Britain just decriminalised online game piracy

LateX'Dog

LateX'Dog

LateX'Dog

Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2010
Posts
5,342
Location
A house
The British government has decriminalised online video game, music and movie piracy, scrapping fuller punishment plans after branding them unworkable.

Starting in 2015, persistent file-sharers will be sent four warning letters explaining their actions are illegal, but if the notes are ignored no further action will be taken.

The scheme, named the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP), is the result of years of talks between ISPs, British politicians and the movie and music industries.

The UK’s biggest providers – BT, TalkTalk, Virgin and Sky – have all signed up to VCAP, and smaller ISPs are expected to follow suit.

VCAP replaces planned anti-piracy measures that included cutting users’ internet connections and creating a database of file-sharers.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of music trade body the BPI, said VCAP was about “persuading the persuadable, such as parents who do not know what is going on with their net connection.”

He added: “VCAP is not about denying access to the internet. It’s about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice.”

Officials will still work to close and stem funding to file-sharing sites, but the news appears to mean that the British authorities have abandoned legal enforcement of online media piracy.

Figures recently published by Ofcom said that nearly a quarter of all UK downlaods were of pirated content.
Click to expand...

http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/22/britain-just-decriminalised-online-game-piracy/

http://www.bpi.co.uk/home/uk-creati...ve-to-promote-legal-online-entertainment.aspx

Rumours have it that ISP's have a few years to see if this lowers piracy, if it doesn't, harsher measure will be put in place.
 
The law has changed regarding ripping from your own physical media, but otherwise it remains the same and copyright holders can bring civil action if they can identify you without going through your ISP. Flog or obtain pirated material at your own risk.
 
[TW]Fox;26646033 said:
Don't you need to criminalise something before you can decriminalise it?
Click to expand...

Normally, maybe that's what they're doing here. Criminalising it so they can decriminalise it :p
 
With the advent of Steam, GOG (et al) sales, there really isn't as much incentive for PC game piracy, compared to say movie piracy. Sadly the big movie companies haven't yet seen the light of cheap digital distribution, and are still trying to extract the urine from all of us.

Hence why I won't pirate games but have few qualms about downloading films.
 
FoxEye said:
With the advent of Steam, GOG (et al) sales, there really isn't as much incentive for PC game piracy, compared to say movie piracy. Sadly the big movie companies haven't yet seen the light of cheap digital distribution, and are still trying to extract the urine from all of us.

Hence why I won't pirate games but have few qualms about downloading films.
Click to expand...

This for me too
 
FoxEye said:
With the advent of Steam, GOG (et al) sales, there really isn't as much incentive for PC game piracy, compared to say movie piracy. Sadly the big movie companies haven't yet seen the light of cheap digital distribution, and are still trying to extract the urine from all of us.

Hence why I won't pirate games but have few qualms about downloading films.
Click to expand...

You'll sadly always get freeloaders and I wouldn't shed a tear to see them feel the law.

I have absolutely 0 sympathy however for the big movie/tv companies though until they put some serious effort into improving legal online distribution. Some of them seem to be starting to get it mind - game of thrones season 4 was available legally online almost the moment the series stopped airing which is a big improvement on the 6 month to 24+ months that is far more common. (Obviously there are some shows that are available to download episodes after each one has aired but thats more of an exception than a norm).
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't be too happy about it. If piracy stats don't fall, the game publishers will point to it as evidence that the softly-softly approach doesn't work.
 
I normally trial a game, and then buy based on first 30mins of gameplay. Companies are churning out so much rubbish these days that I'd feel pretty peeved off if I bought without realising it's poop.
 
I don't agree with a lot of what he stands for, but this reminds me a lot of Kim Dotcom's Tweet a few months back:

How to stop piracy: 1 Create great stuff 2 Make it easy to buy 3 Same day worldwide release 4 Fair price 5 Works on any device

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/288199968932630528

Spot on.

Did anyone see the stories regarding Reddit readers protecting CD Projekt against piracy, after CD Projekt launched the Witcher 2 DRM free? Again, if you respect customers, they will largely respect you. Piracy needs to become taboo rather than illegal, and this is a big step.
 
manic111 said:
Did anyone see the stories regarding Reddit readers protecting CD Projekt against piracy, after CD Projekt launched the Witcher 2 DRM free? Again, if you respect customers, they will largely respect you. Piracy needs to become taboo rather than illegal, and this is a big step.
Click to expand...

I saw it on NZBMatrix and a few other usenet sites. Also on torrent sites too.
 
Just look at Netflix, (and steam I suppose) which is booming despite widespread copyright infringement of biblical proportions according to some, as an example of how broken the tv/film/entertainment industry is.

Make it cheap, accessible, give people choice, stick it all in a nice shiny package. simple.
 
Last edited:
manic111 said:
How to stop piracy: 1 Create great stuff 2 Make it easy to buy 3 Same day worldwide release 4 Fair price 5 Works on any device
Click to expand...

Not going to stop piracy like that but your certainly going to put a big dent in it and filter out a large majority of the people who actually could be turned into customers.
 
mattyfez said:
Just look at Netflix, (and steam I suppose) which is booming despite widespread copyright infringement, as an example of how broken the tv/film/entertainment industry is.
Make it cheap, accessible, give people choice, stick it all in a nice shiny package. simple.
Click to expand...

Netflix is too cheap IMO but conversely I wouldn't pay more for the current content you can get from purely the UK library, given a selection closer to their global library and much quicker access to new content, even at a price, I'd happily pay a lot more for content via the Netflix platform.
 
Rroff said:
Netflix is too cheap IMO but conversely I wouldn't pay more for the current content you can get from purely the UK library, given a selection closer to their global library and much quicker access to new content, even at a price, I'd happily pay a lot more for content via the Netflix platform.
Click to expand...

My point being, companies like them are posting record growth and profit, which highlights the fact that other more traditional companies have it all wrong.

All this is happening despite the 'scourge of internet piracy'.

News yesterday: Online video service Netflix reported profits of $71m (£42m) in the second quarter, more than double compared with the same period a year ago.

The company said revenue from its streaming content service rose nearly 50% to $1.2bn, compared to $837m a year earlier.

Netflix said it added 1.69 million users during the period from March to June.

The streaming video firm now has 50 million users in over 40 countries.
 
Last edited:
cant see the point in pirating games these days, not with steam sales and relatively cheap prices. i don't even bother with try before you buy considering you can just watch youtube videos of other folks playing them to guage what the game is like. thanks to this method minecraft, kerbal space program, civ5 and tomb raider all got my money.

films is a tricky one, whilst fair enough people sitting pirating every release going aint right, services like netflix work well only if youve got fast enough internet for streaming in hd, otherwise the alternative is expensive dvs's that you have to go and buy [and lets face it people are lazy]

i normally just wait for it to come out on tv, unless its good enough for me to see it in the cinema.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom