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

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

[heffrey]

You can't make money out of suing games pirates. It costs to sue and you can only recover assets that the sued party actually has. It takes epic amounts of time too.

The reason they sue is to deter others.

Mass software pirates are scumbags who deserve to be brought to their knees in my view.

Re:Don't Sue Your Market

[RedK]

Except people pirating your game aren't your market, they aren't giving you any money.

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

[KDR_11k]

It would still fail because the parties acted with consent from Activision, also receiving a copy is not sufficient to violate copyright. Buying stolen goods might apply if it was reasonably obvious that the copies were counterfeit (if it isn't the distributors are just guilty of fraud) but even then they wouldn't really be illegal if the action was sanctioned by Activision. Needs one whistleblower/investigator to destroy the whole scheme.