Piracy. It's always been a hot topic, with each new console claiming to be pirate-proof, then going on to blame its inevitable death largely on pirates. Like everything else to do with games, piracy's moved from back bedroom to business. The software industry claims that in 1998 £3bn was lost to pirates (and emulator fans), compared to an actual market value of £1.2bn, with the same zeal that the music industry carries on saying, "Home taping is killing music." It's an emotive subject. Future Gamer's tracked down a genuine pirate from Holland to give an insider's view of piracy. Understandably he's not keen on being identified.
"Kaneda"

I am "Kaneda." I was - I am - a bit active in this piracy lark and I'm familiar with the scene inside and out. I've also worked in the software industry. I'm not here to condone piracy, but to get the facts straight. Now, usually people get two stories when it comes to piracy. Pirates will tell you it's a cheap and easy way to play the latest games without risk: the software industry will say that it's illegal, you're funding organised crime and you're chancing blowing up your console or PC. Both views are partly true. Today I'm going to try to fill in the blanks.

How do you pirate? There are two main ways - a copied CD, or a copying device (usually for consoles that don't use CDs, like the N64). There's a third step in PlayStation piracy - you have to chip your machine to accept the copied CDs. Chipping is, of course, an invention of Sony's - it legitimately allows developers to burn early copies of their code and test it on an actual machine. It was the extra bit in the 'Blue PlayStation', alongside the increased memory. But even if the system was different, there'd still be ways to copy and play pirated games. It's one of the big weaknesses of the CD-ROM format.