Hundreds Sued for Sharing Video Games

rated by 0 users
This post has 4 Replies | 2 Followers

Top 10 Contributor
Posts 8,241
Points 249,740
Joined: Sep 2007
News Posted: Tue, Aug 19 2008 2:43 PM

File-sharing, that's widely discussed.  But game sharing, not so much.  Basically the focus until now has been on music and movies, but now it seems industry has decided games being shared via P2P also deserve to be addressed.


As many as 100 people suspected of illegally sharing computer game files over
the internet are to be sued for copyright infringement, it emerged today.


A London-based law firm said it would launch legal proceedings on behalf of
the computer game publisher Topware Interactive after a woman was fined
£16,000 for illegally sharing a pinball-themed game over the web.


The woman, who has not been named, was forced to pay £6,000 of damages and
£10,000 in costs to Topware after she was found to have uploaded the game
Dream
Pinball 3D to the internet and distributed it using file-sharing
networks.

Interesting that they are focusing on what's more of a casual game rather than a "hot ticket item."  After all, a simple search of any number of torrent sites will bring up a huge number of games, including new ones such as Space Siege.  In general, most of them contain cracks as well.

Many have said those downloading would never buy the games otherwise, or that many try the games and buy a legal copy after becoming enamored of them.  What do you HH readers think?  Have any of you (ahem) downloaded a game?  We're not going to ask you which  one!




  • | Post Points: 50
Top 50 Contributor
Posts 2,202
Points 23,245
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: Atlanta
rapid1 replied on Tue, Aug 19 2008 11:28 PM

but video games help children and doctors can they at least share them????????

  • | Post Points: 20
Not Ranked
Posts 36
Points 535
Joined: Jun 2008

n ot many who dl a game will buy it.

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 50 Contributor
Posts 2,591
Points 33,300
Joined: May 2008
Location: U.S.
3vi1 replied on Wed, Aug 20 2008 12:13 PM
No doubt these lawyers got a call from MediaSentry, who told them they could make money hand over fist by actively approaching smaller game companies with promises to increase their revenue stream.

It's hard to care one way or the other: On hand A) It sucks that companies have come up with business models that revolve around threats and litigation against people that wouldn't have purchased the product in the first place, but B) you should probably rent a game or do some other research before buying it instead of copying it from the internet.

-J

"The solution is patenting as much as we can. A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high. Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors."-- Bill Gates, 2002-08-15

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 50 Contributor
Posts 2,202
Points 23,245
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: Atlanta
rapid1 replied on Wed, Aug 20 2008 2:47 PM
Lol, I was just kidding seeing as there was an article posted about the children and surgeons being helped by video game. As far as it goes when I play which is not as much any more but. I generally play MMO's anyway so it's subscription based anyway. So I amount the theft is very low as far as the games themselves go. Plus what do they care your paying your monthly if your playing anyway.
  • | Post Points: 5
Page 1 of 1 (5 items) | RSS