No, paying nothing is very compelling for a lot of consumers, you can see this in many other areas of content as well.

Mathnerd314 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Research from the University of Amsterdam’s IViR “Global Online Piracy Study” (survey of nearly 35,000 respondents across 13 countries) found that for each content type and country, 95% or more of pirates also consume content legally, and their median legal consumption is typically twice that of non‑pirating legal users.

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rvnx 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Fun fact, this study was financed by YouTube to create a legal shield.

In 2017/2018, they were in the position where MPAA and RIAA were saying: "Piracy costs us billions; Google must pay" + they had European Parliament on their ass.

Google financed that 'independent' study to support the view "Piracy is not harmful and encourages legal spend".

So the credibility of "independent" studies, is something to consider very carefully.

	▲	fn-mote 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		My real world observations agree with the direction of the study, so I don’t entirely dismiss it as fake based on its funding source. I am cautious about the conclusion, though. It seems clear there is a spectrum from “unscrupulously pirate everything” to “consume legitimately after pirated discovery”, and quantification is necessary.

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eviks 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Why do you think this contradicts anything? Heavy users hit a budget limit and continue consuming more via pirating.

You really need something way better than some shoddy survey to counter the obvious fact that price matters

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afiori 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah but if a pirate would have not paid the full price why care? It is by definition not a lost sale, the most likely outcome is just an increase by one the player count

	▲	eviks an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Because the price isn't binary? Also, the total spend isn't fixed either, it depends on how easy it's to pirate. So it's by definition still lost revenue, even if later/at reduced price
	▲	Tarball10 an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Not paying full price is not a "lost sale". People unwilling to pay full price wait for a discount or price reduction. Look at how popular the seasonal Steam sales are. Pirating the game very likely means they never purchase it at any price, which _is_ a lost sale.
	▲	hsjdndvvbv 14 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		There is more to this RE: perceived value of respective sides. Edit: missed a word

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danaris 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It contradicts the post it was replying to, which was saying, effectively, that people don't want to spend any money on stuff.

I don't think it's required to be making some universal point when you clearly respond to the argument put forward in the post you reply to, do you?

	▲	eviks 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, you misunderstood the comment, it said that paying nothing is compelling, not that paying something was inconceivable or something; it was a response to a comment with a common misconception that pirating is only some "service problem"

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rvnx 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Before it was really expensive and difficult to get access to movies or music. Then came Netflix or Spotify. So money is the primary discriminator now, not access. And users without money would not bring revenue anyway