Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!tjs From: tjs@cs.monash.edu.au (Toby Sargeant) Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.freetalk,scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: anti-mod chip / pirating / backups / etc. Date: 14 Feb 1999 22:42:04 GMT Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 39 Message-ID: References: <7a0a6u$714@scea> <36C40EC4.E4082468@datasys.net> <7a187m$o0v10@chuka.playstation.co.uk> <36C488C0.8DF59CF0@datasys.net> <7a2cd1$2i83@scea> <7a3pvs$7op11@chuka.playstation.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: longford.cs.monash.edu.au X-Newsreader: slrn (0.9.4.3 UNIX) Xref: chuka.playstation.co.uk scea.yaroze.freetalk:1196 scee.yaroze.freetalk.english:3494 On Wed, 10 Feb 1999 12:00:24 -0000, Nick Ferguson wrote: >I disagree. > >Having NO protection just seems an invitation to piracy - imagine if EVERY >PlayStation could run pirate games "out-the-box" - it would be a nightmare >for Sony (and I can't see it doing the industry any good, either). Far It hasn't _really_ hurt the majority of software/hardware vendors in the past. It doesn't help, of course, that SONY have their fingers in the software pie, but then so have other hardware manufacturers, throughout the ages. Ideally, one of two things should happen: Game prices should fall to something comparable to the price of the raw media, at which point people won't bother pirating software. Yes, I understand that games developers have to make a crust somehow, but: a) software sales would go up a lot b) there are probably many indirect ways to make money from software (advertising is an example) c) maybe it's better for our society that a small proportion of people don't make a large proportion of the money. or Games become free, but are distributed via a pay-tv like system, which allows you to play anything you like for a fixed monthly cost. Developers are paid money in proportion to the overall popularity of their software. Again, there'll be piracy, but the vast majority of users will be happy to just pay for what they want. Ideally, then, it would become possible for independent developers to use the same kind of network to distribute stuff that they'd written (although possibly subject to some form of censorship rating, which, by the way, would be much more enforcable than little stickers on the front of videogames). If it's no good, people won't download it. Just some thoughts, Toby.