A British woman has been fined over £16,000 for putting a game file on an online sharing network. Topware Interactive won damages of £6,086.56 plus costs of £10,000 in this landmark case against the woman who shared a copy of its game, Dream Pinball 3D. Three similar cases from game file sharers are currently pending in the UK courts. Topware Interactive send out around 500 letters to UK citizens identified as sharing their game on P2P networks. Thousands more are suspected. "The damages and costs ordered by the Court are significant and should act as a deterrent," said David Gore, a partner at Topware's lawyers Davenport Lyons. "Taking direct steps against infringers is an important and effective weapon in the battle against online piracy," added Gore , who claims that there are thousands of known suspected file-sharers that could now face legal action. "This is the first of many." Becky Hogge, director of the Open Rights Group told the BBC: "An open court process with a full report is certainly preferable to justice of the type being mooted by the government on P2P, where activity takes place behind closed doors through industry action." "In relation to the orders for release of personal data, it is important that court processes do not become rubberstamps for industry action but retain judicial safeguards and independence," said Ms Hogge. Source
She got owned... Perhaps she shouldn't have shared the game... Wonder if she paid for it in the first place then shared it?
I would like to know how she got caught. They must of got her ISP to give up her IP address, not good. Link doesn't see to be working, alt one here
They most likley asked their ISP and if they didn't give them the details they would've got a court order so they had to! Apparently the game was really bad, one way to make money... create a quick game and sew people for downloading it . I might have to try it my self hehe.
LOL indeed, its similar to "copyright infringement". If you look on torrent sites it's all over the place. I was tempted to download it just to prove a point!
The whole world shares games, some get caught from time to time. The media makes a big horror story out of it, they (publishers) try to scare the leechers because the know they are not able to catch even 0.0000001% of them.
Wouldn’t you want to do the same? If you had worked hard on a game for several years then the game got leaked and cracked before it's even gone on sale?
Stealing is WRONG but (here in uk at least) they are generally trying 2 stop p2p all together e.g people who share files they made etc. I know someone who got swed (he won) because he transphered work files through p2p, they thought he was stealing. Thats y i hate it when i here things about goverments trying to stop p2p(peer 2 peer), they can try 2 stop illigle stuff but not everyone who uses p2p is stealing.
They shouldn't...So many other people are stealing movies, music, apps and others from the web. You shouldn't be able to arrest just one without arresting the all. "Bloody Pirates" Lol...So I'm just wondering, has anyone heard of a p2p app. Cause anyone with a computer has one. Lol...My grandpa he's 80 years old and he has one!
The way I see things: If it's good enough I'll pay for it myself. I see downloading as kind of like a try before you buy scheme. I have actually bought quite a few things after downloading them first. With TV shows I only download as it takes too long to cross the ocean or I don't have the channels to watch them (no Sky One, only one room with cable anyway which my parents use to watch ITV or something) and I don't like adverts. For movies, well Epic Movie and Disaster Movie should help explain my point (I pray I'm never conivnced to see such a crap movie ever again).
She was fined for a crappy game no one plays or barely anyone? The dev team must've been happy that someone actually paid for it. Edit: Oh, this news is quite old, sorry, 'bout this post, then.
I somehow feel bad for that woman & i have a little problem with fine as well. Here is what i mean . If i mod my Xbox 360 or Ps3 then i will get banned from either network. Why ??? I bought the console , i should have the right to do everything i want to the console. I think the same about games. Once bought i can mod the game as i want. I also should be able to offer people the mod over the internet. Cheating online is different story , i agree with banning people from the online service for cheating . What the woman did was wrong, but the game is somehow old and a fine of £16,000 is ridicules !