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Cutting Prices Is the Only Way To Stop Piracy

Stoobalou writes "The only way to stop piracy is to cut prices. That's the verdict of a major new academic study that reckons copyright theft won't be halted by 'three strikes' broadband disconnections, increasing censorship or draconian new laws brought in under the anti-counterfeiting treaty ACTA. The Media Piracy Project, published last week by the Social Science Research Council, reports that illegal copying of movies, music, video games and software is 'better described as a global pricing problem' — and the only way to tackle it is for copyright holders to charge consumers less money for their wares."

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  1. Re:Developing countries, not US by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > I rather spend $50 and have a great game than small little games for a few dollars.

    Fortunately people don't want that $50 over-priced nonsense and show otherwise....

    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090219/1124433835.shtml
    Valve dropped the price on L4D and sales went up over 200% !

            * 10% off = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
            * 25% off = 245% increase in sales
            * 50% off = 320% increase in sales
            * 75% off = 1470% increase in sales

    http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693342/live-blog-dice-2009-keynote-gabe-newell-valve-software/

    "Valve decided to do an experiment with Left 4 Dead. Last weekend's sale resulted in a 3000% increase over relatively flat numbers. It sold more last weekend than when it launched the game. WOW. That is unheard of in this industry. Valve beat its launch sales. Also, it snagged a 1600% increase in new customers to Steam over the baseline."