal with value-reducing wrappers such as so-called digital rights management or by making paying customers deal with value-reducing uncertainty about the future of the games they just bought. Meanwhile, the non-paying non-customers who get an illegal copy of the games don’t need to deal with the value-reducing aspects. No hoops. No worries. They can play the games for as long as they want, whenever they want, and never need to worry about the copy protection systems. That’s not real enforcement, and since it doesn’t really work, why use it?

As we see in the link from Poo Bear, in some places, it’s a matter of lifestyle and convenience. Why make it easier for people to get an illegal copy than to buy the game from you?

The bigger problem, for me at least, is that often it’s not the content creators that benefit from the copyright law, it’s the publishers/record companies etc.

As regards to anti-piracy measures – sure, make them tougher and there will be a sales boost, but once you get past the “casual copy” limit then the boost is minimal compared to the results obtained (as Reflexive’s results bare out).

Concentrate on those who will be prepared to buy and not those that won’t. Going for the later can work against you (DRM hell).

http://kotaku.com/5018180/a-look-at-nintendo-ds-piracy-in-korea

“In Korea, piracy of video games isn’t limited to the hardcore crowd; it’s everywhere, prevalent in every age group and economic class that exists. And beyond being a matter of money – of not wanting to spend money, that is – piracy for Koreans is, perhaps even foremost, a matter of convenience.”

As I said, you better be online or on a console (that is also online).