We have often questioned the intentions of those who try to fight and stop piracy at all costs. We have even raised the question in the past, "Which is more important, stopping piracy or increasing sales?" We are not alone in asking this question either. Some within the entertainment industry are asking it as well.

TtfnJohn sent along the February edition of Stardock Magazine in which Stardock's CEO Brad Wardell asks that very question of other game developers:

When Stardock was running Impulse, we got to hear a lot from companies regarding to their feelings towards software piracy. In many cases, it was clear that the motivation to stop piracy was less about maximizing sales and more about preventing people who didn't pay for the game from playing it. I felt this was misguided.

When I see our games pirated, it definitely annoys me. I put a lot of myself into our software and seeing someone "stealing" it is upsetting. But at the same time, the response to piracy should be, to paraphrase The Godfather, "Just business". Simply put, the goal should be to maximize sales, not worry about people who wouldn't buy your game in the first place. I've said this in the past but until we were digitally distributing third party games, I didn't realize how prevalent the "stop those pirates" philosophy was.

Brad certainly understands what the answer to that question is. He continues by explaining that there are two types of pirates, those that just want free stuff no matter what and underserved customers. Just as we have explained numerous times, it is pointless and counter productive to go after the former type of pirate. It is far more rewarding to actually serve those customers that are more than willing to give you money.

Just as we have seen Valve grow in markets around the world by serving those underserved customers, other game developers, as well as other content creators, can make more money and grow in their respective industries by doing the same. So stop wasting time and money fighting a losing battle. Take that time, effort and money and put it where it really matters, providing the best possible service for your customers as possible.

The tacocopter may be necessary if you want to take to the local skies to deliver a product to a specific location, but what if you just want to distribute a product semi-randomly? Famed musician Jack White -- who has quite a history of doing cool experiments with new business models that make use of unique scarcities -- has released a new single from a forthcoming album by tying 1,000 flexi-discs with the single on them to 1,000 giant blue balloons, and launching them into the sky. Yes, this was done on April 1st, and the whole thing was done somewhat tongue-in-cheek (it was described as "an experiment exploring nontraditional forms of record distribution and a way to get records in the hands of people who don't visit record shops"), but it's still pretty cool.





Third Man Records, the label White created, admits that "the typical recovery rate on similar balloon launches... is around 10%", making these flexi-discs pretty likely to be extremely rare for those who find them. As the Creators' Freedom Project points out:

It’s super unique, the balloon distributed discs will be a hot item when they’re eventually recovered, and the instructions on how to tell the rest of the world via social media will help to spread the word about the record since the actual release of the album is the next week.

Indeed, the label is already tracking where the balloons are being found and reported.


I know that some of our usual critics will come up with ways to mock this, but it's yet another example of an artist doing something fun and creative that is a unique way to connect with fans.