Taking games from the market
Taking games from the market
Haha, what? It would be a great world where a company creates a wonderful game, only to have many studios quickly make sequels or directors like Uwe Boll produce movies from it. Of course, that wouldn't happen because no games would ever be released since everyone would copy them and sell them cheaply.
Except no, because as you say there would be a big difference between a "lovingly crafted" game and low effort shovelware. So what if there are copycats? And it's not like copyright prevents them, either - do you have any idea how many minecraft clones there are that are virtually identical in the base concept and differ only in name? There are also games and movies that don't copyright their name and share it with plenty of other games, that has never been a problem. Did you know there's a movie called "Frozen" that has
nothing
to do with the Disney one? Imagine if they had copyrighted that name before Disney... I guess we'd have Elsa from "Freezing" now?
As for home copies, that literally already happens for free - do you think piracy doesn't exist just because it's technically illegal? People can and do copy and redistribute games and all sorts of other stuff, and yet the industry is making more money than ever. Why? Because people are willing to pay for services and convenience, even if they have the option not to. In an industry liberated from copyright you'd make money off of convenient distribution and availability rather than by keeping art hostage.
Of course that would make companies like EA or Disney a lot less money, but who cares? Who gives them the right to profit indefinitely from things they didn't make and got the "rights" to from underpaid staff that actually put in their talent? Why do we have to withstand turf wars on what art can be accessed on which service under which conditions just so that already uberwealthy billionaires can sit on even more cash they don't need without giving an extra penny to the people who actually made that art?
I know it feels counterintuitive to you, after all like everyone else you've been fed copyright propaganda your whole life. What if I told you there are already huge communities that have successfully operated for decades without copyrighting their work? Have you ever heard of Linux?
Dude, whenever a movie or series is released, someone would buy just one copy, destroy it, and then upload it to YouTube in high quality for everyone to enjoy. The creators would earn nothing. The same applies to games—truly, without copyright anyone could build a site, offer free downloads, and earn through ads. And no, piracy isn't the same since it's actually against the law. Copycat games aren't the same either, because there are many similar titles like Red Dead Redemption just to trick people into buying the wrong ones. Not that anyone would actually buy them, because without copyrights they'd all be easily accessible online on major platforms, and studios would lose everything.
Dude, this is literally possible right now. Publishers still make boatloads of money. They would make even more if drm didn't make paying for something a worse experience than pirating it. Also, movies make the vast majority of their revenue in cinemas - which cannot be substituted by a youtube upload.
I don't even need to argue in hypotheticals, there is plenty of foss or otherwise DRM free art, games included, that still makes money. GoG literally only sells DRM free games and yet people choose to buy them, because it's more convenient. It wouldn't even be illegal to share copies of those games for free.
Again, for plenty of games this is possible right now and yet it doesn't seem to be killing the games industry. Every point you're trying to make can be debunked simply by example. I don't think the word "portal" is copyrighted and yet I don't see a swarm of games called "portal" trying to fool customers.
People prefer purchasing items rather than pirating them since piracy is against the law and can lead to consequences. Uploading a movie you don’t own to YouTube is prohibited and will result in removal, just like with illegal content. Movies generate most of their revenue in cinemas because studios and distributors enforce exclusivity, which means it can take time for films to be available on platforms like bluray or streaming services. They do this because they anticipate piracy or unauthorized viewing. If copyright is removed, everything disappears. Copyright exists to safeguard creators’ rights. If you produced something people value, your ownership must be legally protected.