Saturday, December 17th 2011
The Witcher 2 Contains Secret Sauce To 'Catch 100% Of Pirates'
Yes, really - 100% of those pesky "pirates" will be brought to book! The game's studio, CD Projekt RED (CDP Red) isn't letting on how it's doing so, either, claiming it's a "trade secret" and not giving out the name of the external company that's implementing the anti-piracy technology, claiming that to do so would damage their business. Seriously. The problem with identifying a dodgy copy of something is that the main info they have to track them down, are the IP addresses of the suspect. This has been shown many times over now, not to be a reliable tracker of who's doing what. At the most, it will pinpoint the account holder that it relates to, in some cases. However, this outfit reckons they've nailed this dealbreaking problem once and for all - and without any evidence on how they go about it. Snake oil, perhaps? The Polish company have therefore been sending out legal notices to thousands of suspects in Germany, chosen because this country has some of the strictest copyright laws in Europe. Presumably, they must be leaning on the ISPs to hand over customers' physical street addresses, although this isn't made clear, but read on for how this might be accomplished. In an email to PC Gamer, CDP Red VP Michael Nowakowski made the following statement:
So, there appears to be two options to how this tracking technology works:
1 There is no technology and this is just smoke and mirrors (with a dash of snake oil) designed to extort marks into coughing up money to make CD Projekt go away
2 They really do have some "tracking technology" in their games. Now, what could this be? Well, as they're not telling us, it's only right and proper to be highly suspicious of what it actually does and to put it in the same class as common criminal malware. This is because the only logical way that they can track the individual in any semi-reliable manner, is to lift personal information off their computer. Let's speculate on how this could be achieved. It would include stuff such as email logins, bank logins, Facebook logins, network traffic sniffing to read the contents of highly personal and confidential messages and any other login where personal information such as a name and address might be kept. You name it, they might be doing it. This kind of activity is of course highly illegal everywhere, so no wonder they'd want to keep quiet about it. It makes traditional draconian DRM schemes such as SecuROM and the like seem like a walk in the park by comparison, doesn't it?
So, do you really want to install software that does some or all of this on your computer, just to play a lousy video game? Obviously, that's a resounding NO!
Regardless of how they track down suspects, this exercise is extortion with a legal veneer, pure and simple. This is because there haven't been any independent studies showing that "piracy" reduces profits and makes companies go to the wall - they have all been big media industry sponsored. However, there are several independent studies that show it does nothing, or actually enhances sales by indirect means, such as reputation spread by word of mouth. Of course, the powerful media cartels based in America, are able to buy government reps all over the world to make them pass corrupt laws as if all this "piracy" really was hurting them - three strikes, PROTECT IP & SOPA are just three examples. Consider the blockbusting sales here and here of Modern Warfare 3 recently. This will be the most "pirated" game of all, yet it still outsold all of Hollywood put together...
There is of course, one sure fire and legal way to beat a company that tries such dirty tricks: the boycott. Don't buy their products and don't pirate them, then laugh as you watch them go under (all the while still blaming alleged "piracy", of course). I personally wholeheartedly recommend this course of action. Once again www.techdirt.com is recommended as the site to go to, as they expose abuses like this daily.
Sources:
TG Daily, PC Gamer
We're addressing only 100% confirmed piracy causes that are 100% possible to prove. We are not worried about tracking the wrong people. As this is the trade secret of the company working on this, I cannot share it. However, we investigated the subject before we decided on this move, and we aware of some past complications (the famous Davenport case). The method used here is targeting only 100% confirmed piracy cases. No innocent person was targeted with the letter so far. At least we have not received any information as of now which would indicate something like that.Notice how the Davenport case is "famous" rather than "infamous" - they actually went down in flames over their extortion tactics. Also notice how they covered themselves by saying "At least we have not received any information as of now which would indicate something like that." So, they could be targeting the innocent after all, they just haven't heard about it. Nice.
So, there appears to be two options to how this tracking technology works:
1 There is no technology and this is just smoke and mirrors (with a dash of snake oil) designed to extort marks into coughing up money to make CD Projekt go away
2 They really do have some "tracking technology" in their games. Now, what could this be? Well, as they're not telling us, it's only right and proper to be highly suspicious of what it actually does and to put it in the same class as common criminal malware. This is because the only logical way that they can track the individual in any semi-reliable manner, is to lift personal information off their computer. Let's speculate on how this could be achieved. It would include stuff such as email logins, bank logins, Facebook logins, network traffic sniffing to read the contents of highly personal and confidential messages and any other login where personal information such as a name and address might be kept. You name it, they might be doing it. This kind of activity is of course highly illegal everywhere, so no wonder they'd want to keep quiet about it. It makes traditional draconian DRM schemes such as SecuROM and the like seem like a walk in the park by comparison, doesn't it?
So, do you really want to install software that does some or all of this on your computer, just to play a lousy video game? Obviously, that's a resounding NO!
Regardless of how they track down suspects, this exercise is extortion with a legal veneer, pure and simple. This is because there haven't been any independent studies showing that "piracy" reduces profits and makes companies go to the wall - they have all been big media industry sponsored. However, there are several independent studies that show it does nothing, or actually enhances sales by indirect means, such as reputation spread by word of mouth. Of course, the powerful media cartels based in America, are able to buy government reps all over the world to make them pass corrupt laws as if all this "piracy" really was hurting them - three strikes, PROTECT IP & SOPA are just three examples. Consider the blockbusting sales here and here of Modern Warfare 3 recently. This will be the most "pirated" game of all, yet it still outsold all of Hollywood put together...
There is of course, one sure fire and legal way to beat a company that tries such dirty tricks: the boycott. Don't buy their products and don't pirate them, then laugh as you watch them go under (all the while still blaming alleged "piracy", of course). I personally wholeheartedly recommend this course of action. Once again www.techdirt.com is recommended as the site to go to, as they expose abuses like this daily.
345 Comments on The Witcher 2 Contains Secret Sauce To 'Catch 100% Of Pirates'
This is a case where the laws of supply and demand are being heavily manipulated. First the stipulated $60 release price, most of which goes to the publishers and not the developers, and then in cases of Steam the forced usage of non-cash forms of transactions, and in cases where there are no official Steam presence, the forced "pretending I'm American" situation, assuming a fictitious identity and forced to use an US$ account.
Additionally, in the case of retail over here at least, absence of discounts. Because they are essentially a monopoly.Their losses are because of the publishers. The "losses due to piracy" are actually publishers' money now, and not the developers. Developers only have a miniscule portion from sales. In exchange the publisher already gave them a fixed, lump sum amount of money prior to release.
yes some would have bought, but many still do. any person that would have bought it but decided to pirate is definitely affecting the bottom line, but those that never would have are not.
Loosing money would imply they already had it.
You also assume that the people who have pirated the game were going to buy the game.
Like I said somewhere else if a person cannot pirate something they go with out.
For example I have a friend that only pirates movies, you know what happens when he can't find a good download?
He doesn't bother watching it, he doesn't go to the shop and buy it. :laugh:
www.lar.net/?p=14
Why don't I go into one of those "Rent a Center" places and steal a TV? I'll enjoy it for a while, then I'll sneak the TV back into the store one evening. Later on I'll go rent the TV when they are having a sale. Stealing is stealing.
its a vicious circle > people download said game > some people don't buy said game some do anyway > idiot share holders blame piracy for poor sales > > fails to understand that the game may simply be not any good > tells studio not to bother developing a pc version; repeat -1
the solution is NOT to stop piracy but to educate people on the WHY and the REASON
and it does NOT cost millions to to the "developers" to properly port a game developers don't make all that much you rarely see the developers complying about pirating the people you do see complain are the greedy and or ignorant investors and or publisher
www.lar.net/?p=48
consoles sell more. not because of piracy, because they are simple. if you think devs are going to choose to spend more money and make less profit just because an immeasurable, oft-inflated, mostly meaningless number has gone down... you're wrong ;)
Buy a specific type of dvd and burn the game iso you just download to disc and voila!
You can play it .
( By the by, I don't own an xbox and never had so don't throw an accusation at me :laugh:)
Edit : "Another fact, they would be making a lot more money if people like you weren't"
Ahh as well as mixing up piracy and theft you also seem to be confusing fact with assumption!
In fact you make two assumptions in that statement XD
Your reasoning would be akin to the reasoning of clothing/bag companies with regards to Chinese counterfeits.
you start giving me games and software that are useful and enjoyable for a reasonable price though steam or some other downloadable method
AND the ablity to get a refund should I not like it
and ill be happy buy the latest version of
Call of the battlefield: 3 on its release day
if you want me to trust you you are going to need to trust me first
I was a pirate like 1000's of others.
If I couldn't get a copy of what I was after I done without.
A couple of years later and I make ok cash and the pirating seems a far of memory.
As a pirate I cost no one anything but as a consumer I feel robbed at some of the games I have bought.
Sure I pirated COD4, couldn't play it online so bought the full thing (more than once now).
Its a tough call as theft is theft at the end of the day but I will never berate the pirates.
Could be worse and folk with nothing to do will be robbing your house.
someone finally gets it :banghead: