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Videogame Pirate Gets Long Jail Sentence
Thanks to the San Jose Business Journal for its article discussing the sentencing of a notable videogame pirate to 50 months in prison after being found guilty on charges of "copyright infringement and... mail fraud." According to the piece: "[Sean Michael] Breen... admitted that he was a leader in the Internet-based piracy group known as Razor1911. Since the early 1990s, Razor1911 had sought to achieve a reputation in the underground Internet piracy community... as the leading distributor of cracked computer and console game software." A report at GameSpot has further details, noting Razor1911 "...acquired advance copies of [videogame] titles by posing as reviewers for fictitious game magazines and having them shipped to a derelict storefront address in Oakland."
I know I'm running a flame risk here, but I for one applaud this arrest. It's people like this that enable companies to rationalize(in lawyers terms anyway) DRM rights systems, which annoy the living crap out of people who actually pay for these things and like to support developers/artists/whatever
Now the fact that he got caught showed just how dumb he was. Trying to steal hardware like that always leaves too many traces around, and if the company has the money, it will influence law enforcement to do the investigation. I dunno if this will start a "scared straight" program with warezers, or maybe they'll just keep to their little gated communities now. Hopefully a high-profile case of a really prolific pirates will ensure that game companies don't need to go the way of the RIAA, at least not anymore than they have.
If he were a Linux user, that list would consist of Tuxracer and... err... yeah.
Second, this is really nothing to applaud or rejoice over. The arrest of one or two dozen pirates does not even scratch the tip of the iceberg. The authorities know it but they still bust a group or two every couple of years for PR purposes. It does not affect the so-called "warez scene" at all. All game were pirated before this happened and all have continued to be pirated afterwards.
Third. I am very surprised to read that Razor1911 sold copies. To the extent of my knowledge, they are (Because they are still alive and kicking)a veteran and respected group in the warez scene and the one big No-No is the selling of pirated materials. In fact, Razor1911's nfo file (an
And of course, stealing is wrong, I don't condone piracy, don't have sex unprotected, yadda yadda...
I find it hard to justify jailtime for offences relating to videogames. Hefty fines, sure. Community service, why not. But jail should be reserved for people that are a physical threat to the community. How much more is this person going to cost society during those 50 months?
Well, if they don't like the program and it's costs, DON'T USE IT! Use (and contribute to) OSS instead. It's like people complaining that Adobe prices photoshop too high so they are forced to pirate it. Well, the Gimp is out there for free, and if you want a feature implemented, the Gimp is open source, you are free to add whatever features you want. Simple as that. You know, I don't want to plunk down $35k for an SUV because I don't think they are worth that much, but does that give me the right to go out and steal one? Of course not. We are lucky to have such a dedicated OSS community. On some projects, the quality might not be as high as you like, but YOU have the power to change that.
I hate how people seem to have this sense of entitlement to software. The software company doesn't exist for your benefit, as it shouldn't. Most of it's not essential to live and succeed, and the stuff that is(OS, internet browser, and Office program) all have both closed and open source versions. If you feel that the closed source version is what you want, then go out and buy a copy. If you don't want to pay that much for it, or you just don't plain want it, go with open source. Or create your own. Maybe if you were the one who created content you might be much less supportive of the pirate community.
"Mr. Breen also admitted that he had illegally used an online customer account of Cisco Systems to order hundreds of thousands of dollars of hardware by falsely posing as one of Cisco's existing customers."
"After receiving the hardware, Mr. Breen sold it on the grey market at a heavy discount off the normal price of the hardware, prosecutors say."
He was stealing real physical property in addition to his software piracy. The fact that it was worth "hundreds of thousands of dollars" made the copyright violations almost superfluous. In light of those violations, the sentence doesn't seem harsh at all.
His major screw up was the mail fraud. Don't scew with the mail system, the goverment doesn't fuck around when it comes to that.
Razor distrubuted far more games than apps. The two realms are totally different. I can't believe that OSS could ever possibly be a solution for commercial games.
I'd like to agree with the rest of the things you said, though. Except I can't. Because it would make me a terrible hypocrite.
I know Guybrush Threepwood always went around claiming to be a mighty pirate, but he really was pretty harmless. Oh well, guess the wait for the next Monkey Island game is going to be pretty long.
What's that you say? A different kind of videogame pirate was jailed, not Guybrush? Oh, my bad, I just read the headline and assumed the worst.
My sig will be released in 2015 third quarter. Rating pending.
Please people how many times must you be told that the jail was for stealing 600k worth of cisco hardware. Steal that much and you deserve jail time.
Karma's over rated. Speak your mind.
First of all, your comparison to SUVs is like apples to Oranges. an SUV is a tangible physical good, software is entirely intellectual property. As well, I know this is probably the billionth time it's been said. Piracy is not theft, it is copyright infringement, there is a world of difference.
Secondly, most applications, such as the ones you mention, have more then enough business customers that every person who needed it for a hobby or curiosity pirated it, they'd barely see a difference in profits.
I also highly doubt OSS will ever fit the need for games anytime in the next 20 to 30 years, especially with the increased demands for higher and higher quality models/textures/other art stuff. You could be the best programmer in the world, have an engine and all the code finished, and not be able to make a good game merely because you lack good artists/modelers/etc willing to contribute to a "free" game.