That's the issue, isn't it? This:
is so incredibly speculable. I have never seen an official statement, made by HIB, that they won't host DRMed games. 2 years before the THQ bundle, a person from the HIB team (I assume it's not one person running all of this) said that DRM is 'a polar opposite of what the humble bundle is about'. That's the only thing that comes anywhere near an official statement I have ever seen. Do you see how incredibly weak argument does that make? All right, now, let's play your game for a bit and let's say he is the sole representative of HIB. People change. From the point of time when that post has been made, even I have managed to change so much. Things that used to seem important may not seem that important anymore - really, holding a single sentence made on discussion boards against anyone is just a dick move. I'm fairly sure that if I knew everything you ever said, I would be able to argue against you in your own words. And don't even try to deny this, we're people - not logic engines designed to not change and make no mistakes.

Now, let's get to the first bit, 'impression they created'. HIB is still hosting loads of DRM-free, cross-platform bundles. In fact, they're my main source of Linux games - now moreso than ever. Even after THQ bundle, after this bundle, I receive even more Linux games from HIB than from any other source. They didn't degrade - they have branched out. Kind of like GOG, who also said that GOG is about old games in the price range of 6-10 bucks.
Many did, yes, but just look at this thread - GOG is one of the most anti-DRM places you can find, and even here, the DRMed bundles are mostly welcome. When minority of the userbase goes against everybody else, of course HIB won't listen, why should they.

You know, like GOG not listening to the minority of its users who don't want indie games here.

You can speculate all you want, but HB exploited DRM free sentiment. There is no denying it. Whether they verbally expressed it or not, they used it for PR and to build their own image. It brought them new users and popularity. It's not the only thing they used to gain users, but they used it. So, may be they can claim they never officially promised being DRM free, but it doesn't change the fact that it's essentially lying anyway.


Yes, HB still hosts DRM free games. And I'm OK with buying them. The problem is in them endorsing DRM by selling DRMed games from DRM obsessed publishers. That's the main point I don't like about them now, and it is betrayal.

Everyone has a different sense of humor. *shrugs*

When did that happen?

With that line of thought, GOG is as bad as they have exploited the old games sentiment.
The entire Witcher 2 thing - they have tracked IP adresses downloading Witcher II in Germany, and even tho this method is incredibly inaccurate, they have started sending letters exploiting a flaw in the german law for people associated with those IPs to pay a fine.

What about having heavy discounted sales right after stating how Steam sales devalues games?

Not really because I'm sick of that picture. Somebody said something ... On the internet!

That's just silly. All of this is a matter of opinion. The selling of new games is getting in the way of selling the old games just as much as selling games with DRM is getting in the way of selling DRM-free games. Yes, even DRM is a matter of perspective, as much as you'd like to make it the most evil thing that happened to humanity ever. For all you know, HIB has decided to screw the DRM war and just raise more money for charity - and kudos to that. There are more important things in the world than copy protection.
Oh, so you actually have stayed true to everything you have ever said. Well, I can tell you for a fact that's a blatant lie.

Fenixp: Changing the subject to what I said and whether I hold true to my word because you have nothing to say on the matter when HB is called out for lying? Cheap trolling method if you ask me.

Issue with DRM doesn't need to be made bad. It is bad. That's not the point how bad it is, so don't make this demagogic argument that issue of DRM isn't the worst to it doesn't worth attention.

DRM is pushed by publishers, and proliferated by distributors, and supported with money by users. So those who care about DRM free gaming (and other aspects) chose distributors who are aligned with their interests, since voting with their wallets for users only is not effective enough. Only participation of distributors can actually break the sick trend of DRM. And HB participated. In the past, but now they essentially quit, since such participation requires being strictly DRM free. GOG so far didn't quit, and they actually send a strong message to the publishers - no DRM will be tolerated.

I saw it for the first time and I giggled. That's the whole story.

Personally, I think DRM-free multiplaform HB used to be doing well and their profit would have been used as a nice leveler however I understand their decision. Humble Store plugin is a great idea and they still serve as a source of many Linux ports, so I don't complain. Right now I'd welcome one page unifying all HS plugins.

By the way, you forgot to answer the question asked by topic creator.

That's not suing.

Were there any false positives reported anyway? What did those false positives (if any) do? Paid up, even though they hadn't pirated/shared The Witcher 2? Or went to court to prove their innocence?

We've had similar cases here, ie. people getting similar "pay up, or we sue"-letters due to e.g. pirating/sharing music online. One such case came to limelight, but even there the "defense" was not that no music was pirated, but that the deed was done by their 3 year old daughter without the pony-tailed father knowing anything about it. As if. And even if it had been true, the parents are still liable. In the end, the father paid up a lower price, but I guess he first wanted to make it public. Too bad for the daughter though, I wonder how she felt her father was accusing her of a crime in public, something that the father most probably did for her?

As I've said before, I don't find that different from me forgetting my bus card home in the morning, and then the ticket inspectors giving me a 80€ fine for not having paid for the fare. It could be a false positive too, as I may indeed have the ticket back home (meaning, I have paid already), and not be merely lying about it!

And I can indeed go get my ticket from home and present it to the officials, at which point they will revoke the fine. In the case of a "fine letter", it is even easier for me, because they have to prove in the court that I had pirated the material.

Anyways, even if you feel strongly against such "fine letters", common sense tells that CDPR's idea was not to get easy money from people who had not pirated the game. Their intention clearly was to show the pirates that even though they have made Witcher 2 DRM-free, they are still against people pirating it.

The a-holes in this case, as always, were the lawyers. In particular the law firm that offers such "IP rights services" to software companies like CDPR. They are the ones making money directly from sending the threatening letters on suspicion, not CDPR. Lawyers are scum, so what else is new?

I'm changing the subject? Funny, go back and reply to all my points before saying that. And to what amok said. You don't support DRM with your money, but you do support a company which has been lying and cheating its customers in the past with your money, that being GOG. And yes, the entire 'sales devalue games' was an official statement of GOG, not something a person said on the internet. Smells of double standards to me.

And, you know, that's ok, as I have said before, we're all human, we all care about something else. Just don't go accusing one side of losing morals and whatnot and then use another side, with the very same issue, as an example. The fact that one has lied about something you care about and the other about something you don't doesn't magically make that go away.

As for the entire 'you have never said something you then couldn't be held to' - people do that. All of us do. That's my point.
6-10 bucks. I'm getting paid for derailing. And sorry for sounding negative, I have said it in the 'Oh please don't encourage him' tone, not in the 'You're wrong and evil' tone
See, I actually agree with you, kind of. However, I've never seen another gaming company in the need of doing that, and CDP has pretty damn good income regardless. I just find that practice to be far worse than slapping a bit of restrictive software on top of your game.

Fenixp: As I said, I lost respect for HB. Not yet to the point of stopping dealing with them, since they still offer DRM free games and I never buy any DRMed bundles from them. A deal breaker would be when they'd stop selling DRM free for example and would become another Steam or something. Same way I don't use Steam or Origin or anything of that sort.

And, they deserve the credit where it's due. They actually work on making Linux ports for different games. DRM free. They need to be criticized for what they do wrong, but when they do right - they deserve credit.

I don't, I'm completely the opposite.

As I've said before: give me freedom (as in: DRM-free), but punish me harshly if I misuse that freedom (as in: sharing your DRM-free works to others).

As opposed to: treat me as a criminal anyway by putting stringent DRM on top of my legit The Witcher 2, which causes the game to run 30% slower, and causes other issues too.