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Tag: Software Piracy

  • Nintendo Sues Hackyourconsole.com Over Piracy

    Piracy is certainly a concern for both console makers and game developers. Microsoft’s failed attempt at implementing hardware-level DRM into the upcoming Xbox One is proof enough of that. However, while other console makers have battle piracy mainly through software, Nintendo has been putting out hardware that is fundamentally harder to emulate. 3DS games, for example, wouldn’t work well without two screens, one of which is touch-based. That doesn’t mean hackers can’t compromise the systems themselves, and an underground pirated software ecosystem does exist online for Nintendo consoles.

    Nintendo today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in Florida against the owner of Hackyourconsole.com. In a statement, the video game company has claimed that the website “promotes and sells unauthorized Nintendo games along with devices and services that circumvent the security in the Nintendo DS system and the Wii console.” Hackyourconsole also uses a (presumably unauthorized) depiction of Mario in its logo, though Nintendo did not mention whether that trademark infringement is also part of the lawsuit.

    Hackyourconsole sells mainly R4 cartridges, which can be used to copy and pirate Nintendo DS and 3DS games. The website is also offering pre-orders for the similar Gateway 3DS cartridges, which it says will ship sometime in August. A demonstration of the Gateway device being used with a ROM of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Super Mario 3D Land stored on microSD cards can be seen in the video below:

    Nintendo has been battling against R4 cartridges and similar clones for years. R4 cartridges were banned in the U.K. back in in 2010, and it has won legal victories against retailers of the devices in Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands.

  • Over Half of Computer Users Commit Software Piracy

    It was recently reported that an RIAA lawsuit against LimeWire, seeking $72 trillion in damages, was shot down. A new study has revealed that more than half of all computer users had committed some form of content piracy, which leads to speculation on whether or not some overzealous collective might call for an arrest of them all.

    The study was conducted by industry watchdog group Business Software Alliance, and posted in its ninth annual Global Software Piracy Study. Roughly 15,000 computer users from 33 countries were queried, and plainly asked, “How often do you acquire pirated software or software that is not fully licensed?” About 57% of respondents said that they were pirates, up from 42% in 2011, and the frequency of piracy was likewise up, which costs the software industry about $63.4 billion per year.

    The BSA report states, “This year’s survey finds that frequent pirates – people who admit they acquire unlicensed software all of the time, most of the time, or occasionally – also are the most voracious software users,” adding, “They report installing 55 percent more programs of all types on their computers than do non-pirates. This gives them an outsized impact on the global piracy rate.” A discrepancy between emerging and established markets was also noted, to where users in developing economies install roughly 4 times more illegal software than those users of the 1st world.

    The BSA, which is aligned with Apple, Microsoft and Adobe, is calling for stiffer fines for software pirates, and jail time. Right on. I wonder if they will call for the arrest of a large portion of the world’s population, along the same lines as the RIAA, when it asked for close to all of the money in the world from Limewire.

  • U.S. Has Lowest Software Piracy Rate

    U.S. Has Lowest Software Piracy Rate

    The rate of global software piracy rose to 43 percent in 2009, a two percent increase from 2008 driven primarily by expanding PC sales in emerging markets, according to the seventh annual Business Software Alliance/IDC Global Software Piracy Study.

    "Software theft exceeded $51 billion in commercial value in 2009. The public and private sectors need to join forces to more effectively combat an epidemic that stifles innovation and impairs economies on a global scale," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

    A 43 percent piracy rate means that for every $100 worth of legitimate software sold in 2009, an additional $75 worth of unlicensed software also made its way into the market.

    Software-Piracy

    "Software theft hurts not just software companies and the IT sector, but also the broader economy at the local, regional and global levels by cutting out service and distribution firms," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC.

    "Lowering software piracy by just 10 percentage points during the next four years would create nearly 500,000 new jobs and pump $140 billion into ailing economies."

    In the United States, software piracy remained at 20 percent, the lowest level of software theft of any nation in the world. The study noted that given the size of the PC market, the commercial value of pirated software in the United States was $8.4 billion in 2009.

    Additional findings include:

    *Piracy rates increased in 19 global economies, up from 16 in 2008.
       

     *The factors driving up the global piracy rate include growth in the consumer PC base and in emerging markets – both segments with high piracy rates:
       

    *Globally, PC shipments to consumers rose 17 percent in 2009, while shipments to businesses, governments and schools dropped 15 percent.
       

    *The PC markets in Brazil, India and China accounted for 86 percent of the growth in PC shipments worldwide.
       

    *For every dollar of legitimate software sold, another $3-4 in revenue is created for local firms.
       

    *China saw the largest increase in the commercial value of pirated software of any country – growing $900 million to $7.6 billion.
       

    *India, Chile and Canada each saw the greatest improvement in reducing software theft, each achieving a 3 percentage point decline in their piracy rates in 2009.

    "Given the economy, 2009 piracy rates are better than we expected. But incremental improvements are not enough. Few if any industries could withstand the theft of $51 billion worth of their products. To foster innovation and maximize the economic impact of the IT industry, governments must act – particularly those in fast-growing, high-piracy countries," said Holleyman.