Late last month, CD Projekt RED estimated that upwards of 4.5 million people pirated The Witcher 2 since the game was released earlier this year.
CD Projekt did release a DRM-free version over on GOG.com, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to let the rampant piracy of their game slide; in fact, the developer is sending legal notices to thousands of alleged pirates in Germany demanding they pay up to $1,180.
In a situation like this, the concern is that innocent people might be wrongly accused of pirating copyrighted content – it’s certainly been the case in the past. As inaccurate as copyright holders’ attempts to monitor trackers to catch pirates turned out to be, CD Projekt RED, in a statement to PC Gamer, insists that their method of catching pirates, they believe, is “100%” accurate.
“We’re addressing only 100% confirmed piracy causes that are 100% possible to prove,” Michal Nowakowski, VP of Business Development for CD Project RED, told PC Gamer. “We are not worried about tracking the wrong people. As this is the trade secret of the company working on this, I cannot share it.
“However, we investigated the subject before we decided on this move, and we aware of some past complications (the famous Davenport case). The method used here is targeting only 100% confirmed piracy cases. No innocent person was targeted with the letter so far. At least we have not received any information as of now which would indicate something like that.”
The company wouldn’t say just how many alleged pirates agreed to pay the compensation that CD Projekt RED demanded, but Nowakowski did say that, so far, no cases have gone to court.
Nowakowski told PC gamer that while he doesn’t believe this will stomp out piracy completely, he hopes that it will at least put a stop to some of it. He said:
“I do believe this may work as a deterrent to future pirates, especially the most notorious ones. I would personally hope these people would be more convinced by our pro-customer policy, but if they are of the unchangeable kind that never bought and never will buy a legal game, I would at least hope they do not trespass on our title. Do I believe this will stop the piracy? That’s impossible, and never will be. But maybe it will be smaller.”
Source: PC Gamer
