Pirate Bay Gets a 4,000-Page Complaint

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Swedish prosecutors appear to be close to finally pressing charges against The Pirate Bay, having served them with 4,000 pages of legal papers. While this might appear bad, the administrators have already moved some of the servers out of the country, so Swedish prosecutors can't shut it down, even if they want to. Moreover, the people of Sweden are decidedly on their side, with the Pirate Party, which is sympathetic to TPB's cause, being one of the top ten political parties in the country. Still, this looks like a dirty trick on the part of the prosecutors — like they're dumping all of this on the defendants in the hope that they won't have enough time to sort through it and defend themselves. For comparison, the second-biggest murder case in Sweden required only 1,500 pages."

Comments

Re:Dude, I so have this one:

[MBraynard]

A 'top ten' political party means the people of the country are behind you? You mean, like just how the American people are behind Ron Paul.

Looking forward to watching the Pirates of the Bay become a different kind of 'pirate.'

Re:Really?

[Merusdraconis]

I note that our game's up on The Pirate Bay for people to download (http://www.caravelgames.com). So, uh, it's not just the big bad RIAA that they're thumbing their nose at, it's everyone who tries to make some kind of money from content. They don't care who they hurt.

I mean, it's not like we're even being that unreasonable. The engine's open source under the MPL (http://www.caravelgames.com/sourcecode.html), and the 'demo' has no time-limit, contains the game's editor and can export and import the hundreds of free levels the game's fans have created. The only thing we're selling is the media we've actually created to sell, 'premium content' if you will. Really, the only reason you'd have to pirate the game is to take away a sale from a bunch of guys who wanted to make the sort of game they don't really make any more. It's a dick move.

It's a shame that the Pirate Bay are being set up as these renegade folk heroes, but I guess that's what happens when a smaller villain tweaks the nose of a larger one.

4 Rules of Acquisition

[redkea]

My Rules of Acquisition You MAY acquire a copy if: 1. it is not available in your State or Country. 2. the local price, ignoring taxes, is more than 50% higher than the Amazon US Dollar price 3. the TV show is on free-to-air (network) television in a prime time slot, heavily hyped, then shifted to an 11:30pm slot. Either the show is good or the show is crap - make up your mind before wasting my time. You MUST buy a legitimate copy if 3. You enjoy it to the point of watching it more than once. 4. You recommend the series to your friends and family. Rules 1 & 2 are about punishing Copyright Holders for being idiots by treating their customers like idiots. Rule 3 & 4 are about rewarding Copyright Holders for making enjoyable content and showing some respect to their customers.

Re:Really?

[syousef]

Life's pretty tough for developers. Same for the end user though. I can think of one particular simulator I've spent USD1000 on where the developers turned around and treated me like dirt for daring to make suggestions that their anti-piracy makes their software very difficult for me to use (large software dongle, version specific, and I want to use this r/c sim on the train so i have to pick which version in advance and carry a second bag to use it). They even picked sides with people who were hurling all kinds of abuse at me and ended up banning me. Their board of course, but I'll never touch their software again. Screw 'em.

Clearly if I'm spending so much (and I do know how to get around their crappy protection at least for earlier versions) I'm not busy downloading the content off pirate bay. So why am I posting this? Because the copy protection gets in my way as a legitimate user, and because just as users can treat developers badly so to developers can treat users badly.

Your team should put a notice in the about screen (and even if you must in some in game advertising) about paying for the product. Hell you could even make it part of the media content. However you do it don't make it obnoxious though. Then ACCEPT the fact that some maybe even many people will pirate it. The trade off for a smaller less well established company is you get more exposure. Think of the cost of your advertising. Most of the users downloading off TPB aren't the types who are going to buy your software anyway. As infuriating as it must be you lose very few sales in letting them use it. Focus on the users who do support your development instead of trying to lock your product down.

Re:Try asking nicely.

[cliffski]

Pure fucking urban legend. My games are there too, I asked very nicely, they didn't do shit, or even bother replying. It's pure fantasy land bullshit put around by TPB themselves that they give a fuck whose copyright they are breaking. They spread that bullshit about just asking nicely to make them seem like the good guys, but its just a big fat joke on the people who worship them. They make a fortune in advertising, and then have the cheek to ask people for money to buy an island, which no doubt went straight to a Swiss bank account.
Believe me, those guys don't give a damn whose business they are wrecking, they only care about their own bank balance. it's truly sad to see so many people fall for it.