Slashdot Mirror
Net Journalist Prosecuted For Warez Crimes
Andrew Burnes writes "A fellow Internet games journalist will shortly plead guilty in a Connecticut court room for being involved in the warez scene, following his apprehension in April as part of Operation Fastlink. Here is a slice of his email to various press and editorial professionals: 'I am very sorry for what I have done, and after I serve my sentence, I hope I will be able to continue my career in the game industry, and move on with my life. This last year has been incredibly hard for me emotionally, facing the consequences of my bad choices, and I am hopeful for your support, but I'll understand if you want nothing to do with me.'
and I am hopeful for your support, but I'll understand if you want nothing to do with me.
:)
That depends. What kinda warez can you hook me up with?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
The software leaks, cracks, and such have to come from somewhere. While I'm sure there are some very intelegent individuals out there. It makes sense that there are several internal problems.
cue the crickets, i mean come on, a review site guy doing this? Cmon dude just stick it in the lightsocket and be done with it, your through with any trust in this industry.
And this is news because...?
Another dangerous criminal apprehended!
--This sig is in beta. Please let us know abut any errors you find.
because hell, even most game _programmers_ were 'involved' with warez at some point of their lives. because being super nerd gamelover and warez actually DO(did) go hand in hand unless your parents were super rich(and willing to get them to you).
hell, whole demoscene spur up from c64 warez scene, and from that scene spur up many of the star programmers for todays games.
(professional for profit pirating on the other hand.. if he was into that in hardcore: fuck you)
not that this should affect his game reviewer career though.. hell.. most game reviewers SHOULD be into warezed games so that they could write the reviews both early and WITHOUT ass licking of the publisher being necessary to get the review game.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Whatever happened to the movie producer who was putting screeners out to the pirates for a cut of the takes?
Did he not get the public perp walk like this guy did?
I would like to know how much this works in the other direction. Sometimes a illegal copy of a game will show up on some warez release list and then about the same time a review of the game will show up on an video game review site. Like maybe some of the net game journalists don't have access to pre-release review copies like the big boys so they get a pirate version of the game from the net so they can be up to date on review, information, screenshots, etc. They may not be the ones distributing but it's still illegal I would think.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
I hope I will be able to continue my career in the game industry
Dude. Your career to this point depended on them trusting you enough to give you free, early access to games you could write about. You spent your time undermining that trust and the industry by distributing those games to the world as warez. It pissed the gaming industry off so bad they are prosecuting you and sending you to JAIL.
You have no career in the game industry. You probably have no career in journalism. Considering how many job applications ask if you've ever committed a felony, you may have no career at a fast food restaurant.
Let me put it another way: Game Over.
bye bye ...
... that guy should be forgiven.. the majority of games out there just plain suck (Half Life 2 not .. that i did bought ... not, but i will, i promise, the game is a masterpiece). The majority of games that i recently tried out didn't justify the price they cost
Now seriously
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
I have to say that I have positive and negative feelings about this, and about game piracy as a whole.
Overall, I've always thought that games are one of the things that there is very little justification to just strait out pirate. I mean, there is no real requirement that you have game X (as opposed to say, certain Operating Systems or Office applications that such a large portion of the world uses that if you don't have it, in some cases, you are basically screwed), and I've always thought that games as a whole were fairly reasonably priced.
On the other hand, in some cases, piracy probably helps the game companies sell more games than they might otherwise, and in the end I think rewards companies who make good games (there are a number of games that I've purchased because I downloaded a pirate copy of a game that I wasn't really interested in, and then realized that the game was in fact quite good, or ran better under wine than I expected, and I ended up going out and paying for the game).
In the end though, regardless of whether or not this guy was doing the game industry a service or a disservice, it seems to me that if you are in a position like this guy was in, warezing games is a pretty boneheaded move just because it seems like an "insider" is a lot more likely to get caught than John Q. Cracker.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Anyone know what kind of sentence this guy is potentially facing?
If you read the comments in the linked article, He seems to be known for reviewing primarily pirated games and even posting download links on the site.
I hope I will be able to continue my career in the game industry
No. Sorry.
I remember when Trespasser first came out. They posted the first review. Even made it to the developer page.s passer.com/reviews-frame.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20010420123331/www.tre
10/19/98: First out the gate. Don't know how they got it.. but hey. Here it is..Game Over.net