ESA's Annual Report Details Its Piracy Prevention Adventures

[Karloff]

ESA's Annual Report Details Its Piracy Prevention Adventures

They do things differently in Mexico.

The Entertainment Software Association's Annual Report for 2012 is out, and it discusses the issue on every developer and publisher's mind: piracy. The ESA has been vigorous in its efforts to combat piracy, and it's been sending out website takedown notices left and right with significant successes. The ESA also wants the world to know about major enforcement actions in the US, Canada and elsewhere, so that we might see what happens to those who infringe.

In the US and Canada, it's fairly mundane stuff. Some dude in California, say, starts selling pirated Xbox titles on Craigslist, so the police move in. Most of the busts stay at the local PD level, with the exception of a couple retailers in California who managed to get on the FBI's radar. In Canada it's much the same, with the perpetrators usually receiving a year or two's probation and a fine. In neither jurisdiction are there more than half a dozen cases listed, and most of the arrested have piddling amounts of tech and goods in hand. The Craigslist fella, for instance, had 20 pirated games and 9 modded consoles when LA County Sheriff's Department took him down. Dillinger he was not.

Cross the border into Mexico - where prices for legal software and hardware are piracy is much more acceptable [http://www.vgchartz.com/article/84570/an-introduction-to-the-video-game-market-in-mexico/].

The ESA means business when it comes to piracy; but it's clear that, for the ESA, business means different things in different jurisdictions.

Source: ESA 2012 Report [http://www.theesa.com/about/ESA_2012_Annual_Report.pdf]


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[PoolCleaningRobot]

Maybe if they didn't charge so much for games and inflate the price of games in certain countries, they wouldn't have such insane piracy rates. Just a thought

 

[J Tyran]

I have no problem with them going after the "commercial" pirates that create and sell pirate games on physical media and modded consoles, they make lots of cash from their IP theft. Its only right that publishers want to put as many of them out of business as they can.

 

[Lightknight]

Interesting, it appears that other jurisdictions have a larger distribution of actual physical media rather than digital copies. So a disparity of reaction is relatively mandatory.

 

[J Tyran]

Interesting, it appears that other jurisdictions have a larger distribution of actual physical media rather than digital copies. So a disparity of reaction is relatively mandatory.

Lots of people lack a PC or internet connection, some of those that do lack the ability to torrent them, stream them digitally or cannot transfer them to physical media themselves. Pirates download them digitally for free then do the conversion and sell them, then the end user can play them on their CD players, DVD-BD and consoles. Some pirates use large scale disk duplication after creating the initial copy, as the article describes this can run into thousands of pieces pirated media on various disks.

In less developed countries the scale is much larger due to lack of infrastructure or lack of money to afford internet, the commercial pirates can make huge profits. Sometimes even running into tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds worth, its almost a large side industry as the scale can be astonishing sometimes. Other times its a single guy with a BD burner selling copies to friends, family and family friends for £4 or so.

Can someone explain to me the thought process behind selling goods at a higher price in poorer countries?

Its often their own governments fault when they impose import restrictions and import taxes as well as higher taxes for the publisher operating in that country.

 

[zinho73]

Can someone explain to me the thought process behind selling goods at a higher price in poorer countries?

It guarantees that they stay poor while pandering for the wealthy 1%.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"and it discusses the issue on every developer and publisher's mind: piracy"

WRONG! That's SO last years band wagon!!!
Now all they care about is second hand used sales!
THOSE are the real demons in this world!

Don't you watch Jimquisition?

 

[Chessrook44]

Can someone explain to me the thought process behind selling goods at a higher price in poorer countries?

My guess? Import/export fees cause a higher cost of distribution mandating a higher end cost for the consumer in order to keep the same profit. Along with monetary inflation and exchange rates.

But that's just my guess.

 

[1337mokro]

Crime riddled country with cartels that make Russian mobsters look civilized? Dedicate over 300 agents to cracking down on pirated games that nobody would ever buy legitimately because it is roughly a third of the average monthly paycheck! Because guarding corporate America's interests is numero uno even in Mechico!

When you stop blatantly lying about games. Plastering every wall with bullshots and enforcing a market where buyers regret is a constant possibility with every game because you all collectively forgot what the word refund meant around 2001. Instead of insanely inflating prices based on local markets even when that price when converted exceeds the one you charge in your home country. If instead of crapping out game after game after game half broken and barely functional you spend the extra 2 weeks on bug fixing.

Then maybe. MAYBE. Piracy would be less of an issue. It wouldn't be gone because hey it's a luxury product sold on a planet where about 1/3 of the population can barely afford it. Those people will pirate your games even if you stamp out any and all piracy in the regions that can afford it. However rather than seeing them as potential future customers once the economy gains more power you view each and everyone of those as lost sales.

Because this kid is totally gonna blow his allowance that amounts to 1$ a week on your 75$ game right? Idiots.

 

[J Tyran]

Crime riddled country with cartels that make Russian mobsters look civilized? Dedicate over 300 agents to cracking down on pirated games that nobody would ever buy legitimately because it is roughly a third of the average monthly paycheck! Because guarding corporate America's interests is numero uno even in Mechico!

Its not a case of "lol piracy" these guys produce pirated media in industrial quantities and can make hundreds of thousands of dollars, in years past they have traced the profits and found out they fund criminals and even paramilitary groups and terrorists.

The criminals involved can often be active criminals and catching them is worthwhile as well as interrupting the profit making that funds drugs and criminal acts.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

"and it discusses the issue on every developer and publisher's mind: piracy"

WRONG! That's SO last years band wagon!!!
Now all they care about is second hand used sales!
THOSE are the real demons in this world!

Don't you watch Jimquisition?

Eh, that was yesterday's reason too, they're just being honest about it now. Ask any PC gamer old enough to remember the PC wall at EB Games, they'll tell you of a long lost world of used PC games that was destroyed by the war on "piracy." What's scary is not that they're going after used games (that has always been the real target), but that they've managed to convince a lot of gamers that getting rid of the used market is a good thing, and not an attack on consumer rights.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Maybe if they didn't charge so much for games and inflate the price of games in certain countries, they wouldn't have such insane piracy rates. Just a thought

First post and you beat me to the sentiment. Kudos

My understanding is that this is because of outdated tariffs & import/export laws no one's bothered updating; drives up the prices in poor countries for reasons no one remembers

 

[Voltano]

This is depressing, really. I get that piracy is a booming business, and also an illegal one. But this just leads to the death of people either trying to make reasonable deals for the locals (like a friend making a copy for another friend), and police officers that are enforcing the rights of some corporation in a different country.

I heard export/import taxes from their government make the "legal" copies more expensive. So why doesn't the corporations sell their products at a cheaper price? Yeah they won't be getting a good return like in the USA or Japan, but could this also save a person's life who turns to crime?

 

[1337mokro]

Crime riddled country with cartels that make Russian mobsters look civilized? Dedicate over 300 agents to cracking down on pirated games that nobody would ever buy legitimately because it is roughly a third of the average monthly paycheck! Because guarding corporate America's interests is numero uno even in Mechico!

Its not a case of "lol piracy" these guys produce pirated media in industrial quantities and can make hundreds of thousands of dollars, in years past they have traced the profits and found out they fund criminals and even paramilitary groups and terrorists.

The criminals involved can often be active criminals and catching them is worthwhile as well as interrupting the profit making that funds drugs and criminal acts.

Yes and I have a 7 foot cock. The first thing you always do is put a little link right there below the ridiculous claim of profits from piracy going on to literally fund armies.

Now here is the thing. Yes piracy can be a part of a cartels operations. Along side with human trafficking. However the police is not exactly busting their balls for kidnapping and selling girls into sexual slavery are they? No they are cracking down the doors to get those illegally ripped DVD's. Now if they always had the option of just busting down the doors and rounding them up why are they acting like the ESA's private army? Wouldn't surprise me if they just walked past a truck load of cocaine and ignored it just to get at the games.

 

[Colt47]

Okay, so the ESA went out of it's way to shut down "illegal" game distributors in countries where the cost of "legal" property is too high for anyone to logically purchase. How about fixing the root problem instead of making peoples lives even worse in those areas? For that matter, most companies don't even view those regions as decent markets for their goods, so piracy often is the only way they can get anything in their country at affordable rates.

This is like the video game version of US intervention in Iran.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Maybe if they didn't charge so much for games and inflate the price of games in certain countries, they wouldn't have such insane piracy rates. Just a thought

No no no. The prices go up because pirates are pirating more, it's definitely not the other way around. Evil corporations can do no wrong! (sarcasm, by the way.)

At least Australia can rest assured that they aren't the only country getting screwed over by publishers, you're on par with Mexico in their eyes!

Wouldn't surprise me if they just walked past a truck load of cocaine and ignored it just to get at the games.

If it was pirated cocaine I'm sure they'd seize it. Christmas will be early at the ESA offices that year. They'd probably figure out some kind of cocaine DRM too.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Double post. I are shame.
Please be gentle moderators (your hair looks lovely today by the way)

 

[1337mokro]

Wouldn't surprise me if they just walked past a truck load of cocaine and ignored it just to get at the games.

If it was pirated cocaine I'm sure they'd seize it. Christmas will be early at the ESA offices that year. They'd probably figure out some kind of cocaine DRM too.

You'd get a "Internet Connection not found" message. To get high of the cocaine you just snorted you'd probably have to log your brain into the internet