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.'

Comments

well.. how badly was he in it?

[gl4ss]

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.

Re:well.. how badly was he in it?

[Mike Hawk]

Warez0rxing games is one thing. Being the one who leaks an early version is another, IMHO. That goes straight to the heart of trust and inherently makes him unfit for further work in the industry.

Re:well.. how badly was he in it?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Uh huh. I once worked on a game where we accidentally put a game killing bug into our first beta candidate. We rolled it back, and fixed it properly, and told the people concerned to chuck the disks we'd just sent them, and to have this BC2 disk. Guess which version got warezed onto the net. Guess which version 4 different reviewers reviewed. Guess which reviewers got an 'early' review where they spent several paragraphs bagging the crash bug and saying this game is a load of shit. Guess which reviewers had to spend a bit of quality time with a lawyer where they tried to insist that 'it was like that when I bought it, but I don't have the original disk anymore'.

If you go with the warezed version, you don't know what you're getting. But we might. We do keep track of identifiable features in each version that goes out of the studio. The last game I was on, the 'zero day warez' version wasn't a zero day crack. It was from a month before release. Anyone who reviewed that, wasn't reviewing that same thing that gamers were going to play. As far as I'm concerned, if you're not reviewing the game that I'm buying, then what does your review have to do with anything, and why should I pay money for it?

What a dumbass.

[Nutcase]

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.