Pirating new video games is a crime. But there’s long been a rather grey area around the piracy of old games. And when I say old, I don’t mean 2008 old. I mean 1988 old.
This has long been a bit of an elephant in the room when it comes to “giant publishers talking about piracy”, so naturally it’s taken a representative from a small publisher to bring it up.
Kim Dotcom is the internet playboy who made his zillions by founding the now-defunct Anonymous cause celebre du jour Megaupload, and from the blatant hosting of pirated content there. But he also led a secret life, did you know? He is the deadliest shooter in all of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Really.
This is what dinosaurs do: they stomp on things. They move slowly. Their brains are too small for their massive bodies. They lumber. They shriek at the sky. They go extinct.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has issued a statement that due to Republican and Democratic “retreats”, hearings regarding the controversial Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) will resume in February. SOPA’s Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, is scheduled for a vote on January 24.
You know how Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt were using German courts to go after alleged pirates of the game? And how they gave up when everyone told them how shitty the practice they were using was? Turns out CD Projekt are just the tip of the iceberg.
“Game Laywer” Jas Purewal has written an open letter to Edge, addressed to “those who defend game pirates”. You’d hope it’s a considered, practical approach to one of the muddiest topics this industry faces today. It is not.
This week, TorrentFreak reported on the 50 most searched terms on torrent sites, giving indications as to what may have been the most pirated things of 2011. Not a single video game title was among them.
Torrent site Kat.ph has opened its databases to the download specialists at TorrentFreak, sharing with them the 50 most commonly searched terms for torrent downloads in 2011.
