Cant you just use paypal and transfer money from your bank to your paypal account and buy sins? thats how i did it...

First of all, it wouldnt be the one sharing the CD key they would put onto trial first, but your friend for obviously and admittedly violating copyright laws.

Yes, while downloading the pirated version might not be a severe offense - even though using the software it is still one - distributing it certainly is a crime.

So if he is really your friend, then next time you might just as well try and resolve the issue with him, without going public about crimes he comitted.

As for the piracy itself. Do not stress yourself on it. Big fat companies with literally dozens of lawyers are just standing there clueless and smoking in anger as they can't really stop piracy. You reporting a single probably just generated CD key will not change the flow of the river there.

Piracy will only end when more companies will realize what stardock already did.
1) There is a difference between a potential customer and someone who would never buy software. The first using a pirated copy will still buy the software if you create enough incentive to do it, while the second category will just never buy the software.

Ironically enough, if it is a good software, a person falling into the second category can be just as much of a value as someone who bought the program as they still generate buzz around the product, generate custom assets for it, can be part of the community. Face it: once you are done with development, extra copies of software cost you nothing.. so unless it is a lost sale (see first group of pirated copy users) you do not lose anything on piracy.

Hats of to stardock for realizing that.

2) People expect value for their money and support. I've seen a tremendoust ammount of people telling me they buy the game without even seeing it first, just because it is made by stardock.

I can assure you, noone would buy an EA game like that - except the few poor guys who havent been burned by EA yet. It is quality and most importantly continuous support that wins the heart of a customer, not EULAs and developers that tell you to go to hell if you have a problem with their software.

That much about it basically.

Bottomline:
I just wouldnt like to be your friend

never said it was a waste of time.. i think u need to edit what u said after my second post then if u actually want to believe that.. id say a bit more if i wasnt off to bed. till tomorrow night then.

I would send a PM to SD/IC and they will delete the key from the database for on-line usage.

Please email bclair(at)stardock(dot)com with the serial so we can deal with it.  The serials that the warez groups have been including don't work, so that's not as large a concern.

Thank you for being honest.

If nothing else, I have to thank Stardock for leaving this thread open. A number of months ago, when the Company of Heroes patch ADDED copy protection to the game (thanks THQ!), it made it almost mandatory to be connected to the Internet to play SP (it generally wasn't good enough to have the DVD in the drive), and forced people who only played single player to make an on-line account, just so it could check with the on-line database to make sure you were a legit customer. And it was revealed that it actually tracked your stats in the game. It was just all kinds of bad.

I went on the forums to complain about it, and not only were those threads locked down, but I was temporarily suspended from the forums. Those fools haven't figured out that not allowing people to talk about the issues doesn't solve the problem. Nope, they just called me a pirate (and I owned the game!) and suspended me. Until I complained very loudly and got in touch with Relic over their stupid moderators (sadly, they never wrote me back, but I did get my forum account reinstated).

Company Heroes is a great game, with all kinds of polish, but just getting to play it is now a nightmare if one cares at all about such things. I'd much rather play a Stardock game, where I can simply play it how I want, when I want, without worrying if I have an on-line account or if I'm connected to the Internet.

So Stardock - thanks again for leaving this thread intact. It's important for people to discuss the issue of piracy in the open. THQ isn't smart enough to realize that they benefit by seeing the discussion rather than running the people to the underground.

-HM

*snort*

"Just a downloader"?

It's still piracy, whether you cracked the copy protection or not.

Yeah well.. in case of music and videos, downloading is not considered a crime where i live. Sharing these things sure is a crime tho.

Technically, i COULD very well argue with you that a software is no different in terms of being a piece of digitalized creative work than say a song or a movie. So if downloading music is not prohibited, then downloading software would also fall into the same category.

Interestingly enough, things are rarely black and white in our world today. Software piracy is just one of those grey areas..

Software piracy, like anything else, is only a grey area for those who lack sufficient moral awareness to see that it's wrong.

I love this thread and its counterpart. Excellent parody.

I don't really care. Once again you haven't read what I said. I'll keep the message short so you can comprehend it.
Just one thing, for the record: I never said you said it was a waste of time; I only said

And you said:

And if you can't read THAT properly, then you're obviously a moron. Note the if-then construction, so I'm not actually calling you a moron atm. It's only if you fail to read this, that you become a moron. Get it? Or do I need to spell that out for you too?
Thanks for keeping it civil, by the way.

someone gave you a pirated game as a valentine gift? So you are a girl uber gamer who is a hardcore opponent of piracy and you want to report the guy who was enough of a nerd to give you a video game... and a pirated one at that (so you know it cost him nothing)... actually you don't. From your post you assume he bought it then made you a copy. That is hillarious.
He downloaded it for free and gave you a copy.

either throw it in the trash. Or play it now and make a note to buy it as soon as it becomes available in your country. Or you know, get a credit card and buy it online...

Stardock indeed has a very healthy attitude towards piracy, something the rest of this industry should learn from. You just gave a very good example of the reason why. Yet after reading all your problems with COH, I don't really see what the point is of complaining on their forums. I would just raise my shoulders, download the cracked SP exe that was probably released within less than two days after that patch and stop buying games from THQ. No trouble, no locked threads or lots of emailing and another 50 euros saved.

Anyone remember the launch of Bioshock? That was an even greater mess, with the game requiring a connection to a special online database to install and only three allowed installations per serial. And still for some reason this industry doesn't understand why people prefer the easy pirating way instead of the troublefilled customer route.

Oh no. I'm a guy. My friend gave it to me as a "So Sorry you're single" gift.

-----

@Yarlen

Thanks for the information. I'll get on it as soon as I get home.

ROFL!!
I suppose it happens

Try and get a real copy somehow.

You can go on and preach about moral and legal issues, but as long as EVERY EULA contains the phrases "NO WARRANTIES" "NO RIGHTS" "AS IS", i just reserve the right to try a software before i buy it.. face it.. quality is rare these days and you just dont see demos for games released (probably for a reason).

excerpt from BF2142 EULA:

So if its broken when you buy it, though luck.. you should have tried first.. oh wait, you cant.. ah well. (okay, BFs case is special as they do have a demo, but its the exception from the rule. most games have no demos out there)


So if something impossible happens, like a DRM.. say *cough* starforce *cough* decides to fry your hard drives.. then they cannot be held responsible for the damage.. good enough. Guess why im a software developer myself. Asking ridiculous ammounts of money for developing software on which i can then deny any responsibility in case it does not work or screws up the system it is running on is just a dream.. who wouldnt want to do it.

Oh wait, i actually take responsibility for my work and actually guarantee a continous bug-free operation and support in case something goes wrong included in the price. Guess what.. im working in the business sector where the customers are not 10yo kids i can screw over any way i want. Too bad for me.. no wonder i always planned on making a living from writing computer games.. where did i go wrong, oh please God tell me where.

Bottomline: As long as software developers can have the luxury to sell games / software on an "AS IS" basis, you shouldnt be suprised that piracy is thriving and that people are indeed using pirated software to make sure they are not screwed over by the publishers/developers.

Not everyone using pirated software is doing it to 'steal' from the developers.. but instead to protect their own interests.. In fact, i know quite a few people who buy games regularly - after they've made sure the games are worth buying. Its kind of like going a round around the block with the car you are planning to buy to see how it works/feels. Sure you can try and drive away into the sunset - like never buying the game just using the pirated copy -, but i do believe that most 'normal' people will just return the car and buy it if they are interested, or leave it if they are not.

So again.. hats off to those developers who actually take responsibility for their work and provide dedicated, continous support. Too bad the entertainment sector of software development is so full of useless, low quality junk.

Just to clarify, SoaSE's license agreement is no different in wording than the one above, but their software works, has great replay value and they provide support for it, unlike some other companies. It still hurts my eyes to see any contract where the manufacturer denies all responsibility for the work they do. I guess it must be because of the stupid american legal system where you can be sued for accidentally coughing at the wrong person that they write this kind of nonsense.

I guess i just live too far away from that world to understand.

maybe his friend is gay?

Perhaps indeed.
Worth inquiring, Vic? ...or rather not, just to be on the safe side? jk mate

if u didnt really care then u wouldnt even bother to post about it. stop lieing to urself.



err i did read what u said before. if i hadnt i wouldnt even be addressing what u said all those posts back. lying to urself yet again.



wow thats 3 times that ur telling urself a lie... so u didnt just say this then:



whoops...



i read it. u seem like a pretty desperate man to want to defend urself that u didnt call this a waste of time.. i guess some people just can seem to let things go when they know they are in the wrong. perhaps u need to do it just this once eh.

think you need to maybe read everything that u ursefl say next time. stop trying to spin ur words around. u did say it was a waste of time. get over it jesus christ.

dont think ive seen a more arrogant post on these forums. oh well theres always one... or two.

Nemo84,

Sadly, sometimes the nocd "patches" don't come out so soon. And regardless, it's the point of things. Just like I come here to tell Stardock how good I think they're doing, I also feel it's worthwhile to tell other companies how BADLY I think they're doing. THQ and Relic should know, as a customer, the frustration I felt with their new copy protection system.

And yes, I also got caught in the Bioshock mess. I thought there was a problem with my connection (since the company refused to actually tell anybody WHY the game wasn't working), but nope: a day later on-line registration worked just fine.

-HM

Is this another one of those parody threads?

Yeah, it's basically just legal CYA boilerplate. We do support our products as best we can, but you never know when someone will decide that a crash or BSOD is worth a lawsuit...

I can understand your point perfectly, but I have long ago given up hope that complaining on a forum will change the way a corporation does business. The people who usually have the final decision on copy protection are the higher ups in the publishing company, and often they barely even know such a thing as forums even exists

You have to complain to them in the one way these people do understand: sales figures. Of course when people do that, the executives just blame piracy and nag for stronger legislation. I guess anything is better than facing reality and admitting mistakes.

just mail blair an envelope with $40 inside and a note that says

"Payment for pirated CD serial #XXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX"

oh, and make sure you cut the letters out of magazines so it looks like a ransom note