Developer of The Witcher 2 plans to hunt pirates

burty117 - You cannot make that connection with stealing cars. Like in the Minecraft example, a game company DOES NOT loose money if you pirate a game that you would not have bought.

If you steal a car, then it will cost the car company for all the physical parts and manafacturing. If you pirate a game, there is none of that!

Like the guy that said he won't buy Assn Creed 2 because of the DRM. Well, why not pirate it? If you were not going to buy it anyway, the pirateing it WILL NOT loose the company ANY MONEY. Let me say that again - you are NOT taking any money out of their pockets.

Now if you pirate it just because you are cheap, then they are only looseing potential money. They didnt actually lose any physical money, just "possible" money.

I am not supporting eaither side, I am just stateing facts. BTW the monecraft quote was awesome.

I hope they waste a crap ton of money and get no where in their search for internet pirates. Internet piracy no matter how much money you throw at it, will never slow down. Each year more and more people download things illegally.

It sucks that people download games illegally, but who cares? If you have a really good game people will buy it.

So are you saying that the money that goes into creating a game is not the same as the money that goes into making a car?

Not a good analogy at all. In the case of a junkie, they are addicted to the drug and cannot make a reasonable decision. But no matter what, even at the beginning, they chose to do something illegal.

A person downloading pirated software KNOWS it's wrong, but still chooses to do it. And in the end, whether it's a junkie or a downloader, they are BOTH breaking the law, period.

What many of us are trying to say is, no matter how you slice it, you cannot justify downloading pirated software illegally. There IS no justification in it at all. Many use "Well I want to see if it works", but that doesn't cut it.

Some would point to the Assassin's Creed 2 and Spore DRM as a way to tell companies "We don't want it!" by pirating. I think it's even more telling when you even refuse to install it at all, purchased or pirated. That's what I did. I didn't purchase AC2 and I refuse to install it period.

Also, are you really going to trust a program from some unknown person? That's how many people get infected with spyware and viruses which is another thing altogether that just makes me shake my head at.

Pirating is wrong, whether you are the uploader or the downloader. Both are doing something they know is illegal and there is no substance abuse to lay blame to in order to weasel out of something illegal.

In regards to downloading content from the internet.....it isn't always black and white as some make it out to be.

For example you could walk to the library and get any copy of a book for FREE.

Is that theft seeing as you never paid for the book or given money to it's author or publisher? No, it's totally legal.

Download that same book on the internet and now you're a thief.

Yeah, yeah you can argue that libraries had to legally buy the books in the first place. The same can be said for anyone who had to get an original copy to upload on the internet as well.

I just can't stand people who stand on their high pedestal and call everyone a theif just because they think they know better.

Saying that I'm not advocating dowloading free content from the internet. Pay for your software as people did work hard to develop them and if companies can't make money doing so they'll just stop all together because what's the point.

Why not pirate it? Because it's wrong. And to say the company doesn't lose money is not exactly true. They lost the money from a potential sale which then those monies can be used to create better games in the future, etc.

I agree you cannot get rid of pirating. There are just bad people out there on both sides (downloaders and uploaders), but to justify pirating a game that you did not purchase is just wrong and it IS stealing. It's something that must be purchased yet you got it for free. You didn't steal it from a shop or straight from the company, but it's still something you've obtained without paying for it.

Oh, and those that complain it's due to prices, then what did you think is going to happen if you KEEP pirating and not buying the games? Those that are NOT familiar with the software industry must think there's no reason to charge prices for software. Well, here is what the software development life cycle is like:

Time to research and gather requirements based on users wants and needs. This can be a VERY time consuming process needing the help of various individuals: the requirements writer, the programmers and architects, the users of the software that is wanted. All those people spend hours, weeks, months gathering requirements for the software.

Next, the actual IT people have to come up with architectural designs, etc. In the case of many games these days, you also have to have story writers (many of which need to go back to writers school because they suck sometimes), programming, debugging, testing, possibly going back to get MORE requirements because maybe you've found something that just doesn't work. In that, you either revise the requirements or else, you to R&D to try and find a feasible solution. You then continue the development process, test, debug, fix the bugs, run all the tests again (to ensure your change didn't affect something else), etc. It's a cycle that requires a lot of work and effort.

Next comes the manufacturing process (which is usually pretty cheap), but still, you have to press the CDs/DVDs/whatever medium you are using. There are advertising campaigns (TV, magazine ads, etc). Those are NOT free to the company.

Due to so many moochers out there, there are also legal fees to get attorney's involved to ensure that the IP of the software is protected as well as protect the company from being sued, etc.

So, writing a game is just not programming it. It takes a LOT of individuals working together, some face-to-face, some not, in order to get an idea turned into an actual game that is released to us, the public.

So, those people do not deserve to have their work purchased? It helps fund the company releasing the game to continue to pay for ALL those individuals so that more games/software can be released.

So, there IS potential money lost. For every game that is pirated, that is one more piece of software that COULD have been purchased along with all the other legal purchases that have occurred. True, it doesn't take money away from the money they already have, but it takes away fore-casted revenue which helps keep a company in business, especially when it's the small, indie development companies.

So, pirating DOES take money away from the company, no matter how you look at it.

Because with the library, you have an agreement to return the book back. However, if you were to photocopy that book to keep as your own, then you've broken the law. Or worse, if you refuse to return it, then the library will charge you fines and possibly take away your library card. That is stealing because the library obtained that software through a purchase and I'm sure they have to work out an agreement with the software company, hence that's why you don't see a lot software in libraries.

Quit trying to justify pirating. It's wrong and you will lose that argument, period.

BTW, why do you think DRM came into existence? For the very thing you are trying to condone or justify.

I like how CD Projekt gives us DRM-free games, especially the ever growing catalog they have at Good 'Ol Games.

You missed my point as well I was not justify pirating because you also missed the part where I said...

But I guess that white moral light you like to shine into everyone's face must've blinded you too.

Good job. You read NOTHING. My point wasn't to say that downloaders are in the clear. It was saying that targeting uploaders is the proper way to use anti piracy resources.

Who said it was right, not me.

I have well over $1000 worth on games on my steam account here http://steamcommunity.com/id/dustin_ds3000 i haven't torrented a game in over an year since i have a job now. I have two copies of Mass Effect 2, Dragon age, Oblivion, Assassin's Creed 1 because one is a retail copy while the other is on steam, im not buying anymore retail games.

Actually, I don't mind, since there offering to sell Witcher 2 DRM free (via gog.com).

I buy few games (and don't pirate them either) because of invasive DRM, but since they offering to sell it to you without DRM, it will be one of the few games I buy for PC now because of it.

More props to them.

Hopefully the cost incurred by going after the pirate is mitigated by the money recouped. Heck, it may end up as being a net profit for them to go after pirates.

They should be charged a minimum of $2500 and do some jail time. Only when you punish a child do you see the child then realize that their actions lead to the situation.

Sadly, US law is very protective of its thieves. For some reason we like protecting criminals and ensuring that law abiding citizens pick up the slack caused by these miscreants.

I pre-ordered my copy. Looking forward to it. Best of luck to CD Projekt in pirate hunting.

I have illegaly downloaded Windows XP SP2, SP3, Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit and 64bit, Assasins Creed 1 and 2, COD6 MW2, NFSC, NFS MW, NFS PS, CS, CSS, Office 2003 and 07 and 10, about 500 movies, over 50GB of music, over 100GB of programs like Phostoshop CS5, Sony Vegas, Sound Forge 10 and 8, camtasia studio 7, all kinds of antiviruses, VMWare player, and many many many more programs, games, video, audio...............

Fixed. That's truly pathetic guest. People like you should be barred from accessing the net.

The only games I pay for are Monster Hunter, Star Ocean, and Devil May Cry games, along with any multi-player game that I HAVE to buy to play with friends.

Otherwise I pirate the **** out of it, deal with it. I'll be pirating Witcher 2 when it's out.

Seems a bit silly really. People will surely realise that CD Projekt doesn't have intelligence to control such an attack system as he has already given them the heads up.

Sure people will have to endure lower download speeds because of what he's said as they'll have to use Tor but it won't effect the end result. If anything more downloads will happen because pirates will feel they've been 'challenged'.

And as for these torrent companies pirates will go straight to http://www.peerblock.com/ and lock them out.

The economics (or lack thereof) of the digital world is completely different from the real world. All computer applications can essentially be represented by a number or array of numbers.

I would like to see a software firm prevent people from sharing the number 3.

The reality of the situation is that the analogy of stealing bread, or a car, or whatever, falls out of the ballpark and simply does not apply to the economics of software theft. Companies are just beginning to realize this and compensate their business strategies accordingly.

Copyright infringement =\= stealing; making a copy of something doesn't mean you're stealing the original. As stated above, the dynamics are completely different, so you simply cannot compare it to stealing any tangible goods.

99% of the people who pirate games do so for the single-player aspect; most games now include a multiplayer component that is usually the main reason people would buy them. Although there are multiplayer cracked workarounds, most people don't play via these because of the massive instances of hacking\cheating that can easily take place due to no anti-cheat software running.

All in all, not EVERY infringement is a lost sale, (price elasticity of demand acting as it should there), but enough infringements do end up costing the companies making games, because of the lack of any royalties earned.

Personally i pirate games, if you don't like it then Boo hoo for you! However i also buy games that i like. Thank god i pirated Black Ops, the performance is horrible. I'm a big call of duty fan i i buy the games, however i'm also NOT STUPID and demand quality for the sh!t i buy. So as soon as they fix the damn game i'll purchase it. Oh I'm pirating the witcher regardless just because of their *****ic plans