There is nothing to do with piracy. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to fight with this phenomenon by calling infringers for the law-abiding, companies have turned to Digital Right Management (DRM) that slightly ‘slow pirates and annoys paying customers’ (Bellamy, 2012).
Taking into account that DRM doesn’t work, it also significantly limits turns any technology into a ‘black box’ without an opportunity to investigate that is a direct challenge to creativity and a potential threat to the future quality of the technology itself (Doctorow, 2012).
Therefore, the companies started to create smart decisions without hindering creativity and technological development.
Funny Deterrents
Serious Sam 3 developer Croteam added an invincible pink scorpion that appears in pirated versions and destroys players into the mix. The player-infringer will be always traced by an enforcer that will make it impossible to play this game in a relaxed way (Bellamy, 2012).
Public Development Teams
A good idea for video games IP protection is to use the developer’s faces for explaining why piracy is harmful for the them and the players themselves. It is a well-known fact that gamers admire their favourite game developers like John Carmack, Hideo Kojima, Sid Meier and would listen to their words more than buzzwords of faceless corporations (Young, 2009).
High-quality support and updates
By providing a comprehensive support and frequent updates for the software users or game players, companies will attract more consumers who are tired of delving into the soft themselves, downloading viruses and broken files. If users feel a significant difference between a licensed and pirate product, they may think of buying works legally (Young, 2009).
Lower prices
Since piracy is a service problem, the best way to fight piracy isn’t by using legal tools but by offering a product at affordable price. Thus, Netflix’s shifted from selling a series box set for $200 to offering a month subscription with access to plenty of materials for only $8. The system is user-friendly and has a high quality that is a good way to fight piracy (Tassi, 2014).
Accepting piracy
As the title of Forbes article about piracy says You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You (Tassi, 2012), it is a good point to accept these copyright infringements and start ‘mitigate losses without annoying or accusing paying customers’ (Young, 2009).
The other ways to outsmart pirates are providing demos of games and software, being open about piracy, standartisation of international releases, and creating a strong community of users.