Electronic Arts executive Peter Moore has been talking piracy following the news that a coalition of game studios were pursuing cases against thousands of British software pirates. Rather than support his fellow industry members, however, Moore has voiced criticism over what he calls “punishing your consumer.”
The former Microsoft man had this to say:
[Suing consumers] didn’t work for the music industry. I’m not a huge fan of trying to punish your consumer. Albeit these people have clearly stolen intellectual property, I think there are better ways of resolving this within our power as developers and publishers.
Yes, we’ve got to find solutions. We absolutely should crack down on piracy. People put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into their content and deserve to get paid for it. It’s absolutely wrong, it is stealing.
But at the same time I think there are better solutions than chasing people for money. I’m not sure what they are, other than to build game experiences that make it more difficult for there to be any value in pirating games.
If we learned anything from the music business, they just don’t win any friends by suing their consumers. Speaking personally, I think our industry does not want to fall foul of what happened with music.
Moore is certainly correct when he says that lawsuits have done nothing to stop piracy in the music industry. Pursuing gamers with legal threats only serves to reinforce the “evil corporation” stereotype that makes it easier for pirates to justify their actions. Record labels are so vilified now that people feel almost righteous stealing from them. However, Moore also admits that he can’t really think of any better alternatives himself. It’s a murky subject and one that will probably never be resolved. Now, does anybody have any torrents for Madden ’09?
