Angry Birds Boss: 'Piracy May Not Be A Bad Thing: It Can Get Us More Business'

guardian.co.uk:

"Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day."

Read the whole story: guardian.co.uk

Comments

[Trebot]

08:29 PM on 01/30/2012

As a kid I remember trading and borrowing video games with my friends. Same with toys. I remember taping songs of the radio, making VCR tapes of movies, and giving them to my friends.

When I buy a book and I'm done reading it, I many times give it to a friend to read. I'm sure Steven King's publishing company would love to make laws to force them to buy their own copy.

I'm waiting for the day when I can't loan my truck to my friend for moving day. He must buy his own so he's not stealing potential earnings from Ford.

"I'm full. Would you like half my burger honey?" McDonald's guy comes over and stops me. "Sorry sir we sold YOU that burger. If she doesn't buy her own Johnny the patty cooker will have to go home early."

[Turukano]

06:48 PM on 01/30/2012

There seems to be a lot of effort going into rationalizing the idea that taking something that "belongs" to someone else isn't stealing. If a product is offered for sale, and you find a way to get hold of it without paying for it, you're stealing it. Whether or not it can be copied for next to nothing. The price of production isn't in the replication, it's in the time, effort, imagination, etc. to create the artifact that is then copied for distribution. Which time, effort and so on carry a direct cost in that they were not allocated toward some other money-making venture. Why are so many so dedicated to trying to come up with an ethics that excuses taking the fruits of someone else's labors, and all the investment underlying that final product, without compensating them for it

[Cael]

02:40 PM on 01/30/2012

finally someone that gets it. Piracy can in many ways be free advertising. There was a time back in the PC gaming era that it felt like publishers purposely leaked games weeks before release to pirates. it seemed to happen too often for it to be a coincidence, like every publisher had a leak in their operation.
Pirates would get it and distribute and people would start talking about the game. Truth is only a very small fraction of people download full games, most would purchase. So this put out buzz about the game without the publisher having to spend millions of dollars in advertising.

so in the end, they probably made more money.

[Turukano]

06:58 PM on 01/30/2012

Baloney.

[Charles W Noble]

01:24 PM on 01/30/2012

We seem to have developed these Holy Cows in our system that are never challenged. One is that Piracy is bad. But our best business people were nothing if not Pirates. Steve Jobs was the ultimate Pirate. And his company is creating jobs - less than they should but more than nothing. It's one thing to talk about protection of private property, but do it for the right reasons not for wrong arguments. There is always scientific articles about how piracy is costing our economy money. But like all budgets, there is two sides to the equation: Revenue and cost. We can talk about the cost, but that's half the argument. The next question is: What kind of benefits does it produce?

[KarateKid]

01:16 PM on 01/30/2012

The RIAA needs to become more practical. You can now buy apps, like TuneIn Radio, where you can record songs you hear on any number of stations. It saves it from beginning to end and you can put them into a library.

Now, if that is illegal, why go after the end user? Isn't that the problem of the app maker?

[KeepNIt2Real]

10:49 AM on 01/30/2012

I feel Rovio has it right. There are music artists who understand this as well. They even thank their fans for downloading their albums or mixtapes if they haven't paid for them because it establishes or maintains a "fan base". If you squeeze the consumer, you lose them.

Rovio's pitch could be this too: If consumers buy non-licensed products and see the lack of quality, they WILL go buy the original!

This same principal has helped the Jordan brand become a household name all over the globe with kids into sneaks. Rovio is learning this from other companies and I think they've nailed a very important consumer tactic and concept.

[anthonyparker80]

10:32 AM on 01/30/2012

He says that until his company comes up with a less "me-too" product