Stop Piracy, Internet Sminar

[Blacksad]

For Kazaa and such,

Post incomplete files/preview/ads/corrupted files with the same keyword which are used by the pirated files (or even a corrupted version of a pirated file)

[bitter words]
The last time I proposed this, a guy from RPGnow said that it would be stupid because it would provide publicity for the products, and increase the demand and make it more likely to be pirated...

...which showed a total lack of knoweldge of how kazza (and other) work, i.e. you have to search for something to get it.
[/bitter words]

edit: wow the boards time is funky and my post came on top instead of the end of the thread!

 

[Drawmack]

I would like to help rpg companies stamp out, or at least slow down, piracy of rpg materials through the internet. I would like to hold an online seminar as the first part of this. This seminar would be between 1 and 3 hours and there would be a fee to attend. I have not worked out any of the details yet because I would like to see if the publishers are interested before I did any other research on setting it up and getting it underway.

To the publishers if you would be interested in such a seminar please let me know either in this thread or via email at tomender@ptd.net

 

[jmucchiello]

You'll need to post far more details before I would be interested in an online seminar I have to pay for.

But then I also blanche at the topic being a closet anti-copyright freak.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

Why have a seminar? It is a topic that can easily be discussed right here on these message boards.

When you really get down to it, there are only three things RPG publishers can do.

First, send out cease and desist notices. Second, go to IRC channels hosting RPG materials and ask the channel operators to force file sharers to stop sharing your materials. Third, hassle the online shops to provide better security. For instance, there is a completely transparent means that can easily be added to any online shop that will allow you to determine exactly which customer is responsible for initiating the piracy of your products. Actually, the old rpg.net store had the means established to initiate this procedure back when I they supported the online sales for Microtactix. I've also provided the basics of how it works to rpgnow back before Origins, but haven't heard a peep about it since. I won't go into details, as this is a public forum and who knows which members might engage in piracy. We don't need them learning how to circumvent something so simple before any vendors can gain the benefit of it.

If the existing online stores won't do anything, then that leads to a fourth thing - one or more publishers get together and establish an online store that does implement protective services for the vendors.

 

[tburdett]

Any attempt to do this would be futile. There is no way to limit the posting of material to usenet newsgroups, or to limit the distribution of files via IRC bots. In my experience, these are the two primary internet based methods for spreading pirated material. Any 'solution' that did not handle these two problems would be useless.

 

[tburdett]

If you are proposing some type of 'watermarking' or 'id tagging' process, Dana, that would be (and has been) quickly and easily circumvented. You simply print out and re-scan the product to remove any digital encoding that might be present. Keep in mind that this does nothing to prevent the piracy of printed material.

Again, without an effective method of preventing usenet posting and IRC bots you are wasting your time.

 

[jmucchiello]

Any attempt to do this would be futile. There is no way to limit the posting of material to usenet newsgroups, or to limit the distribution of files via IRC bots. In my experience, these are the two primary internet based methods for spreading pirated material. Any 'solution' that did not handle these two problems would be useless.

Agreed.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

If you are proposing some type of 'watermarking' or 'id tagging' process, Dana, that would be (and has been) quickly and easily circumvented. You simply print out and re-scan the product to remove any digital encoding that might be present. Keep in mind that this does nothing to prevent the piracy of printed material.

Again, without an effective method of preventing usenet posting and IRC bots you are wasting your time.

Yes, it is a tagging method, but it is one that isn't easy to uncover. It doesn't show up in any of the various document properties of PDFs. And printing/rescanning isn't much of an option, either, due to the time and drive space it consumes

But with the way that these thieves operate, they don't bother looking for such things. They just download the stuff from RPGnow, and dump it into the folder they have exposed to their IRC fserve, FTP server, DC hub, Kazaa share folder, etc. Those who check are few and far between. And while it won't stop the piracy once the item is out there, it will help identify the individuals responsible for it and they can be specifically targeted for civil and criminal charges, as well as being able to cut them off from their source - the stores they buy the stuff from.

And the fact that it does nothing to stop the piracy of printed material isn't much of a reason to not try something that can stop the piracy of PDFs.

 

[Ghostwind]

To publishers in general, piracy of printed material is a far more serious issue than piracy of pdfs. Printed piracy effects their profits on a greater scale because of the higher dollar investment. If you want to tackle piracy head on, then you have to devise a system that will detect and identify those who pirate printed materials in addition to those trafficking in pdf piracy...

 

[Blacksad]

Dana_Jorgensen: there might be cost issue, pit-trap issue (hack directly on the website, fraudulent use of credit card, and the funniest changing the id to a random id), and legal issue (I'm pretty sure that it would be illegal all over Europe).