CDProjekt lays off legal threats to supposed pirates

[James]

CDProjekt lays off legal threats to supposed pirates

Community feedback puts end to aggressive anti-piracy initiative

[MrTallShaw]

I have an idea; lets all, as a community, send letters to the Police saying that they should put an end to their aggressive anti-theft & hijacking policies. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've just about had it up to here with their methods of policing.

[Graal]

I have an idea; lets all, as a community, send letters to the Police saying that they should put an end to their aggressive anti-theft & hijacking policies. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've just about had it up to here with their methods of policing.

These are two entirely different issues. In the case of physical theft and hijacking, someone actively takes harm, and it is a criminal offense. With software piracy, nobody is directly harmed, because the pirate probably wasn't going to buy the game anyway. Software piracy is also not a criminal offense, it is a civil offense.
With digital theft, if you take something, you do not take it away from the previous owner, you make a duplicate, meaning there are now two instead of one. Thus, theoretically, nobody gets harmed directly by the theft.
With physical theft, if someone steals from you, you lose that item. Thus, you are harmed directly because now you no longer have that item.

I don't support piracy, but you can't compare it to real world theft. It's not the same thing.
And the way CDProjekt was handling their anti-piracy initiative, it was ridiculous and over-the-top absurd.

[Crzwaco]

I support you and I bet a lot of gamers do since I also love the No drm. So I say keep sending them, how many times have I read on mybroadband about somebody worring about the letters they get, and you might not get everyone to buy it but atleast those that got a fright might just look around and see the price has dropped from $60 to $40 and with the steam special it was $25 and buy it or they won't bit yeah those letters could work.

[Cyrokrypto]

I must say i really respect CDProjekt red, even when piracy kills their game they still don't add DRM that will affect the paying customers - and they are taking a step in the right direction. What is the point of punishing your customers and thereby adding only a few more days to the piracy process? Piracy is inevitable, it cant be stopped.

[Venom]

it can be stopped , I vote for cheaper games
R50 vs R500
I only say this cause my games collection is worth more than my PC 32" and all
Ok ok not really but damn Im close .............do PS2 games count hmmmmmm

[Fivel]

I don't support piracy, but you can't compare it to real world theft. It's not the same thing.
And the way CDProjekt was handling their anti-piracy initiative, it was ridiculous and over-the-top absurd.

So how should CDProjekt have gone about it? Here is a company that bends over backwards to make their product attractive. They produce quality games and they don't use DRM, yet their game is pirated. How do people believe that an industry can be sustained by folk taking/using a product and not paying for it?

[Graal]

So how should CDProjekt have gone about it? Here is a company that bends over backwards to make their product attractive. They produce quality games and they don't use DRM, yet their game is pirated. How do people believe that an industry can be sustained by folk taking/using a product and not paying for it?

And yet the game also sold amazingly, probably partly due to the way they handled their DRM, but mostly due to the fact that it was a pretty amazing game.

Piracy is always going to be an issue. As long as people are greedy, they will find ways to get what they want without paying. Trying to fight this with silly legal letters helps nothing. Have you seen The Witcher 2's standard edition box contents? Making the purchase more appealing is the best way of fighting piracy.

[Stefan9]

So how should CDProjekt have gone about it? Here is a company that bends over backwards to make their product attractive. They produce quality games and they don't use DRM, yet their game is pirated. How do people believe that an industry can be sustained by folk taking/using a product and not paying for it?

Problem arguement is that its assuming those that pirated would have bought the game if they couldn't pirate it. Imho the percentage of those pirating who would actually buy the game is very low.

Don't have a problem with CD Projekt or any other company throwing the law at them thought. As long as at the same time they continue to treat us genuine customers properly.

[ViperGTI]

I don't know all the details of what went down, but given how they handled their drm and how the game is priced, I'm ok with the idea of them hunting down the bastards.