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Atari accuses elderly couple of software piracy photo

A while ago, we posted a story about a massive war on videogame piracy being waged in the UK by Atari, Codemasters and a bunch of smaller publishers that nobody cares about. The crackdown uses methods of questionable integrity to track down software pirates who then receive threatening letters demanding money.

Well, one of these letters got sent to an elderly couple in Scotland. According to Atari's friendly ransom demand of £500, Gill and Ken Murdoch, aged 54 and 66 respectively, had downloaded an illegal copy of Race07.

"We do not have, and have never had, any computer game or sharing software," dispute the Murdochs. "We did not even know what 'peer to peer' was until we received the letter."

Unsurprisingly, Atari has since dropped its threatening demand for money. Maybe they should be a bit more careful before embarking on legal proceesdings that are about as robust and flawless as one of their games.


Continue: More United Kingdom stories





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20 comments | showing # 1 to 20

CALkulon's Avatar
CALkulon at 10/30/2008 10:00
That's fucked up.
solidgoomba's Avatar
solidgoomba at 10/30/2008 10:14
Epic Fail.
Could you imagine how scary it must be to get a letter like that not knowing WTF is going on?
Sam Spectre's Avatar
Sam Spectre at 10/30/2008 10:15
Idiots.
jellydoodle's Avatar
jellydoodle at 10/30/2008 10:19
probably a neighbor stealing their wifi XD
0bshaky's Avatar
0bshaky at 10/30/2008 10:22
They should have sent Atari a box full of used Depends and empty cans of Ensure.
michiyoyoshiku's Avatar
michiyoyoshiku at 10/30/2008 10:23
SO whos' not going to buy an atari gam ever again unless used?
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 10/30/2008 10:36
Who would want to pirate that crap anyway?
Gantz's Avatar
Gantz at 10/30/2008 10:46
With a name like Ken Murdoch they better hope he doesn't beat their ass.
killatia's Avatar
killatia at 10/30/2008 10:47
This isn;t the first time this kind of stupid shit happed. I still remember when the RIAA sued a 12 year old for downloading mary had a little lamb through p2p apps, and theyu actually got $20,000 from here.
killatia's Avatar
killatia at 10/30/2008 10:50
*i ment her at the end not here.
catsithx's Avatar
catsithx at 10/30/2008 10:51
Ok this world is fucked if we have come to this.
KaL YoshiKa's Avatar
KaL YoshiKa at 10/30/2008 10:54
Correct me if I'm wrong here but isn't 500 pound a bit much for 1 instance of illegal downloading some piece of junk no one cares about. Atari should tone it down a notch or someone might decide to challenge the severity of the fine. Then won't they look silly when they have to pay people back money for pirating their games.
MechaMonkey's Avatar
MechaMonkey at 10/30/2008 11:08
Atari just really needs money, so they're resorting to extortion to stay afloat.
CarlCastello's Avatar
CarlCastello at 10/30/2008 11:49
I'd like to see my father get one of these letters, just so he can flip out and destroy them with his beard.
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 10/30/2008 13:39
Extortion is the only way Atari can make money at this point
Ravana's Avatar
Ravana at 10/30/2008 14:03
Quit bitching, this is F-U-N-N-Y!!! And to anyone that considers getting off the Atari bandwagon, wait until Ghostbusters is out. Then you can lob all the feces your tired asses can produce. And it's Scotland, so the couple could just paint their faces, get their swords, and scream their way to Atari's torture chamber. No harm done!

Also, cocks.
0bshaky's Avatar
0bshaky at 10/30/2008 16:08
@ Ravana: Nobody fucks with my Scotland senior citizens and much less Atari.

Rest assured that the moment they announce a game that could save their shitty company I'll spam the comment section of every major retailer saying that their game is shit, not worthy of purchase and to wait till the game is either used or reduced price and that they should play XXXX instead. Atari have fucked people since the ET days and I hope that company goes down the crapper. Ghostbusters?! Oh you mean that "sub-par game that did not lived to the hype or the movie and it's better picking it off used or rent" ?

Also, cockblock.
Syn's Avatar
Syn at 10/30/2008 16:48
Bah, we seriously need to rise up and crush all corporations and governments. Who cares what happens after that.
topbootsmart's Avatar
topbootsmart at 08/08/2009 02:20
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