Activision takes 3 File Share Priates to the courts
Gamers get caught sharing COD3 way too often
by XboxOZ360:
©2008 Grant Smythe:
UPDATE: An item just brought to our attention by kibbels at n4g regarding GamePolitics comments on file sharing but originally reported by Edge Online as distribution offences.
We all know the perils of File-Sharing and the consequences it can have. But very few take the risk seriously. Well 3 games are doing that right now as Activision take them to court for sharing COD 3 files across the net.
Mums/dads, say NO to your kids when they ask if they can “just download a game off the net . . . . PLEASE“, it could cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of owning a FREE game . . .
Two of the games have already agreed to pay sums in the amount of$US125,000 in total. Being, $US100,000 for Shawn Guse and $US25,000 from Chris Hyman, for their roles in copying and distributing copies of COD3 and Tony Hawks Project 8 on both the Wii and Xbox 360.
Recently Game Politics showed a list of several gamers who have been caught out with regards to game piracy, and the list is not a nice one to see. It shows that your everday mum as well as business people are in on the act of file-sharing to a large degree.
We are not talking about one or two copies of games, but hundred, and in some cases thousands of copies.
While I agree with Peter Moore with regards to not alienating your market in his comments when Atari, Codemasters and 3 other major developers took several gamers to court recently, (“However, Ex MS Xbox-DIv big boy Peter Moore and now EA Sports CEO has other thoughts on the matter, stating that this is not the way to get around the issue. He commented that “I’m not a huge fan of trying to punish your consumer,” further commenting . . . “Albeit these people have clearly stolen intellectual property, I think there are better ways of resolving this within our power as developers and publishers.”” ) – one does need to also set an example, and bring people into line with regards to large distribution schemes theyhave going. Game developers, and those that work for them are just like you and I.
They work for their daily income, they build items that they should get reward for, and if you or I take those goods and resell or distribute them illegally, then we are stealing and taking their rightful payments away from them.
They have families to feed, bills to pay, just like the rest of us. So where does one draw the line . . ?
©2008 Grant Smythe:
Filed under: Console gaming, Editorial, Industry News, Parental Gaming, Wii News, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Activision, filesharing, game politics, gamer sued, Peter Moore
Game politics have wimped out from being free press by removing the names. This is because Shawn Guse has been going round the internet trying to stifle all mention of him being a thief.
He sent me this email: ” My name is Shawn Guse and you have my name posted on your web site without my permission and I want it removed or changed to “A Washington man”, and I also want the link to the settlement removed if you have one. Please don’t contribute to the crucifixion of my name. If you are so kind as to remove the whole article that would be great. I have contacted many other web sites that are posting this and they are gladly removing it due to my request.”
My reply was to write another article about him, here: http://www.bruceongames.com/2008/09/25/shawn-guse-software-thief/
Set an example.. sure I guess that can be a way to get the message through, but it’s like throwing a person in jail for picking up a bill of money from the street that a bankrobber lost while trying to get away.
The dumber part of this is probably how so many publishers always wants to blame the pirates for low sales, cause they cannot admit to fault themselfs.
A good example of this is how Crytek went on a pirate badger trip in the media. However Crysis would never have sold that much anyways because only 10% of the market could even play it.
I agree with peter more there are better ways to get around this. Although lately EA have gone down the drain too. Not learning from previous mistakes with DRM. How it alienates the consumers and promotes piracy.
Publishers have to stop thinking the solution is in punishment.
It’s like whats the best way to stop underage drinking? in most cases the best way to stop underage drinking is to lower the required age to drink alcohol. Yes it might sound absurd, but many countries that does this have a lot less problems with this.
This however is a bigger problem in europe than in the US so I am not sure you can relate.
I have had ideas about account based gaming earlier. Cause personally I wouldn’t mind, but other things that would minimize piracy is stuff like making the box matter. Make a fundemental part of the game missing without the box. Of course I understand neither of these will work in most cases. But I am just sitting here writing stuff that crosses my mind as I type. Don’t you think the huge publishers and their big think tanks should be able to come up with something better than punishment?
I been playing games since the original nes so I certainly recall some $80-$100 retail prices on games.
I dunno maybe I’m jaded anymore but, to me it feels like a game should last more then a couple of days with two or three hour sessions before its over.
Activision in my opinion is becoming one of the biggest nickle/dimers with upcoming games cod5 and quantum of solace having “day one for pay map packs,” even including them as a bonus for pre-ordering.
Your essentially being asked to pay more day one for a brand new game or forced out of the online map lists, so $10, $20, $30 extra later, I think pricing becomes a valid complaint.
I think gamers though should refuse to buy games from companies that do this and invest in companies that reward loyal consumers with free map packs or developers who invest in there communities with map editor/tools, so we can create our own.
Farcry 2 is about out now and will have an incredible map editor, so that’s where I’m putting my money. The community heavily supported farcry and they will do so with farcry 2. Vanilla games maker activision can’t compete with the creativity of thousands of gamers and freely shared maps.
While I agree with you on that mate, I also think many complain about the cost of games way too much these days.
Not saying your $US60 (our $AU120) is not a lot of money, it is, but prices on games have only risen slightly over the last decade or more and have hovered around the $90 – $100 mark for many years now.
It’s just than many younger gamers coming in see it as a lot of money, yet do not know that the prices have remained quite stable over the last 10 – 15 years. And in some case, actually gotten cheaper !!
I think they deserve to be payed for there work. Gamers should not think there entitled to any game they want free for any reason.
I disagree with $60 for games an being forced to pay for extra content. Speak with your money, don’t buy there games or there dlc and don’t let piracy be an out for crummy developers who favor anti-consumer policies.