CD Projekt - Going Medieval On Pirates

It has to be said that (in several countries at least) they're not going after people for downloading, but rather for uploading. Torrent works both ways - while you download you also upload the same thing and everything else you still have in the torrent folder. This makes you a pirate who actively distributes software.

Other companies (Deep Silver, Zuxxez, many film companies, especially porn producers, etc.) have been doing this for years.

Not many people will be sued. (edit: Rather: They will be sued but the cases routinely dismissed. But the address data will be colleted on the way.) What will happen is that several 10.000 people will receive a C&D with an attached invoice to cover the "costs" for the "work" the lawyers did. (Obviously BS. Their real costs are probably closer to 5€.)
Typical would be 100-200€, but generally speaking they are free to decide how much they ask for. It's not unheard of to go for 500€ or even 1000€ right away.

If the accused person pays and signs the attached admission of guilt there won't be a suit.

Personally I don't have much sympathy for this kind of thing. For the involved law firms and data providers it's only about collecting money. They don't give a shit if somebody is (not) guilty.
 
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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.
Where did that quote attributed to my name come from? No one wrote it - I certainly didn't.

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?
No one's arguing the pirates should be left alone, but that this is a completely over the top move. There's covering your sandwiches (From wasps) with cling film, and then there's encasing them in three-inch thick concrete. None of us want the latter (Hi, Ubisoft!) and many of us are content with the former (Say, disc checks or activation codes). I believe a company should be allowed to protect their product but not at the discomfort of the user - I didn't like it with GTA IV (But I put up with it), I wasn't a fan of it with Dawn of War 2 (Steamworks AND GfWL? Wow!). But I put up with it because I accepted it. I was quite irritated when I tried to install Velvet Assassin and found it needed Steam - I don't mind using Steam, but I don't like dishonesty from the publisher. If it uses Steam, it should say so on the box. It goes for every other Steam game, so why not this one? Add to that the fact the game really decided to piss me off by not installing, and I wasn't a happy Dwagginz by the time it installed. Again, DarkStar One annoyed me with SecuROM. It decided my disc wasn't in the drive even though it was, which I know would have been a fault of that installation because my drive doesn't give me issues.

I don't, however, believe this is the solution to the problem. Companies put fines in places where people shouldn't park, but it doesn't dissuade them. Bars and restaurants have fines if you smoke there, and some people will light one up. People bend and break the rules as they see fit, and anyone else be damned. A good number of the people pirating this game won't be affected, and CDP are going after the wrong people - They'll be fining (if indeed they do fine anyone) those who perhaps made a mistake or pirated for the first time. Those who do it on a larger basis are sat behind their PCs right now with a trollface grin.

I think CDP are going the wrong way about it. Reward those who buy the game, ignore those who don't. Chances are that if they're pirating the game, they wouldn't have bought it anyway - I can really only see Activision or Ubisoft games being pirated as a giant F You to the respective publishers. What they've done with the premium edition? I give that a thumbs up. This? I give a thumbs down. They were praised for their no-DRM stance, but there is such a thing as taking something too far - And I feel that CDProjekt doing this is them "going too far". Leave it to the megaliths such as EA - They have the legal power and the global spread to have a bigger impact. CDP are a smaller company in Poland; They should, in my opinion, leave it at their no-DRM stance and their advertising of Gog.
 
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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 to GhanburiGhan

I am so nonplussed by that Robin-hood bullcrap.
 
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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.

I am not saying there should be human rights to play games. That would indeed be silly.

But there are people that can not afford full 50$ price on the game. And those people will pirate it. Not because they want to do it. But because its the only way they can get to play it.

And there is nothing in the world that is going to stop that. Except their own consciousness. And making empty treats is not going to work very well either.
 
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I said it. It's right there on page 2. Dunno why he attributed it to you. I still stand by it, too.

FFS, they're talking about extorting people using a grey area of legality where they apparently can just demand money not to sue people who would likely win if they could afford adequate legal representation. This is an atrocious behavior. No company that does it deserves praise.

And another thing, piracy exists in all media and has existed ever since media existed. Companies still thrive amidst the sea of bootlegs and copies. You've been lied to the gaming "journalists" who are being paid by the companies to lie that they are being horribly negatively impacted by piracy, when the reality is that they're really not. Good games still sell and, sadly, highly promoted games still sell. Sales aren't going down.

Let's get back to my hypocrisy statement from my original post for a second here. I am betting many of you people DON'T support the RIAA's tactics throughout the last decade against music fans, including the crazy extortion letters being sent to grandmothers and pre-teen children. Do you? Why do you support the same shenanigans from the gaming industry? Are you really that deluded?
 
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But there are people that can not afford full 50$ price on the game. And those people will pirate it. Not because they want to do it. But because its the only way they can get to play it.

These people have the option to wait until the game comes down in price. Almost every PC game can be bought for 10$ sooner or later.
Plus if they can't afford the 50$ they certainly don't have the 1000$ PC + monitor they need to play it. ;)
 
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I said it. It's right there on page 2. Dunno why he attributed it to you. I still stand by it, too.
So it is, I must have glazed over it.

FFS, they're talking about extorting people using a grey area of legality where they apparently can just demand money not to sue people who would likely win if they could afford adequate legal representation. This is an atrocious behavior. No company that does it deserves praise.
Indeed. I think it's a very fishy area for them to go ZOMG WE FIEN J00!
 
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First of all i am a pirate .

I found the existence of their fist game via a pirate CD (ok i bought the game 1st thing the next morning but still it was piracy).
Beyond the question why not buying TW2? since CDPR totally deserves our money i have to say that many of us use FTP and you know uploads have a rating , 1 negative and the upload is off, at best they will catch one guy .

A big chunk of torrent users are members of private trackers, those trackers give like 10 invitations every 2 years (for mob control) and they have some very strict rules...like you have to upload half the quantity you download and they do not tolerate cheaters.

TPP or MNV veteran pirates will turn encryption on , you may ask how this will protect them? answer is that it will since most casual / new users have it off !

Good luck on catching some 80 year olds , kids and first time pirates again!

I don't have any objection for Devs to protect their product but not all DRM is intrusive and evil, disc check for physical / one time activation for digital + required registration (with key) in their forums for patches and additional content works fine.Egosoft does this for years and it works great (of course Egosoft deserves our money as well).
 
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First, I don't like piracy, but I live in a 3rd world country (Argentina) and when original PS3 games are priced at USD 120 (not joking) with an expensive dollar, you see piracy with different eyes. Is something bad, but sometimes is the only way some people have to enjoy games. Piracy is illegal, but for me, USD 120 for a game that costs USD 39 in the States seems kind of illegal too.
 
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skavenhorde: did you know that drm has been in games long before the internet became a tool for piracy and has been there since nearly the beginning of PC gaming. If piracy was entirely to blame for drm then why did it exist before piracy was a known problem for PC gaming.

I don't think they will be able to sue everyone and succeed since they would need to sue everyone in their own jurisdiction which would cost a huge amount of money to do. Just like the USCG is starting to fail in their lawsuits, and the one in the UK is getting in trouble, this one will fail also.

PS. Stop with the BS that anyone complaining about this is a pirate because that is just like saying that anyone complaining about the abuse of peoples rights after 9/11 is a terrorist. Many people that complain about this because it is just extortion and that the law firms that get involved with this don't even get proper evidence and send the letters to anyone even if they are innocent.
 
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These people have the option to wait until the game comes down in price. Almost every PC game can be bought for 10$ sooner or later.
Plus if they can't afford the 50$ they certainly don't have the 1000$ PC + monitor they need to play it. ;)

So those people will play the game now, and buy it when it drops to 10$

But anyway. If this kind of lawyer bullying is the way CD project plans to protect their games from piracy. Than we are better of with DRM. Cause this sounds like pandora's box being open there.
 
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So now it's not just the right to play games, it's the right to play them right now, and not have to wait for the price drop.

I'm sorry, but if you can afford the PC to play the games, and the biggest hardship you have to face is potentially waiting 6 months after release to play games, then you don't have any sympathy from me. Calling Robin Hood in a situation like that is laughable, and quite insulting to people who suffer genuine hardship.
 
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skavenhorde: did you know that drm has been in games long before the internet became a tool for piracy and has been there since nearly the beginning of PC gaming. If piracy was entirely to blame for drm then why did it exist before piracy was a known problem for PC gaming.

So when did piracy become a known problem then?
From personal experience I can tell you that when I had a C64 (in the 1980s) as a kid/youngster I pirated games like no tomorrow. I wouldn't even have known where to buy a game legally or what it would have cost to buy a legal copy. No idea. Everyone in my class and school was the same. No one I know bought their C64 games. Absolutely no one. Since me and my family moved a lot I even had friends in other cities with whom I snail-mail exchanged games. I'd copy a bunch of my favs to 5.25" disks and my friends would do the same. I very well remember waiting in giddy excitement like a little kid on Christmas eve until that envelope with new games would show up in the mail.
Honestly, piracy of this kind was rampant long before the advent of the Internet and I do believe that it was definitely a problem even back then. You can easily reverse the argument: If it wouldn't have been a problem back then already then why was there DRM? Because the "evil" publishers of yore felt like getting on their customer's nerves was fun? Unlikely.
 
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Put me on CDP's side. Beyond the call of duty customer service for legit gamers, war on pirates! None of those petty excuses stand up.
 
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Interesting... I just took a look at what the Codexers have to say on this topic. There is surprisingly little assclowning, and significant CDP support.
 
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skavenhorde: did you know that drm has been in games long before the internet became a tool for piracy and has been there since nearly the beginning of PC gaming. If piracy was entirely to blame for drm then why did it exist before piracy was a known problem for PC gaming.

I know that because I had to put up with codewheels and other such nonsense almost since the beginning of computer gaming. But here is the catch would we have such horrible software like SecureRom and other such nonsense if pirating games weren't in fashion now? I don't think so. Before they just were trying to stop a few people from copying the games and giving it to their friends, but now it's far beyond that.

In any case Pirates annoy me. What gives them the right to think that anything that's on the net is free? Making a game is not easy or free. It takes a lot of time, creativity and hardwork. Yet, they all think they are entitled to it. Tell that to the families of these devs who have to work long hours to make this game or tell that to me who has to jump through DRM hoops just to get it to work.

Maybe I was a little too harsh earlier, but this subject really annoys me to death and the fact that so many people think that it's perfectly ok to just download whatever they want is exactly why it annoys me.

Edit: I always find it interesting that this subject generates a lot of posts.
 
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Is that the way to deal with piracy ? Who does not have at least one illegal file on his PC ? You ?
That would be me, sucker. But I'll tell you something else - it doesn't matter. Ideas are independent of their originator. If you're sitting in a jail cell for robbing a bank and a mass murderer comes by and tells you that robbing banks is a bad thing to do, the mass murderer would be correct. It doesn't matter that he did worse, he's still right. Demanding that anyone who says anything about what is right and wrong be a pure saint is a cop out - yet another way pirates try to hide from the fact that they know damn well what they are doing is wrong.

That said...

*IF* CDProjekt is just going to sniff out IP addresses of people who send out games via torrent then immediately send a "pay us or we will sue" letter out, that's going to be serious trouble. Courts are NOT cheap and our public defender system here in the USA is so underfunded as to be a total joke in most areas. (One of my biggest pet peeves - but that's for another forum.) A lot of innocent people are going to end up paying because some hacker spoofed their IP address or snuck some virus on their PC.

Now, if they are going to be a bit smarter about it and pick out a few solid cases then make examples out of them, I can go for that. Or, if they've found some other way to get copies of these games to report evidence that's more reliable, that would be even better. But blanketing the globe in SLAP lawsuits for anyone they even suspect of pirating would be a horrible mess.
 
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Now, if they are going to be a bit smarter about it and pick out a few solid cases then make examples out of them, I can go for that. Or, if they've found some other way to get copies of these games to report evidence that's more reliable, that would be even better. But blanketing the globe in SLAP lawsuits for anyone they even suspect of pirating would be a horrible mess.

Gorath already mentioned that they are going after the uploaders and not necessarily the people who download it.
 
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I'm assuming they are talking about the original uploader.
 
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