Heavy Rain

[Mikal_Drey]

I'm not saying that EA et al. don't deserve their profits and the rampant profiteering argument is a separate issue altogether.

Game are not breaking any copyrights either.

Piracy is the reproduction of the content and comes under copyright law the pirate makes copies then sells the copies. what Game are doing is reselling property and is covered differently. The game has never been reproduced and is simply changing hands multiple times. There is a difference.

One of the reasons ebay is so successful is because of this difference and no one will call into question the validity of reselling your property. Once you purchase the game from the store it becomes your property. The intellectual rights are protected under copyright and the owner cannot reproduce or use the content without express permission.

I am also not arguing that the second hand market is right or wrong only that it has become essential to the industry.

Publishers are making a mint from second hand sales but no one ever questions that. Nobody questions how much profit is being made by publishers.

Developers have sold their souls to the publishers. Developer studios get paid by the publisher and the more savvy of them protect their IP (this is protected under copyright) Looking through the EA report there is no mention of the expenditure made to the developer studios. I will speculate that they are paid outright for the rights to the title and also speculate that some are paid in royalties

Feel free to read the Take 2 Report as there is an interesting section about Agreements with developers and Intellectual property rights. Which will support my above statement.

[LeeRoye]

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Squidooer wrote:

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Mikal_Drey wrote:

EA made 221mil in one quarter compared to games 15mil for a year and you still believe that the retailer is in the wrong ?

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Yup ... EA make the games they deserve the profit, whilst Game's profit is from breaking copyright.

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Mikal_Drey wrote:Piracy is not the same.

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Let's see ... a pirate buys 1 copy of a game, reproduces it and sells 10 copies of it - outcome games producers get paid for 1 copy, pirate keeps profit from the 10 extra copies.

Game shop sells 1 copy of a game, buys it back and resells it 10 times - outcome games producers get paid for 1 copy, Game keeps the profit from reselling the game an extra 10 times.

Both scenarios the games producers only get paid for one copy --- so where is the difference?

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Last time i checked piracy is illegal, selling second hand games is not, so whats your argument then, i must have missed something?

[zinep]

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Squidooer wrote:

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Mikal_Drey wrote:

EA made 221mil in one quarter compared to games 15mil for a year and you still believe that the retailer is in the wrong ?

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Yup ... EA make the games they deserve the profit, whilst Game's profit is from breaking copyright.

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Mikal_Drey wrote:Piracy is not the same.

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Let's see ... a pirate buys 1 copy of a game, reproduces it and sells 10 copies of it - outcome games producers get paid for 1 copy, pirate keeps profit from the 10 extra copies.

Game shop sells 1 copy of a game, buys it back and resells it 10 times - outcome games producers get paid for 1 copy, Game keeps the profit from reselling the game an extra 10 times.

Both scenarios the games producers only get paid for one copy --- so where is the difference?

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The difference is that in one case there's a copyright violation, in the other there is none.

copyright .. Try reading it as "right to copy". The creator is the only one to have the right to create/authorize copies.

Piracy violates that.

Selling second hand copy does not, as no new copies are produced.

[zinep]

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LeeRoye wrote:

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Squidooer wrote:
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Let's see ... a pirate buys 1 copy of a game, reproduces it and sells 10 copies of it - outcome games producers get paid for 1 copy, pirate keeps profit from the 10 extra copies.

Game shop sells 1 copy of a game, buys it back and resells it 10 times - outcome games producers get paid for 1 copy, Game keeps the profit from reselling the game an extra 10 times.

Both scenarios the games producers only get paid for one copy --- so where is the difference?

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Last time i checked piracy is illegal, selling second hand games is not, so whats your argument then, i must have missed something?

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I think the argument he's trying to make is that there's a moral equivalence. (Exactly like the reasoning behind "piracy = theft", I suppose (incidentally, I guess that by that argument, selling second-hand copies is "theft")).