[marknutter]

And so are you suggesting that if it had DRM it wouldn't have seen such a high piracy rate? The fact is, there's going to be some level of piracy no matter what you do. There will always be people out there who will obtain the game but would have never otherwise bought the game. There will always be people out there for whom $20 is a reasonable price and will gladly pay it to obtain the game. It's up to the game author to determine the optimal price point to maximize their return. The option of preventing piracy, frankly, will never exist (barring egregious internet freedom encroachments). And people like you can continue to feel morally superior to everyone, if it helps you sleep at night.

[citricsquid]

The blog post presented a supposed solution: make it easy for people to acquire something legally and they will acquire it legally. However World of Goo is a perfect example that this is just not the case, even if the product is literally perfect piracy will remain rampant. Why would a company bother investing huge amounts of money into creating a "perfect" tv/movie distribution platform if it's going to make barely any difference to the amount of piracy? I wasn't suggesting DRM is good (I don't like DRM) I was suggesting that piracy is not a result of a poor product it's a result of the consumers desire to get stuff for free.

[PeterisP]

The solution is a bit different - "make it easy for people to acquire something legally and they will acquire it legally." means that there will be a lot of people (group A) who will acquire it legally and you'll get a lot of money from that market.

It doesn't say anything about the group B who'll pirate it anyways, no matter what you do with DRM.

[pc86]

Does 80% really qualify as "some level of piracy?"

Clearly there is a group of people who will always pirate what they want, regardless of the price or what it is (movies, TV shows, games, Photoshop). If that's the case, then I think it's also fair to say that there is a certain group of people for whom even the smallest bit of DRM would cause them to either go without the movie/show/program (I think the most likely) or buy it outright.

[i_cannot_hack]

    > even the smallest bit of DRM would cause them to [...] 
    > go without the movie/show/program (I think the most likely)

And this would benefit the producer how? It would only serve to reduce the userbase, and thereby dampening the word-of-mouth spread and the perceived popularity the game, thus harming the sales of the product.

Of course, it those people bought the game instead, it could make up for it. But you said it was the less likely scenario.

[Nursie]

"I think it's also fair to say that there is a certain group of people for whom even the smallest bit of DRM would cause them to either go without the movie/show/program"

Really?

Because the pirate 'products' I've seen tend not to come with any DRM. DRM only affects the legit versions.

[jamespo]

I don't read that as he feels morally superior, but even if he does it's only over pirates, not everyone