Nintendo: Broader, Awful Anti-Piracy Measures Are Sure To Turn Our Fortunes Around!

from the save-the-princess-from-bad-policy dept

Nintendo isn't having quite as much fun as normal lately, the launch of their Wii-U console not being particularly well-received in the market, over-shadowed by the launch of much more powerful and compelling hardware by Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo recently slashed the company's original full-year Wii U sales forecast by nearly 70% to 2.8 million units. It's not all sour; Nintendo's 3DS unit has been a smashing success overall (at least according to my Animal Crossing animal friends), sales of the 3DS are up, and despite some piracy threats from recent flashcart advances, 3DS software sales are clicking right along, with Nintendo recently stating 2013 was a "record year" for both 3DS hardware and software sales, 3DS software sales in particular are up 45% year over year.

Still, low Wii-U sales leave Nintendo in a tough spot, forcing the game company into a bit of an existential crisis. What can possibly turn around the living room fortunes of one of the world's most-adored gaming companies? Developing better games? Better scrutiny of third-party game quality? Developing a less gimmicky home console with enough power to battle Sony and Microsoft while retaining Nintendo's unique charm? Leveraging the inexhaustible energy of your massive fanboy base to generate clean, renewable energy for years to come?

A large portion of Nintendo calories that could be directed to those pursuits are instead being directed at convincing the U.S government to pressure Brazil, China, Mexico and Spain into imposing tougher anti-piracy countermeasures. Nintendo informs the U.S. government they've suffered "heavy losses" in those countries, which should be encouraged to embrace blocking websites and turning ISPs into liable Internet content nannies (both things that have clearly worked so well up until now). According to Nintendo's letter to the U.S. government, 16% of all online piracy of Nintendo products traces back to Spain:

"Since so many illegal video games are downloaded in Spain from foreign-based cyberlockers, and accessed through cyberlinkers or P2P linking sites hosted outside Spain, the IPC must address this issue by authorizing the blocking of linking sites,” Nintendo writes."

Except that much of that Spanish content is hosted here in the States, where Nintendo hasn't made the same recommendations. Nintendo would also very much like it if the United States would "train" and "educate" the Spanish legal system on how to properly treat piracy (read: a swift and heavy fist entirely detached from an operational brain):

"The Spanish Government should work with the U.S. Government and rights holders to provide necessary IP training to Spanish prosecutors, judges and IPC officials, particularly focusing on Internet piracy and effective online investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of criminal copyright infringement on the Internet."

Which, again, should really be efficient since most of those sites are hosted in the United States, combined with the problem that these kinds of efforts don't work (or wind up impacting legitimate businesses and websites). My Animal Crossing animal friends go on at nauseating length about how instead of wasting energy on bad anti-piracy policy, Nintendo could instead focus that energy on better hardware and games (and perhaps a new fountain for the Animal Crossing town square) -- but what do they know.

Filed Under: piracy, video games, wii u
Companies: nintendo

Pixel Piracy Makers Offer Pirates Pirated Pirate Game

from the doint-it-right dept

More and more we see stories of content producers recognizing piracy as the opportunity it actually represents. It isn't universal, but these stories tend to happen in the following way. Upstart or established producer releases content, realizes it's being pirated, and then finds some way to make use of that admittedly non-paying interest. The Angry Birds people did it, as have independent filmmakers and entire music markets. The idea here is to push emotion to the side when you find your work being pirated and attempt to make use of the piracy.

It's an entirely different matter, however, when a producer proactively attempts to slingshot themselves to success on the backs of "piracy" they themselves create. It's not an entirely new concept by any means, but they're far too rare. That's what makes it worth highlighting it when such stories come up, such as this latest example of two game producers who created the Pixel Piracy side-scroller and then offered up a torrent of the game on their own website.

Here is a direct torrent link that we will personally seed to our currently available version of the game. We aren't idiots, we aren't high. We believe that anyone who wants to pirate our game will do so anyways, and feel it's a much safer bet to offer those people the official link to our game in hopes that they keep their computer's virus free.

If you LIKE the game you can support us in a number of ways besides purchasing the title outright. Steam greenlight is very important to us right now, and a vote for it DOES make a difference, and your warm reception on our IndieDB review page is what pushed us to initially take this decision. Not everything is about money, and we want to thank those that pirate our title and actually give them the opportunity to do so with our blessing, while giving them an opportunity to actually make good on the piracy itself. Tell your friends about us, share the link around IF and only IF you enjoy the game, and if you DON'T enjoy it at least you didn't have to pay for it!

Vitali Kirpu and Alexander Poysky

Now, I imagine we'll get the usual unimaginative arguments from the usual sources, typically centered on the idea that Kirpu and Poysky aren't Sid Meier, so it doesn't count, or how they somehow have nothing to lose or whatever. Unfortunately for those detractors, results count, and their decision to behave in an awesome fashion is causing many to support their efforts to be "greenlit" on Steam. And, in the meantime, the word of mouth campaign is putting their game in spotlights all over the place.

Now, they would have been well within their rights to keep their creation locked up behind the official barriers instead. And they could have been pissed off should their game be pirated afterwards. Going this route, however, they instead get a ton of exposure for their games, themselves, and they get to leave all the anger and angst by the wayside. Bravo.

Filed Under: copyright, piracy, pixel piracy, video games

Surprise: MPAA Told It Can't Use Terms 'Piracy,' 'Theft' Or 'Stealing' During Hotfile Trial

from the a-bit-of-good-news dept

I knew that Hotfile had been pushing for this, but I'm somewhat happily surprised to see Judge Kathleen Williams of the US district court in Southern Florida grant Hotfile's motion to bar the MPAA from using "pejorative terms" in its copyright infringement case against the company. Among the words that the movie studios cannot use in describing Hotfile's activity: "piracy," "theft" and "stealing." We've been pointing out for many years how the industry has been using these kinds of misleading terms to influence pretty much everyone to their side, even though the terms are not even remotely accurate. Hotfile had reasonably argued that such terms could negatively influence the jury:

In the present case, there is no evidence that the Defendants (or Hotfile’s founders) are ‘pirates’ or ‘thieves,’ nor is there evidence that they were ‘stealing’ or engaged in ‘piracy’ or ‘theft.’ Even if the Defendants had been found to have directly infringed on the Plaintiffs’ copyrights, such derogatory terms would add nothing to the Plaintiffs’ case, but would serve to improperly inflame the jury.

The MPAA tried to argue that these were commonly used, but apparently the judge realized that using these misleading words really would be unfair. Hopefully other courts follow suit.

Filed Under: copyright, infringement, juries, pejorative, piracy, stealing, theft
Companies: hotfile, mpaa

Divine Approval: That Time When The Vatican Pirated Video Games

from the holy-shit dept

So, hey, you know how people who have pirated video games are the devil, the great Satan, beings of pure evil with nothing but ill-will on their minds? You know how the question of piracy and how producers react to it isn't one of economics, but a question of morality? We may have a problem here. It turns out that last year's version of Football Manager, a game series that involves the apparently enjoyable task of managing a football (soccer) club, included some code that tracked the IP address of anyone who attained the game through unauthorized channels. When the makers of the game went back recently to study the results, they found that 10-plus million copies of the game were pirated, predominantly within China, Turkey and Portugal, obviously an Axis of Evil Soccer Fans. Then they stumbled across this:

Italy was also up there in the rankings though, and of the 547,000 copies Sega were able to trace to the country, one was from inside the Vatican.

Now, it's been some time since I was in Sunday School, but it seems to me that if the center of an organization that I was told was run by an infallible man in a giant hat through which God's official decisions on morality are made is pirating video games, then that's kosher (editor's note: damn it, Tim, you're mixing up religions again).

Okay, okay, so I'm obviously joking. Piracy taking place within the halls of the Vatican of course doesn't make that action any more right than some of the other terrible things each and every religion has done in the past. We're all human, after all. And perhaps we should give a tip of our hats to the producers of the game, who seem to be acting a bit more reasonable and human on the piracy subject than many of their peers.

While ten million pirated copies is cause for alarm, Football Manager boss Miles Jacobson is realistic about what it actually meant for his studio, saying that one pirated copy did not equal one sale lost. By their calculations, it added up to 176,000 lost sales, or $3.7 million in revenue.

While I'd still stipulate that I'd like to look at their "calculations", this is a far cry from the "each pirated copy is a lost sale" claim. So good on you, Miles Jacobson. Perhaps your reasonable words will give you a special spot in Heaven. But if that doesn't do the trick, I think there's someone in the Vatican that owes you a favor.

Filed Under: piracy, vatican, video games

Antigua Still Threatening To Launch Its WTO-Endorsed Legal Piracy Site, But We've Heard That Before

from the any-day-now dept

In a dispute that's dragged on for over a decade, it appears that Antigua is, once again, making noises about how this time it's really, really, really going to do what the WTO has said it can do: set up a legal platform to infringe on American copyrights as a form of official payback for the US clearly violating a trade agreement with Antigua by outlawing online gambling. We've covered this dispute and all its twists and turns for years, but the short summary is that Antigua won at every turn, even as the US tried to once declare victory where it had lost. The US even tried to just say it could unilaterally change the trade agreement, which is not how those things work.

Of course, Antigua is a small country, so how does it "get back" at the US after such a win, when it's clear that the US doesn't care at all about the WTO saying it violated the agreement? Well, some folks had the bright idea that perhaps Antigua could just violate American copyrights, and pirate their way to the equivalent value of what the US should be paying. That idea was first floated around 2006, and it seemed like a joke. However, it continued to gain steam. Of course, the real idea behind these sorts of things is that Antigua and the WTO hope that this will make the RIAA and MPAA go running to the US government and beg them to come to some sort of settlement in which gobs of cash are sent from the US Treasury to Antigua. It's a well-known trick in trade wars: co-opt some powerful lobbyists who really shouldn't have any dog in the actual fight, and get them on your side. It happens in trade disputes quite often.

Of course, in the years since the WTO first gave its stamp of approval to this plan, what we've seen is every so often, Antigua makes a public statement along the lines of, "Hey! we're really going to do it!" and the US responds with "You'd better not!" and then there's silence for a year or two, and the dance starts all over again. Apparently it's time for that dance again, because Antigua is making very public that it's really, no really (do you hear that USTR?) really, really, really planning to move forward this time. No, really. They even had a meeting about it. And they're going to set up a body to "manage and operate" the platform. They also claim that they'll soon let private companies bid on participating. And... of course, they knock the US for "failing to negotiate."

I imagine that at some point the US will do another "Oh no, you'd better not!" statement, and then we'll be waiting around for another six to nine months before Antigua insists that it's really, really, no really moving forward with it this time. Really. Guys. Really. We mean it this time.

Filed Under: antigua, copyright, infringement, piracy, trade wars, wto

As MPAA Insists TV Piracy Is So Harmful, Breaking Bad Creator Explains How Piracy Helped

from the but-of-course dept

At this point, it's amazing how tone deaf the MPAA remains about the impact of people downloading TV shows. Just a few days ago, the MPAA posted a silly blog post arguing that people getting copies of The Walking Dead from unauthorized sources demonstrated how "content theft is a complex problem... that needs to be taken seriously." Except, a day or so later, the creator of AMC's other super popular show (now concluded) Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, explained how piracy really helped the show build its base and become so popular:

"[It] led to a lot of people watching the series who otherwise would not have."

Of course, at this point, this shouldn't be surprising. Folks behind Game of Thrones have more or less said the same thing. Of course, they also try to hedge their claims. Gilligan, for example, followed up his statement above with the following:

"The downside is a lot of folks who worked on the show would have made more money, myself included, if all those downloads had been legal."

Except, that's wrong. Or, rather, it's fantasy-world. If people hadn't pirated it, Breaking Bad would have had a much smaller audience, and likely a much shorter run. Recent interviews with the writing staff suggested they expected the show to be cancelled many times throughout the run. If it wasn't getting more and more viewers, it seems likely that it would have been canceled much earlier, and Gilligan's reputation and brand wouldn't be as wonderful as it is currently. It seems quite likely that it would have resulted in him making less money both from Breaking Bad itself and from future projects, where he'll now be able to command a much larger paycheck, given this success.

The MPAA is right that it's "complex," but the constant drumbeat that it's a problem that needs to be fixed seems to ignore the reality that those who have embraced much more widespread distribution and the benefits it provides, have found that it's not necessarily a problem at all. It's only a problem for those who fail to capitalize on it (and, we should note, that "failing to capitalize on new opportunities" is sort of a trademark of the MPAA).

Filed Under: attention, breaking bad, piracy, the walking dead, vince gilligan
Companies: amc, mpaa

When Will Hollywood Stop Blaming Everyone Else And Help Itself?

from the stop-blaming-others dept

Just last month, we talked about two studies released by Hollywood. The first was one from the MPAA itself, which (as happens all too often) focused heavily on blaming Google for its supposed problems in monetizing the online world. It used some highly questionable methodology to suggest that people doing searches ended up downloading unauthorized flicks. This was released in coordination with a Congressional hearing on copyright, in which the message pushed by the MPAA's sister organization, the RIAA, was "what we really need is for Google to help us return to our former glory." Oddly, that same day, NBC Universal released the second version of its own "piracy" study, which aimed to show how "big" the problem was. However, as we noted with both this and the original version of that study, when you look at the data, it shows pretty clearly that the "problem" is one that Hollywood has made for itself. That is, when good, convenient and reasonably priced offerings hit the market, an awful lot of video watching moved to those authorized offerings. It's when those offerings were missing entirely that the amount of unauthorized access seemed to shoot up.

Inspired, in part, by the thinking about these studies and claims, Jerry Brito from the Mercatus Center teamed up with Eli Dourado and Matt Sherman to launch a new site called piracydata.org, which attempts to collect (and visualize and -- most importantly -- make available) data that shows whether or not the most "pirated" works each week are available for legal access. It's still at a small sample size so far, but the initial results don't speak well to Hollywood's claims that it's adapted to the digital era. The MPAA's attempt to talk its way out of the hole it's dug itself is kind of funny. Basically it's a "hey, squirrel!" response.

The Walking Dead was pirated 500,000 times within 16 hours despite the fact that it is available to stream for free for the next 27 days on AMC's website and distributed in 125 countries around the world the day after it aired. Our industry is working hard to bring content to audiences when they want it, where they want it, but content theft is a complex problem that requires comprehensive, voluntary solutions from all stakeholders involved.

Now, if you're not the MPAA and so tied up and confused by unauthorized access, you might look at that information and realize that putting it on AMC's website was probably the mistake. That's not where people look for stuff these days. Yes, they made it free, but they didn't make it convenient, meaning they didn't put it in a form that some portion of consumers want, and watching it directly on AMC's website appears to take a large group out of their natural flow. That's something that Hollywood could learn from, but it never does. It just points the blame finger.

However, the data continues to be fairly overwhelming that the "piracy problem" is a problem of Hollywood's own making. It could solve it if it wanted to, by focusing on making more content more widely available in more convenient ways and prices. Yet, instead, it wants to blame everyone else and order them around to "fix" a problem of it's own making.

Filed Under: authorized access, availability, convenience, copyright, hollywood, infringement, movies, piracy

Netflix Uses Piracy As Market Research, Isn't Afraid Of It Because It Knows It Can Offer A Better Service

from the but-of-course dept

We've been amazed at how few players in the traditional entertainment business recognize two basic facts: (1) file sharing is a form of free market research to get a very accurate picture of what people are demanding and (2) the best way to beat it is to offer a better overall experience. Of course, it shouldn't be any surprise at all that a company that does get both of those things is Netflix. TorrentFreak has the details of Netflix execs flat out admitting that they monitor file sharing sites to determine what to buy:

This week Netflix rolled out its service in the Netherlands and the company’s Vice President of Content Acquisition, Kelly Merryman, says that their offering is partly based on what shows do well on BitTorrent networks and other pirate sites.

“With the purchase of series, we look at what does well on piracy sites,” Merryman told Tweakers.

One of the shows that Netflix acquired the rights to in the Netherlands is Prison Break, since it is heavily pirated locally. “Prison Break is exceptionally popular on piracy sites,” Merryman says.

And, at the same time, the company isn't worried about the competition, because it knows (as people have been trying to explain to the legacy players for years), the best way to deal with infringement is to compete:

In a separate interview Netflix CEO Reed Hastings adds that his company is aware of the many people who download content without permission via torrent sites. However, this is not exclusively a bad thing, as it also creates demand for the content Netflix is offering.

“Certainly there’s some torrenting that goes on, and that’s true around the world, but some of that just creates the demand,” Hastings says.

Eventually these BitTorrent users may want to switch to Netflix as it’s a much better user experience than torrenting, according to the CEO.

“Netflix is so much easier than torrenting. You don’t have to deal with files, you don’t have to download them and move them around. You just click and watch,” Hastings says.

What's amazing, of course, is that the entertainment industry's strategy works against all of this. They focus on trying to crack down on infringement through legal efforts, driving much of this underground, and making it that much harder to understand what the market wants. At the same time, they try to squeeze more and more money out of the legitimate services by jacking up rates to unprofitable levels, making it more and more difficult to license the works. And when companies like Netflix can't license everything, that's when customers are less willing to pay.

It's a strategy that makes the problem worse, while they keep insisting they need to do it to make the situation better.

Filed Under: competition, convenience, market research, piracy
Companies: netflix

Kevin Spacey: Give Users Control, What They Want, When They Want It, At A Fair Price, And Stop Worrying About Piracy

from the well,-duh dept

It appears that Kevin Spacey gets what so many of us have been saying for over a decade: piracy isn't so much a problem as it is a statement of demand from users. And the way to "beat" piracy is to do a better job of offering fans what they want, in a manner they want it, at a reasonable price. Spacey recently gave a talk in Edinburgh in which he discussed the success of House of Cards, the "TV show" that he released via Netflix with all episodes coming out at once. First he discussed the ridiculous hoops that regular networks wanted them to go through, having to first film a pilot and go through the hell of "pilot season" that every network does each year, but then he made the same basic point that many of us have been making for so long: Here's the key part:

Clearly the success of the Netflix model, releasing the entire season of House of Cards at once, proved one thing: the audience wants the control. They want the freedom. If they want to binge... we should let them binge.... And through this new form of distribution, we have demonstrated that we have learned the lesson that the music industry didn't learn: give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it. Well, some will still steal it, but I think we can take a bite out of piracy.

Ignoring the misleading use of "steal," he's making exactly the right point. Nothing (absolutely nothing) does away with all copyright infringement. But if you can get a huge number of people to give you money, it doesn't matter. And the best way to get more people to give you money (and, in fact, to give you more money) is to give people more of what they want. That includes good content, but also convenience, ease of use, and reasonable pricing.

He goes on to say a few more things worth listening too, including the fact that people want good stories, whether they're in movies, TV shows, video games or something else, and the entertainment industry has a real opportunity to deliver it.

The clip is five minutes long and worth watching. The point, as we've been saying for years, is not to justify "piracy" or infringement, but to show that the "piracy" problem might not be a problem at all if you can give people a good reason to buy. Spacey did that with House of Cards, and it's good to see more people realizing that piracy isn't the problem, but the symptom -- and the solution is a combination of good content, innovation, and recognizing that you need to treat the fans right, rather than as criminals.

Filed Under: control, copyright, fans, house of cards, infringement, kevin spacey, piracy
Companies: netflix

Time Warner CEO Says Having Game Of Thrones As 'Most Pirated' Is 'Better Than An Emmy'

from the starting-to-realize dept

Because it's so popular -- and so pirated (in part because you can't view it legally online if you're not an HBO subscriber via cable/satellite) -- the question of Game of Thrones and piracy is a story that just never dies. Many people have argued that it's ridiculous that there are no legal options for cord cutters, and that just leads to more infringement -- and, in turn, that's resulted in people arguing that a good part of the show's popularity is likely due to infringement. Of course, for those associated directly with the show, it seems like they're a bit conflicted about this. Director David Petrarca first said that unauthorized downloads were great because they added to the cultural buzz that made the show thrive... and once that story got attention, he quickly walked it back, suddenly saying he was opposed to unauthorized watching. And, bizarrely, we've even seen the US ambassador to Australia argue that stopping infringement of Game of Thrones is a major priority.

Well, Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich might want to chat with Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner (owners of HBO), who just pointed out that unauthorized watching leads to more subscribers and is "better than an Emmy."

Yes, in response to a question about whether the network kinda-sorta regards the extensive theft of HBO's flagship show, Game of Thrones, as a compliment, Bewkes said, "I have to admit it, I think you're right." The much-discussed fantasy series is HBO's most popular, and "if you go to people who are watching it without subs, it's a tremendous word-of-mouth thing," the exec told investors. "We've been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you're right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world," he said. "That's better than an Emmy."

Of course, plenty of people have been pointing out for years and years and years that infringement is a signal of unmet demand, so it's nice to see them catching up. Of course, now let's see if Time Warner still backs the next ridiculous and draconian copyright enforcement expansion...

Filed Under: copyright, game of thrones, hbo, infringement, jeff bewkes, piracy
Companies: time warner