you can't use an argument to justify the same argument...

but you do agree it's accessibility and not cost then? or are you saying over 80% of pc games are pirated?

Selling pirated games.. you can then just as well download them :l
Anyway, I buy a game I like because I think it's worth it. But I only started buying them after I found out the online payment system. (Not that I pirated them before, ofcourse, I simply lent them for a while from... a friend <.<. Not that 'lego creator' cares if I downloaded the game for free). If I see a game now that I would want to play, but too expensive for my taste, I wouldn't buy it, nor download it, nor play it. And actually, I see more and more people around me doing the same. I guess that's what you get when you grow up .

Oh, P.S:
WEr can I doqwnlaod big rigs?!? I herd teh game wsa VEry god but can donload ANYWER PLES HELP???!!

Yes, yes I had to say that.

I know some people pirate software simply because 30 days isnt enough to test certain things. I'll have to admit (and I was under 18 when I did it, and I dont do it anymore, and obviously I bought it) I did it with 3dgs. I had a cracked a6.31 pro version, I didnt use any pro features, but tested all the comm. features until I thought I was decent enough with it to know that it was something to could do and would meet my needs.

I don't understand most of the excuses of the pirates. Let us take "low quality" as an example.

If you don't like a product and it's quality why do you have to steal it then? You can just ignore it.

I think the reason is another one. Most of these facts are just an excuse to explain the own behavior and to see yourself in a slightly better light.

The real reason is just the accessibility. If they could steal their food without getting caught - they would do it as well. They are thieves no more - no less.

It will be hard for Cliff Harris to turn the pirates into honest customers just with dropping DRM and improving quality.

"I think the reason is another one. Most of these facts are just an excuse to explain the own behavior and to see yourself in a slightly better light.

The real reason is just the accessibility. If they could steal their food without getting caught - they would do it as well. They are thieves no more - no less."

That is one hundred percent wrong in my case. I have never pirated something that I didnt plan to buy if I found it sufficient. 30 days is just not enough to see if something is worth $200. I dont do it anymore, but I used to and it has nothing to do with trying to see myself in a better light. I just dont feel like spending $200 on something im not going to use.

lostclimate: I was talking about pirated games. I really doubt that someone buys a game after he tested it over a period of 30 days
Then he/she already won the game and played it to the end.

But regarding more expensive tools: The publisher can offer you a test version of that software. If this is not enough then you don't have to buy it. You can tell it the publisher instead of stealing. Often they help you then. Lightwave offers you an unlimited test version in terms of time. But you cannot save.

There must be some restriction to offer an incentive to buy.

Perhaps it's just because most pirates are lazy. Downloading is the easiest and quickest way to play the game. And this is not something you could solve with today technology. Even if you could offer instant play when charging 60 euro, the 60 euro is too expensive to cover the download time of 4GB data.

I do think that in the future, big browser games can't be pirated at all, you have to pay but you can play instantly. It's just a matter of time before game piracy is gone .

"
There must be some restriction to offer an incentive to buy."

yeah, distribution.. in the license you'd not be allowed to distribute your files in anyway, not for free, not for commercial, not even for people to look at. that way the only purpose of using the software is to figure it out and possible get better at it. Also i do like lightwaves idea, the only problem is that if you do it that way, you can only check out so many options because it takes a certain amount of time with a model to see when you need to do something. As far as the games... there really is no excuse... the only thing i could say is those that download old games that you cant find as easy in stores have a small excuse, but not really that good of one.w

One thing nobody has mentioned is that people often feel ripped off by the people selling the software. I think this is a big factor in stealing music. Who cares if you steal a song from a rich cokehead singer right? So who cares if you steal a $50 game from EA, right? the last $50 game you bought legally was a piece of crap. So I think good customer service and PR would cut down on some piracy.
I have seen some of the stuff they sell in Russia, it is outrageous, and they sell it openly on the street. I saw an entire package of microsoft software selling for a fraction of what it should cost. But I think its different in the US. You actually have to work a little harder to get pirated stuff. I think it makes some people feel cool, They feel that they are hacking into the matrix when really all they are doing is shoplifting. So I think that these people also feel like they are fighting against Microsoft, EA games or whatever big evil company they are stealing software from. So maybe Indie games have some immunity from this, and maybe some good PR will reduce piracy. In a town where I use to live one of the movie theaters use to get constantly trashed by people. The manager started getting up before each movie and asking people politely to not make such a mess and keep their feet off the chairs, and it worked. people got to know him and it is hard to trash something when someone personally asks you not to. So I think someone from a software company needs to try to develop good relations with people who are using the product.
But some people will always steal because they can.

that's just ludicrous... you want someone from each software dev company was to personally ask someone using pirated their software not to... this would end up costing more to the consumers, lead to less people buying, then more people pirating, and an absolute opposite or what you'd hope to achieve...

if someone wants to steal something, they'll steal it, simple as. you can't say that if something costs too much it's then justified that these people are then put into the pirates category to make it seem ok of fighting the large corporations

if a car costs too much, people leave it alone and choose a cheaper version... why should the same not happen for software, is it just that cheaper versions of the same software are not available?