[Jerik]

Originally Posted by Skullcowboy

Not really similar. Money is a tangible good. If it is stolen, that money is gone for the original owner. A copy of the original of a piece of software does not stop the original owner from selling that original.

A copy, however, may stop someone from buying it. I agree that is is not an exact correlate, but we can't ignore the fact that piracy could stop a sale.

Originally Posted by Skullcowboy

But what if, after getting the money from the teller and going to spend it somewhere else, you had to wait for someone from the bank to come to where you were to verify that that was your money and it was real?

You must not be an American, because we have the IRS to do that for us

Originally Posted by Skullcowboy

The talk about loss of revenue only really works if you believe, as the industry would have you believe, that each pirated download=1 lost sale.
It just doesn't work that way. There is no way to prove that everyone who pirated a copy would have bought it if they couldn't get it any other way. It also fails to take into account the number of people who use downloads as demo's and if they like it they actually buy the game. This happens more than you think.

This is something I agree on -- however, if you refer to my post, I make calculations using fractions of those numbers. I agree that it is irrational to look at 4 million downloads and assume that equals 4 million lost sales. That said, it is similarly possible that some of those do represent lost sales. I used 1/8th and 1/4th to recognize that in my estimates, so I am asserting that less than half, even, are lost sales. We don't have fair numbers, though, so I suppose it's moot?

Originally Posted by Skullcowboy

Again, that's what the industry likes to trumpet and I don't buy it. Piracy is not what is killing PC games. Making crappy, unfinished and unsupported games is hurting the industry far worse. Stardock is a great example. Minimal (and sometimes no) DRM. And they SELL a LOT of copies. Because they make good games AND they cater to customers, not pirates.
Yet EA's Spore, despite heavy DRM, was one of the most pirated games in history. The only people inconvenienced were the legitimate customers (and there were problems, check EA's forums).
It still sold over a million copies on the PC alone. I didn't like it but hey...

I agree with both of these points. I do not own any Stardock games, but my friend does, and loves them for their stance on DRM. Spore was a massive disappointment for me, with multiple reasons. I suspect my problem, though, is that even if it's not an issue (though we're lacking definitive evidence), it is still a deterrent for publishers. Consider the music industry -- evidence has shown that DRM decreases purchases and P2P increases them, and yet the RIAA continues to piss and moan.

I don't think piracy is the only factor, but I also don't think it's a nonfactor. It fits into the equation, and until we can get that under control, I fear big publishers are just going to be too damn scared to make any moves in the PC world; such that the industry will stagnate.