DailyTech - Activision Suing Private Citizens RIAA Style?

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Stephen Kamizuru (Blog) - September 26, 2008 7:57 AM

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11 comment(s) - last by bentonar18.. on Oct 2 at 5:55 PM

Scare tactics and misrepresented numbers alleged

Earlier in the week, DailyTech reported on lawsuits Activision filed against alleged game pirates. Court documents lead us to believe the defendants were doing more than using P2P file sharing programs for their piracy. Activision's lead attorney on the cases, Karin Pagnanelli, went out of her way to alleviate concerns that Activision may be suing file-sharers stating, “While we don’t comment on litigation involving clients, we can advise you that we have never filed any litigation against a file-sharer on behalf of Activision.”

Gamecyte investigated this story further and uncovered the other side of the story. Speaking anonymously, one of the defendants has revealed the amount of money paid to Activision was far less than what was published in the lawsuit, and that the numbers may have been inflated to increase shock value. The contact explained how Activision’s attorneys determined how much to sue based not on the actual material infringed, but on his purchase history, the equity on his home, and the number of cars in his driveway. They also told him if he were to get an attorney, he would have to pay even more.

In many of the lawsuits Call of Duty 3 for the Xbox 360 was often mentioned as one of the games that was pirated but when asked why he chose Call of Duty 3, the contact told Gamecyte that the title was not involved, and was something Activision had come up with all on their own. According to the contact, “They told us they had strong evidence, but they never showed it or proved they had it.”

Gamecyte contacted a second defendant and confirmed that he too paid “much less” than the amounts claimed in court documents. Fearing reprisal he had one statement for Gamecyte.

I wasn’t doing anything more than an average college student does with torrents or MP3s, so it’s surprising companies like this are wasting time on people with little money.

The implications of this statement are profound as it may indicate Activision is quietly suing private citizens in a manner similar to the RIAA and then using scare tactics to keep them quiet.

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Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By amanojaku on 9/26/2008 10:00:34 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
The contact explained how Activision’s attorneys determined how much to sue based not on the actual material infringed, but on his purchase history, the equity on his home, and the number of cars in his driveway. They also told him if he were to get an attorney, he would have to pay even more.

This is unclear and makes no sense. Hiring a lawyer should not change the damages of the case. Hiring a lawyer will, however, raise the defendant's costs because lawyers rarely work pro bono. What's worse is the way in which damages were determined; the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. If two people, one rich and one poor, were to steal the same thing in the same way then the punishment is the same.

quote:
In many of the lawsuits Call of Duty 3 for the Xbox 360 was often mentioned as one of the games that was pirated but when asked why he chose Call of Duty 3, the contact told Gamecyte that the title was not involved, and was something Activision had come up with all on their own. According to the contact, “They told us they had strong evidence, but they never showed it or proved they had it.

This is why his dumb @$$ needed a lawyer. Without evidence there can be no proof; without proof there can be no guilt. Even the guilty need representation by lawyers to protect what rights they have left.

RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By gramboh on 9/26/2008 12:22:15 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
This is unclear and makes no sense. Hiring a lawyer should not change the damages of the case. Hiring a lawyer will, however, raise the defendant's costs because lawyers rarely work pro bono. What's worse is the way in which damages were determined; the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. If two people, one rich and one poor, were to steal the same thing in the same way then the punishment is the same.

The damages would be specified in the actual lawsuit, however the article is talking about out of court settlements (e.g. no legal proceedings). Basically, EA is likely saying they will sue for $X based upon some metric, where $X is a large sum of money the person cannot afford. They then offer a settlement, based on what the lawyers figure the person can reasonably afford to pay (and will be willing to pay to avoid the risk of unfavorable litigation results). The people being sued are scared so they agree to allow EA access to private information (equity position). I'd be shocked if these settlements are more than $1-5k though, so I'm not sure why they are looking at things like home equity.

Also since this is out of court settlements, it's not a 'punishment' in terms of civil litigation or criminal trial.

quote:
This is why his dumb @$$ needed a lawyer. Without evidence there can be no proof; without proof there can be no guilt. Even the guilty need representation by lawyers to protect what rights they have left.

It's probably pretty scary to deal with attorneys from a large company like EA who have a plan of attack for these situations. Most people would rather just take a few thousand dollar hit than deal with the stress/cost/embarassment of going to court (not to mention time required) even though they would probably win since I'm not sure how EA can prove damages especially with recent rulings on "make available". Hopefully someone with the resources/balls stands up to them to end this crap.

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RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By gramboh on 9/26/2008 12:24:39 PM , Rating: 2

Also the hiring a lawyer bit, basically EA is saying we will settle for $2k, but if you hire a lawyer we will settle for $20k. This likely means they have a weak case since they are trying hard to cause early settlements and avoid litigation. Again, this doesn't change damages just the settlement offers (out of court).

The general strategy it seems is to use this as a scare tactic to discourage casual piracy. Could be a good business move if it doesn't alienate customers and cause a lot of resentment.

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RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By mmntech on 9/26/2008 1:21:19 PM , Rating: 2

They don't care whether they create resentment. All they're concerned about is how much volume of a product they can push. It doesn't matter whether they twist the nuts off consumers to do it, or whether the product is inferior quality. Unfortunately, this is becoming the norm in business these days. Add that to the fact that there's so little competition these days, with only three big players controlling most of the third-party gaming industry.

This type of litigation is getting harder to push through the courts. Furthermore, Bush already threatened to veto a RIAA/MPAA championed law that would have made copyright litigation easier. The reasoning behind the veto threat was that the law would create excessive burden on the courts, essentially making the government pay for these suits. This is why they are now resorting to scare tactics since they know these cases are getting more difficult to fight. However, this can work to their advantage since defendants can't afford to fight long drawn out cases so it's just easier to pay the settlement. It doesn't matter if the person is truly guilty or innocent. There's no justice involved here. It's just bully tactics, plain and simple.

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RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By gramboh on 9/26/2008 3:25:03 PM , Rating: 2

Companies that want long term growth and success will have to continue to develop meaningful consumer experiences without alienating their customers with harsh DRM or casual piracy scare-suit tactics. See Valve for a PC example.

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RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By MaineCoon on 9/27/2008 12:15:13 AM , Rating: 2

This is Activision doing it, not EA. EA is their competitor.

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RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By bentonar18 on 10/2/2008 5:55:21 PM , Rating: 2

Telling them that getting a lawyer will increase their settlement just means they (Activision) don't want to have to deal with a lawyer. Should it change what the defendant has to pay to settle? No, but if they get rooked into falling for this they are getting jacked up anyway. Is it fair? Of course not. Always, always, always ask an attorney first. You can choose not to use one, but at least talk to one before you sign a settlement. No, I am not an attorney!

Checking the equity on their house, checking the salary, counting the number of cars in the driveway: these are common ways to assess how deep your pockets are. Pretty common practice.

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RE: Apple-Vision, er, Activision is a pirate, too!

By bentonar18 on 10/2/2008 5:55:51 PM , Rating: 2

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So that is how it is gonna be?

By nomagic on 9/26/2008 9:53:09 AM , Rating: 2

I buy all my games. I never download any demos. Even though, I currently reside in China, I still buy all my games. (Not a single Chinese friend around me buy games. They just download.)

Anyways, that is not the point. Back to the topic, sometimes, the games I buy in China are translated versions. I don't mind playing games in Chinese as long as they are properly translated. Unfortunately, they rarely are.

For example, the translation of the game, NWN2, irritated me so much that I absolutely had to download the English version.

I guess that makes me a pirate, too. However, I will probably never get caught. I guess the Chinese government couldn't care less about copyright...

RE: So that is how it is gonna be?

By icanhascpu on 10/1/2008 11:32:05 PM , Rating: 2

NWN and most games by that company would be FANTASTIC if they wernt beta quality crap. They are filled with bugs and game stopping issues and slow patches its a wonder how you even got far enough to be annoyed by translations.

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And?

By HaZaRd2K6 on 9/26/2008 9:16:50 AM , Rating: 2

Does this really surprise anybody?

If you're going to draw parallels to the RIAA, then don't act surprised when Activision starts using the exact same tactics that the RIAA uses/used.