Anti-piracy

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Anti-piracy is a term used to describe countermeasures against maritime piracy but more often by some to describe the attempt to prevent copyright infringement, counterfeiting, and other violations of intellectual property laws.

It includes, but is by no means limited to, the combined efforts of corporate associations (such as the RIAA and MPAA), law enforcement agencies (such as the FBI and Interpol), and various international governments^{[clarification needed]} to combat copyright infringement relating to various types of creative works, such as software, music and films. These measures often come in the form of copy protection measures such as DRM. Richard Stallman and the GNU Project have criticized the use of the word 'piracy' in these situations, saying that publishers use the word to refer to "copying they don't approve of" and that "they [publishers] imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them."^[1]

Examples

• The June 30, 2010 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on several video-hosting websites, such as NinjaVideo.
• RIAA suing file-sharers that share music over P2P networks
• MPAA encryption of DVD movies using the CSS cipher and prohibiting the distribution and use of DeCSS, while also having the effect of banning free/open source DVD player software.
• "Coded Anti-Piracy", also called CAP codes, as a way to put a forensic identification on the film to trace back illegal copies of films to the source.
• Metal Gear Solid and many other computer games require a piece of information from the game's jewel case for the player to progress after a certain point, making unauthorized copies effectively worthless without the original jewel case; however in the present day, said information can be easily be found on the Internet.
• Microsoft removing Windows Vista and Microsoft Office from various torrent trackers
• Certain SNES games such as Super Mario All Stars and Donkey Kong Country may sometimes show warning screens, usually caused by dirty or damaged cartridges or use of third-party peripherals.
• EarthBound (Mother 2) for the SNES, in addition to showing warning screens and drastically increasing the number of enemies, deliberately crashes itself at the final boss fight forcing the player to reset the game; upon attempting to reload the game, the player's saved games are deleted if the copy is detected to be unauthorized.
• In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, a character named Zoe will tell the player outside the room containing the balloon to Midday Garden Home and several other areas that they are using a pirated copy. This conversation purposely corrupts a file on game disc called LEGAL.TMP. If corrupted, the game would not only delete certain portions of itself (such as stray gems or the ability to progress in certain areas) it also makes the final boss unbeatable, actually returning to the beginning of the game (the game removes your save file too) after about 8 seconds into the battle ^[2].
• MegaMan Operate Shooting Star has anti-copying code that causes every step the player takes to reveal an enemy, in an unauthorized copy.
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 contained code that detected unauthorized game copies and caused all of the player's buildings and units to explode a few seconds into gameplay, effectively rendering the copy useless. However this also ended up being a double edged sword as some players who legitimately owned a copy of the game reported this happening.
• Garry's Mod has an error code on startup for users who pirated it. The code also contained the user's Steam ID, so when the person affected by the 'error' seeks help on the official forums (thereby posting the error message and code), Facepunch Studios can use the code to ban the user. Though this error code has been known to affect innocent users who have bought the product, their innocence can be proven by simply checking if the corresponding Steam account owns the game.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum contained code that disabled Batman's glider cape, making some areas of the game very difficult to complete and a certain achievement/trophy impossible to unlock (gliding continuously for over 100m).
• In Serious Sam 3: BFE, if the game code detects what it believes to be an unauthorised copy, an invincible scorpion-like monster is spawned in the beginning of the game with high speeds, melee attacks, and attacks from a range with twin chainguns making the game extremely difficult and preventing the player to progress further. Also in the level "Under the Iron Cloud", the player's character will spin out-of-control looking up in the air.
• Michael Jackson: The Experience for the Nintendo DS makes the game unplayable by making the touchscreen controls non-factional and every song turns into vuvuzela noise.
• In Mirror's Edge, during the game, the player's character starts to slow down making it impossible to jump over ledges and proceed further in the game.
• Grand Theft Auto IV has the screen shaken with the "drunken cam" throughout the whole game making it impossible to complete some parts of the game.
• ARMA 2 uses the FADE technology to detect pirated copies. If the check fails, player's guns will lower accuracy and becomes worst and worst throughout the game. In addition, the player might go to a "drunken vision" by making the screen wavy.

See also

• Anti-copyright
• World Anti-Piracy Observatory

External links

• IFPI Piracy Reports 2000-2006
• BSA Piracy report
• Report Software Piracy
• Report Software Piracy with FAST IiS
• Copyright Labs

References

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