What should I do with the pirates I've caught?

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

We have no problem banning pirates. But accusing someone of piracy without iron clad proof and being able to defend that proof in a court of law are two different things. If it were as easy as throwing an IP out there, the music industry would have shut down piracy years ago. Bryan, if you don't have a lawyer or two sitting at your elbow, be very careful how you walk down this path.

 

Bryan, send me an email and let me know who you think the suspects are. Do not post them here or in any forum.

[Eamonn Watson 32]

Maybe find out why they pirated your software.. There could be a couple reasons (not that it makes it okay), didn't have the money, wanted to try before buy, or because they just didn't want to spend the money..

 

The ones that are remorseful, I wouldn't say you should not shame them as they apparently already feel bad and did indeed buy your product. The ones that ignore your email, well that is up to you what you do, let AVSIM handle their users and if Tom bans them, then you can rest assured some pirates will not get support. That raises a question though if they were to buy your product in the future would you deny them support?

 

Also you would have to be pretty sure your banning the correct person and that you have concrete proof they did what your accusing them of.. I myself have been falsely accused (not of piracy, but of posting a products link before publishing) on a website's forum and was banned. I was able to show proof that my forum account was used for nefarious purposes to the admin of that particular forum and was allowed to re-register. Was a lesson to always use malware bytes on my pc but thats another story..:)

[phoenixphire 50]

Well Bryan, I would not publicly admit you don't have the financial resources to hire lawyers. Somethings are better left for people to assume.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Bryan, if you don't have a lawyer or two sitting at your elbow, be very careful how you walk down this path.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw some of the suggestions being posted. Last thing you need to do is shame someone, expose their IP and/or email, and end up getting sued yourself. It's kind of like the situation where someone tries to break into your house, falls through a sky light, then ends up suing the property owner and winning. As much as I am against pirating and would love to expose and embarrass the guilty if I were in your shoes, I would also make sure your adequately protected should one of the exposed try to turn it around on you and take you to court. I know it sounds insane, but it's amazing what crooks and thieves have gotten away with in situations like this when they took the accuser to court.

[ZachLW 37]

Since piracy is being discussed currently in the Hangar Chat forum, I'll throw this one out to the peanut gallery.

 

I've caught several pirates red-handed with my new FS2Crew NGX product.

 

A few of them are Avsim members.

 

What should I do with them?

 

Post the offender's in a thread. That'd make them go away :) A "Wall of Shame" *kidding*

 

My Jerry Springer side would enjoy that thread, though...

[styckx 1,869]

One of the funniest things is anti piracy measures that make the thieves admit their own guilt.

 

Bohemia Interactive has a great one with FADE and another game developer I used to associate with has a good one where if you installed pirated models and tried to use them in the game your entire screen would render in some crazy fractal display of colors. It never failed to make me laugh when someone would sign up to a community forum and post something like "Hi guys I just bought ____ off Steam but every time I try to use it my screen explodes with a bunch of weird lines all over the place. What am I doing wrong?".. Same sort of posts pop up on Bohemias game support forums: "Take On Helicopters screen gets all blurry and watery after I play for a bit, is my hardware failing??". They sealed their own fate and immediately get the ban hammer.

[ZachLW 37]

One of the funniest things is anti piracy measures that make the thieves admit their own guilt.

 

Bohemia Interactive Studio has a great one with FADE and another game developer I used to associate with has a good one where if you installed pirated models and tried to use them in the game your entire screen would render in some crazy fractal display of colors. It never failed to make me laugh when someone would sign up to a community forum and post something like "Hi guys I just bought ____ off Steam but every time I try to use it my screen explodes with a bunch of weird lines all over the place. What am I doing wrong?".. Same sort of posts pop up on Bohemias game support forums: "Take On Helicopters screen gets all blurry and watery after I play for a bit, is my hardware failing??". They sealed their own fate and immediately get the ban hammer.

 

Well, be mindful that I suffered from "FADE" with ARMA 2, but had a legally purchased copy on STEAM. Had I embarrassed myself on the forums, I would have been livid.

[styckx 1,869]

Well, be mindful that I suffered from "FADE" with ARMA 2, but had a legally purchased copy on STEAM. Had I embarrassed myself on the forums, I would have been livid.

 

I should have added, the admins ask for their invoice # / Proof Of Purchase first and 99.9% of the time they can't produce it.

[Jacoba 55]

 

What should I do with them?

 

:unknw:

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

This topic has run its course. Am now closing it.