Witcher 2
- Thread starter Operation Mindcrime
- Start date
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
You mean this article? I won't be buying Witcher 2 or any product from a company that engages in this kind of speculative invoicing scam. IMO it's just intimidation and menaces for money. The two most notorious companies in the UK have already shown through leaks and disciplinary action that they targeted people they knew were innocent and without reliable evidence. They simply threatened expensive legal action unless people payed up, regardless of whether they were innocent or not.
Thanks, I had no idea. That certainly changes things a bit...
Eh, so a company releases a completely DRM-free version of their new game and states that people should buy that instead of using DRM as an excuse to pirate the game. And you guys use the company's attack against piracy as a reason to boycott the game?
That's completely twisted but if that makes you happy, please go ahead.
That's completely twisted but if that makes you happy, please go ahead.
How is it bad if they track down pirates through torrent swarm IP list? They have their right to protect their IP. And the the rest is speculations in that article and obviously skewed comming from a pirate promoting site (torrentfreak.com). Pirates go to any length to defend their right to steal even with DRM free software and will find any excuse to do it, thats low.
New interview with Witcher 2 developers.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ere-not-afraid-of-dragon-age-interview?page=1
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ere-not-afraid-of-dragon-age-interview?page=1
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Torrentfreak is a reporting site, not a promoting site. It's a sane counterbalance to the lies put out by the media cartels. Have you even read the article or looked at the site a whole?
You obviously haven't been following the Davenport-Lyons/ACS Law stories. These lawyers know their evidence is flawed. They know they are threatening innocent people who have either had their IPs spoofed, their IP used in poisoned torrent caches, their modems cloned, their wireless hacked, or just plain unreliable book-keeping at ISPs. Both of these law firms are up in front of the Solicitors Regulation Authority for their activities of demanding cash with no evidence and threats of expensive court cases. They think you can just write down a load of IPs and demand money from the people at the other end. If you don't care about actual evidence or identifying the perpetrator, and just want someone to send the legal threats to, then that is all you need. It's just speculative invoicing as used in other shady businesses that have been outlawed. These are the sort of schemes CD Projekt are talking about signing up to.
These lawyers don't care, they simply demand a vastly inflated sum or they threaten people with expensive court cases (none of which have gone to court and been contested because they know their evidence is weak). They claim an account holder is guilty, although they have no evidence and have not even identified the infringer, and claim there is a liability where there is none.
It's one thing for a company to protect it's IP, it's quite another to sign up with these scum who are just out for the money, and tout threatening people with a letterhead as some kind of new revenue stream.
It's no longer about protecting against piracy, it's about making money by threatening people who don't know any better, by scaring people into thinking they might have to spend thousands to defend themselves against something they didn't do. That's why they ask for £500-600, and not just the cost of the game.
If that's how CD Projekt want to run their business, then I'll not be buying their products. Do whatever you like, but at least try to be informed of the facts instead of just spewing back ad hominems. Sure, go after counterfeiters, but don't sign up to be part of this scummy scheme to demand money with threats from the guilty and innocent alike.
green.pixel
Veteran
I don't think it will make it to courts, if they go with it at all that is.
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/20...aring-case-against-uk-isp-plusnet-and-bt.html
It's their loss in the end if they go through with it. RIAA spent 50+ millions hiring top attorneys and returned only a few back. CDP's move is either false and used just to scare people or very naive. This whould be expected from someone like EA or Ubisoft but not from a talented small company.
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/20...aring-case-against-uk-isp-plusnet-and-bt.html
It's their loss in the end if they go through with it. RIAA spent 50+ millions hiring top attorneys and returned only a few back. CDP's move is either false and used just to scare people or very naive. This whould be expected from someone like EA or Ubisoft but not from a talented small company.
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Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
It's not meant to go to the courts, it's meant to simply scare a portion of the people targeted with a series of threatening letters, so they get back a load of money for just sending some letters.
If it ever went to court, the lawyers couldn't even prove who did the downloading. If it ever came to damages, the sums involved would be very small, because there is no way to prove who downloaded what, or that those people would have bought copies. That's why none of them have gone to court, for fear of their speculative invoice business model being stopped.
MoS weren't even claiming copyright theft because they don't own the copyright. Rather than pay artists for their tracks, they use fair use samples and get some cheap musician to redo the remixes, because the royalties are lower. MoS were trying to copyright the tracklisting only.
but in the Davenport-Lyons case they waived their fee and instead decided to take a cut of the money recovered so it cost the dev nothing
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
And that's why the two (ex) DL lawyers are in front of a SRA disciplinary - they acted to make money instead of in the best interests of their clients (amongst other things). When it got embarrassingly bad, DL dumped the whole lot off onto ACS Law as a subcontractor.
green.pixel
Veteran
So, they basically rely on raking in hundreds of pounds from scared people thinking they've done something wrong and don't want to drag it on courts and just send them money?
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Yeah, they rely on people paying up rather than putting up with the stress and intimidation. That's why it's pitched at about the £500-600 level, because that's about the cost of getting a lawyer to represent you and send back a few letters denying everything and pointing out the legal flaws in the demands.
It's even been known for people to be targeted more than once because they paid up the first time, and are told that they must be guilty the second time because they paid up the first time - even when they've done nothing at all.
It's the same sharp practice that the lawyers write things in the letters like they consider the account holder "responsible for losses" even when there's been no claim of proof shown, no proof of loss or damages, and there's no legal liability if someone else uses your IP or even cracks your wireless. They imply you are legally responsible, without actually using the words, and will later even deny that they consider you to be the infringer. It's pure intimidation tactics.
Soooo....we've got the pirates on one side torpedoing the pc gaming industry, and on the other side we have the remaining pc gamers doing their best to kill it as well by banning a game due to (insert one of a myriad of reasons here). That's totally cool though because you guys are inadvertently expanding Witchers audience greatly by all but assuring that Witcher 3 will be consolified. Or perhaps it be console only? Will be interesting to see what happens. Either way, thanks for doing your part to let millions of console gamers in the future get a chance to play a Witcher game for the first time.
They are trying to extort innocent people, no game is worth that!
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yeah, I love when people say pirating is bad, and then ban product from any company trying to go after the pirates pirating their software. I'm not sure the pirates who delude themselves into thinking they aren't doing anything to harm a software dev are worse than the people that blast devs for trying to protect and profit from their hard work.
Regards,
SB
Regards,
SB
Grow up, we can not buy a game if we so wish!
The fact is that innocent people have been targeted and people with ethics would know that it is wrong to do so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two wrongs do not make a right!
green.pixel
Veteran
Yeah right
. Not like they don't want a part of the console market, that is more money. I don't know why devs don't just admit that, there is nothing wrong with that, nobody would blame them for being honest, on the contrary, they would gain more respect. Those filthy pirates helped Carmack & Co. to drive Ferraris btw. Bioware is going to ruin DA2, which will backfire on them. AFAIK, the first game sold more than ME2 crap (the first game was very streamlined as well). Like Nebula said in the other thread, maybe if the console demographic had higher standards and didn't just lap up any shit thrown at them but is shiny, perhaps both sides would get better games and not franchises turned into nothingless like Rainbox Six, Ghost Recon, SC.
And about the "consolification". I'm not that worried, anytime I can go to books and documentaries, where I don't have to worry about things I like being casualized, consolified or ruined by the tastes of the new-age trash lovers shaping the industry.
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