The chinese warez factories that Joe refers to, MASS PRODUCE pirated games which they then sell all over the world. The extent to which they take their piracy is radical. The pirated cd's have the exact same label as the originals, they come packaged in a cd case that has labels identical to the originals and where the originals come with a manual, so does the pirated game.
You could very easily mistake the pirated game for an original, the only obvious give aways are:
1) All copies of the game have the same serial number, if a keygen is not included on the disk.
2) The sales person or should that be pirate (ahoy ! me maties !) asks you prior to purchasing whether you are familiar with the procedures involved in cracking a game.
I kid you not ! Every now and then our police (pirate-hunters) nab some fool at the airport smuggling in pirated games and movies, on other occasions they've raided (plundered/sacked?) some or other place and found up to as many as 12000 pirate copies of games and movies.
The point Im trying to make is as follows: It is the MASS PRODUCTION of pirated games that cause the most damage to game sales and those involved in mass production are largely unaffected by copy protection, they probably employ a number of crackers on a full-time basis.
The area in which copy protection is most effective, and only just, is in the preventing of gamers loaning their games to buddies while still playing them (both cant have the originals at the same time). This leaves me thinking about 2 things:
1) Is loaning a game to a buddy, once you've finished with it (so he uses the original disks while playing), OK ? or is this a form of piracy ? He didn't pay to play the game.
2) Is loaning a game to a buddy, while you're still playing it (with a NoCD crack), OK ? or is this a form of piracy ?
I would find it difficult to believe that there isn't one of us who hasn't done this !!!
In closing, copy protection is not an effective means of tackling piracy, not only is it largely ineffective but it also does not discriminate between honest customers and those using pirated software. Is the inconvenience caused to the honest customer justifiable in terms of the amount of piracy actually stopped ?
It's kinda like standing at the front door of your store and subjecting each customer to a body search before they leave the store, to make sure that none have stolen anything, irrespective of how much money they've just spent in your store. Meanwhile some thugs have ripped off the back door of the store and have stolen all your stock........The really sad thing is, the next day, your standing at the front of the store again...
I think until such time as a viable alternative is found, we're pretty much stuck with what we currently have... Im currently playing Sid Meier's Pirates ! and I therefore feel, I can related to this issue
Looking forward to your replies..
k1rr3D....