So what gives?  Why would a software developer be OK with users stealing his software?  It turns our Jeff has discovered there are some benefits to people pirating his software.  In fact many software companies know that piracy is key to why they are #1, even though they would never admit it (right Bill?).

I admit to being a little bit nervous about writing this. The sad truth is that, these days, it is so easy to pirate single-player PC games that most gamers only have to pay for them if they want to pay for them.

You see, when people pirate a game, more people get to play it.  And when more people get to play it, that would never have purchased it (or played it) if they had to buy it, you sell more copies.

Now interestingly enough, that’s not why Jeff Vogul thinks its sometimes OK to pirate his games, even though I assure you he knows this is true.  Jeff talks a while in his blog about children in third world countries who can not afford to pay him the $25 US Dollars that his game costs.  He even get’s emails from these children begging for a free key.

When I get one of these message, what I want to respond is, “PIRATE MY STUPID GAME!!!” I mean, seriously, the time used drafting that e-mail would have been much more profitably spent figuring out how BitTorrent works.

But Jeff says the piracy by these children in these foreign countries helps him by helping to give his life meaning.  He wants to bring joy to the people who experience and play his games and feel like ultimately he made a difference in people’s lives.  Even if they stole from him.  Head over and check out Jeff’s blog for the rest of the story.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

Matt is adamant that these add-ons should be distributed under the GPL and not sold.  He says “WordPress is GPL” and therefore “plugins and themes created for wordpress should be GPL.”  Matt has gone so far as to threaten to sue creators of add-ons such as the Thesis theme.

Apparently Matt is a big enough jerk that it’s not OK for anyone to make money except him.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites

In the year before, Quakecon 2009 had both 1v1 and CTF tournaments for Quake Live. The notable difference with this years tournaments was two separate 1v1 competitions, one for only pro players, and the other was open to everyone else. This was a much appreciated feature from the community because there was no longer as many blow out games in the tournament. djWHEAT (one of the commentators for this years tournaments) also expressed his opinions to John Carmack from the shout casting booth saying that the separation “alleviates any hesitation or frustration” for amateur players that want a chance to compete. Quakecon 2009 was also the first Quakecon to have the shoutcasters on stage during the grand finals.

Share this on your favorite social network:

Hide Sites