News - Game Pirates check your post! UK publishers sending out 25,000 letters demandi

[Daydreamer]

do explain the point then

The point is balance, even in the example you gave. The punishment for killing one person will not be the same as someone who killed twenty.

ppl committing varying levels of offences are being given the same punishment.

[aidanjt]

do explain the point then

They have no authority to be sending out *fines*, if they wish to seak compensation for copyright infringements they should be asking for reasonable sums per title, say £30, since that's the average price of a PC game.

[Biscuit]

Yes it's amazing that this action is not being taken by a big company like EA. It seems that the games industry has lost it's patience with pirates

Companies like EA still make a lot of money as their copy protection is a lot better + people have to go through a lot more effort to play their games online with a pirated version. Even if you do go through all the effort to play it online you would still be most likely limited to 'cracked' servers which are most probs of hackers/cheats so whats the point.

I imagine if these people do go to court and they rule in favour of the company then EA may consider doing the same sorta thing but at the moment the laws are linked in such a tenuous way (as Dave metioned) it would just result in bad press for the company.

Danroyle i think u need to chill out, pirating games and murdering are in COMPLETELY different leagues and can in now way be compared with each other

[danroyle]

The point is balance, even in the example you gave. The punishment for killing one person will not be the same as someone who killed twenty.

ppl committing varying levels of offences are being given the same punishment.

but murder is still murder and piracy is still piracy.

They have no authority to be sending out *fines*, if they wish to seak compensation for copyright infringements they should be asking for reasonable sums per title, say £30, since that's the average price of a PC game.

and yes the fee is very steep but the point of it is to scare you from doing it and a £30 fine will not do that if you get lumped with £300 you will.

after all this is simply a scare tactic.


and biscuit am very chilled. was an example but everyone says i am missing the point as i wont jump to the defence of pirates (unless it's jack sparrow as he's brilliant)

[mediaboy]

but murder is still murder and piracy is still piracy.

So if I come and kill you and then decide to kill my dog should I get the same sentence for killing the dog as you? After all... some people would say the dog is worth as much as a human, and therefore would say that murdering the dog is the equivalent of murdering the human.

Although that detracts from the point. Piracy is piracy... but downloading one game - which you are getting in the post but can't be bothered to wait until it decides to turn up - and downloading 10000 games, putting them onto CDs, starting up a black market CD system, making a few million in the porcess.

Are they the same thing? One of them is piracy, and so is the other, but they are in entirely different leagues.

and yes the fee is very steep but the point of it is to scra you from doing it and a £30 fine will not do that if you get lumped with £300 you will.

after all this is simply a scare tactic.

The point being that they cannot actually fine you just like that, as they do not have the rights to. £30 or £300, they cannot force you to pay without going throuhg legal processes.

Try reading what people in this thread have to say and we won't have to repeat ourselves.


EDIT: He would post on top of me wouldn't he?

and biscuit am very chilled. was an example but everyone says i am missing the point as i wont jump to the defence of pirates (unless it's jack sparrow as he's brilliant)

We're not jumping to the defence of pirates. We're correcting your point of view that someone that makes money out of this and someone that has done it once or twice are guilty of the same crime in the same magnitude.

[Biscuit]

but murder is still murder and piracy is still piracy.

Murder is killing people pirating software is ripping a few quid from a few massive corporations. Now im not condoning it here im just stating there is a HUGE difference and this analogy you have working is way out.

and yes the fee is very steep but the point of it is to scra you from doing it and a £30 fine will not do that if you get lumped with £300 you will.

after all this is simply a scare tactic.

But the point here is its not their place to do that, they are not the government nor the police.

[Daydreamer]

I am not jumping to defence of pirates, merely saying that when punishing crime it is still important to be fair. Piracy is detriment to gaming and I am very serious gamer and do not like the changes occuring as a result of illegal downloads but the arbitrary way fines are being flung around doesn't seem right.

What if someone in a van drove next to your house and used your internet to download or upload games and then you recieve letter asking for £300 quid?

[kalniel]

A one-off fine won't be viewed as accurate compensation proportionate to level of offense - that's not the point of it, it's an agreement with the publisher and more of a token payment. Like creditors who may be happy to settle for a fixed smaller amount. The idea being that you draw a line under it and agree not to commit any more offenses.

If you don't agree to a fixed payment then you can simply go to court (if they persue) - that happened the other day for Isabella Barwinska who then had to pay £6,086.56 plus 10k costs, which was more proportional to the level of offense. It has been tested in court:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7568642.stm

[aidanjt]

but murder is still murder and piracy is still piracy.

One may not be associated with the other.

and yes the fee is very steep but the point of it is to scra you from doing it and a £30 fine will not do that if you get lumped with £300 you will.

And if all 25,000 recipients just downloaded some silly pinball game with a worth of £10 per copy, that'd be a 30 time gain, netting them in £7.5m. Rediculous. And again, they have no authority to fine people.

after all this is simply a scare tactic.

Yes, and that's all.

[danroyle]

So if I come and kill you and then decide to kill my dog should I get the same sentence for killing the dog as you? After all... some people would say the dog is worth as much as a human, and therefore would say that murdering the dog is the equivalent of murdering the human.

Although that detracts from the point. Piracy is piracy... but downloading one game - which you are getting in the post but can't be bothered to wait until it decides to turn up - and downloading 10000 games, putting them onto CDs, starting up a black market CD system, making a few million in the porcess.

Are they the same thing? One of them is piracy, and so is the other, but they are in entirely different leagues.




The point being that they cannot actually fine you just like that, as they do not have the rights to. £30 or £300, they cannot force you to pay without going throuhg legal processes.

Try reading what people in this thread have to say and we won't have to repeat ourselves.


EDIT: He would post on top of me wouldn't he?



We're not jumping to the defence of pirates. We're correcting your point of view that someone that makes money out of this and someone that has done it once or twice are guilty of the same crime in the same magnitude.

and to say they have no legal right means you did not read this properly either as they are not taking legal action they are seeking compensation from you which they have a right to do.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

lol no matter what they do, they will never kill pirates completely. start making good quality games and distributing to steam and then you will see less people pirating it. i mean do i have to remind you teh success of hl2 and team fortress2?

not to mention the billions in profit made from world of warcraft? stop making console ports and start making godo quality games that will give users a reason to buy a 4850 because atm. a 8800GT is enough to play almost ANY pc game out atm.

[Biscuit]

so why did you compare it with a crime and punishment scenario such as murder?

[kalniel]

lol no matter what they do, they will never kill pirates completely. start making good quality games and distributing to steam and then you will see less people pirating it. i mean do i have to remind you teh success of hl2 and team fortress2?

not to mention the billions in profit made from world of warcraft? stop making console ports and start making godo quality games that will give users a reason to buy a 4850 because atm. a 8800GT is enough to play almost ANY pc game out atm.

The quality arguement has been bandied about by lots of cheapos but actually seems to have little to do with it - infact higher quality games seem to be pirated more.

Steam distribution isn't the be all and end all either, though if you can afford to go Steam exclusive then it's probably a good move.

However killing pirates completely isn't the aim - if they can just get piracy down to a level which makes the market place nicer to do business in (say, bringing down PC piracy to more like console levels) then they'll have done a good job.

[Infinite]

just a quick note;

killing 20 people would practically have the same punishment as killing 1

[danroyle]

so why did you compare it with a crime and punishment scenario such as murder?

to prove a point about ignorance.

so many people seem to think that it's ok to pirate (and josh is right we will always have them)
but it's not right, it is wrong in the same way murder is or burglary it is certainly a lesser crime but is still one and while i would be much more annoyed at aperson that broke into my house or the poster who said he will come and kill me then his dog. i do still feel strongly about this issue as saying these are big companies does not make it ok.

if i were a millionare does that make it ok to steal my car or house (don't own either so don't bother trying)

[Biscuit]

to prove a point about ignorance.

so many people seem to think that it's ok to pirate (and josh is right we will always have them)
but it's not right, it is wrong in the same way murder is or burglary it is certainly a lesser crime but is still one and while i would be much more annoyed at aperson that broke into my house or the poster who said he will come and kill me then his dog. i do still feel strongly about this issue as saying these are big companies does not make it ok.

if i were a millionare does that make it ok to steal my car or house (don't own either so don't bother trying)

But who are you proving this point too?

Not a single person in the forums has said that pirating games is ok, no one has protected the act of doing it. All we have said is that there needs to be a bit more sense going into the 'compensation' amounts in relation to the amount that has been downloaded and that its difficult to prove that it was the person who gets the fine that did it as anyone can log into your wireless connection.

To bring upon your analogy above, how about someone else burgles a house then frames you for it and you go down? Hows that justified without serious proof?