I think I'll just start off now by saying that I do not approve of piracy in any way. But, as shocked as all of you will no doubt be by this statement, I kind of agree with Bastich. It's not that I don't consider pirates to be "real criminals." But I think it's not always the black and white issue that most people make it out to be. Historically piracy only occurs when producers in a market charge prices that are just completely unfair. If the prices weren't so high nobody would risk buying it illegally. They'd just buy it the same as anybody else. In a way, that's how it is with software right now. $50 for a game is kind of expensive even in America. And in some other countries there's no way anybody can afford to buy a game legally. Again, I'm not condoning the actions of any pirate. But neither am I going to sit here and cry that some publishing company can't reap its 300% profit, of which the people who made the game will only see a fraction.
But as remixor points out, the real victims are the developers. They're the ones I feel bad for. First they get cheated by the publisher. Then they get cheated by the pirates.
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