"The Witcher 2 devs claim 100% accuracy in identifying pirates, demand money from thousands"

[kane_magus]

If, and this is a VERY BIG if, they really and truly are "100% accurate" with their claims of piracy then I could perhaps support this. Seriously, if they're only going after people who really are pirating their games and nobody else, then more power to them. I hope they get every last one of them, if that's the case. However, as with all such claims to any sort of accuracy when determining piracy, I remain extremely dubious. As such, I am ambivalent about this, at best. If they go after even one innocent person as a result of this, and it's pretty much inevitable that they will, then they lose my sympathy. This doesn't work when the RIAA/MPAA does it, so how can CD Projekt expect it to work out any better for them?

Also, all the people in the comments saying "Well, I pirate games and I feel entirely justified in doing so because <insert the same old tired bullshit reasons here>" just makes me eyeroll and maybe even consider doing a facepalm, with a bit of weary sighing thrown in for good measure. Similarly, but on the flip side of the coin, people who continue to conflate copyright infringement with stealing elicit a similar reaction in me as well.

Comments

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

The fact that they're hush hush on the methods leads me to believe it's really nothing different than before, or whatever they claim is so reliable, isn't.

"Trade Secret" my ass. I think I'll just go ahead and add CD Projekt to my list of ignore companies - not that I was interested in Witcher to begin with. Until they're upfront with their methods, and it stands the test of industry professionals as being 100% reliable, I'm just going to say they're doing another RIAA styled witch hunt out for fear and extortion money.

If it's truly 100% reliable, then there should be no way it can be fooled even if known. If it can be fucked with if people know what to look for, then you're making an assumption that it hasn't been discovered.

And now that people are making this claim, you can bet anyone who is pirating the game is probably looking into the source to see if they can identify it. Heck, I'm sure some hacker types that legally bought the game are dissecting the code as well just to see what it might be.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of other links for this, so I'll just be lazy and post them here rather than editing the original post:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/15/cd-projekt-threatening-alleged-pirates/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/19/opinion-me-and-cdp-on-legal-threats/

The first one is just the general story similar to the PC Gamer article, but the second one was just posted today and is especially interesting. I mostly agree with Mr. Walker's stance on the issue, though I can kind of see where some of the people in the comments are coming from as well.

Like I said before, if and only if (by some miracle), they truly are only going after legitimate pirates, then I have slightly less of a problem with it. Though, even so, I'd still prefer that they just took the asshats to court to begin with if they're so dead sure they are actually pirates, rather than making the threat of court while, yes, blackmailing them (despite Mr. Walker's and CDP's claims that it is not blackmail) into settling out of court. I may hate piracy, but extortion isn't any better, and that's what this is. I mean, seriously, if their intention truly is for the fine to act as a deterrent or whatever, then why are they attempting to show "leniency" by giving them an "out" by "only" paying the fine, rather than taking them to court? If they are so sure that they would win in court, and that court fees would be so much higher than what the fine is, then wouldn't forcing the pirates to pay the much higher court fees plus whatever is awarded to the company by the court be an even bigger and more effective deterrent?

As always, however, the main thing is the claim that they are really pursuing only pirates and not innocent people that remains highly suspect to me. As such I cannot support this, especially since they're being so secretive about it. And especially since apparently there was already a case of them going after someone who had already bought the game prior to pirating it. While that person's claim to innocence is a bit muddy (they still enabled others to pirate the game after all), I agree with Mr. Walker's question of why did they let that guy off the hook for buying the game before he pirated, but aren't giving the others the option of buying the game after they pirated and are instead charging them 20 times the amount of the game?

Also, I can't believe they tried to seriously compare this shit to a speeding ticket, but Mr. Walker already blew that comparison out of the water.


I don't like the idea of assholes getting away with pirating games scot-free. I believe that they are the root cause of the entire issue. But, with that said, when the companies are using heinous means to try to deal with it, either through shit like this or through increasingly draconian DRM or whatever, then they're not much better than the pirates in the end, especially since they've expanded their witch-hunt from actual pirates to, now, also used game buyers and the like. While I think companies should be able to do something to try to deal with the problem, and I do still think it's a very real problem, despite a lot of companies' attempts to inflate the issue into something way worse than it is, I don't believe skeevy shit like this is that something. Skeevy shit like this is precisely what turns the world topsy-turvy and gets people to actually support the pirates over the companies being pirated. They start to equate the pirates with "freedom fighters" or some shit who are merely "sticking it to The Man" or whatever. So, again, this kind of skeevy shit isn't a viable solution to a skeevy problem. What that solution is, however, remains to be figured out, and sadly will likely forever remain a mystery.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

though I can kind of see where some of the people in the comments are coming from as well.

Well, except for people who say asinine shit like this:

"I tell you, I feel no remorse pirating Modern Warfare 3
In fact , i did it even though i didnt want to play it at all."

Yes, that is part of an actual comment underneath that second article to which I linked in the comment above.

Those people I don't understand at all. People like that are the scum who are the root cause of the problem in my eyes.