Still wrong. As I already explained, they are not fining you for 80€ for having misplaced your ticket, or forgetting it at home. They are fining you that for allegedly trying to be a free rider.

_However_, even if you are able to prove afterwards that you did have a valid ticket, you will still not get back the price for the single ticket that they charged you on top of the 80€ fine. That's the price you have to pay for not taking care of your ticket, not the 80€ fine.

Also, it is not only due to the company being nice. There are at least two steps:

1. You go to the station afterwards to present the proof that you did have a valid ticket, before the due date of the 80€ fine. This can be considered as them being nice. But still, you will not get back the price of the single ticket you had to buy in order to ride the bus. It may even be there is an option that you can refuse to buy the new ticket upon inspection (e.g. if you simply have no money), at which point you are simply expelled from the train/bus, with the 80€ fine.

2. If for some reason they still decide they will not nullify the 80€ fine, or you have missed the due date (ie. they decide not to be nice to you after all), you have the option to send a formal claim for rectification. This part is not about them being nice to you, after all they rejected your initial claim for canceling the fine.

I am unsure who checks the claim, ie. is it already a court case, or whether you can take it even further in case the claim of rectification does not give the preferred outcome to you.

In which case, the receivers of the false claims don't have to pay anything either. Heck, they don't even have to prove that they didn't do it.

Yeah, right. "You guys, just shut up and hope for the best!"

I don't know why you feel the need to defend every single thing they do, but go right ahead. You don't need me for that.

(By the way, the Prague transport company uses the same system and I've gone through it once because I forgot my year pass at home. I know how it works.)

There is a definite problem in your legal system, if you so easily end up being sentenced for piracy even when you didn't do it. I'd love to receive such letter claiming me having done something I full well know I haven't. I always love sticking it back to the filthy lawyers.

I have presented the arguments why I feel your argument is so weak. Feel free to make it personal if you run out of other kinds of ammo. On the other hand, I am not surprised you find wrong in everything they do.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/gogcom_goes_mac/post209

I don't damn them for trying to catch the pirates. Heck, I think even Valve should do it. Even then, I already said in the beginning that I would have preferred they would have simply sued the alleged pirates, instead of trying to settle with them out of court.

If CDPR's real intention was really to extort money from people who have not done anything wrong (like piracy), _then_ I'd damn them. Maybe I really am crazy when I don't believe that was their intention, right?

This article is biased in the first place or in any case manipulative, whether by choice or just by carelessness:


> CD Projekt RED’s DRM-free policy has made The Witcher 2 a popular target for piracy, and the studio is well-aware.

How do they know it's the DRM-free policy that's causing increased piracy of a popular game? That's nothing but an implicit and to my knowledge unproven claim that tries to reflect discredit on DRM-free policies.


> When I asked if she thought asking for money from pirates was fair, Szóstak said, "Yes, it is fair. It is fair to ask for money for a job that we do. And for content we do believe it’s actually worth paying for. So, it is fair to ask for money, although one thing doesn’t collide with another."

What does this question have to do with anything? Although not explicitly stated - question and answer appear quite innocent -, the implication for the reader is that only proven pirates were asked for money (even though to my knowledge none of them was convicted in court). There is no mention of the amount that would be considered fair.


On top of that, the article and the PR specialist are very vague on the actual issues that gamers had with their move, making it seem like they were okay with piracy (and not against the questionable business practice of shady law firms that CDProjekt apparantly supported):

> “Although, once we started doing that, we got lots of feedback from the community—from gamers, and not even pirates, but actually legal gamers with a legal version of the game, saying, ‘You know what, guys? That’s not entirely right to do that.’ And they were like, ‘You’re saying that DRM is not such a great thing, and you try to give your games without it, but on the other hand, you’re doing something like that?’

Emphasis added by me; nowhere does the article explain in detail what is actually meant by "that", it only talks about "asking" money from "pirates" ... "nicely".

I think it would have been better PR to just let the matter rest and not to talk about it anymore, given that they still don't seem to grasp or agree that this action was problematic and why. :/

Now, I'm not into any discussion on this topic, because I simply know more about this than anybody here. (Personally knowing DAs who had to do with this and personally having a case as acting DA a few years back). And, to be completely frank, what I read here from some members of the community is simply not worth my time getting into a discussion about.

But without going into the legal side of this (which is morally abhorrent and legally controversial), the is a whole different issue with this.

It showed the true face of CDP. It showed that CDP only cares about one thing, and one thing only and is willing to cross every line, no matter how wrong and evil it is, to get it. Money. This also shows that whenever they played "the good guys" they didn't to it for us, they didn't promote DRM free because they cared about gamers and gaming. They did it because it was a great marketing tool and a great tag line. Whenever CDP did something for "the gamers" it simply was another marketing ploy to make us gullible and willing to pay for their games. And we were all enticed by this. I certainly was.

But with those actions they were unmasked as being amongst the most despicable players in the industry (If even EA calls something morally wrong and pointless, that should be a hint not to do it). Therefore, what makes this so bad, isn't alone the fact they did it, but that they betrayed us. They betrayed those who believed them that they actually tried to be the good guys.

And this interview now is just some damage control and PR bullshit. They downplay their actions and only take a minuscule amount of responsibility and they lie to us, again. They didn't end their tactics because they had a change of heart. They ended it because the backlash was getting to big and because a German court changed their heart for them.

What turns this whole thing into some kind of cheap joke is the fact that key leading players of CDP were pirates themselves in the nineties. They got their first credentials in the scene by leeching of the work others made. And it did well for them. But when a fifteen year old kid, who cannot afford a 50€ game goes online, like all his buddies, and downloads it, he should be shaken down for 500€ or else.

Sorry, CDP, that is not going to cut it for me. I will no longer pay for a game made or published by CDP and after this recent bucket of bullshit I will only buy GOGs that are exclusive here and on sale.

(I really, really like GOG and the people behind it, but every penny of my money that goes to CDP is making me angry).

Again, I'm not really discussing this, just stating. Downrate this if you want. Continue to believe that CDP is doing DRM free not for marketing but because they care about gaming for all I care. Their actions showed more than words can tell.

I think that marketing and doing really good for gamers do not have to be complete opposites. After all marketing is most effective if it aims at what customers really want. The games are DRM free and that's what gamers like but it is also used for marketing but that's probably okay. Not telling anybody would not help either.

I think this last statement of CDP is very unlucky. Most probably they didn't just remind people and they might have had false positives and they might have collected an unreasonable high fine. A simple "We apologize. It was the wrong way." would have been sufficient. But I have forgiven them and will continue buying here.

Upvoted (not that you should care), but -

CDP is a company. Companies are focused on profit and are thus (IMAO) inherently unethical, but they are more adaptable than people. People are by and large irrational shitheads who are only as ethical as their whims.

Living in a kleptocracy, I am used to the idea that some of my money goes to awful people and awful causes, and the only thing I can do is choose the people and the causes that are less shitty than average when distributing the remainder. This is why I spend money on kickstarter; this is why, after my university was shat on by the government, I decided to sink my remaining CC balance into a game that by pure chance quotes fraternity memes from ten years past.

Finally, GOG is not CDP. Following your logic, every employee of a shitty company should resign, and every citizen of a shitty country should dodge taxes, or failing that, kill themselves. Hell no. Much like keeping yourself alive is a cause worth supporting via working at Walmart, DRM-free is a cause worth supporting via buying from CDP's subsidiary. DRM-free is larger than any shithead suit. And from a pure customer's standpoint - YMMV - CDP's dishonesty does not make enough of an impact to re-evaluate the security of my "software assets" here on GOG.

I don't know with whom should I agree.

It's nothing immoral to go after money. Is SimonG not going after money? Is he working for free?

If CDP didn't believe they deserve money for their product, they would make it freeware.

Ah, conflict of interest.

I feel like a fanboy not agreeing with SimonG on this actually, rationally speaking he's absolutely right. However, I won't give up buying Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 because of this. :-/

I get the impression it was more the 'how', than it was the act itself.

You know, just maybe CDPR knows their DRM free and customer friendly approach is good business AND the right way to treat gamers. And god forbid they aren't perfect. Nice that some of you have shown them to be the evil, manipulative greedy bastards that you think they are.

BTW Simon, I like you but if I could downrate your statement into the depths of hell, I would.

Seriously, you really needed that to discover that a company, a non-charitable company, was interested in money ? Do you really think for a single second that everything that Valve (Greenlight & Co), Gamersgate or whoever else does is for the good of gamers ? For somebody who has a law related job you should know better.

Yes what CDP did was and still IS a dick move, it was disappointing, but they are neither the first nor the last to do something, at least they stopped doing it.

Maybe (probably) CDP doesn't promote DRM-free for the good of mankind, but at least they do promote it which is still better than most other. If anything I am personally a lot more pissed by Gabe's big BS theories about "evil" DRM than what CDP did with Witcher 2.

CDP pretended to be different. And while it was always obvious that they were in it for the money, there are always degrees of how low you are willing to go. And you can be a decent company, all for the money, and still don't be abhorrent.

I'd love to agree with you. But in the interview their PR department is trivialising the details, while glamorising what was a quite messy episode(whether right or wrong).

They should have either completely let it be, or apologised with the facts, instead of trying to spin the story into something that made them look like heroes; politely asking the pirates to pay the price of the game.

I have often the feeling that users/customers speak more freely/open about failures than companies. If something is wrong, people will call it. Every company (GOG, Steam, Amazon, ...) never speaks that openly. Probably it would be the best for them, never to say anything, so they can't make a mistake or just to say trivial things. Actually that's what they are doing. You cannot talk with a company like with a friend...

Anyway it's always a good idea to apoligize, whether you'r right or wrong.