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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 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.
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.
That's possibly the worst grammar I've ever seen in a Slashdot post.
I like the way things are now with the piracy game. It's a safe way for kids to rebel against "the man", doesn't usually involve other vices, and is something you can grow out of when you get a job.
For me, software piracy was something I participated in until I was about 22, inertia carrying me past my teens. As a teenager, this was the only way I had at my disposal to get the latest games (back then the latest games were of the "Bolo" and "Rescue Raiders" variety).
As an adult, it actually cost me more in time and money to pirate games than it would have to just drop $40 on what looked the coolest. I had to invest in a CD burner, which was expensive at the time, as well as a Zip drive, and the media they required (also pricey at the time). Not to mention having a family to support meant that I had a lot more to lose than I did at 16. At 16 I was a punk with a chip on my shoulder, and never bothered to cover my tracks. Stupid. Lucky. But anyway, I grew out of it.
Video game companies will rail and demand justice, but the kids will still be given leeway with this vice.
The advanced copy grift was a different matter, though. First, it's a bad con -- that will always get you caught eventually. Second, it's an adult who is deliberately defrauding a company by posing as someone he's not. Screw him. I don't want him representing the software piracy market. He's a bad example. Give me back the whiz kids who buy a game (or shoplift it if circumstances warrant) and defeat the copy protection or write a crack. That's just good fun.
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.