From: rdd@cactus.org (Robert Dorsett)
Subject: Re: copywright & Piracy
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 03:28:15 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.215355.21325@nntp.uoregon.edu> dcutter@oregon.uoregon.edu (dann cutter) writes:
>
>That does it! This is starting to really annoy me. A poster asks a question
>which may or may not mean he has pirated the game - and everybody jumps all
>over him. God damn it... I hate to say it, but the fucking software
>industry better really thank there luck stars that some people pirate
>stupid games... these are the people that grow up and end up programming
>for the same stupid company in the first place. 

Yeah, right.  Most games are free-lance affairs, written by authors with
"real jobs."  Most game-authors can't afford to stay in business *just* by
writing games.  It's asinine to discuss the game industry like it's on the
same footing as the business-software industry.  It has neither the revenue
nor the leverage.


>industry (cd too) because people dubb, but bloody hell - Having 40% profit
>margins compared to 50% is just only so sad... and I believe the record
>iindustry is at a hieght that has never been equaled. 

Are you insinuating that the game industry works with the same margins?  Well,
you're wrong.  Starting with that $69.95 "suggested" retail, 60-70% goes
to the distributor and retailer.  Of the remainder, $7.50-$10.00 goes
to packaging.  So, we're talking $18 in "profit."  Of this, the programmer
makes 10%.  $1.80 per unit.  So, let's say that leaves the publisher $16.
Are we running this business out of our garage, or as a "real" business?  
We have to pay for returns, "cost of doing business," taxes.  Price office-
space, recently?  WATS lines?  How about advertising?  *One* page in MacWorld 
for $15,000+, depending on how long the ad runs.  Can't keep that up too 
long.  And, judging by the lack of game ads in MacWorld, it's pretty clear
that the advertising doesn't come anywhere near close enough to producing 
enough revenue to make it worthwhile.

How far can YOU make that $1.80 stretch, on royalty payments based on a 5000-
unit life cycle (which may be spread over three years)?  Can you invest in 
newer, better equipment, get married, raise a family, buy a house?  Sure as 
hell NOT.  Ten thousand bucks may seem like a lot to an undergraduate, but
it's a poor return on six months of highly specialized, technical 
work--only $0.60 more than minimum wage, in fact.  And don't forget that
Uncle Sam will skim 15% right off the top, even before you can start 
deducting things (and I won't touch on the absurd issue of having to 
pay estimated taxes, even when you have no IDEA what you're going to make).
But you *do* pay your taxes, don't you?

Oh, and the cream on the pie is: the Macintosh market is largely based on a 
highly adjusted *mail-order* business.  So scratch that $69.95 figure, go
right down to $45, keep the percentages, and the programmer makes even 
less--and the publisher comes damned close to losing his shirt.  The only
way to make it up is VOLUME, and THAT, more than any other reason, is why
publishers favor the PC market.  

The publishing business will provide a game *publisher* with a comfortable, 
middle-class income, if he has three or four programs in his stable.  
It is less than satisfactory for the "routine" programmer. 

Every single program you pirate, and *use*, is *stolen* royalties.  Don't
give ME any self-righteous crap as to how you're helping the industry.
You're nothing more than a common thief.  And I say this actually *believing*
in the concept of "piracy" as a "demo"-service.  It's when users USE the
software, and go to the trouble of copying documentation, that my tolerance
disappears.  Take a loo, fine.  See that the goods are there.  Then call up
MacConnection and buy it.  Game/low-end publishers aren't Microsoft.  We 
can't get away with charging $495 for our software.


You write that companies seemed ecstatic when you offered to send in a 
few bucks to cover yourself, after the fact.  Well, read the above, and you'll
realize that it's because you just carried their profit on the affair.  One
cannot run a business on the concept of charity: that's called "shareware,"
and it doesn't work very well.

Lastly, all you "situational moralists," look at the word: copyright (not
"copywright").  COPY RIGHT.  Right to copy.  The owner of same has that 
right.  You do not.  They have the force of law behind them.  Every country
that supports the concept of intellectual property also supports this 
concept.  You have nothing.  

*Everyone* pirates.  It's a fact of life.  But get the hell out of my face
with this self-justifying crap that it's A-OK, a service to the industry.
If you do it, that's your problem, but justifying it's precisely like a car 
thief saying that what he does "stimulates" the auto industry, since it forces 
the victim to replace his vehicle.

IMHO, anyone who treats the net like some pirate BBS DESERVES to get flamed 
to a crisp.  And, hopefully, publishers are taking down names.





---
Robert Dorsett
rdd@cactus.org
...cs.utexas.edu!cactus.org!rdd
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