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Comment by SN76477 | Hacker News Reader

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" - Gabe Newell

This quote is incredibly true for me. I used to (like 2 decades ago) pirate everything. Then Steam came along, and it is just so easy to buy things, and I don't have to worry about malware keygens or no-cd hacks. I haven't pirated a game since 2005.

I still pirate the shit out of music and movies simply because I can goto TPB and have any movie I want, in 4K or better, downloaded and ready-to-watch in under 15 minutes. Or any album I want, in FLAC, in 3 minutes.

pretty much. the only game I have pirated in the last 10 years are some had bought several decades ago for windows 95/98 and are ones that are not available on steam or GOG that I had the CD/floppy disk for but my laptop doesn't have a drive for either and would require a no-disc crack to run anyway. Essentially abandonware that no one seems to even know who own the IP for me to give my money to or if they do don't care to bother making it available for me to pay them.

It's so true. In the case where price actually is the issue, then it ceases to be a piracy problem, since they likely couldn't afford to pay anyway. No customer lost in many cases.

It is! Steam is great service and makes me gladly pay for games without any qualms.

Amazing what understanding this simple concept can do for your platform

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