Disciples 3 - What kind of protection?

[wolfsrain]

Joe, that's true for most of the asian countries. The only exception is Japan. But if you look to the countries where the piracy level is high, one of the main cause is the poor economy of those countries.
In Eastern Europe, the piracy rate is high not only because of the poor economy, but also of a lack of a good distribution chain. Also the prices in Eastern Europe are even higher for many products. Example Fallout 1 it can be bought on the western market with maximum 5 euro. In Eastern Europe, the price doubles. It's a combination of greed, lack of a long-term vision and the fact that most of the distribution chains in Eastern Europe don't have any real competition. Games that were released years ago, can be found there at prices varying between 25 and 40 euro. Also, due to the actions of some residents from Eastern Europe, those countries are banned from sites like Amazon, ebgames, play.com, gamestop and so on. So those people are in a strange position. They can't buy an original game due to very high pricing, they don't have access to Direct2Drive type of sites, where they could get their game cheaper. I've found Eastern Europe as a strange mix, where people are obssessed with making a quick buck, never thinking how to develop an actual market for the products they sell. People from those countries, who are willing to respect the law, are jumping through hoops to get a legit copy. And that shouldn't be happening. But if the distribution is lacking and those people have the means to buy a legit copy, why blocking their access? Why not double checking the datas and then, if they are okay, to give them the product they want??? I've checked a lot of sites, and around 90% don't ship or make transactions with the countries from EE. Weird situation...

[Herbert Holman]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

I think TippeX rather meant the fact that, in Asia, you can purchase very much original looking software for a fraction of the original price IN A SHOP

You can do that even in my country, and is not asia, but is not even legal.
Also, for piracy i mean primary P2P (torrent) and the likes (rapidshare, and so on...).
Games sold at black market is smuggling, another tipe of piracy not included in the report linked upon.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain

But if you look to the countries where the piracy level is high, one of the main cause is the poor economy of those countries.

I just think this: if you give people the chooice to buy a 5$ or to download for free, people always choose to download, with rare exception.
Why? Because whe live in capitalistic country, so every $ not spent is a $ gained.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain

In Eastern Europe, the piracy rate is high not only because of the poor economy, but also of a lack of a good distribution chain. Also the prices in Eastern Europe are even higher for many products. Example Fallout 1 it can be bought on the western market with maximum 5 euro. In Eastern Europe, the price doubles. It's a combination of greed, lack of a long-term vision and the fact that most of the distribution chains in Eastern Europe don't have any real competition.

There is one thing positive in global market: you can buy whatever you want, whenever you want.
Using proxy o VPN you can reach site "out of usual range", also you can simply get an anonymous box with the game, no one is go to block you (well, maybe if you live in a dictatorship country... but i think is not our case, right? ).

I always buy game at the lesser price, via eBay or public forum (some got a little market of scrapped games, is easy to find them, at least in my country).