Stamp Out Piracy Awareness Week

[stampoutpiracy]

Should have posted this yesterday but . . .

All this week we want to ask Indie Devs and Gaming portals to take part in an awareness campaign towards game piracy.

Every day StampOutPiracy reports hundreds of links to illegal pirated games that are hosted on file sharing accounts. We also try and take down full warez sites/blogs and Ebay listings.

The idea behind the awareness week is not just to remove links but to educate people and inform them about game piracy. This is where you guys and gals come in.

At some point this week why not try and educate your customers/visitors about game piracy? Some ideas on how to do this:

* Write a blog post about game piracy.
* Inform your newsletter signups about the dangers of using pirated games.
* Report piracy to us using our form.
* If you’re a member of another gaming forum then why not start a thread about game piracy.
* Link to one of our articles or to an article on another anti-piracy site (some listed below).
* Add a StampOutPiracy text link or button to your website/blog.
* Write an article about game piracy and post it to a number of article websites.
* Include an anti-piracy message in your game(s).
* Include an anti-piracy message in a forum signature.

These are just some ideas and I’m sure people will have a lot more.

Some useful links for you:

StampOutPiracy Information and Articles – http://stampoutpiracy.com/moreinfo.htm
SIIA Anti Piracy - https://www.siia.net/piracy/
ELSPA: Software Piracy - http://www.elspa.com/?t=whywrong
FAST – http://www.fast.org.uk

The more people that get involved the better. It would also be great if some of the large gaming portals did something too.

If you’re going to do something then why not post about it here. We’ll be happy to add anyone to our Supporters section at http://www.stampoutpiracy.com/supporters.htm just let us have the details.

[cliffski]

something else you can do is to get an account at a site like www.slashdot.org or www.digg.com, so you can moderate appropriately when people discuss piracy. the consensus on digg is that piracy is cool and that people who make content are corporate scumbags who are idiots, so the more of us with brain cells who are there to correct that bullshit the better
it takes no time at all to moderate some digg comments, I often do it when compiling.

[Mikademus]

I read the thread title as "do away with the piracy awareness week", quite an ambiguous phrasing...

Thing is, you're putting your frustration against the collected energy of all youth and passionate hackers on the globe, and the only thing you will gain from it is ulcers. I'm not promoting or condoning illegal activities, I'm just trying to save your health.

[Desktop Gaming]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

I read the thread title as "do away with the piracy awareness week", quite an ambiguous phrasing...

Thing is, you're putting your frustration against the collected energy of all youth and passionate hackers on the globe, and the only thing you will gain from it is ulcers. I'm not promoting or condoning illegal activities, I'm just trying to save your health.

That's exactly the kind of attitude which has let piracy get as bad as it currently is, and an opinion which, if we were to apply it to life in general, we should let rapists, murderers and thieves continue raping, murdering and thieving because after all, there's so many people doing it that its pointless trying to stop it, right?

Sure you can't stop piracy. But you can bloody the nose of individuals who live for it. Might be enough to stop them, might even put a few others off.

I can't believe anybody is saying we should just sit down and accept piracy.

stampoutpiracy: You should seriously get in touch with some news and tech websites to broaden awareness.

[stampoutpiracy]

I'm not promoting or condoning illegal activities, I'm just trying to save your health.

Don't worry about my health, I'm a smoker, so I gave up caring years ago

stampoutpiracy: You should seriously get in touch with some news and tech websites to broaden awareness

Working on it as we speak

[Adrian Cummings]

Smoker here too tho gave up fags for mini cigars years ago (probably even worse as they're not filtered) tho I do smoke much less on these - in fact I'm off for a fag (well mini-cigar) break outside in the pouring rain in a minute!

[Desktop Gaming]

Originally Posted by Adrian Cummings

tho gave up fags for mini cigars

In my juvenile mind, that's funny on so many levels.

[cliffski]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

Thing is, you're putting your frustration against the collected energy of all youth and passionate hackers on the globe, and the only thing you will gain from it is ulcers. I'm not promoting or condoning illegal activities, I'm just trying to save your health.

Out of interest, what games have you released? just so I don't waste any time reporting distributed copies of them.

If you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem. this attitude that file-sharing is impossible to stop, if taken to its logical conclusion means we should all quit now and take courses in basic plumbing and bricklaying.

The young generation increasingly think that they are entitled to take your work for free. nobody ever tells them it's wrong any more, which is exactly why they think this way.

Everyone thinks its SO difficult to just click a few moderation buttons on digg, or post a comment on a blog. its a wonder such people ever summon the effort to code a game...

[Adrian Cummings]

Originally Posted by Desktop Gaming

In my juvenile mind, that's funny on so many levels.

Sorry off topic again... LOL... but yeah, I found out that I had to pay them it seemed given they did'nt fancy me and not to mention the sore arse!

[stampoutpiracy]

If you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem. this attitude that file-sharing is impossible to stop, if taken to its logical conclusion means we should all quit now and take courses in basic plumbing and bricklaying.

Cliff hits the nail right on the head with this one. Why waste effort moaning about trying to stop piracy when you could have used that time to productively take action towards helping to prevent it. Doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, it would be great to keep this thread going without any major arguments happening (although due to the subject matter, it's unlikely) Lets try and keep the posts positive

[Mikademus]

Originally Posted by cliffski

If you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem. this attitude that file-sharing is impossible to stop, if taken to its logical conclusion means we should all quit now and take courses in basic plumbing and bricklaying.

Originally Posted by stampoutpiracy

Cliff hits the nail right on the head with this one. Why waste effort moaning about trying to stop piracy when you could have used that time to productively take action towards helping to prevent it. Doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, it would be great to keep this thread going without any major arguments happening (although due to the subject matter, it's unlikely) Lets try and keep the posts positive

Heh, I think you're trying to attribute things and opinions to me I do not support, which is the reason for the "I'm not condoning illegal activities" part of my post, but meh... Point is that most adults (speaking of my friends mostly, now) in my experience buy the things they like and want to support. Sure, they download some, but they do make a conscious decision to support other titles or producers. Having grown up with computers since the late 70's, I've observed my friends and most of them have gone from copying to buying.

On the other hand, there are those that will always be NOT buying, and these are not worth considering in the first place. They are mostly young, technically savvy people with much time to spare. Remember that many concerned parents tries to block porn and stuff from their home computers? Which to you think wins, the parents feeble attempts or the raging hormones of kids?

We will have to live with piracy, therefore we need an attitude that better lets us cope with it --practically as well as individually-- without advocating it. Thus, on the one hand piracy is a marketing opportunity. Disregarding those that will never pay, because they do not represent a loss of sales in the first place, some people that may never have heard of you or your game might find it, and some of these may buy it or other products from you. Thus piracy may to a certain extent create market awareness and generate future sales. As long as we have no statistics and objective research pointing one way or the other, claiming unilateral evilness and financial losses from piracy is pure and mere ideology. And the only research I know of possibly pertinent to this discussion is a Swedish university study from some five years ago clearly showing that people downloading and filesharing music also bought more music compared to people not filesharing or downloading.

Thus, I'm not worried about lost sales due to piracy: non-consumers copy and consumers buy, and the consumer pool seems to be growing. However, so does the number of producers, which might make the proportion of consumers-to-producers diminish. This, however, is normal market development, and many here might be better off (and depressed) studying the market history of the American movies industry between ~1927 to 1950. Two lessons: (1) The same thing --concentration to fewer, larger studios, and "middleware" specialists-- is happening to computer games and the indie situation will grow increasingly difficult over time. (2) The movies industry have always been worried about piracy, piracy has always been part of movies (since the late 19th century in fact), and movies are continuously grossing higher incomes.

Blurting out slogans like "if you're not with us you're against us", though possibly a very American thing, is really not very productive. Reality does seldom (probably never) consist of two clear and opposite sides. If anything, that's the mindset that creates every conflict in every realm we see today on earth, and represents the worst in mankind.

Dixi

[dma]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

Blurting out slogans like "if you're not with us you're against us", though possibly a very American thing, is really not very productive.

Ugh, that's more of a George Bush sort of thing, not an American thing. Don't attribute all the mindless tripe he says to every American.

Besides, cliffski is from the UK.

[Sectarian]

Our corporate company supports stamping out piracy in both offline game creation of cartridge
and cd-rom formates to paid online gamesites.

[Sakura Games]

Lol mikademus in the time you wrote that huge post you could have taken down at least 10 sites sharing illegal copies of your games (if you have any released, I didn't understand this).

[DrWilloughby]

Efforts to wipe out or diminish piracy are not futile, they are necessary. The acceptance of piracy has to do with a societal indifference towards property and an acceptance of lawlessness. This can, and will, change -- stampoutpiracy might be at the small end of that, Microsoft is putting in a HUGE amount of effort to wiping it out at their end as well. It's not futile, it's just hard.

[Mikademus]

Originally Posted by Sakura Games

Lol mikademus in the time you wrote that huge post you could have taken down at least 10 sites sharing illegal copies of your games (if you have any released, I didn't understand this).

Nah, I think I'll save some stomping out for tomorrow.

However, where anyone to SELL my stuff illegally, now that would be a very, very different thing. Copying I can live with, for the reasons stated above, selling my stuff I would take action against.

[cliffski]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

We will have to live with piracy... Disregarding those that will never pay, because they do not represent a loss of sales in the first place,
...Thus, I'm not worried about lost sales due to piracy:...The movies industry have always been worried about piracy, piracy has always been part of movies (since the late 19th century in fact),
Blurting out slogans like "if you're not with us you're against us", though possibly a very American thing, is really not very productive.

this kind of waffle really infuriates me. are you actually SELLING games? i can only see a blog on game design in your sig. do you need to sell games in order to pay rent and buy food?

In the 19th century we did not have bit-torrent. things have changed... I can now distribute a perfect digital copy to 2,000 people whilst asleep. this s the difference.

I will never buy a ferrari, therefore its cool if I just steal one ok? What sort of mentality is that. If I know i can get free stuff, why the hell would i be stupid enough to get a job and go save up for stuff at all?

I no longer give a damn about the opinions on piracy of anyone who is not a fulltime indie. Also, deliberately mistyping my quote to make it sound totally different was low and very sad. And for the record, I'm not American.

[Desktop Gaming]

I no longer give a damn about the opinions on piracy of anyone who is not a fulltime indie.

That does sound very elitist, however I can't help but agree.

Knowing piracy is wrong, is one thing. Everybody who does it knows that its wrong yet they still do it. The feeling of actually being the one on the shitty end of the stick is something you have to experience to understand.

[Mikademus]

Dear Clffski, it seems I have walked into to force of your frustration. You're not arguing against me, you're arguing against your own ghosts projected onto me.

Originally Posted by cliffski

I no longer give a damn about the opinions on piracy of anyone who is not a fulltime indie. Also, deliberately mistyping my quote to make it sound totally different was low and very sad. And for the record, I'm not American.

Your correct quote was "if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem". Well, need I remind you that constructing arbitrary dichotomies and assuming them as truth is a fallacy or reasoning? Rather, I am part of the much vaster third set --let's call it "S1", borrowing Lewis' Modal-logical terminology-- orthogonal to both sets "problem according to Cliffsky" and "solution according to Cliffsky".

I now bid you to direct your vent your fury against your real tormentors. I am not them. It would also be nice if you would refrain from ad hominems, they say more about yourself than me, but do lower this board.

[Pyabo]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

However, where anyone to SELL my stuff illegally, now that would be a very, very different thing. Copying I can live with, for the reasons stated above, selling my stuff I would take action against.

So I guess you missed all the threads we've had about people selling DRM-cracked indie games on eBay then? It's happening right now.

[Sakura Games]

don't you see that all people that say "piracy is no problem" usually have no game released? just ignore them - they know nothing. Isn't elitist, is the truth - you have to sweat, work late hours, fix several bugs and then struggle trying to sell at least 10 copies a month, to have just a small idea on how people can be pissed to see others taking advantage of their hard work.

[Mikademus]

Originally Posted by Pyabo

So I guess you missed all the threads we've had about people selling DRM-cracked indie games on eBay then? It's happening right now.

Ok, THAT sucks...

[cliffski]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

I now bid you to direct your vent your fury against your real tormentors. I am not them. It would also be nice if you would refrain from ad hominems, they say more about yourself than me, but do lower this board.

need I remind you that you mis-qouted me deliberately to make your point.
Please, we are all waiting for the list of your games we can ignore regarding piracy reports. Or are you happy to experiment with regards to other peoples income, but not your own?

By the way I've been selling games on-line for 10 years and was part of this board when steve pavlina started it. I suggest you do some research on who it is you are criticising regarding the standards of this board. You are a relative n00b and behaving like one.

[Mikademus]

/me concedes e-penis and victory to cliffsky, backs out of silly internet fight.

[Desktop Gaming]

Originally Posted by Mikademus

/me concedes e-penis and victory to cliffsky, backs out of silly internet fight.

Dude, are you five or what?

If you don't want to argue there's a fairly simple escape route for you - stop replying. But when you resort to silly insults, thats saying more about you than anybody else.

[Roman Budzowski]

I made a blog post:
http://anawiki.com/sellmoregames/200...wareness-week/

Hope it helps

best
Roman

[stampoutpiracy]

Fantastic - great work Roman!

Everyone here should help out by clicking the "Share This" link below the blog post and get it submitted to as many social networks as possible.

[Bad Sector]

Well, in general i'm against piracy (especially commercial piracy), but i think that the "root of all evil" is the education from school, home and friends. Not from us. I don't believe that anything has to be gained by "moderating" comments in digg. From time to time in the greek forums i am, i post stuff against piracy when someone mentions the issue, but seven years now nothing really changed. In fact, lately even after explaining why is bad, how companies (and especially smaller companies) are damaged from this, the response was around the lines of "Ok, but you make games. That's what you would say.".

However, i won't comment much, my comments are saved in the history of this forum (well i have changed some detail opinions, but in general they're the same). But i want to focus a bit on this:

I will never buy a ferrari, therefore its cool if I just steal one ok? What sort of mentality is that.

The difference between stealing a ferrari and making an illegal copy of some software is that when you steal a ferrari the person who had this ferrari doesn't have it anymore. But when you make a copy of the software, both you and the person who had the software will have the software - so the person from whom you got the software loses practically nothing.

This is the major reason why people don't think that making illegal copies of software is "stealing". The word just doesn't match the context they use it for.

[Desktop Gaming]

But when you make a copy of the software, both you and the person who had the software will have the software - so the person from whom you got the software loses practically nothing.

Oh yeah we forgot - piracy is a victimless crime isn't it?

[Bad Sector]

Originally Posted by Desktop Gaming

Oh yeah we forgot - piracy is a victimless crime isn't it?

No it isn't, but first in some countries it isn't considered as a "crime" but as a "misdemeanour" (if this is the right word - well, it's not as serious as a crime) - at least for non-commercial piracy. And second the word "steal" is used to describe something that has little (if at all) relation to the meaning people are grown up and used to.

Also remember that the majority of people don't even think about any kind of consequence their actions (in general) will have to people outside of them and their close relatives and friends. So from their point of view, nobody gets harmed from this.