Let’s be clear about one thing right from the start. This article is by no means making a blanket statement that all piracy is okay. Piracy in the broadest sense is theft and is wrong. But with most things, it’s not just a black and white, yes or no, right or wrong topic. There is that gray area up for debate and here, we are going to take a look at piracy specifically as it relates to the video game industry.

If a game is about to be or has just been released to retail, is it okay to download off of a torrent site because someone leaked the code out from the manufacturer or was able to rip the files off the disk? Is it okay to use a key generator to claim ownership of a disk so you can play a copy that has been passed around your dorm? No. These are blatant acts of theft. These are where people are trying to mess with the system for their own personal benefit and denying payment to the people and companies behind the created game.

Some will argue that games are too expensive nowadays and piracy is their way of “sticking it to the man” to show them they aren’t okay with high prices. The truth of the matter is that, in relation to inflation, games are cheaper today than they were twenty years ago. During the heyday of the NES and SNES where larger cartridge memory required higher manufacturing costs resulting in some games costing well above even today’s norm price of $59.99. Don’t believe me? Go ask anyone in finance (or even your third grade math teacher) if something that cost $79.99 in 1990 is cheaper than something that today is sold for $59.99 and expect a slap in the face from them.

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Listen up Heroes fans. Mind-reading cop Greg Grunberg is convinced Heroes will be back for another season. This is certainly great news for anyone still watching the show and concerned about the ratings. Keep in mind, this is his opinion, and does not necessarily reflect that of the network.

Grunberg made his renewal prediction while attending the People’s Choice awards, “We wrapped yesterday and the [final episode] is nowhere near a series finale…It is cliffhanger-y and exciting, but it is nowhere near an end to a series that people are so invested in. It does not tie everything up in a neat bow… I don’t have any doubt that the show will be back.”

It’s a bold statement to make. Just because the season finale is “…nowhere near a series finale…” does not guarantee the show will return next season.  Let me present Exhibit A: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. That wasn’t a series finale either, and we all know what happened to it (here’s a hint, Fox canceled it).

That said,  I hope Heroes viewers do get their show back. Fortunately, Heroes has some other things going for it other than Grunberg’s gut instinct. The series has solid DVD sales and a strong international following. Further, Heroes was the top pirated TV series of 2009. Okay, that may not be the best endorsement given the legalities (or lack there of) involved.  Regardless, it is a strong indicator that people are watching the show.

At the end of the day I think as long as NBC can continue to sell ads alongside Heroes it should last. With shows like Dollhouse and the aforementioned Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles getting axed there’s less genre programming to watch. In that, Heroes may find a resurgence in viewers as similar options in programming continue to dwindle.

While most of the “best of 2009″ lists are petering off in the new year, there are still a few statistics still rolling in. One being the most-illegally-downloaded TV program of the year, which also happens to be one of the least popular. NBC’s Heroes has been on the bubble since last year, which is why the network only ordered half of a season for this year, and will be spreading the episodes out until Spring sweeps.

With that in mind, it would be considered that fans wouldn’t be rushing to their torrent sites or DVD stores to catch up on the super-powered drama, seeing as how they didn’t give it enough of a chance when it was on the air in the past. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that’s just what they’re doing.

“This year, the buzz is that the show may be on the verge of cancellation thanks to dwindling ratings (it averages about 6 million viewers a week, down from nearly 14 million when the show first premiered in 2006).

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C-Net News recently reported that the FBI has made an arrest in the case of the work-print of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, that was leaked and available for download a month before the movie was to be released theatrically. There apparently was nothing saying whether Gilberto Sanchez, 47, the man arrested, was responsible for the initial upload of the film, or how he might have acquired a copy to upload.

FBI Spokesperson Linda Eimiller said that the Bureau has not ruled out the possibility of more arrests, but didn’t comment further. If convicted, Sanchez could face up to three years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

The workprint that was released, as most will remember, was an unfinished version of the movie with wires still shown on performers and unfinished, or not-yet inserted effects. By the time Wolverine was released in theaters, it had been estimated that the pirated version had been downloaded over 4 million times. This didn’t seem to hurt the box office too badly, as it still opened to a nice $85 Million domestically and has earned nearly $375 Million since it’s release in May.

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There’s no arguing that the proliferation of file sharing technology (e.g. BitTorrent or similar) has changed the industry for content creators. Never before has it been easier to acquire free movies or music. Or has it?

For the last several years we, the consumers, have had to endure the complaints (dare I say whining) of movie studios and the recording industry. Both industries cite digital piracy as the root cause of their financial loss. Funny how this argument rarely (if ever) surfaced during the days of analog.

Piracy of content has been going on for decades, long before the Internet was around. With the advent of the VCR and Cassette Recorder (which I guess would technically be an ACR) people have been able to duplicate content with relative ease. I remember when stereos started to come out with not one but two cassette bays for this purpose alone. Drop in a master tape, then a blank tape and copy away.

The same was true for movies. I had friends who subscribed to their movie channel of choice, and then regularly recorded movies from the television to tape for later viewing. All one had to do was hook up two VCRs and you could easily duplicate those tapes for friends. All those years of consumers pirating content and hardly a word from media moguls about lost revenue.

Fast forward to today. It seems not a week goes by without someone in the world of entertainment getting on a soapbox and crying fowl over the horrors of piracy. On the box this week: Rhett Reese, co-writer of Zombieland.

Reese started somewhat of a firestorm after commenting on the fact Zombieland is currently the most popular download on BitTorrent, “Beyond depressing. This greatly affects the likelihood of a Zombieland 2.”

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