"Is there a difference between copying the property of an individual (like an indie game dev) and copying the property of a large company?"

A difference in action or result? No. Regardless of whom you're copying the property from, copying is copying is copying. Is there a difference perhaps in whether I'm more prone, or inclined, to copying from one or the other? Yes. I'd much sooner copy from Electronic Arts, than I would from say Positech, or an individual working from their basement. First, on a monetary basis, EA is much more capable of absorbing the hit of a lost sale, than the guy from his basement. Second, on a more "personal" level, it's much easier to copy from a faceless conglomerate than it is from the guy in the basement, whose basement is perhaps in the house right next door to me.





"What do you think the long-term implications of wide-scale IP infringement might be?"

I see two opposing paths; First, on the current path of "we download & they fight it"; I think that it will just get harder and harder for the legit buyer(ie; more restrictive DRM, more hoops to jump thru, more hassle) to use a product, shile doing next to nothing to slow piracy, which I think can\could result in more resentment from those legit buyers towards a company. That resentment could translate into three things I think; Nothing: No change on the buyers or companies end. Customer Loss: The legit buyer gets fed up with company A's product protection and goes to company B to use their similar product. Customer Loss & Product Loss: The legit buyer gets fed up with company A's product protection, but likes their product better than company B's similar product, and therefore downloads a copy of it instead. Second, as stated above in the second question, companies embrace the internet to sell their product, and not only sell it, but sell it in such a way as to entice some of those pirates to instead purchase a legit copy. Now I admit, i don't know how that would be done. That is beyond my scope of experience and expertise. But I do know, that the current status quo, will not work to sway some of the pirates out there to go legit.

"If at some point you’ve downloaded a pirated copy of a game (or anything else), do you think that what you did was ethical? If yes, why? If no, why did you do it anyway?"

While I've never downloaded a pirated copy of a game, I've done more than my share of downloading of movies, music, and software applications. Do I think it was ethical? Ultimately, no. When it get's down to it, regardless of your reason for downloading a copy of a game, or any "Intellectual Property" for that matter, whether it be because you just don't give a f*
But, as I said above, I did it anyway. Why? Several reasons I guess. Using an example of downloading a movie; First; The idea of just a couple of mouse clicks and 30 minutes time equals me having a watchable version of the lastest hit movie, just strikes me as "cool". Not as in, "I'm cool and you're a dork.", but cool as in "adjective (slang) great; terrific; fantastic. Example: Wow, that's really cool!; You look cool in those jeans!" (from dictionary.com) Second; I'll admit it: I'm a cheapskate. So when presented with these two ways to see that hit movie: 1-Pay up to $10.00 for a ticket 2-Click & downlaod then most likely, #2 is going to win. Third; While I agree that downloading doesn't pay the person\group that should be paid for the product I've downloaded, I also feel somewhat absolved for my actions, by the actions in response of those that made the product. Example; The RIAA goes after people for not paying for the songs they've downloaded, because by downloading the song, you've not paid the artist(s) for their work. Yet, the RIAA doesn't use any of the money they gain from their settlements to then pay that artist(s). They instead use it to fund more suits against other people. How then does that benefit that artist(s)? Movie studios show commercials of recently laid off cameramen, grips, stagehands, etc, etc because Hollywood looses so much money every year to movie downloads. Yet, in general, summer after summer and year after year, a new total box office record is set. Plus, some individual studios just make an obscene amount in a given year. Now I have a hard time reconciling Studio ABC123 telling me on Thursday that poor John Smith the Boom Mic guy just got laid off because the studio lost X amount of money last summer\year, and then having Studio ABC123 telling me on Monday about it's latest hit making 100+ million on opening weekend, and that that same movie goes onto make over half a billion dollars. Fourth; Finally, the IP owners need to step up and take some share of responsibility. Once it's know how prevelant the downloading of a product is, the almost always response is to go overboard on trying to protect that product. However, all that typically results in is, headaches and problems for legit buyers, while only perhaps denting the piracy of their product, and certainly not stopping it. Instead, they should be embracing the internet, and harnessing it to sell their product.Mann