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General Category => Blog => Topic started by: kat on January 25, 2011, 06:48:19 PM

Title: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: kat on January 25, 2011, 06:48:19 PM
According to MCV (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42693/UKIE-Piracy-cost-15bn-in-2010), UKIE suggest that pirated games have cost the UK games industry in excess of £1.5 billion!
Quote
The trade body has reported that several publishers have claimed illegally downloaded games could outnumber those sold legitimately by as much as 4:1 – and UKIE director general Michael Rawlinson claims that even a 1:1 ratio would be severe. [my emphasis]
Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: ratty redemption on January 25, 2011, 08:48:49 PM
wow, that's reallly bad, and are most of those on pc or consoles as well?
Title: File-sharing lawyer not quite so poor
Post by: kat on May 26, 2011, 05:18:45 PM
According to an article in PCPro the solicitor at centre of ACS Law and the file sharing fine letter-bomb (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/367624/the-luxury-lifestyle-of-the-hard-up-file-sharing-lawyer), he's not quite so hard up as he possibly claimed to get an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) penalty reduced (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/367240/file-sharing-lawyer-avoids-big-ico-fine-because-hes-too-poor).
Title: File Sharing solicitor bankrupt
Post by: kat on June 09, 2011, 04:41:18 PM
Update in the ACS Law situation. According to PC Pro the solicitor behind the controversy filed for bankruptcy (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/367885/acs-law-solicitor-is-bankrupt) at the time he was being fined by the Information Commissioner for his conduct;
Quote from: PC Pro
The Information Commissioner's Office was apparently aware Crossley was filing for bankruptcy at the time it reduced the fine, according to a document supplied by the ICO to PC Pro following a Freedom of Information Act request.
Title: File-sharing lawyer "not likely" to pay £800 ICO fine
Post by: kat on July 07, 2011, 06:05:50 PM
Yup, according to PCPro the solicitor at the centre of this controversy filed for Bankruptcy  (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/368503/file-sharing-lawyer-not-likely-to-pay-800-ico-fine) so won't be paying the vastly reduced fine he got off with (reduced to £800 from £22,000).
Title: ACS Law "took advantage" of accused file-sharers
Post by: kat on July 14, 2011, 05:36:54 PM
And a bit more news on ACS Law (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/368635/acs-law-took-advantage-of-accused-file-sharers) from PCPro again
Quote
The now defunct law firm, which became infamous for speculatively invoicing people accused of sharing copyrighted material online, faces seven charges at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing.
Title: UK - Games piracy 'has climbed 20% since 2006'
Post by: kat on November 16, 2011, 01:49:10 PM
According to an article on Develop Online, games related piracy in the UK has climbed by around 20% since 2006 (http://www.develop-online.net/news/39116/Games-piracy-has-climbed-20-since-2006). - figures are based on a report produced by an 'anti-piracy' company Envisional (http://www.envisional.com/) - not sure if this is the same report but it makes for interesting reading "Technical report: An Estimate of Infringing Use of the Internet (http://documents.envisional.com/docs/Envisional-Internet_Usage-Jan2011.pdf)" (PDF).

Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: kat on January 17, 2012, 06:11:17 PM
How is the industry going to work out a proper solution to piracy when they can't (read that as "won't") release any meaningful figures for it? Develop mentions some number in this article (http://www.develop-online.net/news/39512/Gaming-giants-demanding-1000-from-pirates) but cannot corroborate them because the source isn't verifying the data. If it's all correct (approx 18 million downloads across five games) then it equates to approximately $400 million US dollars of revenue lost to piracy. You'd think those numbers were big enough to justify pulling out the proverbial fingers and publishing verifiable data instead of generic hyperbole...

Industry: "We've had loads of games nicked"
Users: "Oh? How many exactly?"
Industry: "Our figures say 'loads'"
Users: "No figures? Numbers? Money lost?"
Industry: "Oh yes.. 'lots'"
Users: ... >_<
Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: kat on June 29, 2012, 10:05:54 AM
Who would have thought the NewZealand Courts would deem Megaupload search warrants illegal (http://www.itpro.co.uk/641422/court-deems-megaupload-search-warrants-illegal) (according to ITPro). The Judge has to be given huge amounts of Kudos for standing by Law (and not condoning what MegaUpload was accused of) in the face of the US authorities bullying tactics - it surprising that US authorities said they were not surprised by the outcome which could lead on to think they knowingly filed incorrect paperwork on this, which seems a little odd.
Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: kat on May 16, 2013, 03:43:10 PM
Via Wired magazine (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/15/bittorrent-gaming-study). Apparently the numbers associated with piracy are being over-reported (and publicly undocumented it should be noted) by the industry; the reality, whilst still being significant, is not nearly what's touted by the media and press - actual study can be found here (http://www.mit.edu/~ke23793/papers/Drahchenetal_paperID16.pdf) (PDF)

Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: kat on November 16, 2013, 12:06:07 PM
Pertinent article on the alleged consequences of pirating (not yet independently verified although the company revealing the stats has said they are more than happen to pass the data on for inspection and analysis) - LGC: 10.1m people illegally downloaded Football Manager 2013 (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/lgc-10-1m-people-illegally-downloaded-football-manager-2013/0124256)
Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: ratty redemption on November 16, 2013, 02:21:56 PM
very interesting stats, and i liked how one of the devs was replying to questions in the comments section.
Title: Re: Piracy cost the UK games sector £1.5 billion in 2010
Post by: kat on April 08, 2014, 08:35:37 PM
Kim DotCom (MegaUpload) is back (http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/) in the news (http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/) again - the Daily Mail article is of particular interest because they paint the guy as some evil genius because he has a copy of Mein Kamph (which just so happens (http://rt.com/usa/hitler-mein-kampf-ebook-433/) to be one of the most popular (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/hitlers-mein-kampf-surges-book-sales/story?id=21466401) eBooks to buy (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/09/mein-kampf-ebook-bestseller-adolf-hitler)).