Sierra 1 Piratez 0
Bart-W. van Lith
Sierra pursues Half-Life OEM pirates
by Robert Mayer
Lawyers for Sierra Studios are "aggressively pursuing" websites and
individuals who have posted pirated copies of the OEM version of
Sierra's forthcoming 3D first-person shooter Half-Life. The game,
developed by Valve, is expected to ship later this Fall, but a special
version for bundling with video cards, sound cards, game controllers and
other PC hardware is going out to manufacturers now. According to
Genevieve Ostergard, Senior PR Manager for Sierra Studios, the
manufacturers who paid for the use of Half Life: Day One to enhance the
value of their products are furious that the game is now widely
available
on the Internet.
Within hours after the game arrived at magazines in the US and Europe,
details of the opening sequence and in-game screenshots (both of which
Sierra specifically enjoined magazines and websites from publishing)
appeared online. Shortly thereafter, the game appeared on pirate
websites
and usenet discussion groups. According to Ostergard, Sierra is seeking
"cease and desist" orders against any and all individuals or
organizations
who are making the game available illegally, and is asking all other
sites "in
the spirit of things" to honor the information embargo Sierra has
imposed.
Pirated versions of even complete, finished games are nothing unusual on
the Web; when LucasArts' Rebellion was still on its ways to stores
earlier
this year, for example, a pirate version appeared online, and even
multi-CD games like Origin's Wing Commander IV have shown up on
"warez" sites on the Web. Despite the best efforts of software
publishers,
piracy has proven virtually impossible to erradicate, or even to reduce
significantly.
Got a news tip? Send it to
ne...@cdmag.com
Posted 9/21/1998
DEViL 808
and might "take some action." Thats what they all say... propaganda.
Bart-W. van Lith wrote in message <3607DDDD...@casema.net>...
ymenard
Bart-W. van Lith wrote
<snip>
That would be a better header subject ;-D
I mean... I don't see how Sierra has actually "won a battle" here. I mean
I'm not against what they are doing (actually it's good to see a company who
at least "tries" some action against them).
I seriously think a anti-warez squad should be form by the law. I mean.. the
RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) has it and in 1year they lowered the
illegal-software market in Canada by 20%, who is really great IMHO as a
start, with a really low-budget and low-staff.
- François Ménard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard!
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--
meiji
a big rift formed in the Half-Life "scene" over the issue. Many people are not
interested in downloading a warez version of 20% of the full game with the
full title around the corner and a like number saying they are justified as
Valve Software should have released a downloadable demo and they are
responsible for the actions of the pirates because of this. They usually
follow this by saying that the OEM version is really a demo so why shouldn't
they download it?
The latter argument is complete crap obviously.
Anyway, the point I was initially indending to make was that Sierra have made
a stand where many publishers have not and have said they will not put up with
people pirating their software, even OEM versions. This is good IMO as many
publishers seem to think warez is part of the deal these days.
M
Paul Ryder
The OEM is availible freely and the full version will be, they cant
stop it.
They can try but its just impossible.
Mansfield Wong
<3608e7f6....@beta.news.u-net.net>...
> On 22 Sep 1998 12:28:00 PDT, "ymenard" <yme...@concentric.net> wrote:
>
> The OEM is availible freely and the full version will be, they cant
> stop it.
> They can try but its just impossible.
>
They can simply rig the betas and "review copies" with a virus that gets
activated after the testing period expires. Just make sure they remember
to update the expiry date with each new build, and place explicitly
warnings when being distributed to the testers :) That is, if warez come
from late betas and such. With all the buzz about the Windows CIH virus or
something... I think that ought to scare off some of the casual,
download-and-not-pay-for-it type of warez consumer.
Still hardly any prevention against somebody with a legal release, a CD
writer or even an entire factory... Unauthorized duplication is very
prevalent in some countries, less so in others.
Just my .02
Mansfield
Mike Laskey
<01bde736$b2bca680$bf63...@o125c-30.auckland.ac.nz>...
> They can simply rig the betas and "review copies" with a virus that gets
> activated after the testing period expires. Just make sure they remember
Bang goes the year 2000 compatibility test then!
Mike.