Dara Hannon of Pyrimid Comics and Games in Sierra Vista, Arizona comments on the recent article dealing with pirated PDFs and movie downloads (see "RPG PDF Publishers Double Down" and "'Wolverine' Tops Four Million Downloads"):

I have been reading the articles on pirated PDF and movie downloads with interest and I have to agree that pirating does affect game stores and theatres both.  However, the greatest victims of the pirates are the
consumers and the pirates themselves.  Before I get tuned out as a corporate drone, I do not work for the game or movie companies.  I work in a locally owned game store.  I work here because I am a gamer and am looking at the effect of pirating on my favorite hobby.  

Companies make product to make money.  This is the most simple basic fact in business.  If the companies do not make a profit on the product, they will not continue to produce the product.  Therefore, for example, if all the fans of the Dungeons and Dragons game download pirated PDFs of the books instead of buying the books at a store, then Wizards of the Coast will no longer produce any new Dungeons and Dragons books.  Therefore, the pirates who claim to be fans of product lines will end up hurting themselves and destroy the very thing they love.

Of course, the first defense of the pirates is that the books are too expensive in an attempt to portray the companies as money grubbing faceless entities.  To a point, this could be considered true.  Every company is in business to make a profit and they will do their best to maximize their profit.  However, these businesses do not make the profit people think they do.  They have to pay rent on buildings and warehouses.  They have a full
staff of secretaries, artists, writers, editors, coordinators and managers that have to be paid whether a new book just came out or not.  They also have to pay the publishing company to print the book and the freight
companies to move the book to the warehouses and to the local stores.  If you do not think this is a lot of money, look at your own paychecks or call up a freight company and ask them for their rates.  These companies are not charities.  If a book does not make enough money to cover their overhead, they will not make another book in that line but will look for something else to replace that line that will make the money they need to stay in business.  

So, in the end, if pirating continues to grow as it has, there will be nothing to pirate because the movie companies and the game companies will no longer be able to afford to produce product.  In this way, the main victim of the pirates are the consumers themselves.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.