World of Goo's 90% piracy rate sheds light on normative anti-copyright arguments

Independent developer 2D Boys has released piracy figures on their game World of Goo. Based on leaderboard stats and leeching figures on Bittorrent, it was estimated that the game has about a 90% piracy rate. While this is not unique in the PC gaming market (Crysis for instance was estimated to have 30 pirated copies for every copy sold) the case is interesting since it sheds new light on the validity and importance of ‘normative’ anti-copyright arguments in the discussion about (online) piracy.

Normative anti-copyright arguments can be defined as arguments that justify illegal copying, and/or present piracy as a moral obligation. Normative anti-copyright arguments are primarily aimed at the position and conduct of content owners. For instance, a common argument is that content owners abuse copyright to charge high prices for content and that through piracy, prices can be brought down to a more acceptable level. Another argument oftentimes heard is that content owners use copyright to protect their old business models (especially in the area of distribution), thereby hurting innovation. Through piracy, content owners are forced to change their businessmodels. A third argument is that by using copy-protection and DRM content owners hurt legitimate consumer interests. Through piracy consumer rights can be restored.

While we shall not argue the validity of these arguments, the World of Goo case at least raises doubts about the importance of normative anti-copyright in the decision of consumers to pirate content. The reason for this is that the three arguments mentioned above do not seem to fit with the profile of 2D Boys. 2D boys is an independent developer consisting of just two enthusiastic game designers. As such, they hardly qualify as ‘Big Content’. As to innovation, 2D Boys use direct download, Steam, WiiWare and other digital channels to market their games. And finally, 2D boys have forsaken copy protection and region coding because it is consumer unfriendly.

So, if consumers were to base their decisions about whether to pirate World of Goo primarily on normative anti-copyright arguments, World of Goo would not be pirated. Clearly this is not the case judging by the piracy figures. Therefore, it seems that other factors (for instance those related to budget) play a far more important role than the normative arguments justifying piracy oftentimes used.