Now days getting free video games is as easy as going to the Internet and I am not talking old out of date video games but grade A video games, new and old favorites.What happens is Internet "pirate" sites offer "cracked" versions of brand new games, that would normal be copyright-protected and something you would buy at Best buy. Most of the time these pirated game are accessible free of charge. The people who crack these video games do so not for a profit but for the fact that they can do it.
Sounds great to someone who is sick of paying a good $60 a pop for computer software games when they can get it for free from the pirated sites.
Its quite obvious one might think why it not a good idea to download pirated video games, it illegal.
Video game piracy has been around long before the Internet and yes some pirates are out there to make a profit. Proof of this is evident if you go to virtually any market in Southeast Asia "you'll see rows and rows of commercial games, music and movies available for rock-bottom prices.
During the time of the Sony Playstation, hackers figured out how to modify the consoles, disabling the copyright then reselling the machines "with pre-loaded, pirated software. This process is called "modding."
It is estimated from many different sources that the video game industry losses on average $3.5 billion a year from pirated computer video games.
Basically what this has done is effected the ability for the video game industry to make video games.
With as big and advanced as video games are today, development time is much longer and the cost to construct the video game is higher. It is not unusual to see a development team of 100 people or more. And the advertising window for a lot of the games is very short. So the problem here is if your game (developer's) is competing against a free copy of itself, that could result in a lot of trouble for the people who made it.According to Shane Pittman, a former high-ranking member of Razor 1911 an online video game piracy ring.
"It didn't seem like stealing," he says. "Physically, I couldn't see an attachment to anyone."
As a result in late 2001, Pittman, working as an IT administrator in Hickory N.C. recieved a call from the FBI who were outside his home he shared with his wife and two kids that they had a warrant.
The FBI confiscated 7 computers and boxes upon boxes of burned CDs. Pittman pled guilty to copyright infringement and spent 18 month in a federal prison. Why would Pittman a husband, father risk so much in his illegal hobby? "Because it made me feel important," he says. "I wasn't a jock or one of the cool kids, but suddenly, I was the go-to guy. I could do stuff the average Joe couldn't."
Not all pirates like Pittman are good guys with a bad habit. Video games like "Spider Man 3" in which your bought for $4 you can get to level three then the game shuts down. The free copy of "Command and Conquer 3" was loaded with viruses.
Video games were one the the first pieces of software to be pirated, but it wasn't until movie piracy that the National Cyber Security Alliance took notice."Even though law enforcement has stepped up the pressure on pirates in recent years -- both at a federal and local level -- the industry still faces an uphill battle." Why, because much of the piracy that occurs happens outside the US which makes it very difficult for the US to touch them because their laws are so much different.
The video game industry will tell the average consumer that the typical video game is too big to download -- and most people will not wait for a 1-gigabyte file to download onto their home computer.This doesn't seem to stop people who want to download such large computer video games as Quake 4 and Grand Theft Auto.
Why do hackers do it, my guess would be the thrill to beat the system, to stick it to the man mentality. The problem lies that as long as there are peer to peer sharing networks out there, there is going to be pirated software.
Kirk Jensen
Owner of:
[http://www.gameznstuff.net]
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