October 31, 2007 -
Operation Games Attack...
No, it's not a new release for the Wii. The name refers to a new anti-piracy initiative in Malaysia.
The ESA announced yesterday that it is teaming up with the Motion Picture Association (MPA, international wing of the MPAA) to battle video game and motion picture piracy in Malaysia. The ESA press release reported that "large-scale infringment" of video game IP was taking place in the Southeast Asian country. Said ESA boss Mike Gallagher:
The ESA focuses resources where we save US jobs, enhance the value of the video game industry, and get results. Piracy penalizes investment and harms the ability of video game companies to make great games. We are proud to partner with MPA on this program...
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), co-chair of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, added:
I’m encouraged by this news and commend this joint enforcement effort. Malaysia has been a nation of concern with regard to international piracy for some time now, and this is exactly the type of private industry support and cooperation needed to crack down on this problem.
The announcement came during the launch of Operation Games Attack, which was presided over by a Malaysian government official.
Comments
Every video game store I saw sold modded equipment and burned games. Even the peripherals were shady. Only in internationally syndicated music stores could I seem to buy legitimately licensed property, and even then I could only buy CDs and a handful of DVDs.
The quality is terrible. The games may cost less than a Canadian dollar but you have straight odds of the software not working.
From a consumer's point of view, I have no idea how one would go about buying licensed software. My family's lived there for some time now. My parents have always been strict about illegal software and respecting intellectual property, but they had to give in and buy my siblings the pirated stuff because the legit material was completely AWOL.
If the industry can find a way to bring content into Malaysia at a price that a person in Malaysia can afford, power to them.
Not like it will result in cheaper games or anything even if it does work.
I know that, with respect to games, piracy hurts the developer more than the publisher, but if the publishers gave developers a bigger cut of the moolah pie, maybe they wouldn't suffer as much.
Like CSM?
If anything we can be relieved that the anti-piracy focus is on actual, large-scale piracy operations and not people modding their PS2’s in their basement.
QFT
DCM only hurts the legitimate consumer, it doesn't stop the mass piraters in Malaysia...
Exactly. DRM hardly slows pirates, and never stops them. This is what the MPA and ESA should be doing: going after the large pirate networks in regions such as southeast Asia and eastern Europe and shutting down warez sites. They should not be screwing over legitimate, paying customers.
Make them make good ones instead.
Also "Adam Schiff"? Go back to Law & Order >.>
I'm glad to read that you are teaming up with Hollywood to rid Malaysia of piracy. Now why don't you take legal action against the CSM for diliberate violations against DMCA?
I do have a problem with putting someone in jail because he gave a burned copy of a game to a friend.
Because Canada does not look like a bad guy. Malaysia is easy to make look like a bad guy.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
In 2nd and 3rd world nations the cost of media is fckign insane thus why you have pirate organizations making.
The only way for this to end and moeny to stop goign to the black markets is for the media mafia to price match with the pirates and you know they will never do such a thing they much prefer to keep their own racket going and helping the other underworld at the same time.
Yes, I'm being unneccesarily vindictive, and for a reason, the ESA has always put the telescope up to it's blind eye when dealing with consumers, so I'm trying the 'cold hard facts' technique.
Which leaves many videogame fans with little alternative other than piracy or warez. Why pay so much money for a game when you can get 10 for the same prize? Or free? Or, you know, whatever? Sure, it might not work, but at least it wasn't for a huge price tag.
If they really want to fix piracy issues, then they need to fix problems such as availability and prices first. Otherwise, they are not going to even slow down the piracy business.
Didn't we try that before?