A collection of usual suspects -- including Atari, Ubisoft and Codemasters -- have banded together to threaten pirates with legal action unless they stop their shenanigans and pay their dues. The deal is simple -- give publishers money, or face getting sued.
CD Projekt Red recently stopped the practice of threatening pirates in this manner, but the baton has been picked up by a coalition of other European companies with long-standing grudges. Koch Media is defending the security of Prison Break: The Conspiracy with the eternal vigilance of Cerberus!
These publishers are using long-criticized methods to track down pirates, relying only on IP addresses to find any violators. The practice breeds ill will among consumers, is easily circumvented by pirates who know what they're doing, and can result in innocent people receiving threatening letters from rights holders.
Atari, Koch Media, Eidos/Square Enix, Daedalic Entertainment, BitComposer, Codemasters, Kalypso Media, Ubisoft, Aerosoft and dtp Entertainment are all involved.
Square Enix, Eidos & Other Game Giants All Demand Cash From Pirates [TorrentFreak, thanks Nick]
Contest:
11:00 AM on 01.16.2012 | 
This seems like a big case of the smallest dogs barking the loudest.
>notices the name Ubisoft
>mfw
McDonald's uses free wifi for their customers. If he got into their PRIVATE wifi, kudos to him.
If you want money so bad, make something worth paying for.
Also @TheNephilym I thought McD's provided free WiFi anyways.
So I'll hack his wireless network and illegally download hundreds of games on his connection. Atari is going to be so pissed when they find 100 copies of Pitfall on his computer.
This plan is perfect.
So where does that leave me? I cannot "hack", but am savy in teh internetz nonetheless...I just use this and I wonder how effective it actually is at telling me if I've pirated anything, what do other people think? <url>http://www.youhavedownloaded.com/</url>
Being small is a bigger reason to complain, from a business standpoint. They have less customers already, and every pirate means even less. The smaller companies are struggling to survive because of pirates, while the big guys aren't really as effected as they try to make it sound like they are.
Some of these companies have nothing to complain about though. Square Enix? When was the last time they released a PC game that wasn't P2P (Console Pirating isn't nearly as big of an issue as PC). Ubisoft has already pulled PC games citing piracy as the cause...so what exactly are they bitching about? It clearly doesn't effect them if they can pull all their PC games worry free.
Even so...tracking by IPs is a hilariously terrible idea. As others have said, it's so easy to mask your IP it's not even funny.
I'm sorry, I don't understand how people can stand against SOPA, but defend shit like this. What SOPA would allow, and what this is, are remarkably similar. They're both big dogs being able to intimidate people who probably don't have the kind of resources needed to defend themselves, not against a big business with vastly more resources.
1. (Law) the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information
2. the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone's actions
I would think that a picture taken of yourself and popping up in a new window with a "why are you pirating me?" would be enough to scare off a lot of the less tech-savy pirates! LOL! (and it would certainly be useful in a court case!)
Still.. speaking realistically, I'd rather see attempts to go after the pirates rather than changes to the laws like SOPA that have more far reaching consequences. Like prostitution, piracy will always exist... and yes, occasionally some guy really did stop just to ask the pretty girl on the street corner for directions - but a few high profile cases can probably stop a lot of the casual piracy.
But seriously? In this day and age? These companies might just as well put up "HACK ME" signs all over their websites and places of business. They are poking the pest nest with a stick. Bad PR is the least of the things they're going to get stung with.
The problem is, though, that the "I was just asking this scantily clad woman for directions out of the bad neighborhood" excuse doesn't create an unwilling third party to take the fall. The current state of online piracy may dictate that many people accused are actually quite guilty, but if the P2P movement (across the board) has proven anything, it is that it is constantly evolving.
The outside pressure would create a need for yet another shift in how these people operate, and that shift would create exponentially more victims of misplaced industry strong arming. I'm not particularly computer savvy (which is sad considering I'm 25, and probably should know a lot more about this wacky machine than I do), but even I know how easy it is to hack wifi networks. I live in a condo complex, and I'm fairly confident I could be running off maybe 5 different wifi networks by the end of the week. Its so simple, even a me could do it.
If you squeeze tighter, you'll only elicit more circumvention. It would not be a solution to a problem, you'd only be moving the problem somewhere else.
Actually, according the national McDonald's store practice policies, all stores are no longer allowed to require log in thru the splash screen. If they're still doing that, they risk losing their franchise licenses for being in direct violation of their contracts with McD International. So, its not really impressive that your friend is using a high-gain antenna to get free internet.
I feel like it devalues the gaming and movie industries alot. I think both sides need to come to a balance (Publishers and Consumers).
Markets always tend to balance themselves out.
http://www.gameexchangeshop.com/
People have never really been satisfied with one or the other, they always really want both. But also people are becoming more skint, they are looking even more strongly for ways to get something for nothing.
But if you spent literally years working on a project, only to have people steal it and call it shovelware and a piece of shit, you'd be seriously pissed and want revenge.
Oh yeah, and to anyone who says "Games are way to expensive now", apparently they have never been lower and more reasonable(in relation to the market).
So yeah, Science
Well, it's been a while since I've had to sit in a McDonald's to use the Internet, so I was not aware that the rules changed. And I was not trying to "impress" anyone. The point was that it is possible to hack into someone's wifi network and operate under their IP address. I was only using that guy as an example and only elaborated after Zerix's comment.
We all complain about this, but, what else are you going to do?
Sadly, I am at a loss also, but I guess, if they have the ip address, someone would need to be close by to jump on someone else's wifi right? So maybe they (game company heavies) go out there and just politely ask the person that owns the wifi and also neighbors if they have ever used this particular network, and if they have, did they do any piracy while on it?
Of course, everyone will say no, but then they will get that one at-home-mum, who says her son does, and he's at school right now, do you want have a look at his computer, Game Company Heavies?
Anyway, does anyone have a BETTER idea?
a better idea than using witch hunting tactics to acheive "justice?"
yeah, how about NOT using them. there, better idea.
a better idea than using witch hunting tactics to acheive "justice?"
yeah, how about NOT using them.
Besides, nearly no one would use a proxy to download multiple gigabytes of data.. (a game, for instance). So the only ones that can hide their IP by downloading are Hackers with their own botnetwork and that takes way more criminal activity than just downloading an ISO.
"is easily circumvented by pirates who know what they're doing" yeah, if they want to download with 10 kb/s. And if they want to download fast, then they have to invest multiple PCs or hack in another network, both is "not easy" and "highly illegal" (and will be backtrackable in most cases, so if they sue the mcd, chances are they will find the pirate using the mcd wifi trough logs..)
Yeah, when was the last time Square Enix released a PC Game that isn't P2P... that has to be a long time ago, like.. yeah the new Deus Ex
But that's all anyone ever says. Thats the same thing. So, if this is teh BAD way to do it, what's the RIGHT way to do it?
So, you make half-finished games people just don't want to buy just because of the sickening pricings, silly DLC, constant updates up to timid versions like 1.5 which in reality shouldn't even need to have existed, DRM and all that other greedy n' selfish business you give us. THEN you want to make us pay for your failed "business strategies" that everyone knows you've plotted to make a fantasy profit whilst throwing the truth aside.
With strategies like yours it's not hard to say that you're trying to exploit the consumerbase. You might not understand this yet, but exploiting in a connected, breathing community of internet users isn't going to work. Today, we are wise and we are one. You can't just try to make fools of us, the mature, thinking core gamers, anymore.
If you care, you will hear the consumerbase so they can fill your wallet for a good work well done, not your wallet to have it affect your consumerbase.
When we use money for games, we use it to gain a fair amount of entertainment. We aren't the kind of business where lies will get you far; we're now wise and we're not buying your games just to dimwittedly fill your wallets for an amount you clearly didn't deserve with the kind of product you went under the fence with.
We now know what is fair. You can't exploit the majority of us anymore.
Set your prices down, remove the sick DLC and give us a fair product for what we pay for. That might seem insanely low value for you, but you should also be aware that your games are just as low in entertainment value.