DMSI D 3.3

[Chris P. Bacon]

Wow so much distrust here, do you think I'd write about this topic if I was stealing the product?

Distrust, like trust, is earned. IML has been treated pretty poorly by a few "bad apples", and continues to be, behind the scenes. And in answer to your question, I have by this point lived long enough to see enough things to answer you with this: very little surprises me about human behavior anymore. I wouldn't bet against it just because you were writing about the topic.

From Shannon's perspective sure it makes perfect sense but what benefit is there in it for the user or what possible side effect or harm even?

Nice try, but no. I spent so much time trying to make my AP code harmless to my customers that the first few versions barely worked. Now it is harmless and works to a moderate degree. And the benefit to the user is very simply the same benefit the user gets from PAYING for my work, which is...

I have incentive to keep making more.

You guys who think piracy is a victimless crime are just living in candyland in your heads. As long as you are on the consumer end, you make up these great excuses about how piracy isn't really a crime because it's really advertising for the producers! Why can't they see that? And not everyone can afford it. And I want it. And I want it now!!! Somehow they believe they are justified in stealing "because it's advertising" and "because they can't afford it, they want it now and they deserve it", and because "they just want to make sure they like it before they buy it".

Well I'll tell you what.

Advertising to a bunch of people who feel justified in stealing because they have successfully lied to themselves about it not being stealing, doesn't sell copies. It just makes the theft worse. If they were going to buy it, they wouldn't have stolen it in 90%+ of cases. So some of them do use that as a test before buying, sure, but they're in the vast minority.

The majority apparently get mad at me because how dare I expect them to pay for my work, and **** you Shannon, I'm gonna pirate it instead now, because you DARED to expect something in return for your decades of research and development and education and experience and skill and work! Just **** you, Shannon!

And the guys who can't afford it, but they want it now, they could save up for it. They could wait until they can afford it. But no, they're convinced that somehow they deserve it more than I deserve to get paid for my work. Can you imagine going to work and having your store's customers decide that they just arbitrarily "deserve" the product, so they steal it and get away with it? You know what happens then? Your employer can't PAY you. You get a pay cut, or lose your job. There is no equal exchange of value.

The reality is that if it were not for pirates, I would have at least twice, and more likely about 4 to 6 TIMES more income. As a consequence, we would have a lot more going on. As a consequence, there would be more subliminals released in a shorter period of time. As a result, you would have more subliminals to choose from. You would win, and I would win.

Think about that. If people stopped pirating my subs, I would be trading about 10% of the pirates deciding to pay for it on their own, for 200% sales, AT LEAST. I think it would be something like 500% more sales, and that is a conservative estimate. What would you do if that was the case for you as a producer? Just let people steal from you? Or start multiplying the number of people who do the right thing and pay for what they took from you by using AP code? Years of pretending piracy wasn't hurting our bottom line didn't work.

Shannon do you think it could be related that I promote the goodness of giving and you basically (in my reality) in the same moment or next moment "giving away DMSI for free"?

I think that none of my staff has a really satisfactory answer for how we ended up with that happening. I think that, given how it happened, there are still at least three or four ways it could have happened that we just can't prove yet. I think that you are seeing what you want to see when you see me "giving it away for free". I think the timing and what you are saying here is very suspicious.

In the end, the fact remains that I don't eat and have water, electricity, gas for my car, medical insurance, car insurance, house insurance, the ability to pay my taxes, or the ability to do anything I might want or need to do without getting paid for my work. Those of you who feel justified in stealing from me by pirating my work are only making it more likely that I will have to stop producing subliminals and go work at some other company. You're not doing anyone a service with "advertising", because you're not "advertising" for one, and for two, you're not "advertising" to a demographic who will BUY. They don't buy because they feel entitled to have it without buying, just because they are impatient and somehow feel deserving of it without having paid for it in any way.

It's just like with physical products. You don't walk into a car dealership and drive off with a new car because you arbitrarily think you deserve it. You don't get mad at the car dealer for daring to expect that you PAY for their cars.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I know at least one guy who started off a pirate and ended up a content producer, and watching his transformation from delusional pirate mentality to cold hard reality in the point of view of a content producer was quite amusing. The fact is, you see things from your point of view and you favor what benefits you, unless you can't see what benefits you.

Pirates favor getting it for free because they think it benefits them to do so. But you take those very same pirates and make them content producers, and they will turn on their former pirate friends in the very heartbeat they see the numbers showing what they are losing instead of making. It no longer benefits them to steal. Now it benefits them to have people pay for what they work to make. And really, it benefits the pirates to pay for the content too, but they just can't see that far out.

This would not happen if there was truth to your theory that people should just "allow" piracy. That kind of thinking is based on ideas like "Stealing is good, until you steal from me." No. Stealing is never good. Sorry. Just because one can steal doesn't make it right, acceptable, or good. They just can't see the long term benefit because you're so focused on the short term benefit. Every action has a reaction, however, and a consequence. That consequence may not be obvious to such shortsighted people, but it's still there.

I have never pirated from IML, but I have pirated other things in my early 20's. This kicked me right in the "feels" and makes me pretty ashamed to have ever pirated anything.