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Pirate Bay owners Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström were found guilty of assistance to copyright infringement. Is this a sign of things to come in the videogame industry's ongoing battle with piracy? With the PC industry reporting massive losses and the accessibility of ROMs for emulation, how much more can the videogame industry take before it needs to take up arms, together?
How does this tie into gaming? Stardock, the creators of the excellent Sins of Solar Empire, showed how piracy of their latest release Demigod was positively rampant. 2D Boy, the indie developer behind World of Goo, also said similar things. Torrents are the lifeblood of videogame piracy, and yet neither TPB nor some other torrent site has been slapped with a lawsuit. I find this exceptionally peculiar, and I can't for love nor money figure out why the videogaming industry hasn't already attacked the pirating channels.
Comments
It will eventually come down to either a 'Steam' like situation with ANY pc as well as console game (yes, having to be connected constantly for purchase verification of some sort).
I actually can't wait for the presence of On Live to see how fast publishers back up the company.
/rant
In the long run there isn't a whole lot that can be done about piracy. Like games and technology, piracy is ever evolving. Torrent providers can be targeted but in the long run, if their smart, they can't be held accountable. Online activation gets cracked eventually while it screws with legit customers. New systems can be used like DRM but it only angers the majority. In the long run, piracy will always continue until a perfect anti-piracy system is used (which is basically impossible anyway) or until all games are free (fat chance).
Some would still pirate even if the "perfect anti-piracy system" was used though, on principle. Even the most inconsiderate pirates, I think, just want freedom, just maybe more than is fair to anyone. But it's all valid...
As far as piracy goes, there's no doubt it'll continue...I mean, there's not much the industry can do about it, the 'pirates' are always one step ahead, and not just for the gaming industry, but films, music, etc., as well. Not everyone takes the free route though, otherwise we wouldn't see many games and such made.
There is simply no logical reason that should happen when I've got the disk in the bloody drive. Red Alert 3 was better in it's execution imo compared to DoW2. You'd install the game and then you couldn't play it till you authenticated it. Installing was a breeze and authenticating it took bugger all. With Steam you have to install the crap that is Steam, authenticate it then install the game through Steam with it active all the while, and then you have to keep Steam cause you basically need it on to play! No, just no. That shit is wrong and not needed.
You wouldn't make something illegal and then just sit there not stopping it.
But that's not the point anyway. Cyborg said that trying to combat drugs hasn't eradicated them, much like combating piracy won't stop it. Whether combating drugs has made them less prominently used (which it hasn't) is completely irrelevant to the comparison.
Just look at what happened to some of the wiiware games and some of Capcoms games.
I only pirate music (apple can kiss my ass with a dollar per song)
Piracy can never be stopped, and never will be stopped, and its sad to since it'll discourage new IP's and force smaller budgets on games which isn't necesaraly that bad but still pretty bad if you wanted a full blow out game.
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