Piracy Archive

  • Blizzard: DRM is a waste of everyone’s time

    Blizzard: DRM is a waste of everyone’s time

    "We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology." Thank you, finally! See, Blizzard gets it. The company's co-founder, Frank Pearce, recently told the good folks at Video Gamer that he thinks the fight against DRM is misguided. Not that he supports end-users going around torrenting his games till the end of time, but that the way to "beat" piracy is to embrace gamers and treat them like complete jerks.

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  • Epic Games says something silly about piracy

    Epic Games says something silly about piracy

    Anyone else tired of video game publishers complaining about piracy? Like, human nature is such that you'll always have a bunch of knuckleheads who will hop on BitTorrent and download away. Forget them, they're jerks. Just focus on the non-jerks out there and go about your business. Anyhow, today the spotlight falls on Epic Games, makers of Unreal and Gears of War. Seems those guys think that all the money these days is in consoles, so PC gamers will have to get used to crummy ports or nothing at all!

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  • Did you download The Hurt Locker with BitTorrent? You may be facing a lawsuit soon!

    Did you download The Hurt Locker with BitTorrent? You may be facing a lawsuit soon!

    Hope you didn't download The Hurt Locker with BitTorrent because it looks like the film's producers may be coming after you. They're looking at a multi-million dollar copyright infringement lawsuit that would target "tens of thousands" of users. Let's discuss this for a moment.

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  • Irony: Did Rockstar upload a pirated version of Max Payne 2 to Steam?

    Irony: Did Rockstar upload a pirated version of Max Payne 2 to Steam?

    Well this is interesting. A person far cleverer than any of us here decided, on a whim, to look at the main executable of the Steam version of Max Payne 2 in a text editor. Because that's what you do, you know? Anyhow, a funny little thing appears: the ASCII logo of famed release group (now defunct) Myth. In other words, it sure does look like Rockstar uploaded a cracked (PIRATED OMG OMG OMG) version of the game to Steam's servers! You can't make this stuff up.

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  • Software piracy cost companies $51 billion last year

    Software piracy cost companies $51 billion last year

    Got an interesting e-mail a few hours ago detailing software piracy loses from the year 2009, also known as "last year." The big, scary number is 51, as in $51 billion in loses. So says the Business Software Association. Reading the report, which is dripping with alarmist rhetoric, you'd think that Gaia herself were in danger. Don't worry, guys, we'll get through this.

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  • Avatar fast becoming the most pirated Blu-ray movie of all time

    Avatar fast becoming the most pirated Blu-ray movie of all time

    Call me crazy, but wasn't the point of Avatar to go see it in 3D on the big screen? Otherwise, why bother? Be that as it may, Avatar is on track to hold the distinction of being the most pirated Blu-ray release of all time. Nice job, guys!

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  • MPAA refused to tell U.S. GAO where it got its piracy numbers

    MPAA refused to tell U.S. GAO where it got its piracy numbers

    More fallout from last week's U.S. Government Accountability Office report on the entertainment industry's piracy numbers. The gist of the report was that the government (and you and I) should never believe what the entertainment industry has to say again re: piracy because it was pulling data completely out of thin air. “Oh, 44 percent of all unauthorized file-sharing comes from universities, so you universities have to install filters to prevent students from downloading this and that, and we'll need new laws passed to protect our dying business methods. Oh, wait, sorry, math error, that's only 15 percent of unauthorized file-sharing. What, you want to know where we got these numbers from? Sorry, can't tell you, trade secret, but please pass favorable legislation anyway, kthxbye.”

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  • Nintendo blames piracy for 50% drop in EU sales

    Nintendo blames piracy for 50% drop in EU sales

    Sales of Nintendo's DS games are dropping in Europe, and according to Nintendo there's clear reason why: piracy. With the release of software like R4, it appears that more and more owners of the portable systems are turning to less then reputable sources for their games.

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  • Government Accountability Office: Don’t believe piracy studies because they’re wicked flawed

    Government Accountability Office: Don’t believe piracy studies because they’re wicked flawed

    You know how you read stories that say the U.S. loses X-amount of jobs per year due to piracy, or that this or that industry loses zillions of dollars per year because of piracy? The Government Accountability Office just released a new report that says that all of those reports are flawed and are completely worthless. In other words, the next time you hear the MPAA say “Downloading that DVD rip will ruin the movie industry” you can safely say, “Really? Where's the proof

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  • UK ISPs prepare for Digital Economy P2P fallout

    UK ISPs prepare for Digital Economy P2P fallout

    The Digital Economy Act passed in the UK, as you know, and it's pretty terrible. One of the more spicy sections of the law involved peer-to-peer use, and how it basically makes ISPs responsible for what their customers download. So if HBO finds that you've been download “The Pacific,” (really good show, by the way, much to my surprise) it can contact your ISP, who's then responsible for telling you to knock if off. If not, you face a truly horrible punishment: you're sent to Stoke! (That's a joke, people!)

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  • If you’re selling pirated games over the Internet you deserve to be locked up for being a fool

    If you’re selling pirated games over the Internet you deserve to be locked up for being a fool

    Don't mess with Canada, I suppose. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested someone last month for selling pirated games over the Internet. Of all the dumb things I've read, that's right up there with the best of them. Like, selling pirated video games on the Internet should be featured in "World's Dumbest Criminals" on some trash-television channel.

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  • Justice? 80,000 Americans facing copyright-related lawsuits

    Justice? 80,000 Americans facing copyright-related lawsuits

    We haven't really progressed beyond the year 2004, have we? With respect to copyright news, I mean. The latest: the "US Copyright Group" has filed suit against 20,000 BitTorrent users, with a cool 30,000 lawsuits now pending. If you total all the various different "Hollywood" (you know what I mean) lawsuits, that means that 80,000 Americans now face some sort of traffic-lawsuit.

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  • Warner Bros. UK offers internship to spy on BitTorrent users

    Warner Bros. UK offers internship to spy on BitTorrent users

    Warner Bros. UK is offering an internship to "IT literate" students that requires them to spy on fellow file-sharers. The intern will have to maintain accounts on private BitTorrent sites, as well as procure new accounts, in order to supply Warner Bros. UK with information on how that whole "world" works. Not a bad idea from Warner's perspective.

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  • Henry Morgan wants the word ‘pirate’ back

    Henry Morgan wants the word ‘pirate’ back

    Hollywood (the movie studios, the record labels, etc.) sure does have a knack for causing its own problems. You'll recall that it's en vogue to call copyright infringers "pirates," which is an insult to legitimate pirates like William Kidd and Henry Morgan. Just because you can fire up uTorrent doesn't mean you can take on a Spanish Armada. But, whatever, it's simply easier for Hollywood and its acolytes to call you kids "pirates" than it is to have an adult discussion about the subject.

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  • The $75 iPod levy that will solve all of Canada’s problems

    The $75 iPod levy that will solve all of Canada’s problems

    Apparently it's illegal in Canada to copy music from a CD you bought to an iPod (or whatever). It's simply not allowed, even if you're not breaking any DRM in the process. (In the U.S., it's illegal to copy a DVD to your computer's hard drive because you have to circumvent the copy protection in the process.) Solution? Some sort of levy, which would ensure that "artists" make money even though you're not re-buying their music.

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