There was always a small issue with piracy; people selling copied VHS tapes out of the trunk or their car or selling bootleg casettes, but the electronic age took this minor industry annoyance and gave it fangs, claws, poisonous stingers, camouflage and an armored exoskeleton. After Napster made the average internet user aware of their ability to get stuff for free online, piracy has been an issue for every entertainment industry.

The sharing method of the day is Bittorrent, which allows users to download files from other users. Many websites have launched that offer easily searched indexes of everything from eBooks to leaked films. As you might expect the industry is doing what they can to go after these people and recently Swedish courts punished the founders/owners of a popular site called Pirate Bay with a year in jail.

The ESA is applauding the Swedish courts for doing so: “piracy is the single greatest threat to the development and release of innovative and creative entertainment software”. While piracy is probably a big issue for some companies I think many would agree with me that the biggest threats to innovation is the lack of innovation and creativity that all but the best game developers show.