"Pirates from € 0,79"

I have been lucky enough to read one of the best opinion articles that I have read in this world in recent months, it is by Julio Cesar Fernández and it is published on Appleweblog. Talk about hacking on iOS and it is so well explained that I am just going to quote it, I think I have nothing to add or omit.

I have to say that this is not only my opinion as a writer, but it is what we always defend at Actualidad iPad.

“Today one thing I suspected was crystal clear to me. There is a sector of the population that says they want to jailbreak on your iOS devices for the simple reason of having more freedom when it comes to customizing the possibilities of it and to be able to have an interesting store like Cydia full of possibilities that Apple does not officially allow. In short, people who want to get more out of the possibilities of iOS. To all of them, great because they are using a functionality that although it loses the warranty of the device, it is legal, so no problem.

But there are also other elements, that all they want is to install a program called Installous, in order to fill their device with games (mostly) that it is materially impossible for them to play at the same time, given the amount, and that are considered with the right not to pay amounts "as stratospheric" as € 0,79, for a game. Of course, later they will spend much more on bottles, or on a coffee, or on paying for an hour of parking in a controlled area, on a can of soda, gasoline for the car ... all that is worth paying, but for a game?

It must be that these gentlemen think that games are like mushrooms in the forest. A good supply of moss or a very damp fern, and they come out everywhere. Games and applications should be the same, and they don't stop to think that there are companies or independent developers behind it, with professionals who spend hours thinking, designing, programming, composing music, recording voices, performing all kinds of tests ... a job of months and even years, that is offered at an affordable and competitive price so that it is available to anyone... but still, why pay? I get it for free, period.

That is what the more than 15.000 people who play the game Fingerkicks, who appear on the game boards, but have not paid for it, have to think. As I read in the blog of the company Gameized, creators of the same, the total sales reported by the App Store since they launched the game does not exceed 1.200 sales, and yet there are just over 17.000 users with results and different Apple IDs in Game Center. If we remove those who buy with the same Apple ID but then use several for Game Center (in family accounts) the figure is somewhat lower, but still it's really embarrassing to see how lightly people take each other's work, and think that they are entitled to pay nothing. And beware, Fingerkicks not only cost € 0,79, it is also universal so it works for iPad and iPhone / iPod Touch !!.

I have said it once, and it is totally true: I am in favor of thetry before buy, and I practice it myself. There is a lot of music in the genre that I like, and it is normal for me to go down to hear something and be able to be clear if it is of interest or not (sometimes I use Spotify for that, which is also fine). In that sense, Installous fulfills a function that the App Store does not allow: download the game or program, give it a try and see if it's really worth it. It seems correct to me and we are in our right as consumers. What doesn't seem right to me is that we keep it, period.

We are not talking about stratospheric amounts, nothing affordable. We are talking about a game that costs € 0,79 ($ 0,99) which is much less than what we pay every day for other things, but of course, here we enter a cultural problem. Stealing a CD is a crime, because we are stealing a CD (something physical and tangible), but downloading it not because there is nothing tangible ("only" it is data). If we go to the store and we take a Nintendo DS game under our shirt it is very bad and we do not do it because it is a robbery, but downloading it online is no longer the same ... the fault does not exist. No gentlemen, we are talking about the same thing.

By the way, and as a clarification, go also a wake-up call for Apple Well, honestly, it seems to me that they have not realized that allowing pirated games to use Game Center and all its functionalities is a disservice to their business model. As it already does, for example, Microsoft banning Xbox 360 consoles that are modified in their firmware to allow pirated copies, Game Center should do the same. You should not allow Apple IDs that have not legally purchased the game to use Game Center.

In the end, from my point of view, the future of cultural consumption happens because the user can try the product: game demos to test it as there are on platforms such as Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, services such as Spotify that allow me to listen to all the music that I want and select which one is worth paying for or services like NetFlix that allow me to see the movies I want, and when I see a good one, buy it if I want. Services that are affordable to any audience, that allow to consume in an easy and direct way and to be able to choose with all the guarantees what we like and pay for it.

But stealing something that is not tangible, such as downloading a game, is not legal. And in the end, whether we like it or not, we are stealing for a very simple reason: we are getting something that has a price without giving the same. We will be stealing € 0,79, which cannot be considered a crime, but we are doing it and that is wrong. The only person we help and the only person we favor is ourselves, but we are harming many with that act.

The current market failure is twofold, in my view: prices that do not correspond to the products (too expensive in many cases) and not having the opportunity to see, hear or play what we are going to buy, before making the purchase. investment. But these people are showing that even this is not enough. They are showing that there is a very important sector of the population that will not pay anything because they consider themselves with the right to use whatever they want no matter what or who has done that work. That doesn't seem right to me.

Not all are criminal pirates, nor is the culture industry a Saint. There is a middle ground in which there are conflicts that must be solved and business models that must be redefined.Abusive and obsolete concepts such as the current application of copyright, with a duration of 70 years after the death of the author, must be changed. But they have to be to adapt to a very clear reality:

• Where the author or authors of a work (music, film, game, etc.) receive remuneration for their work, the highest of all in percentage since they are the creators and origin.
• Where the distribution channels are comfortable, efficient and accessible to anyone of any economic capacity, receiving remuneration for their performance, but much less than the author.
• Where the absurd concepts of compensation for private copy or the penalty of trying before you buy disappear. The proof before the purchase must be a right.

But if people like Apple, create a business model for the future, with a brilliant distribution channel where the channel receives 30% of the price and the creators 70% (most of it) and puts a product at an affordable price at any pocket… what we cannot do is allow a series of people without morals to take advantage of it And don't even think it's worth paying that tiny amount for the effort of a team, company or developer.

Please, it's very simple. It is as easy as paying for the apple they buy in the store or the gum in the gummies. You have to pay for it, in the same way that it does not occur to them to leave with the gum running. You have to pay the price of things (it seems incredible that I have to say this) and with this it will be achieved that more and more companies make games and that we all enjoy them. If in the candy store 80% of the people took things without paying, in the end it would have to close, right? Seeing this brutal percentage of piracy on iOS (and that which is more complex to hack and is understood as an ecosystem that is working) now I explain why no company in their right mind bets on Android where piracy levels are even higher. And it's a shame, because if companies saw potential in Android and bet on it, the possibilities would be brutal.

And by the way, the issue of credit cards is not worth it and I do not want to give them online (but then I do give it to a waiter I do not know so that he can get out of my sight and charge me the food, by the way , pass it through a duplicator if necessary). If we do not trust ourselves (something that seems to me completely coherent and legal) or simply, we do not have a credit or debit card, there is an easy solution: in any large area there are some magnificent prepaid iTunes cards for € 15, which will give us a lot and where you do not have to give any card of anything. Safer and faster impossible. "