ZeroPaid.com » pirate

Pirate Bay Becomes “Research Bay” to Help P2P Study

Jared Moya — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:47:11 +0000

Asks visitors to take a short survey to assist researchers at Sweden's Lund University to "better understand habits and norms within the file-sharing community."

Swedish BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay has been rechristened The Research Bay for a couple of days in order to help collect data on the behavior of its file-sharing visitors. Researchers from the Cybernorms research group based at Lund University in Southern Sweden are studying the "habits and norms within the file-sharing community," and as The Pirate Bay puts it, "there is no better place to do so than on The Pirate Bay - the greatest file-sharing site of them all!" "You can help them (and us!) out by clicking our front logo to go to their short online survey," says The Research Bay. "If you haven't done that yet, please do!" The survey only takes a few minutes, and the researchers insists submissions will keep secret. "All submitted information will be kept strictly confidential and will be used for research purposes only," they say. "No IP addresses or other personal data will be stored." When the data is "completed and scientifically prepared" the statistics and outcome of the survey will posted on the The Pirate Bay for all to see. "Please help them by giving your point of view on file-sharing related issues," says The Research Bay. "This may be the time when YOU can tell the world about the real mind of the torrent community." The researchers also hope that their data will help shape new Internet legislation and online law enforcement efforts.

Take the survey...

Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Game Developer Offers ‘Pirate Amnesty’

Drew Wilson — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:05:48 +0000

There's an interesting development with the developer of the game Machinarium. The developer has decided to offer a "Pirate Amnesty" and sell their games for $5 to anyone who downloaded unauthorized versions. The package includes the official soundtrack for the game.

The offer was posted on their blog. To their credit, it's certainly a more progressive approach than most to courting file-sharers. Rather than threaten litigation and demand hundreds of dollars or threaten file-sharers with disconnection, they are offering a deal with their game and soundtrack. One reason this is actually a better approach - particularly with a smaller company, is because the biggest problem for smaller developers is actually getting their name out in the market. One of the fastest and most cost effective way to penetrate the market is, I'd argue, to get high profile release groups to release the work. It's not like a smaller developer has the ability to fund nation-wide TV ad campaigns, so cheaper marketing typically has to suffice. This is, of course, not to say this developer actually put their game online for free in the first place as if it was just simply pirated of course. The fact that people are downloading it for free means that there are people playing your games which is really good news. Worst case scenario is that you spend a wad of cash and spend a year developing a video game and no one plays it after. That tends to kill companies that develop games. The posting on the blog says, "Our estimate from the feedback is that only 5-15% of Machinarium players actually paid for the game." A survey based on feedback clearly is not scientific, but for the sake of argument, let's say this is the actual number of an even 10% (a number that keeps popping up in terms of a paying percentage in my travels interestingly enough). If an earlier game you've developed sells a hundred copies for $20 per game, that's grossing at $2,000. Probably low, but this is hypothetical. Now, you've made a few games and you've developed a bit of a reputation, so a later game sells 1,000 copies. Same price would net you $20,000 gross. Sounds like a lot, but you've probably hired a few people to take care of things like art and sound design. Now your next game is part of viral downloading for free. The game gets downloaded, again, hypothetically because there's no good way to track this sort of thing, 5,000,000 times. 10% of those people pay for the game. That means 500,000 people paid for the game. At $20 a game, that's $10,000,000 gross. Make of that number what you will, but the point is, even if only 10% pay for the game consistently, then your goal is to get as many people downloading that game for free as possible because it's all about marketing. If you get 10 people to download that game for free, that means 1 person will pay for it. I think content creators shouldn't look at downloads as a loss and look at downloads as a potential gain. The reason so many people play World of Warcraft is because everyone has heard of it. The reason not everyone plays a game developed by a small company is because fewer people have heard of it. If people are playing your games, that is power you can use to leverage the market and it doesn't necessarily mean trying to get as many people to pay for it. It can be leveraging word of mouth too. The sale isn't limited to people who have downloaded the game for free. An update added to the blog said it's for anyone willing to buy the game. "we just want to assure you," the blog update said, "we don’t think you have pirated the game first if are going to buy it now:)" "This sale isn’t only for [pirates], it’s for all. Thanks to everybody who paid for the game!" Personally, this is actually quite a smart move for this developer. I'm a little hesitant on the fact that the posting said how it is illegal to download the game for free, but that's pretty much splitting hairs. It's appealing to people who are most likely checking out what you have to offer. It's hard to go wrong with that. The sale runs to August 12. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Will Pirates Sink the Pirate Boat that Rocked?

Bruce Lidl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:37:49 +0000

Despite a great deal of evidence to the contrary, the MPAA and its allies in the content industries constantly declare that it is, “impossible to compete with free.” As recently as this September, Frederick Huntsberry, the Chief Operating Officer of Paramount Pictures declared before an FCC hearing that, “ultimately no industry can compete with free.” He was referring to the wide existence of video-camera generated bootleg copies of the most recent J. J. Abrams directed Star Trek film from his studio, despite the fact these horrible looking “cams” did not prevent the movie from grossing in excess of $250 million in the U.S. alone.

But is the issue alone one of resolution and visual quality? If there had been a pristine version of Star Trek available at the same time, or even prior to its official theatrical release, would that have appreciably decreased box office revenue? I spoke with someone affiliated with the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie that “suffered” from the leak of an almost finished work print just prior to theatrical release and he was adamant that the leak had had a profoundly negative impact on the film’s box office (although personally I would ascribe that more to negative word of mouth about a pretty crappy movie than to the specific effects of piracy).

Nonetheless, there are cases where the theatrical release of a film has to “compete with free” in the form of a high quality, even high definition copy of the film being available online. Numerous foreign films are released into theaters, and even as DVD’s or Blu -Rays around the world prior to their official appearance in the U.S. Are these films, admittedly not on the same scale expectations wise from blockbusters like Star Trek or Wolverine, yet still able to perform reasonably well financially? Are they able to attract movie-goers when those same consumers could so easily obtain a copy of the film via Bittorrent, Usenet or Direct Download, even at full 1080p resolution?

This past Friday saw the U.S. release of the film Pirate Radio, also known as The Boat That Rocked when it first came out in its native Great Britain earlier in the year. During the seven month delay in its arrival on these shores both DVD and Blu -Ray versions of the film came out in non-American markets, ensuring that even U.S. viewers would have access via the Internet to copies. In fact, a cam version debuted on Piratebay soon after theatrical release, with DVD and Blu-Ray rips appearing in mid-August, eminently available to anybody around the world with an Internet connection.

Given all these “free” alternatives, how did Pirate Radio do in its first weekend in the U.S. market? While its gross intake was relatively modest, at just under $3 million for an 11th place finish, more importantly, Pirate Radio did very well on a per-theater average, taking in $3,293 per theater, which actually puts it in third place among films in wide-release for the weekend. While it is impossible to know with any real certainty what impact downloads of the DVD or Blu -Ray rips may have had on Pirate Radio’s box office, the film appears to have done pretty well, especially considering its foreign origin, subject matter and rather middling reviews (57% on the Rotten Tomato scale).

Somehow the forces behind the movie found a way to “compete with free” and position it to be profitable in the U.S., even before its inevitable DVD andBlu -Ray releases here. Maybe the existence of free versions on the Internet did less to drive down demand for the film, but instead fostered awareness and interest in the movie above and beyond what the producers were able to do via PR and advertising.

Pirate Parties on the Rise

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 20:58:43 +0000

The raid on the PirateBay, and the responses in Sweden to the case motivated a lot of pirates around the globe to organize themselves into Pirate Parties.

‘Pirate’ iTunes rival enrages music industry

Jorge Gonzalez — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 02:22:13 +0000

A Russian Web site that lets visitors download albums for less than $1 is a smash hit with music fans — but not with U.S. trade and music industry officials.

The site is a pirate, they allege, and say Russia’s failure to close it down presents a direct obstacle to the country’s negotiations to join the World Trade Organization.

Russia is already the second-biggest source of pirate music, film and software in the world after China — costing U.S. companies nearly $1.8 billion last year, according to anti-piracy groups. The website www.allofmp3.com just adds to the dispute.

The site’s knockdown prices, coupled with its huge catalogue, crisp design and convenient downloading software make it a strong draw.