Piracy =! Leaks

[Zannah]

So, with recent reports on two rather prominent games being leaked way ahead of their release schedule, and the corresponding number of threads coming up, there's an annoyingly wide-spread misconception I'd like to do away with.

When a game get's released, someone buys it, breaks the drm, and then puts it on the net, that's your common piracy. And yes, that's the pirates fault.

When a game get's cracked and uploaded a week before it's release, then it's someone in the printing or at some retailer thinking he's a pirate, and violating the trust bestowed upon him. That's partly the pirates fault for creating a certain demand, but mostly a handful of douchebags.

If a game gets leaked six entire weeks ahead of it's release, it's someone at the dev team, feeling underpayed, having an argument with his boss or being a general dick. And that's not the pirates fault, it's the fault of a single individual, trying to damage the very company he's working for. That doesn't give developers the excuse to instate draconic drm, nor to abandon platforms, and it's not the pirates fault when they do.

Can we just please remember that the next fifty times the matter is going to be discussed?

 

[Kortney]

It's still the pirates fault. There are bazillions of downloads for these leaked games. DRM tries to stop this.

 

[Zannah]

It's still the pirates fault. There are bazillions of downloads for these leaked games. DRM tries to stop this.

Because drm totally stops that.

And how exactly is drm going to stop someone in the dev team from being a douche and leaking the unprotected code? How is that person trying to harm his employer the pirates fault?

 

[MiketheBassMan]

So because someone on the dev team bundled it and seeded it, it's not piracy? He's taking the finished or near finished product and putting what's effectively a bootleg online, same as your run of the mean crack/warez team. The only difference is that it's probably a lot easier for him to get a hold of the software.

As a programmer, it hurts my soul a little that you put "=!" instead of "!=". Just a little. Kind of in that way that you might cringe when someone says "backslash" talking about the slashes in a URL.

 

[MasterChief892039]

When a game gets leaked, people download and play it without having paid for it. That's piracy.

Think of it like an SAT question; "If all leaks lead to piracy, are all piracies leaks?" (answer's no)

 

[Wolfram23]

It's still the pirates fault. There are bazillions of downloads for these leaked games. DRM tries to stop this.

Flawed logic. Pirates are people who crack games and then share them, as well as those who download. To get their hands on a game like this - a pre released developer version - a pirate literally can't get it and share it. The ONLY people who can are either hackers who somehow get into the companies servers and steal it, or else someone already on the inside who decides to upload it. Yes of course at that point he also becomes a pirate, but a leak is to me a much bigger concern to any given game/developer than a cracked game. And as history has shown, the DRMs do absolutely nothing to stop piracy thus far.

Anyway, as mentioned in the official news thread, someone linked this. Apparently only 10k people have completely downloaded it. IE: not many people at all.
http://torrentfreak.com/crysis-2-leak-fails-to-result-in-massive-download-fest-110213/

 

[MysticToast]

You have a severe apostrophe problem, OP. Thought I'd mention that.

 

[Stammer]

When a game gets leaked, people download and play it without having paid for it. That's piracy.

Think of it like an SAT question; "All leaks lead to piracy, but are all piracies leaks?" (no)

Exactly. A leak is just a sub-class of pirating.

 

[godofallu]

Ah see I thought you were going to argue that just because someone downloads a leaked version doesn't mean that they have pirated the game.

Since they just want to play the game, and this early beta version isn't really the same product, and has nothing to do with an actual purchase of said game or not.

Your logic is good too, clearly a employee leaked the game when it's that early.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Traditionally, many games that are pirated are sourced from leaks since cracking groups compete with each other for the prestige of releasing first. I think that most often they come from low paid people who work in the places where the disks are burnt but they have also come from reviewers. It's very unusual for the leak to come with source code from inside the developer but it's the same thing at a different point.

 

[Kortney]

snip

snip

You aren't getting my point.

You seem to be sour over the fact that gamers are being "punished" over this when it's not their fault. What I'm saying is that it is their fault. They pirate the games.

How is that person trying to harm his employer the pirates fault?

Please don't tell me you are the type of person who thinks its okay to steal a car if the keys are in the ignition. It's the same example. The pirates are at fault just as much as the person who leaked the game. Just like the car thief is at fault just as much as the idiot who left the keys in the ignition.

Apparently only 10k people have completely downloaded it. IE: not many people at all.

I think that has more to do with most people not knowing the games has been leaked.

 

[darth.pixie]

It's obvious that people download. It's the apple in front of the starving man (for now). People want to try it because it hasn't come out yet and want to play.

Whoever leaked it is to blame and people get it because hey! Crysis 2. DRM can be cracked. Anything can be cracked. But due to leaks, that wasn't even needed.

Anyway, as mentioned in the official news thread, someone linked this. Apparently only 10k people have completely downloaded it. IE: not many people at all.
http://torrentfreak.com/crysis-2-leak-fails-to-result-in-massive-download-fest-110213/

That's quite possibly because it's still beta.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

ok, ok it was not a Pirate, it was a Rogue.

Seriously, no matter what you call it, it's still wrong.

 

[Trolldor]

So, with recent reports on two rather prominent games being leaked way ahead of their release schedule, and the corresponding number of threads coming up, there's an annoyingly wide-spread misconception I'd like to do away with.

When a game get's released, someone buys it, breaks the drm, and then puts it on the net, that's your common piracy. And yes, that's the pirates fault.

When a game get's cracked and uploaded a week before it's release, then it's someone in the printing or at some retailer thinking he's a pirate, and violating the trust bestowed upon him. That's partly the pirates fault for creating a certain demand, but mostly a handful of douchebags.

If a game gets leaked six entire weeks ahead of it's release, it's someone at the dev team, feeling underpayed, having an argument with his boss or being a general dick. And that's not the pirates fault, it's the fault of a single individual, trying to damage the very company he's working for. That doesn't give developers the excuse to instate draconic drm, nor to abandon platforms, and it's not the pirates fault when they do.

Can we just please remember that the next fifty times the matter is going to be discussed?

If the pirate downloads it, he's at fault.

There's no piracy without pirates.

 

[Zannah]

I haven't once stated that leaking a game from the inside was excusable. What I'm saying is, looking at a game that was leaked from the inside, and dropping a comment like "Hah, they won't release the next game on the pc due to piracy" or "Hah, more drm due to stupid pirates" is misinformed, ill justified and blaming the wrong people. Also, I find it positively hilarious, there's probably been more comments of this kind on this very site, then people actually pirating the leaked crysis build. That's some serious thread to the industry right there, yo.

 

[Therumancer]

So, with recent reports on two rather prominent games being leaked way ahead of their release schedule, and the corresponding number of threads coming up, there's an annoyingly wide-spread misconception I'd like to do away with.

When a game get's released, someone buys it, breaks the drm, and then puts it on the net, that's your common piracy. And yes, that's the pirates fault.

When a game get's cracked and uploaded a week before it's release, then it's someone in the printing or at some retailer thinking he's a pirate, and violating the trust bestowed upon him. That's partly the pirates fault for creating a certain demand, but mostly a handful of douchebags.

If a game gets leaked six entire weeks ahead of it's release, it's someone at the dev team, feeling underpayed, having an argument with his boss or being a general dick. And that's not the pirates fault, it's the fault of a single individual, trying to damage the very company he's working for. That doesn't give developers the excuse to instate draconic drm, nor to abandon platforms, and it's not the pirates fault when they do.

Can we just please remember that the next fifty times the matter is going to be discussed?

As I said in response to Crysis I don't even think that's the case.

Let's be honest, a *LOT* of games are leaked before their release date. A good example of this was people playing "Soul Calibur IV" and "Resident Evil 5" and putting up videos or even live "watch us play" streams weeks before the games came out. I don't think it's a matter of corruption amount game distributers, warehouse workers, or even disgruntled employees. I think the game companies release the games themselves as a way of generating hype.

The QQing gets them articles drawing attention to the game, and what's more since piracy is there anyway it's not like jumping the shark a few weeks is going to alter the numbers much anyway. Since they are already expecting the piracy they really don't give two shakes of a rat's tail.

If it was really a case of corperate espianage or a disgruntled employee, chances are we'd be hearing something about it on another front, and honestly this happens so often (despite the recent attention) that I can't consider it any big deal. It's not even paticularly noteworthy, except for two companies doing it for their games right on top of each other.

This very thread is generating interest in the games in question, and thus the leak is having the intended effect.

 

[Savagezion]

It's still the pirates fault. There are bazillions of downloads for these leaked games. DRM tries to stop this.

Flawed logic. Pirates are people who crack games and then share them, as well as those who download.

Actually a pirate is anyone who illegally obtains and distributes merchandise they do not have rights to. If a game does not include DRM, piracy is still the proper term to use. People pirate minecraft.

-snip-

I will agree that there are some people on this site who are ignorant to piracy and just enjoy spouting "Piracy's bad mmmkay?" remarks and don't understand the big picture. However, this will continue whether we like it or not. That isn't to say I condone piracy, but I don't condone ignorance either. Some people actually seem to enjoy posting stuff and act like they know what they are talking about rather than simply knowing what they are talking about or be open to learn something. i.e. The people who need to understand this, aren't listening. (Even if they are posting, as they are too busy arguing.)