CD Projekt - Going Medieval On Pirates

[blatantninja]

Being anti-piracy indicates you believe culture should have an economic barrier so the poor may not experience it. That's incredibly arbitrary and elitist of you, because economic means are entirely derived from chance. Life is a lottery, just because you win, doesn't mean you deserve the right to exclude the losers.

Umm no. It's believing that people have a right to be compensated for their work. If we were talking about poverty is sub-sarah Africa orr Latin America, you might have a point about the 'lottery' aspect, but if you were born in an western country or prosperous eastern country, you really don't. Just because your income is low (relative to others in your country) doesn't give you the righ to steal.

 

[Bargeral]

My objections to DRM is some hack software jockey trying to outsmart my DVD driver and inadvertently breaking my system. My objection to DRM is the implicit insult at being treated as a pirate without cause. My objection to DRM is having games that cannot be played years later when the company rights management servers goes off-line. My objection to DRM is having a game that is "mysteriously buggy" because some too cleaver DRM programmer miss-identified a legitimate copy as illegitimate.

I object to being strip searched without cause as well, but I do not object to such searches when appropriate.

The fact that CDProjekt has the balls to release software that's not gimped with DRM shouldn't be construed as some anti-free market communist manifesto lauding free games for all. This is exactly what we have been asking for: No DRM in the software. The fact that they still want people to buy the game and are exercising their right to protect their property shouldn't be viewed as a betrayal by any but the most thinly veiled of "I'm not a pirate, honest" pirates. Nail the F-ing pirates to the wall, and get your Gods-damned DRM software out of my PC's drivers.

Kudos CDProjekt. Kudos.

 

[Lemonhead]

Shouldn't fines be issued by a court of law? Not some law firm? How about a warning letter encouraging the pirate in question to buy a legal version of the game.

 

[blatantninja]

Shouldn't fines be issued by a court of law? Not some law firm? How about a warning letter encouraging the pirate in question to buy a legal version of the game.

Usually the way these 'fines' work is as a settlement. IE:

1) You download the work in question illegally
2) I track it down by ISP or whatever
3) I send you a letter saying basically I know you downloaded it and you can send me a check for X amount to settle it, or we go to court and I will press my rights to the full extent of the law (which can end up being very large amounts per instance).

It's a bit like blackmail, though since many of the court cases have been won by the defendents lately, I think people are less intimidated by these letters.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Some of you guys really disgust me. If someone includes DRM, they are "punishing the honest customer". If they go after the pirates, they are "crooks" and "unfair"? It sure seems like you have deluded yourselves to a point where you think pirates are actually the ones that need protection (you know being individuals and cool) and companies should just let them be in peace (because all companies are evil, you know). How many legal copies do you have on your harddrives, I wonder? And what next? Squat a house?

 

[zakhal]

You can preorder witcher 2 for 35€ from play.com. If you wait a while after release you
can buy it even cheaper.

Witcher is one of the last best crpgs for PC. Now how many hours do you have to work to earn ~30€? 1 or 2 hours? The only reason I see for not paying is cheapness.

 

[Bedwyr]

Some of you guys really disgust me. If someone includes DRM, they are "punishing the honest customer". If they go after the pirates, they are "crooks" and "unfair"? It sure seems like you have deluded yourselves to a point where you think pirates are actually the ones that need protection (you know being individuals and cool) and companies should just let them be in peace (because all companies are evil, you know). How many legal copies do you have on your harddrives, I wonder? And what next? Squat a house?

+10

I hold no truck with that Robin-hood bullcrap. The companies are victims. That the victims are large makes no difference to me.

Getting dinged by civil penalties because you stole copyrighted material from the holder? No sympathy. None whatsoever.

 

[crpgnut]

I can work for years and never earn 30 funny-looking E's

 

[blatantninja]

I can work for years and never earn 30 funny-looking E's

Don't worry, in a few years, NO ONE will be earning any funny looking E's!

 

[Twotricks]

Some of you guys really disgust me. If someone includes DRM, they are "punishing the honest customer". If they go after the pirates, they are "crooks" and "unfair"? It sure seems like you have deluded yourselves to a point where you think pirates are actually the ones that need protection (you know being individuals and cool) and companies should just let them be in peace (because all companies are evil, you know). How many legal copies do you have on your harddrives, I wonder? And what next? Squat a house?

Is that the way to deal with piracy ? Who does not have at least one illegal file on his PC ? You ?

And Is Piracy really such problem ?

Game companies are still making big bucks. Would they be making more ?
Possibly...

But they would possibly make more if they would sell games for 100$ aswell. Just an example.


And is 50$ fair price for a game ? Not in my country it isnt.
Sell the software priced according to country standards. Than you would see drastic drop in piracy.

You cant really compare 50$ in hands of UK citizen and 50$ in hands of Romanian citizen.

Does that mean that video games should be privilege of the rich in Romania ?

Maybe, but you see there is where pirates come along. They are today Robin Hood. Like it or not.

And CD project just turned into Sheriff of Nothingham

 

[bemushroomed]

I bet the time/costs of processing this for CD-Project isnt really viable in practice + not all internet providers will be willing to cooperate either, it's not like every country in the world has the same laws.

If this eventually becomes common practice, pirates just moves away from torrents to something safer, good luck tracking all those behind a usenet SSL server for example. So in the end it won't change much.

 

[Nerevarine]

I smell a lot of hypocrisy and ignorance on this thread in regards to the people who are complaining about CD Project's attempt at punishing pirates. Most gamer's complaints about DRM, myself included, is that it does nothing to combat piracy and instead punishes the innocent customers who legally buy the game with annoying and frustrating issues that hamper the legal consumer's use of the product they legitimately bought. CD Project is essentially sending a huge "thank you note" to all of the legal, paying customers of their games by making the product user-friendly and not placing absurd DRM that affects only the legal consumers, and yet people are complaining about them going after people who steal their game?

The only logical reason for someone to complain about this is if they are a pirate themselves, because this will have no effect whatsoever on legal users. As such, this topic has become very black and white for how to interpret people's comments: No complaints = legal purchasers of games, and people who should be ecstatic that a company finally has the common sense to not punish their customers. Complaints = Pirates. After all, if you don't pirate games, then what do you have to worry/complain about? Absolutely nothing.

 

[RampantCoyote]

I'm with CDProjekt on this one.

The reason piracy is such a problem right now (and it really is - even cheap little indie games are finding that 85% - 95% of the players are not legal license-holders) is that things are totally bass-ackwards: The honest customers are punished with onerous DRM and copy-protection schemes, while the pirates are rewarded with a superior product (one without all that crap) with pretty much no downside - their risk is insignificant enough to be disregarded. In the end, the honest customers feel like chumps, and pirates have zero incentive to "go legit."

This seems like a step in the right direction to me. Treat the legitimate customers like the cherished, valuable customers that they are, and drop the hammer down on the pirates as hard and as liberally as possible.

The only problem here seems to be the possibility that legitimate customers might get improperly recognized as copyright violators, in which case it SHOULD be very easy to get that problem resolved. An email to say, "Hey, I am the original purchaser, here's my account on GOG.COM where I bought the game" should be all that is required.

 

[toltec7]

Some of you guys really disgust me. If someone includes DRM, they are "punishing the honest customer". If they go after the pirates, they are "crooks" and "unfair"? It sure seems like you have deluded yourselves to a point where you think pirates are actually the ones that need protection (you know being individuals and cool) and companies should just let them be in peace (because all companies are evil, you know). How many legal copies do you have on your harddrives, I wonder? And what next? Squat a house?

Thank you man! Some of the excuses you can find here are nothing short of pathetic.

 

[zakhal]

I can work for years and never earn 30 funny-looking E's

You mean there are other kind of currencies? Now you are just kidding.

 

[toltec7]

Maybe, but you see there is where pirates come along. They are today Robin Hood. Like it or not.

And CD project just turned into Sheriff of Nothingham

So CD Projekt is now imposing taxes on poor, hungry, downtrodden people around the world? Please, just stop.

 

[Bargeral]

...Who does not have at least one illegal file on his PC ? You ?

You actually think this? I am astounded. Piracy is prevalent, but it is far from ubiquitous.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Is that the way to deal with piracy ? Who does not have at least one illegal file on his PC ? You ?

And Is Piracy really such problem ?

Game companies are still making big bucks. Would they be making more ?
Possibly…

But they would possibly make more if they would sell games for 100$ aswell. Just an example.


And is 50$ fair price for a game ? Not in my country it isnt.
Sell the software priced according to country standards. Than you would see drastic drop in piracy.

You cant really compare 50$ in hands of UK citizen and 50$ in hands of Romanian citizen.

Does that mean that video games should be privilege of the rich in Romania ?

Maybe, but you see there is where pirates come along. They are today Robin Hood. Like it or not.

And CD project just turned into Sheriff of Nothingham

Oh get a grip. We are talking about effing videogames. I am all leftie concerning peoples right to have food, a place to live, healthcare and a chance to get a decent education. You loose me at the right to play videogames. I really think Lamborghinis are totally awesome cars, but that doesn't mean I think I have the right to afford or even steal one. Besides, you can get plenty of free games legally, even more VERY cheap games legally, if you think you really want to argue a basic human need for playing video games. Robin Hood my ass.

 

[Bargeral]

GhanBuriGhan is my new hero.

 

[RampantCoyote]

GhanBuriGhan is my new hero.

Mine too. I was gonna say something more long-winded and less to-the-point, but now I do not need to.

I'm playing a lot of games I couldn't afford back in college now, some of which are thanks to CDProjekt's sister company, GOG.COM.

Now I just can't afford the time, but I don't see anybody handing out more of that, either.