Games developers get tough with file sharers

chris

LONDON - Five of the world's biggest computer games developers are preparing to threaten thousands of people with court in a bid to combat illegal file-sharing.

They will write to people who have shared their games to tell them to either pay £300 immediately or risk being taken to court.

Atari, Codemasters, Reality Pump, Techland and Topware Interactive have produced popular games including 'The Lord of the Rings' and the 'Colin McRae Rally' series.

It is understood they already have the names and addresses of 5,000 file sharers, but they have also applied to the High Court for an order forcing internet service providers to give up the names and addresses of 25,000 other suspected file sharers.

This week a prosecution resulted in a £16,000 fine against a woman for illegally sharing Topware Interactive's 'Dream Pinball 3D' game, again showing that developers are taking a more aggressive stance towards the problem of file sharing.

It is estimated that up to 6m people in the UK have engaged in the activity.

Law firm Davenport Lyons, which is acting for the developers and successfully pursued the 'Dream Pinball' case, said the idea was to make people reconsider file sharing.

Roger Billens, a partner at the firm, told The Times: "Our clients were incensed by the level of illegal downloading. In the first 14 days since Topware Interactive released 'Dream Pinball 3D' it sold 800 legitimate copies but was illegally downloaded 12,000 times. Hopefully people will think twice if they risk being taken to court."

Computer games sales in the country are expected to reach £2bn this year.


Source:brandrepublic