Sony Forming Anti-Piracy Legal Superteam

[Logan Westbrook]

Sony Forming Anti-Piracy Legal Superteam

It would appear that Sony sees a lot more trips to court over piracy and hacking in its future, and is hiring staff accordingly.

Sony has no shortage [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106865-Sony-Breaks-Out-the-Lawyers-Over-PS3-Hacks] of lawyers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107414-Sony-Targets-Custom-PS3-Firmware-with-DMCA-Takedown-Notices], but it's clearly decided that it needs a few more. Two job listings [http://playstation.taleo.net/careersection/sceaexternal1/moresearch.ftl] from SCEA show that Sony is looking for people to join a new, dedicated anti-piracy legal team.

The first listing is for a Senior Corporate Counsel for Anti-Piracy and Brand Protection. The main duties of the role include putting together a corporate anti-piracy plan for Sony, liaising with anti-piracy groups and trade bodies, and overseeing piracy lawsuits. The second listing is for a Senior Paralegal for Anti-Piracy and Brand Protection, whose job is to provide support for the Senior Counsel, liaise with other lawyers, and help with training for law enforcement personnel.

Both posts require a deep level of knowledge of copyright and trademark law and litigation, as well as at least ten years of experience working with copyright law, and at least three dealing specifically with anti-piracy and brand protection. There are also some investigative elements required, such as knowing how to track down the owners and administrators of websites.

What's clear is that Sony isn't expecting its complaint against hacker George Hotz to be the last time it heads to court over piracy issues. Quite the opposite in fact, if it has decided that it needs to hire people specifically to oversee and co-ordinate the cases.

Source: IGN [http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1151291p1.html]





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[Celtic_Kerr]

Mentioning George Hotz is gonna turn this into a HUGE debate again about what he's doing.

Interesting to see SONY gunning up for piracy though. We'll just have to see how this works

 

[v3n0mat3]

Ok, I'm not as phased about this as some others are. I can understand that they want to protect their property, it is their property after all. That said, they are taking this a bit far. I mean, a legal team specifically for piracy issues..? A little bit ridiculous, if you ask me. Then again, the reporters are hyping this a little bit too much. That is to say, like Microsoft or Nintendo doesn't have something like this already? Microsoft especially.

 

[Baresark]

Well of course they will. The thing is, Geohot didn't pirate anything. He didn't steal software and his CFW doesn't allow for pirated games. He only made you able to install packages onto the system, which will in the future be used for homebrew.

He won the suit against Apple, resulting in it not being illegal to jailbreak your iPhone, I think there is a reasonable chance that he may win this one as well. If for no other reason than his work is not directly used for any kind of cheating or pirating. You can give pipe wrenches to everyone, it's not your job to go around making sure they don't beat anyone to death with them. There is such a thing as personal responsibility. Now, if they want to take the backup manager people and sue them, I think the I would have to side with Sony.

 

[Vaccine]

Lol, they won't learn will they? what they're fighting is unstoppable and they're wasting money they could be putting into better games that people want to buy.

 

[Xanthious]

Isn't this cute. Sony thinks if they just sue enough people piracy will magically go away. I guess whatever floats their boat. If they want to keep throwing money at something they can't hope to defeat who am I to say they shouldn't.

 

[manythings]

Man, Sony's ass is bleeding hard. Still under the impression that every pirated copy equals a lost sale?

Even if one in ten (or a hundred) pirated copies are the only real lost sales that still adds up to... fuck knows but it's probably a lot. Why wouldn't they try to get their hands on that money?

 

[StoryMode]

Way to go Sony. I don't want people being able to pirate the great games that the system has, the companies/development teams deserve their money for their beautiful pieces of interactive multimedia!

Lol, they won't learn will they? what they're fighting is unstoppable and they're wasting money they could be putting into better games that people want to buy.

I think you, sir, must not have a PS3. It has plenty of better games than any other platform.

 

[StoryMode]

Isn't this cute. Sony thinks if they just sue enough people piracy will magically go away. I guess whatever floats their boat. If they want to keep throwing money at something they can't hope to defeat who am I to say they shouldn't.

They might not kill off piracy, but they'll at least not have it on their system. They already got away with it for a very long time now, and people are just around NOW starting to break into it?

I think it sounds worth it to them.

 

[Popido]

I dont see how this could help Sony or polish their image. Not a big fan of self mutilation.

 

[Vaccine]

Way to go Sony. I don't want people being able to pirate the great games that the system has, the companies/development teams deserve their money for their beautiful pieces of interactive multimedia!

Lol, they won't learn will they? what they're fighting is unstoppable and they're wasting money they could be putting into better games that people want to buy.

I think you, sir, must not have a PS3. It has plenty of better games than any other platform.

I have a PS3, I barely touch it.
Also have a Wii, barely touch it.

My PSP and my PC get the most love.

 

[murphy7801]

Way to go Sony. I don't want people being able to pirate the great games that the system has, the companies/development teams deserve their money for their beautiful pieces of interactive multimedia!

Lol, they won't learn will they? what they're fighting is unstoppable and they're wasting money they could be putting into better games that people want to buy.

I think you, sir, must not have a PS3. It has plenty of better games than any other platform.

I have a PS3, I barely touch it.
Also have a Wii, barely touch it.

My PSP and my PC get the most love.

My pc gets alot love too

 

[GeorgW]

I've always respected how harsh sony is on piracy. This seems like they're gonna start actively going after them, which I'm all for. The pirates already have the PC, can't they be happy about that??

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Even if one in ten (or a hundred) pirated copies are the only real lost sales that still adds up to... fuck knows but it's probably a lot. Why wouldn't they try to get their hands on that money?

Let's see. If 6 pirated one dollar songs are worth 1.5 million dollars, then a full length pirated game should be roughly.... eighty bajillion million dollars!

Seriously, I always wanted to know how they calculate the exorbitant charges for pirated goods.

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

I´m all for stopping piracy...but i dont think this is a war that Sony´s going to win. They´ll do a lot of damage to themselves in this process.

 

[manythings]

Even if one in ten (or a hundred) pirated copies are the only real lost sales that still adds up to... fuck knows but it's probably a lot. Why wouldn't they try to get their hands on that money?

Let's see. If 6 pirated one dollar songs are worth 1.5 million dollars, then a full length pirated game should be roughly.... eighty bajillion million dollars!

Seriously, I always wanted to know how they calculate the exorbitant charges for pirated goods.

Good work there, using a shitty analogy to pretend have point. It's fox-newsian in it's irrelevance.

My point, kneejerk, was there IS money being lost and companies (this is the insane part) want to make maximum profits for their products so they endeavour to STOP people who might even tangentially reduce their profits.

I´m all for stopping piracy...but i dont think this is a war that Sony´s going to win. They´ll do a lot of damage to themselves in this process.

But if that is what it takes for them to realise they need a better approach, on the whole I would call it a pay off in the consumers favour.