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Music industry on game devs fighting illegal file-sharers: you're on your own

Posted Aug 20, 2008 at 2:35PM EST by Mabie A.

Listed in: Tags: Atari, Codemasters, piracy, Reality Pump

YOU could be in the top 500 pirates! - Image 1

Earlier this morning, news came out that five British game companies are taking 25,000 pirates to court for illegally downloading their software from file-sharing services. The big five are Codemasters, Atari, Reality Pump, Topware and Techland.

The Times reports that they are seeking Â£ 3,000 (about US$ 5, 600) in payment, apart from demanding contact details from ISPs and preparing to take to court the first 500 of those who refuse to pay. That makes pirate # 501 very lucky, indeed.

Apparently, the legal action was incited by a landmark court-ruling that was held earlier this week, with a file-sharing gamer, Isabela Barwinska, being forced to pay Â£ 16,000 damages to Topware for downloading Dream Pinball from a file-sharing website.

Now, even before the day has finished, the music industry has given their own two cents on the issue - another victim of piracy - and surprise, surprise, they're not backing the gaming industry on this one.

Matt Phillips, director of communications of the BPI (formerly known as the British Phonographic Industry), says "that working with ISPs to educate consumers is a more effective way of combating illegal downloading" instead of punishing those who file-share.

This issue of file-sharing has been growing in significance especially with the boom of the Internet industry. Unfortunately, there is still no sufficient jurisprudence that will streamline the rules and policies defining when an act of file-sharing is held illegal. Piracy, though now a generic concept, remains vague and evasive, and so it is fairly easy for any one to fall in the pitfalls of this title.

But since both industries of music and gaming are the most hurt in all this, and also the movie industry, it would probably help a lot of they take on a united stance on the matter. Unfortunately, with this obvious distancing move of the BPI, it looks like even the industries themselves are not exactly certain yet as to how to deal with the issue of file-sharing. How can we expect to finally kill of the alternate-industry that's killing off the legit industries when they themselves are at a dissonance?

We'll be updating you more on this matter, but in the meantime, make sure you're not downloading any illegal files. You just might wake up one morning one of these days to find an invitation to court waiting for you in your mailbox.

Via Develop Mag

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... or die trying. sorry couldn't resist...

"How can we expect to finally kill of the alternate-industry that's killing off the legit industries when they themselves are at a dissonance?"

the games industry is not in anything even resembling the position of the music industry.

the only reason it got so bad for the music industry is they rested on their laurels. they chose to ignore and then try to crush the tech that could of kept them in the money. instead they squandered the opportunity and are now playing catch-up.

as games continue their natural progression toward digital delivery, piracy inherently becomes much harder.

IF connections were fast enough for anyone to download games like they did mp3s on napster, AND the games industry was completely ignoring the distribution method... i could see your point. however at this point it amounts to little more than sensationalism.

# hey — kevin_eleven 2008-08-20 18:44

i think that phrase is from 25 Cent if u know what i mean

# I here be a Pirate aghrrrrrr!!! — Xis 2008-08-20 20:30

I be one who snatch the media across all the twelve cyber seas and the on the deck of the infamous Limewire ship and shoot cannon balls through firewalls

I be one of thems bildgrat psphacking Pirates aghrrrrrr!!

# hummmm — greatone690 2008-08-20 22:25

well i no alot of work goes into games but here's a thort try lowering the price of the games then the hard working man/woman who saved up for a year to by his ps3 xbox wii etc can afford to by the dame things and wont need to download em of the net!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

# hummmmm — greatone690 2008-08-20 22:28

and another thing the music industry made it bitter for people by makeing it cheaper for people get get music on-line why don't the game pep`s do the same!!!

# fail suckers fail — xlemuelx 2008-08-20 22:39

TPB and china's mp3 sharing websites will never fall

# DRM — Ben_darkpikachu02 2008-08-20 23:53

The reason why music piracy is so rampant is because of DRM encryption. DRM encrypted music won't play on a lot of players, forcing people to go the illegal route to get their music. I was reading a blog entry written by a PC technician on his opinion on why Steve Jobs cornered the music market and it is because encrypted WMA music from other sources like Wal-Mart.com Downloads and the free ad-supported service, Spiral Frog won't play on your IPod unless you burn it to a CD and then rip it back to your hard drive.

Ben

# lol, torrents — FreePlay 2008-08-21 00:32

there's this thing called 'usenet' you should investigate.

# I'm a ninja... I hate you — 73N5H1 2008-08-21 01:49

Isn't the Limewire ship more like a rowboat these days. Maybe you should abandon ship....

# 16k conviction is wrong.... — Fred_West78 2008-08-21 01:56

Isabela Barwinska was not convicted for downloading but actually for uploading, i have a solicitor friend who has told me that all this anti-piracy crap at the mo is aimed against uploaders and people who share (seeding or whatever) and that for downloading they are not actaully trying to get convictions.............. yet.

# Really now — Matt5112 2008-08-21 01:56

I dl to "sample" the album then buy the CD. None of this overcompressed 128 Kbps BS for me. Don't bother looking up the Wikipedia page and numerous "studies" which say that should suffice. Anyone with decent speakers and knows what to listen for will be able to distuinguish the difference between even 192 and 320 Kbps, let alone that BS which they sell online. That is my number one reason for buying CD's. I'm sorry I have ears.

# oh?? — xlemuelx 2008-08-21 03:26

TPB for albums, china websites have every song there is. it is legal in china to download songs dude

# Thank you FreePlay — Nevers 2008-08-21 05:24

...for hitting the nail on the head. It's always been about the money.

# well, — Dremth 2008-08-21 08:35

everything plays in winamp so i'm fine with drm

# My — Donciclon 2008-08-21 09:55

torrent guns will blow holes in you skallywags offline-lubers. Ai matees prepare the Azureus for impact. We're commandeering his *****.

# Ninjas — NemesisDTP 2008-08-21 10:05

Dont use Limewire or Torrents....

Direct downloads are what are going to kill you!

# Not quite right — Dr_Frankenstein 2008-08-21 10:40

"Apparently, the legal action was incited by a landmark court-ruling that was held earlier this week, with a file-sharing gamer, Isabela Barwinska, being forced to pay £ 16,000 damages to Topware for downloading Dream Pinball from a file-sharing website"

Thats not correct the court action was a default judgement no claims or evidence was provided from the defendant. So Topware/Davenport Lyons didn't need to back up there "evidence"

# Food for thought... — arishay 2008-08-21 12:40

Piracy has been around forever now. It's been a battle that can't be won for the shear reason that it's always going to be easy for anyone with half a brain to figure out new ways to get ahold of content they don't legally own. Just about everyone not in the know has a friend or two that IS in the know. Just about anyone in the KNOW has a friend or two that knows a thing or two more. Scaring the rest of us who are knowledgable of our risks and the extent of how vulnerable we really are isn't enough. The napster episode was targeting people who uploaded excessive amounts of music through an actual specific service during the P2P explosion. Kazaa, bearshare, emule and all the other services were extremely easy to utilize and connected all of us to thousands of files (whether harmful or decietful based on their title and description) and that is what led to the downfall of all those prosecuted. Torrent's, IRC and other direct download type piracy (Torren't being the P2P alternative) seem to still outlast that craze. You need to be a little more educated, which puts you at less risk of being specifically hand picked on a simple user list. IRC alone is still enough to deter most simple minded pirates and usually has the newest music, video and software leaks at least for a small time before it's being "seeded."

None of you should really be blaming the enterprises behind prosecution of the individuals committing criminal acts. You should be blaming the individuals for being ignorant in basically throwing their credentials right into the hands of investigators. They aren't doing enough to even protect themselves, so why in the hell are they even pirating in the first place?

# aghrr ninjas be a banacle on me ass — Xis 2008-08-21 17:23

he be right the Limewire has lost is sails and she be goin down yeh certain thinkin of bein a ninja but me urge to have sex with these here lasses keep me from runnin around in me pajamas and it be cool to download ***** straight from these here companies and assassinate the owners like a ninja aghrrrr

# uhmmm — dazmo 2008-08-21 18:06

think about it.

your average cd costs 24 bucks, contains 12 tracks, thats two bucks a track, each track in mp3 form is about 4-5 megs (decent quality.) so, so we come in at about 2 bucks for 4.5 megs.

but what the industry loses is the price of the cd when a potential buyer just pirates the cd. about 24 bucks each.

now, the gaming industry loses ~ 60 bucks when a game is pirated.

now a good music label may have 2-3 prominent artists on their roster, pumping out 2-3 albums every 2 years. come to 2-3 "good" products A YEAR.

the average game development company is much slower at producing products. so the downloads maybe dont hurt them quite as bad, so i see your point.

# maybe — dazmo 2008-08-21 18:07

but does anyone care? he sucks.

# usenet lol — dazmo 2008-08-21 18:11

what do you have a 486 running renegade BBS? are you using the kermit FTP? how is it youre logging into usenet these days without anyone knowing about it? im sure you are cause you rubbed your name off your credit card lol. enjoy the porn, sicko.

# That's the last time I buy from those dodgy companies. — SomeGuy 2008-08-21 18:14

I believe what Codemasters, Atari, Reality Pump, Topware and Techland are doing is wrong and I want buy their games anymore and I won't be the first.

I don't agree with those who profit of other peoples property, but I don't agree with bullies either.

Freedom of information I think is required for the growth of human intelligence and anyway how else are you supposed to tell if a product is good or not unless you try before you buy.

You should only pay for something that is worth the price you pay for it.

# . — Binary 2008-08-21 19:34

Big compines always wanna push the little guys around.

damn concisest!

# .. — Binary 2008-08-21 19:38

becasue it never slap them in the face yet that they can save big by slaping a file online and it the money roll.

but some people still prefers Hard Copy stuff since you can lost data easy.

# .. — Binary 2008-08-21 19:39

can I download Milk and eggs?

# ... — FreePlay 2008-08-22 03:05

"what do you have a 486 running renegade BBS? are you using the kermit FTP? how is it youre logging into usenet these days without anyone knowing about it? im sure you are cause you rubbed your name off your credit card lol. enjoy the porn, sicko."

Really? Well, I'm sorry that you happen to be so ignorant, but you can download pretty much anything on Usenet that you find on torrents.

I've downloaded over a terabyte in the last three months.

# ROFL — junkshez 2008-08-22 06:14

lol i did not even know the other 4 companyies besides codemasters exsisted, what i think they r doing is stupid profiting from someone elses stuff. they should GTFO and create games which are so great that people actually wanna buy not download of some website.

they can take THAT to the court!

# ... — Chipsoft 2008-08-22 06:58

I dont download, but i understand why people download games, most of the games i buyed suck, after a hour of playing time, im starting to get bored.... but i never downloaded a game :|

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