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General discussion (archive)PCGamer Interview - CDP's legal action against pirates.(111 posts)(111 posts)
(111 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 23, 2012
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Vitek: How do you know? You recieved one? :-)
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Fenixp: I've red one ... Somewhere, not sure where now, and I trust SimonG's judgement on the matter.
He's a fun guy, and obviously experienced in the legal profression. However I wouldn't place him as the font of knowledge on the law. It's a big place, and he was a prosecutor, not a copyright solicitor.

(No offense intended Simon, just identifying that you're not the god of legal, as I'm sure you'll agree).

On this point, I totally agreed with him.

However this is an old and very bitter argument that doesn't need to get stirred up again.
Posted October 23, 2012
I love CDProjekt and Witcher1+2 have to be in my Top10 PC games for sure, so I hate being negative about the guys, but the whole incident left a bitter taste in my mouth. If it had been as simple as sending letters in polite, kind words asking if people liked the game they should pay for it, with no sort of legal follow up then I would have been totally fine with it. But it was more of a shakedown, and inevitably innocent people get caught in the crossfire, no matter how perfect the system.

Sure the pirates shouldn't get off free, but imagine if someone vulnerable you knew mistakenly got a threatening legal letter like that, they would probably pay the fine purely out of fear. And if this is really an attempt to sweep all that under the rug and go "Hey we're the good guys! Down with pirates!" Then it really makes me sad :(

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wpegg: However this is an old and very bitter argument that doesn't need to get stirred up again.
I agree, but it's a CDP PR person making the quote that started this, and it just looks like an attempted whitewash.
Post edited October 23, 2012 by Xce1
Posted October 23, 2012
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Thunderstone: No, it wasn't a polite request, demanding ~$1200 from accused pirates is extortion.
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/15/cd-projekt-demands-witcher-2-pirates-pay-up-100-sure-its-ta/

Talk about whitewashing it. At the very least they backed off once the backlash kicked off. It is one thing to go after pirates, extortion is another story.
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wpegg: Article is old, before they backed down I think.

Or did you and I misunderstand whitewash?
I know the article is old, that is the point. In the new article they seemed to downplay just how much they were asking from the accused.
Posted October 23, 2012
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wpegg: He's a fun guy, and obviously experienced in the legal profression. However I wouldn't place him as the font of knowledge on the law. It's a big place, and he was a prosecutor, not a copyright solicitor.
As I said, on this particular matter that I've been asked about. I think he'd have to be thick to confuse friendly advice and blackmail :-P
Posted October 23, 2012
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Thunderstone: I know the article is old, that is the point. In the new article they seemed to downplay just how much they were asking from the accused.
My fault. For some reason when I clicked the link in what I thought was the OP post, I got the old article. Think I'm going senile in my middle age.
Posted October 23, 2012
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Thunderstone: I know the article is old, that is the point. In the new article they seemed to downplay just how much they were asking from the accused.
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wpegg: My fault. For some reason when I clicked the link in what I thought was the OP post, I got the old article. Think I'm going senile in my middle age.
lol, no problem. Would you like me to get your cane? ;P
Posted October 23, 2012
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Thunderstone: lol, no problem. Would you like me to get your cane? ;P
I don't need you young whippersnappers patronising me! I fought and died for your freedom you know. I was there in the battle of dickety-eight. I say dickety because the Kaiser had stolen our word for ten...

(adlib'ed from simpsons)
Posted October 23, 2012
high rated
I blame Wakalo.
Posted October 23, 2012
My only take-away from that is that Agnieszka Szóstak is a lying piece of shit who now has absolutely no credibility. And that I'll be taking anything a CDP spokesperson says with a very, very large grain of salt.
Posted October 23, 2012
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DarrkPhoenix: My only take-away from that is that Agnieszka Szóstak is a lying piece of shit who now has absolutely no credibility. And that I'll be taking anything a CDP spokesperson says with a very, very large grain of salt.
He's a PR Specialist, its in his job description to distract people from the elephant in the room
Posted October 23, 2012
Generally I'm against piracy. I wish CDP wouldn't b.s. us, though, and just be honest about what occurred. I actually don't really mind them making "threats" to pirates (asking for restitution, not suing for a grand), but don't flip-flop one way or another. Maybe GOG is anti-DRM while still being anti-piracy, and CDP is "?".
Posted October 23, 2012
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Xce1: Quote from PR Specialist Agnieszka Szóstak:
"It was all about sending letters to people who we knew pirated [The Witcher 2], and say, ‘Hey, we know you have the pirated version of the game, and it would be nice if you could actually pay for it if you find the game good enough."
What a pile of steaming bullshit. Looks like lying through your teeth makes you a PR specialist.

I honestly don't understand why CD Projekt would voluntarily start another discussion of this embarrassing topic.
Posted October 23, 2012
Wasn't the payoff request between 300 and 1000 Euros...? That's not "how about you actually pay for it" territory. Paying retail or retail plus 20% (because we actually had to track you down and ask nicely) is "how about you pay for it?" territory. Also, there is that whole "your alternative is a lawsuit with brutal penalties" thing...
Posted October 23, 2012
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Fenixp: They're lying. They were blackmailing those people, basically saying 'pay or else.' If they're trying to act like they were all buddies with those people, CDP has just lost quite a bit of my respect.
Do you have any evidence to support this or is it just pro-pirate BS? Seriously, the only information out at this time was out there via a pro-piracy web site. The article itself doesn't reveal any mistakes other than them being blindsided by people supporting the alleged pirates.

All we really know is that there were letters sent out demanding payment. We don't know how much those letters were asking for and we don't know how CDPR knew the letters were being sent to the right people.

AFAIK we still only have the accounts of the people receiving the letters, but we don't have the letters themselves and we don't know really anything at all.
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orcishgamer: Wasn't the payoff request between 300 and 1000 Euros...? That's not "how about you actually pay for it" territory. Paying retail or retail plus 20% (because we actually had to track you down and ask nicely) is "how about you pay for it?" territory. Also, there is that whole "your alternative is a lawsuit with brutal penalties" thing...
AFAIK the amount was never actually confirmed and CDPR denied the sum being that high. Which is really the problem, the original article was published by a pro-pirate website with no actual information to judge the validity of the claims being made.

It certainly is possible for it to be between $300 and $1k that probably could be what it would cost to properly verify the information was correct to the best extent possible outside of court.
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orcishgamer: USERNAME:Xce1#Q&_^Q&Q#GROUP:4#Q&_^Q&Q#LINK:17#Q&_^Q&Q#Sure the pirates shouldn't get off free, but imagine if someone vulnerable you knew mistakenly got a threatening legal letter like that, they would probably pay the fine purely out of fear. And if this is really an attempt to sweep all that under the rug and go "Hey we're the good guys! Down with pirates!" Then it really makes me sad :(#Q&_^Q&Q#LINK:17#Q&_^Q&Q#
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orcishgamer:
That's how it is in most countries, assuming it's not worse. I get calls regularly for multiple collection agencies trying to collect on a corporate debt. I have never owned a winery.

But, yeah, that's how that tends to be and it's one of the reasons why there's demand in the US for a legal services equivalent of health insurance.
Post edited October 23, 2012 by hedwards
Posted October 23, 2012
At the end of the day it's just fraud and every pirate knows that but they still do it cause it's a joke and they have nothing better to do,don't bother sending letter's,abusive or demaning or anything else just send a nice friendly police officer round to arrest them,spend the day in a nice freezing cell and let them think it over,if they then don't think it's reasonable to pay the fine of at least double the retail price of the game then they deserve to have a nice prison sentence,only consequences will ever have any effect of these mindless idiots.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)PCGamer Interview - CDP's legal action against pirates.(111 posts)(111 posts)
(111 posts)