Activision Begins Suing File Sharers [Updated]
from the backlash-beware dept
While EA has faced a ton of backlash lately for its decision to use draconian DRM (though it's since backed down a bit), at least the company has made it clear that it doesn't think it makes sense to follow the RIAA and sue file sharers. Activision, on the other hand, seems to have gone in the opposite direction, recently filing a bunch of lawsuits against file sharers, even to the point of asking for $30,000 to $150,000 in damages per violation. While it's within Activision's legal right to do so, the company may want to be careful in pissing off hard core gamers. The backlash can hurt a lot more than any bit of file sharing ever would. Update: As a few people noted in the comments, Activision is claiming that the lawsuit in question was not about file sharing, but has not provided more details yet.
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Filed Under: file sharing, lawsuits, video games
Companies: activision
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Activision is dying
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Re: Activision is dying
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Re: Re: Activision is dying
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Not 1 cent!
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may they meet the fate of the RIAA
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there may be more to the story
"UPDATE: Activision's attorney contacted GP to say that the cased were not based on file-sharing."
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Re: there may be more to the story
UPDATE: Activision Copyright Lawsuits NOT Based on File Sharing
September 19, 2008
An attorney who has represented Activision in six recent copyright lawsuits involving video games has told GamePolitics that the legal actions were not related to file sharing.
Karin Pagnanelli, a partner with Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, wrote in an e-mail:
While we don’t comment on litigation involving clients, we can advise you that we have never filed any litigation against a file-sharer on behalf of Activision.
GP: It would appear, then, that the six defendants we reported on in our earlier story were sued for something more complex than mere file sharing.
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Not P2P Related Lawsuits
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Not P2P
I have no sympathy whatsoever. It's one thing to steal for your own use, it's another entirely to sell the stolen goods, especially in an ongoing fashion.
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So file sharing of their games would be okay, but not someone copying and selling their games?
Wouldn't the same arguments apply no matter how the games were getting distributed?
"It's helping expand the fan base"
"They need to get with the times and find a better way to make money off their games - like selling tee-shirts and having gaming concerts"
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Re: Norm
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Re:
Because one method doesn't generate any profit.
The other IS generating profit.
They're pissed because the one selling it is LITERALLY stealing their money from them.
If you're just letting people download their games from you but not charging anything, then you're not actually taking much from them. Just a potentially paying customer...MAYBE. (They're not a guaranteed sell.)
But if people are BUYING it from you, then you're definitely taking profit out of the companies' pockets from a customer who IS obviously willing to pay for the software.
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I For One Want To Know
Activision needs to come clean about this.
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While your point isn't invalid, bear in mind that statutory damages for copying are very large, because they were intended to deal with commerical copying operations. As such, awarding tens of thousands of dollars in damages for copying one $15 CD is much more disproportionate and likely to elicit outrage than awarding such damages for running a profitable business. If the RIAA was getting $15 and lawyer's fees, I think there would be substantially less complaining.
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Re:
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But the people such as the one's in this lawsuit who are making all kinds of money selling those stolen versions are 1)hurting Activision much more and 2) most likely have the money to make it worth a lawsuit considering they were making all kinds of money off of the stolen goods in the first place.
None of this justifies file sharing in anyway as it's all stealing no matter how you look at it. Just trying to clarify the difference in this particular case.
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Activision: Neither small nor starving
"Its a sad fate to befall the first real independant gaming software company, but this is a last gasp money grab by a company that is slowly starving to death from a lack of capital."
d0n0vAn said:
"I recall playing Mechwarrior back in the day, but since then what has Activision produced? I tried to visit Activision's site to see if I have played any of their games recently, but I couldn't get it to load on Firefox 3.0.1 - guess not."
Have the two of you ever heard of a little game called "Tony Hawks pro Skateboarding". It's got like 12 iterations on every console. Then there is another little game called "Guitar Hero", you know that small game that sold a couple million copies. They also make "call of duty" which was one of the best selling FPS games. So no, I seriously doubt that they are slowly starving to death. And P.S., their website loads up just fine on Firefox.
Independent though? That is just a joke, Activision is no small independent, they are owned by Blizzard
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RE: John
And anyone who pirates for a profit is who all of the major companies should target first with lawsuits.
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