@MattB: >Your argument is based on the idea that Intellectual Property is itself a valid concept and of benefit to society. There are many people who disagree with the concept of IP at a fundamental level.<

And there are many people who think that drinking heavily and getting behind the wheel of a car is a good idea. I call Bandwagon Fallacy.

>Keep in mind that the whole purpose of copyright law is to maximize the benefit to both creators and society.<

The purpose of Copyright Law is to allow creators to control the distribution and reproduction of their work.

>If one side is favored too heavily then the other will suffer. Copyright is not and never was intended to be a rod to punish people getting things for free. There are many benefits to information and IP being shared freely with the rest of society. We should not be too quick to outright dismiss this idea as many today do.

Wow. All those words, and yet you're actually saying nothing.

>Has the owner lost a potential sale due to the item being "taken"?

If the customer would've bought the game otherwise, yes. And good luck arguing that none of the people pirating would've bought the game, because that makes them sound like thieves.

>Having said that though, holding the product price at the same level it would be if it was a supply-limited physical product is simply ignoring the economic factors in play.

Game prices are going up, in case you didn't notice.

>a production model that is no longer relevant.

As determined by who? The people who want to get something without paying?

@mhlaxp:You get a sold product without paying for it or being gifted, without permission of the owner. Sounds a lot like theft to me.

@otimus: Um, the Star Trek future was essentially Communist.

You're not a dirty Red, areya?

@hahnchen: Boy, you switched to a legal argument fast.

@Shiroi Kaze:

>For many pirates out there, I can give a guess that they probably do have physical copies of some of their games in their library.

Which is why they're putting it on the R4, right? Right?