Statistics show that three out of four gamers would have bought the game if a copy was not readily available within one month

Piracy has had and is continuing to have a major impact on consumer media, from music and video to games and software. A recent study by UGO Networks stated that "75 percent of admitted users of pirated games say that they would buy the desired game if a pirated copy was not readily available within one month."

To understand the true impact of this statement, we are going to take a close look at the "Pirate Profile Pyramid." The Pirate Profile Pyramid shows how many pirates we’re dealing with, how the pirates are using illegal copies of content, and describes the motivation for piracy.

The Pirate Profile Pyramid 

Starting with the bottom tier of the pyramid, T4: Pirates found in this group number are in the millions. They tend to be "consumers" of pirated content, getting the software from trusted sources like burning a disc of a friend. Usually guilt-ridden, these pirates justify their actions by saying…if the publisher really didn't want me to do this they would have put some type of protection on the game. Fear of viruses and law enforcement, as well as inconvenience, may prevent a member of this group from actively seeking pirated content.

T3 pirates are a bit bolder and more technically advanced. These pirates, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, will attempt to look for the crack in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. But ultimately these pirates are not able to or will not follow a “cookbook” which is a book of small code segments that the reader can use to crack software programs. They will be likely deterred from disruptions in the P2P chatrooms and forums. In addition, if a pirated copy of the software is not easily accessible within one month of the official launch of the game, it is most likely that this pirate will simply go and buy a legal copy of the game.

The thousands of pirates in T2 are more avid technophiles. These pirates are very enthusiastic about finding pirated content, but are not as capable as T1 pirates. With persistence, the T2 pirate will search FTP sites and scan P2P boards for cookbooks developed by T1 pirates. They will quality test the cookbooks and complain on the same P2P boards or FTP sites if the cookbook doesn't work. With all the time and effort invested in finding and downloading illegal content, this class of pirates is unlikely to purchase the content, even if it is readily available.

The pirates found in T1 are fewer than any other group.  With approximately 30 people, these pirates are highly skilled at breaking down new security measures and inventing new techniques. These are the pirates that "write" the cookbooks for T2, yet they rarely bother to test a "cracked version" of the content. Their profile is quite different from the other groups, as their motive is to seek money and notoriety. As a matter of principle, they will not join the legal purchasing community.

Specific actions against the individual pirates according to the Pirate Profile Pyramid can be taken to reduce the extent of illegal software traffic. For example, successful hacking on the first day of a software release directly undermines the value of protections and requires ingenuity upon the product security team to manage the resulting pirated software and P2P activity.

Other examples of protection schemes to address each tier are listed below: 

The bottom line is that the use of more advanced anti-piracy techniques can help extend the protection of the content and may lead to increased revenues by allowing content producers to delay the distribution of copied content. Thus protection measures are needed throughout the product life-cycle; from concept and prototype to release.