Maximum PC piracy RSS Feed

Company of Heroes Dev: High Specs Lead to Piracy, But PC Gaming's "Death" Laughable

Nathan Grayson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:16:52 -0600

Tim Holman, senior producer on Company of Heroes -- Relic's well-received, bajillion-selling PC-exclusive RTS franchise -- might be a teensy bit biased in favor of PC gaming. But his amorous feelings for the constantly morphing platform only go so far, and that's why it's time for an intervention. PC devs, quit shooting-up your games with prettier-than-real-life textures and nuclear-powered bloom lighting. Take it away, Tim:

"I think one of the things that hurt PC gaming is PC developers," he said. "If you make a game with such high-end requirements that only people with a $6,000 PC can play it at a decent framerate, of course your sales are going to drop."

"And of course people are going to pirate your game more, because they don't want to invest in your game first. They want to try it first for free [to see if it's compatible with their hardware]."

So, who's the excellently postured whiz kid sitting in the front of the classroom, setting an example for all the other miscreants? Why, that'd be Blizzard, says Holman. "It's no big secret. I know when I buy a Blizzard game, I'm not going to have to upgrade anything," he explained.

But Holman's far from stuffing this not-compliment sandwich into a plastic baggy and calling it quits; the thing's all condiments and no meat. His main point, then, is this:

"I laugh hysterically whenever I hear that PC gaming is dead. Every time I hear a person saying, 'PC games are dying,' or 'PC games are dead,' particularly if they're a competitor, I fully agree with them--and I encourage them to get out of the space as soon as possible, just so I don't have to compete with them," Holman said, laughing -- probably in a hysterical manner.

So, are you willing to give your eight GeForce graphics shurikens a break from flexing their potent prowess for the betterment of PC gaming? Or do you think Holman's opinion is a load of crock?

Atari Accuses Non-Gaming Senior Citizens of Software Piracy

Paul Lilly — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:55:20 -0600

Taking a page from the RIAA -- whose umbrella of accusations have included suing an 83-year-old deceased woman (going for a default judgment, perhaps?) -- Atari has gone on the offensive by sending out letters threatening legal action against those who are believed to be downloading and sharing games online.

Among the recipients are Gill (age 54) and Ken Murdoch (age 66), a pair of senior citizens residing in Scotland who are being accused of stealing the game Race 07. To avoid legal action, they've been asked to pay what amounts to $815USD. The only problem? The Murdoch's claim they don't play videogames.

"We do not have, and have never had, any computer game or sharing software," the couple said. "We did not even know what 'per to peer' was until we received the letter."

According to DailyTech, it appears Atari has hired anti-piracy firm Logistep to round up IP addresses of those it believes are pirating videogames. But just as the RIAA has found out, sweeping allegations based on IP addys alone can sometimes lead to false positives, and with it a public outcry. With regards to the Murdochs, Atari dropped the case in the wake of negative publicity, but its legal campaign marches on.

Should Atari receive the same scorn the RIAA has received? Hit the jump and sound off.

Chinese Pirates Angry Over Microsoft’s Blackout Anti-Piracy Tool

Alex Castle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:21:17 -0500

Never ones to shy away from an uphill battle, Microsoft has recently been taking new steps to combat software piracy in China. They’ve launched a program, euphemistically called “Windows Genuine Advantage,” which blacks out users' screens if it discovers that they’re running pirated Microsoft software.

In China, a country where a large majority of computers are running pirated software, this move has, predictably, caused quite an uproar.

The China Daily quoted Dong Zhengwei, a lawyer, as saying “[Microsoft is] the biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users’ computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority … I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property, but … They should target producers and sellers of fake software, not users.”

The quote references the fact that in China, a lot of the software sold commercially is actually pirated, meaning that users might be at risk of a blackout without even knowing it.

Is Microsoft just protecting their IP, or have they gone too far? Let us know after the jump.

Unsurprisingly, Pirates Target Windows XP Over Vista, Says Microsoft

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:24:40 -0500

Evidently, software pirates have been passing up on Microsoft’s latest flagship OS, Vista, in order to get their booty plundering hands on a counterfeit version of XP, according to Bonnie MacNaughton, a senior attorney at Microsoft.

“Historically, counterfeiters tend to focus on the 'n-1' version of software," explained MacNaughton. "Because of the more robust antipiracy and security features in Vista, most sophisticated piracy rings still continue to focus on XP. But that's changing over time.” For the very same reasons, counterfeiters are only copying Office 2003, rather than Office 2007.

Given the current future of Windows XP, and the high possibility of its piracy it’s entirely likely that any copy of XP that you get after January 2009 (with the exception of downgrades available through HP and Dell) is pirated. Because of this, Microsoft is planning on rolling out a brand new ad campaign in early 2009 to remind people of XP’s demise, and this possibility. “We're planning [a campaign] in January or February to make sure our customers know what our rules and policies are about Windows XP," stated MacNaughton, "to make sure they understand what may be illegitimate and what may be legitimate. We want to make sure that the XP they might be getting is genuine.”

Microsoft Launches Global Anti-Piracy Day in 49 Countries

Paul Lilly — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:30:52 -0500

Piracy continues to be the bane of both software developers/publishers and consumers alike. Electronic Arts caused an uproar among gamers when it decided to use a modified version of SecuROM for Spore, which ultimately ended up punishing paying customers while pirates still got their hands on the game through torrent sites from the outset. Is there a solution?

Microsoft hopes to answer that question by taking the fight against software piracy global. In what Microsoft is calling Global Anti-Piracy Day (not to be confused with the International Talk Like a Pirate Day), the company will use a mishmash of education and enforcement tactics in 49 countries, which includes filing 20 lawsuits against software resellers in the U.S. allegedly selling pirated copies of Office 2007 Enterprise, Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 Pro, and Office 2007 Pro.

"One of the reasons we believe this announcement is important is it consolidates a lot of our activities in connection with our partnerships with governments, our customers and partners,” said Bonnie MacNaughton, Microsoft senior attorney.

Different tactics will be used in different countries. For instance, Microsoft is partnering with the American Chamber of Commerce to launch an anti-piracy educational blog in Brazil, whereas in Italy the company has begun an employee anti-piracy ambassador program. Regardless of specific strategy, it's all part of an effort to reduce the estimated $50 billion pirated software is costing the industry on a global scale.

Hit the jump and let us know if you think Microsoft's approach will work or not.

PC Gaming Alliance: Let's Use Piracy for Fun and Profit

Nathan Grayson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:32:55 -0500

Being a blight upon the 99.8% of the gaming industry that enjoys making money, it's not too surprising that piracy has a place at gaming's Bad Guy table, where maniacal cackles flow freely and glasses are always half-empty. However, when one of PC gaming's great beneficiaries, the PC Gaming Alliance says piracy isn't so bad -- just misunderstood -- well, jaws drop.

That's exactly what happened when we heard about PCGA Pres. Randy Stude's plan to plant a money tree in piracy's apparently fertile soil.

"Let's monetize every one of those pirates, and let's advertise the hell out of them," Stude told Gamasutra.

Fearing that the big cheese had finally snapped, we nearly missed his explanation, wherein he said that such monetization should be "blatant." For instance, he noted, developers could plaster six times the number of in-game ads around unauthenticated versions of a game. The end result: pirates get an "inferior" version of a game, while developers rake in cash from ads.

"Don't throw [pirates] off [of the server], but show an ad every time a new level loads. The [paying customer] gets a billboard, a passive, less-aggressive ad than [pirates] are going to get," Stude added, demonstrably sane.

So those of you who play but don't pay, if Stude's grandiose plan were enacted, would you willfully download Far Cry 2: Viagra Blue Edition, or would you finally change your ways?

MPAA Says Anti-Piracy Efforts Are Reason Behind The Dark Knight Success

Chris Moody — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:50:03 -0500

You have to love the spin doctors. No not the band, the group of people that are try to put a certain angle on a viewpoint. Specifically the MPAA’s latest claim that The Dark Knight had such a smash opening weekend was because of their efforts against piracy. It couldn’t possibly be because the movie was actually good, could it?

TechDirt.com points out that the MPAA would have us ignore the awesome reviews, that the movie was available in IMAX (which you can't replicate at home), or that the movie was available online right after it was released in their claims.

In the LA Times article that spawned this debate, the MPAA’s argument cites the original Hulk movie. They argue that a rough, early version of the movie by Ang Lee made its way to the internet about two weeks before the film's scheduled premiere which provoked negative reactions from the comic-book’s devoted fans.

Make the jump to see what else the article had to say.

DVD Copying Is On The Rise

Justin Kerr — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:36:40 -0500

Making copies of protected DVD media is complicated process conducted over dark fiber and only by the hacker elite, or is it? A new survey conducted by Futuresource Consulting shows that in reality, more than one in three US & UK residents have owned up to making copies of content they didn’t own. These numbers are up sharply from the one in four self proclaimed pirates surveyed during the previous year. The results tell the true story of what keeps Hollywood executives up at night. Is the movie industry doomed to suffer the same collapse facing music labels?

Click the jump to find out.