Activision Goes After Individual Game Pirates

brunascle writes "Activision has begun suing individual pirates of console games. Edge Online is reporting that they are going after a New York resident for allegedly copying Call of Duty 3 for the Xbox 360 and other games, seeking $30,000 to $150,000 in damages for each infringement. GamePolitics has also uncovered six other lawsuits with settlements between $1,000 and $100,000, in five of which the defendant was unrepresented." Activision's lawyers specifically told GamePolitics that the lawsuit wasn't targeting file-sharers, so they probably mean that the alleged pirate was reproducing and distributing physical copies of the game. The court complaint is available here (PDF).

Comments

$30k - $150k?

[Caboosian]

A game costs roughly $60.00. For each act of infringement, Activision wants, at the very least, 50000% of the initial price, or at the most, 250000% of the initial price. How is it even legal to demand that much? I truly don't understand our legal system. If he had stolen the game 5 times, he'd probably be fined $500 - $1000, but for distributing 5 copies, he now has to pay (if activision gets their way) $150k?

I'm sorry, but that's just incredibly fucking stupid.

Re:Great move by Activision!

[Praedon]

Yep.. Especially because if people would RTFA it says specifically that the person was making copies and distributing them.. which can put to rest the speculation from within the description of the story, and such. I love it when stories are put to the front page and "Speculate" the truth, when the truth is, yes, indeed this person IS DISTRIBUTING copies of Call of Duty 3 for the XBOX 360...

And it's awesome that they are not pulling an RIAA.. I assume this Strickland dude from New York has his own stand or possibly selling them on the internet or even maybe around his school. I'm a huge fan of Activision, and I'm glad to see them not pulling the stuff RIAA has been known to do.

Sounds like a good move

[phorm]

There are plenty of these guys around here, and they're pretty arrogant too. I had a buddy looking for some XBox 360 games, and there was a pirate shop that was apparently selling (copies) for cheap. Curious about how they operated, I dropped in and found they have a huge binder listing game titles, and it's about $8 for a Wii/PS2 game or $20 for an Xbox 360 game. This is for a *BURNED DISC*

So I asked why the price differential for the 360 games (hell, it's all copied BS, no originals) and they said it's because XB360 discs are double-layer and cost more.

So let's see. About $0.50 or less for a single layer DVD, maybe add the cost of a label, is about $7 profit. At what, $1.50 for a dual-layer DVD is maybe $18 profit. For copied games.

Oh, and nevermind the problems he had returning one of the discs that didn't work.

Yeah, I think I'll stick with legit retailers and used but original discs (not that I game much these days anyhow).

If movie/music/game companies want to make a real killing nailing *real* "pirates", just go to one of the big Chinese malls and nail all of these guys. They're raking in cash selling copies of other people's work, and if anyone should be sued for "piracy" I think these are a good place to start.

Re:Sounds like a good move

[benjfowler]

Amen to this. The pros operate on an industrial scale and must surely account for a significant amount of revenue foregone, when people realize they can just buy a disc for a fiver off some fat Chinese kid.

In London, DVD piracy is a huge, and very sophisticated business. They're big enough that they have proper presses and proper glossy three colour printed jackets, all manufactured here in town. They have runner who move the good to the sellers, who are trafficked into Britain and paid a pittance to sell the disks.

It's a sad thing to watch, when sitting in a pub, some desperate looking kid in a shopping bag sneak in and offer 'DVD' 'DVD' to everyone in the pub until the manager comes and moves him on.

The guys behind this are the real parasites, and given its prevalence around here, not nearly enough effort is done to bust down on it.

Hell with actually selling games. Let's sue 'em

[Simonetta]

If a company is publicly owned and answers to shareholders for maximum profit, then it is in its best interest for them to be their own pirates. If they can sell an individual copy of the game for $30, but they can get $1000 from every person that they sue that has a copy of the game that wasn't purchased, then they should distribute as many 'illegal' copies of the game as possible. Suing your 'customers' is far more profitable than selling them games could ever be. They have an obligation to their stockholders to put most of their corporate resources into lawsuits instead of game development.

  Activision should work with their distributors to get the names of young people who are using the 'illegal' games. First they sell for pennies a mediocre game and get the names and addresses of the people whom they are going to sue. Then Activision gives a copy of the hot new game (HNG) to the distributors. The distributors give the HNG to the people who bought the previous game, and then give the names and addresses of those people to Activision. Then the lawyers are released from hell, and instead of collecting $30 from each person for a game, they get $1000+ from each person who received a 'free' HNG. The distributors get 20% as a bounty.

    Of course, it goes without saying that the distributors will tell the 'customers' that the HNG is an open-source program and that the only charge is 'register' your name and address. Activision should also remove all copyright notices from the HNG code and claim that it is a 'product under development'.

    This kind of thing is frowned upon in legal circles as being a form of entrapment, but that doesn't apply to civil or copyright cases. Even if it did, any applicable laws could quickly be changed to maximize the profit for Activision.

    In this situation, the customer base of Activision has four choices:
        > they can give up using game programs from any source, free, paid, legal, illegal, bit-torrent, whatever.
        > they can pay the $1000+ to Activision.
        > they can pay the $1000+ to Activision, then find out where the children of the Activision lawyers go to school, kidnap them, and hold them until they get their $1000+ back.
        > pay a finder's fee/bounty to a death-squad-for-hire to kill the lawyers and not pay Activision the $1000+.

    This is how various mafia crime organizations get started. When it starts to make more financial sense to all chip in to hire a killer than it does to risk being sued/entrapped by corrupt organizations that discovered that it was much easier to sue people than provide them with a product/service at going market prices.

  Sure beats selling software for a living.

Re:Hell with actually selling games. Let's sue 'em

[tebee]

Strangely enough, some time ago, something very similar to this to this happened in the UK with videos. A friend is a lawyer who had to represent a video rental shop owner accused of renting fake videos. Now he'd bought these from a trade fair in London from some supposed American dealers - I don't know the details but I'm guessing he got a "good deal" so he may have some idea they where doggy so he's not whiter than white. Sometime later a hotshot set of lawyers - on behalf of the film companies - comes after him for everything he owns for hiring out fake videos. Everything looks bleak for him , they force his business to close and are after the rest of his assets when my friend happens to investigate the people who sold him the videos - they turn out to be American PI's and their hotel bill and return airfare was paid for by the hotshot firm of lawyers. Result - the case was dropped and lots of compensation paid to the shop owner for the loss of his business and the hassle.

Re:Good

[Lehk228]

yes there is a moral difference between piracy for "fun" and selling someone else's work for personal profit.