Attacking Piracy Plan: Ethical? Possible?

[Infinite Element]

This is just a random idea, keep in mind... if it works, it could be the new DRM.

Would it be possible/ethical(/legal) to write some code into a game telling you if the user got it from LimeWire or some other p2p thing? License codes can easily be cracked (most of the time), so this could be a new type of game protection. Because we all know the "honor system" doesn't do SQUAT anymore (unfortunately).

[Sybixsus]

No, it wouldn't be possible. Perfectly legal and ethical, I'd have thought, but technically impossible because being downloaded through limewire ( or anything else for that matter ) does not have any effect on the file.

You could probably code something to see if Limewire was running, but what would that achieve? You might just be punishing someone who bought your game and only "steals" music.

[Infinite Element]

I was thinking about that, too. If they had Limewire but didn't use it for the game, they could take legal action against me...

Wait... does LimeWire have a download history?

:D

[Desktop Gaming]

Limewire is only a tiny part of the problem. What about the countless bittorrent clients? Or rapidshare?

Once you start checking what applications a user has installed, you're starting to become invasive and, right or wrong, people don't like that.

I'd completely forget this approach.

[rick donaldson]

I report every rapidshare account that I see that has illegal content. The rapidshare staff knows me very well. I think you should just report the sites that host these files that is what I am doing. I have shut down 3 sites allready in the short time that I have been doing it. This is very easy and if you are worried or don't want to do it yourself you can visit this site for more details.

http://www.stampoutpiracy.com/