Britain Decriminalizes Video Game Piracy

cutting down the internet is way too harsh. I lived in London once 4 years ago and didn't know of such laws. How do they know if I accessed websites to watch online movies for free or download a PSP game? Do they really track me?

That's exactly how everyone's should think. To support the creator and help them make sequel or whatever

Those cheeky wankers.

Dude, it is the 21st century. Of course they track you.

They don't care what you have downloaded they only care what you have uploaded (if they are not scumbags blackmailing people). Usually they just take down public websites, or look at all the IP addresses on a torrent swarm then pick out the ones in the country they want to send a threatening letter to then do that if they can connect and download a complete piece from it.

I once got a threatening letter demanding money for connecting to a torrent without actually sharing or downloading anything which was pretty funny. Must have cost them money to get a court order and they got nothing out of it because I knew they must have use bullshit methods to get that, in fact they had done something illegal to get a court order in the first place. Think that law form got shut down over that, blackmail is illegal in the UK.

That's why they want to do this voluntary six strike or whatever they plan on doing, because without a court order they cannot get your name and address from the ISP, without that information they cant go after you and it costs them something like £50 to get a court order. And there is nothing stopping you from claiming you left your wifi unsecured (not a legal requirement to have a secure network) so they would have wasted £50 for nothing as they can't prove you did it. That's why going after people for the majority is unworkable, easier to just relay info to ISPs and get them to send out threatening letters that mean nothing without a court order.

All of the great court and law decisions come out of Europe. Must be nice to not have a corporate government.

Let's hope.

Well, that is too bad. A first world government should enforce its laws, and there should be a fine for piracy.

Hopefully this will drive british devs out of there.

In the Netherlands it has always been legal until recently they try to make it illegal. They are also trying to get rid of drugs. In the meantime in the USA and UK the drugs and downloading are becoming legal and instead of being so free and forward thinking we are now 10 steps behind and there's no sign of change either. This country is becoming rather un-Dutch.

Make individual piracy legal and stop ruining human lives. You wouldn't want to know what these companies do to people. Piracy is rampant and a part of our quality of life. I'd rather see the entertainment industry die than these companies financially ruining people at random for downloading a disc. The entertainment industry is not worth ruining lives.
edit: I forgot in some countries people pirate stuff to sell it on to others. Uh yeah. Making multiple copies to sell it on and such is ridic, but I guess you can't enforce that either without becoming all totalitarian about the data. If we try to fine anyone who downloads illegally this business is going to cost us more than it's worth.

They don't go after people at random. They only go after those who steal from them to try to recoup lost costs.

sigh

You know what I mean. 99% of people who have internet have something downloaded on their PC knowingly or unknowingly. They pick someone at random of those people, and ta-da, they find something incriminating.

And piracy is not theft.

I have all kinds of stuff downloaded onto my pc. I've either purchased it all or it was offered for free by its copyright holder, though. If you don't want to get sued, don't take things that don't belong to you. It's as simple as that.

Yes they do go after randoms.

Do you have any link to an article about a company going after someone who did not take from them?

Hahahahaha it's great so glad i live in Britian, all the stuff i pirate it's great, and don't judge me I support as much as i can at the same time somethings i just don't feel i want to waste money on, considering i have over 150 blu rays and over 600 dvd's, I think i give my fair share, i don't pirate games tho.

No, you are really only giving your fair share to the people who made the movies you are purchasing. It's not like all of these movie makers live in a commune and share profits.

How can you be so sure? All the pictures of all the websites you visit, were they legit? Did they ask permission? All that stuff that ends up in your temp folders? Maybe the thumbnail folder? Or if you accidentally backed something up that was copyrighted, even if you removed it, it's probably still on that drive. Maybe had a funny e-mail from a colleague? Background sound on any video's you ever made? The backgrounds on your pictures? Are you sharing any of those on your network? Or even on a cloud?

I'm sure they could find something.

Now you are just being ridiculous. There is nothing illegal or immoral about having images cached in your temporary internet folder. There is nothing illegal about backing up copyrighted material, as long as you own a legitimate copy.

As I said earlier, these companies aren't just going door to door at random running audits on your computer. They would only be investigating in the first place if you were caught in the act of downloading said material or sharing it.

http://torrentfreak.com/wordpress-demands-10000-dmca-takedown-abuse-140615/

http://torrentfreak.com/accused-pirate-slams-bittorrent-tracking-outfit-court-140503/

http://torrentfreak.com/mail-ru-blasts-italy-for-site-blocking-without-transparency-140721/

You should read up on how they actually target these people.

None of those articles mention any court rulings or evidence. Everyone has the right to sue everyone. There is absolutely nothing wrong with suing people who are using and/or distributing your copyrighted work without your permission.

But they are suing the wrong people..... That is what I'm getting at, they are targeting people based on extremely flimsy evidence that doesn't or certainly shouldn't hold up in court. An IP is not a means of identifying a user, as they are easierly faked. The way it works is, your IP is scraped by these anti-piracy outfits who insert themselves into a swarm of bitttorrent users. They then take these IP's to a court where the court will demand your ISP hand over your details to these copyright trolls who then send you a letter demanding you pay thousands of dollars in fines, however your ISP will recycle its IP's all the time so it could of been someone else who was doing the pirating yet you get lumped with the fine for it.

There is a story somewhere of a copyright troll sending a fine to a 75 year old lady, accusing her of downloading porn when she doesn't even have a PC. Let me try and find it.

@clyde46: Well, as long as the courts aren't making people pay these fines, I don't really see the problem. I would certainly countersue for my time and legal costs if they came after me, and I'm sure most of the falsely accused people probably are doing that. When people are stealing your livelihood with the click of a mouse, there is really nothing wrong with pursuing them for damages. I agree that it would be nice if these companies would make sure that they are certain they have the right person before pursuing legal action, though.

I'm bout ta go pirate me some games then, I am.

I imagine they're leaving the punishments up to someone else if they're just gonna send 4 warning letters saying it is illegal.

Because it's digital and people can get away with it easily it isn't stealing? Well this is new for me.

Wait, you want british devs out of business?

@edwardecl: who sent this letter and was it stamped by the government?

Brb one way tick to UK. Willing to sacrifice bear arms for that and I already like tea and top gear.

Good for them. The worrry about piracy is complete bullshit, I buy into NONE of it. If they make a game worth buying, people will buy it. Piracy simply isn't the same as stealing.

You need to learn what theft actually means.

Doesn't work like that. Its a civil case which means you are guilty until proven otherwise. Most people are just paying those copyright trolls just to go away, many do not have the legal funds to pursue a court case against them even though they would most likely win. The way that many people are trying to curb piracy is just forcing it further and further into peoples minds.

Let's say I download a game that's unavailable for purchase in my country. Is that a lost sale to a dev that could have NEVER received my money in the first place?

Let's say I download a game on a second computer after having already bought the game on another computer (assuming there are limits to number of installs)?

Let's say I download a game I misplaced, or because my copy is defective?

Let's say I download a game to see if my computer can run it (because there is no demo), and fully intend on purchasing it if possible?

All of these instances are "piracy". Are they all stealing?

That isn't stealing by definition but it is illegal nonetheless. We all have to abide by those rules. The whole point is that if a copy of your game isn't working and you bought it from Gamestop you don't break in and steal the game to get it to play correctly. Also the majority of PC games (whereas most people buy on steam) is on steam where you can go to a separate computer and install them. The argument that piracy isn't theft is basically that you as a consumer have a right to download an infinite number of copies of the game because you bought the game, in console gaming you pay for one copy and you receive one copy. This copy can be used on multiple consoles but you may only have one unless you legally purchase another copy. As I have said before most PC gamers use steam to buy their games so they can download the game on any number of computers. Similar to how you could insert an xbox 360 game in any xbox 360.

Not only that but sometimes the game might not be working because you don't have the right drivers downloaded. In this case it is operator error and you had no reason to go to a peer 2 peer sharing site to download the game.

@clyde46: Why because the download is on a server and there are infinite amounts of copies when it is uploaded therefore the company uploading it isn't losing any property? I can't think of anything else. If it's not theft then it is the art of taking a video game or some form of media without paying for it which is deemed by the companies selling it as bad and illegal. The only difference between piracy and stealing from a jewelry store is that you click a download button and no security alarms go off, and maybe one out of a million times you're caught and you are told you have to pay a $20,000 fee. The price you have to pay for piracy is unfair but it doesn't give people the right to keep downloading stuff because they aren't gonna get caught (most likely).

Your analogy doesn't work because re-downloading a game is not the same as physically removing a copy from the market.

It'd be more akin to burning a dvd or cd you bought to a blank disc. Something that is............... perfectly legal.

Goes back to what I said here:

The argument that piracy isn't theft is basically that you as a consumer have a right to download an infinite number of copies of the game because you bought the game, in console gaming you pay for one copy and you receive one copy.

Also you just contradicted yourself by saying that if one copy doesn't work you go back to download another copy on a peer 2 peer sharing site. This means your argument is that downloading the same file in a different place makes it different therefore you aren't burning copies but simply downloading a different version of the same game in hopes it would work. Burning implies you take the exact same image and burn it. Not only that but like I said, the majority of pc gamers use steam and they can download the same game on different computers so that is hardly an issue. They gave you permission to do that. Along with the companies who put the games on steam in the first place. You should have no reason to go to a different site and download it illegally.

Oh and forgot to mention your statement also doesn't work because that would mean if you never paid for the game in the first place you aren't physically removing a copy from the market so it isn't stealing. That's the whole reason piracy is illegal in the first place.

Your argument is full of holes.

Piracy is worse, really, because society accepts it.

Worse? How so? Nothing is even lost, at most they have lost something that didn't even exist in the first place (a sale of a single seat) I feel you are totally wrong in this instance and I don't believe the hype.

Great. Educate to avoid illegality. Estimulate people to do the right thing because they want to, not because they have to. Wouldn't work with everything, especially graver crimes, only with minor things like that, but it's progressive. A lot of people think there's nothing wrong with downloading a music or movie, so they don't actually know that they are doing something wrong.

Edit: It seems it's not actually decriminalizing. Anyway, I think the notification system is great for the same reasons I mentioned above. And you can still penalize the person if he continues pirating anyway. It's a good system. You don't have to rush to court, you can try to make the person understand the situation first.

Distribution rights are lost. Developers and publishers invest a lot of time, effort, and money into creating an entertainment product that people are willing to purchase. They have a right to sell their product without some dick putting it out on the internet for millions to just take. At least if somebody steals a physical disk from a store, they only have one copy.

When you pay for any digital content whether it be music, movies, games, etc., you are paying for a license to use the code on the disc. The disc itself is meaningless, really. It's simply one of many ways available to distribute the code to the user.

You say "Burning implies you take the exact same image and burn it". Do you think the code on the back of one of Michael Jackson's Thriller CDs is different from another? It's the "exact same image", and you paid for a license to use it. You only need to pay for the license once to retain it unless of course you transfer your ownership (such as selling it back to a store, or selling it to another individual).

As for your second point.

"Oh and forgot to mention your statement also doesn't work because that would mean if you never paid for the game in the first place you aren't physically removing a copy from the market so it isn't stealing. That's the whole reason piracy is illegal in the first place."

I don't think you realize just how idiotic it is.

mmm

piracy is a pretty strange beast.

@papatrop: How many games have you pirated if that's your argument? There is NOTHING about piracy you can justify other than the unfair $20,000 fees you have to pay for downloading things that don't even cost that much in the first place. You COMPLETELY ignored what I said about steam and how you can download a game an infinite number of times because you paid for it without having to go to peer 2 peer sites or other sites. If you do it means you probably haven't bought the game so really, you don't have any excuses to pirate or break the law. If you ask me I think you're trying to cover up what you really want to argue about and you're okay with people getting games without supporting the developer because there is absolutely no reason to have any of these problems except for it being unavailable in your country, which even then is not as common as people think:

Let's say I download a game that's unavailable for purchase in my country. Is that a lost sale to a dev that could have NEVER received my money in the first place?

Let's say I download a game on a second computer after having already bought the game on another computer (assuming there are limits to number of installs)?

Let's say I download a game I misplaced, or because my copy is defective?

Let's say I download a game to see if my computer can run it (because there is no demo), and fully intend on purchasing it if possible?

All of these instances are "piracy". Are they all stealing?

Which you said is not "stealing" in this age and day am I right? If you're having these problems you must be going to your local gamestore buying a plastic box with a disc in it and bringing it back home. I'm not sure what century you came from but here in the 2000's we have things like steam and GoG. What you said is literally the worst reasons to pirate I have ever seen.

It is not okay to just go and take things because you "own" it.

So yes to answer your questions it is stealing.

This is a bad move. Some artists and people make a living selling things that can distributed over the internet. UK gov is basically talking those folks that they are fools and deserve whatever happens to them and telling citizens that piracy is totally ok and something that can do with no fear of any possible legal issues. Great job, I guess.

Dude you're always wrong lol. This was fake.