ESA does the happy dance for Pirate Bay guilty verdict
The ESA board must have been reduced to tears of joy yesterday – to them, I’m sure, they now believe there is a god. This week, the Swedish court has found the four operators of torrent site The Pirate Bay guilty as charged for copyright infringement and illegal activities (digitally distributing illegal copies of games and media content). Of course, ESA is more than happy with this victory against the ongoing war on piracy – so happy, in fact, that they had to come up with an official press release about it!
The ESA board must have been reduced to tears of joy yesterday – to them, I’m sure, they now believe there is a god. This week, the Swedish court has found the four operators of torrent site The Pirate Bay guilty as charged for copyright infringement and illegal activities (digitally distributing illegal copies of games and media content).
Each of the four which were convicted and are sentenced to spend a year in jail and cough up a total of US$ 4.5 million for damages. Naturally, the Entertainment Software Association is more than happy with this victory against the ongoing war on piracy – so happy, in fact, that they had to come up with an official press release about it!
ESA chairman, Michael Gallagher, applauds the Swedish court for the verdict:
Piracy is the single greatest threat to the development and release of innovative and creative entertainment software that consumers demand and enjoy. ItÂ’s a job killer in an economy that needs millions more jobs, not less. This decision confirms that the harm being inflicted on creators of digital works by BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay will not be tolerated, and that such actions are subject to criminal sanctions.
Well, piracy sure is a seriously rampant problem. But to others… say.. Ready At Dawn‘s CEO, it isn’t much as piracy that’s killing the scene, but used games, actually. True – it’s still a valid argument. But saying that second-hand games is worse doesn’t automatically rule out piracy as a contributing factor to a developer’s reasons for working on a platform or not.
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