Video Game Piracy is the Biggest Issue Facing the Video Game Industry

Bullock, Richard, and Goggin, Maureen D, and Weinberg, Francine, editors. The Norton Field Guide to writing with readings and handbook. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

The network effects in the video game industry are derived from the console system that is sold to consumers. If a company is able to increase penetration in this arena, though at-cost/ below-cost pricing or pull created through the development of desirable content, it can potentially lock in the added value of the video games sold for the system. Which is to say, the console locks-in the network effects in the industry and the games serve to reap the profits. The video games, however, may present something of a challenge in that they can be somewhat easily replicated by competitors. Nintendo used an encrypted chip system to reduce this possibility.

Alex Weiss wrote, “Should Gamers Be Prosecuted for Virtual Stealing” which compares virtual laws to real life laws. The thesis of his argument is “video games are not work or investments for which people should be compensated; they are escapism” (Weiss). He is saying that what happens in a video game should stay in a video game. It should have no correlation to the outside world. One an example he gives to support his thesis is,” These projects may seem foolish to those outside of the gaming world but they represent a great a deal to their creators. And these hopes and dreams can be destroyed rapidly by another player who just wan to be a jerk” (Weiss 732). He says right there that a player could spend months on making something when in just

banned and victims’ lost goods are refunded.” Weiss then goes on to point out how in

Summary: In this article a situation involving two parties is broken down and explained. First there is the victim who claims he was stolen from on a virtual game called runescape. While the other party is the thief who is being charged with theft. The writer states his opinion throughout the piece and makes it very apparent that this is childish. However the victim felt it was enough to take to federal court. The victim claims that the thief stole a amulet and a sword from him in the game. The reason he feels he can take this 13 year old to court is because he invested money in the subscription and also time to obtain the virtual currency to buy these items. The big issue with this case however is the fact that the thief used violent actions with his virtual character to obtain the objects from the owner. The writer goes on to state that it is a virtual game and therefore no crime was committed. This case in the end concluded in court that the thief believes that it was a crime and sentences the 13 year old to 145 hours of community service.

Now the question is, how can we stop people pirating games altogether? The answer is: we can’t, at least not without violating the 1st amendment as some people have argued in the case of passing legislation on the matter:

Darrell Panethiere wrote in “The Persistence Of Piracy” on page 2 that “'Piracy refers to the activity of manufacturing unauthorised copies ('pirate copies') of protected material and dealing with such copies by way of distribution and

Computer piracy has been a discussion point for a long time, but many people view piracy differently. I decided to find out how BSA defines piracy. BSA (The Software Alliance) is the leading advocate for the global software industry. BSA defines piracy as, “unauthorized use or distribution of copyrighted software. It includes downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies of licensed software. Unlicensed software use also includes license infringement – installing a piece of software more times than the license permits – as well as sharing software license codes, uploading software codes to websites so others can download and use it, sharing software license codes or activation keys, as well as user IDs and passwords for web-based software applications.” ("Compliance & Enforcement," n.d.)

Piracy also often introduces infrastructure and security concerns. The sites used for software and media piracy often leave visitors with malware, viruses and spyware, which can compromise private business data and

Music piracy is the large-scale, unauthorized duplication of recorded music with the intent to defraud the copyright holder of his/her royalties (English).

When people buy music, they get legal rights to that purchase, known as Intellectual Property (IP). But some people do not like to buy music. Whether they know it or not, they use piracy as their way to get music. They use softwares, look music up on the internet, or find somebody selling it. Piracy can be destructive to people or organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). People

Video games are played by over 1.2 billion people. Video games have had an impact on the culture that we live in today. There are video games that can help educate the kids, and there are games that are used for entertainment. There is a problem though, that problem is that a lot of people think video games cause kids to commit crimes. Video games do not cause kids to commit criminal behavior.

The controversial topic of video game addiction is what I have decided to focus my multi-genre research project on. Although a multitude of people do not even know of the existence of such a problem in today's society, I can assure you that this is becoming an increasingly greater problem effecting people around the world of all ages. Through my multi-genre project, I intend on proving the uselessness and detrimental qualities of playing video games, and I am going to explore some healthy alternatives to such a problematic habit.

The legal issues faced by the video game industry include trademarks, copyrights, licensing, online ownership, revenue recognition and demands of

Herman et all (2002) points out that history of video games begins from 1971 year, when Nutting association released 1500 machines with Spacewar video game. At the beginning it was too difficult to control the game process and playing machines had huge dimensions. But by the time with new technologies they become more compact and easier to play. According to the information given by Herman et all (2002), the period between the years of 1978-1981 is called ‘golden age’ of video game industry. In this period the arcade games ‘Football’ and ‘Space Invaders’ were released. All previously known sale records were broken by these two games with nearly equal wages. In this time interval great breakthroughs in the field of graphics were achieved,