Pirate Bay co-founder hopes it will die

Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi is the most outspoken of the four men who founded BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay in Sweden in 2003. In April last year Sunde, AKA BrokeP, saw a verdict go against him, Carl Lundström, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg. They were all found guilty by a Swedish court of being accessories to …

[Anonymous Coward]

@Sean

Had a look at the game listed that you developed and published - Slay. Now, to quote your site;

"This game is pure strategy! It's a work of genius. Brilliant AI. Engaging turn-based multiplayer strategy. Sid Meier, eat your heart out!" - GameSpy.com

Being an avid Gamespy/IGN user/abuser and frequest review contributer I though I'd look up the reviews on your work where such a comment was made, and do you know what I found? An overview. No reviews written, either user contributed or otherwise. Not a single one. Check yourself http://uk.cheats.gamespy.com/web-games/slay/ - nothing, not a bean.

Now I'm not outright saying Gamespy didn't give you a rave review, telling their readers that your product was better than Sid's Civ games. What I am saying is that there is no record of such a review on the site you purport. Obviously, someone of such stout moral fibre, someone who believes in death to pirates and other who use dishonest means to profit from other people, wouldn't lie about such things being said, but I'd appreciate if you could please support the claims made in your sales pitch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please save us from ...

... pompous junior detectives.

get over yourselves

[Stephen Byrne]

Oh for God's sake shut up AC

@AC,

seriously, so bloody what if he made up a testimonial? Maybe it did exist in the past and was removed for some reason, but of course, in your mind, if you can't find it on the internets then it must be a lie. FFS, grow up.

Ad-hominem attacks are the lowest of the low, what has his own private morality got to do with the subject under discussion? Typical freetard attitude.

It's not about whether he is a nice person. It's not about whether or not his creations suck. It's about the fact that HE created them, HE owns the rights to them and HE has a moral right to decide how and by whom it gets distributed, and whether or not it gets given out for free or is paid for.

Also, all this talk about the record labels raping artists - I have yet to hear of a record label exec holding a gun to a band's head and forcing them to sign a contract. (Forcing them to do multiple retakes, yes, Phil Spector did that as we all know). Claiming that the artists are being raped is like complaining that volunteers in the army get killed in combat.

I will agree though that the Sony exec's comments were pure pot-kettle stuff though.

[Chris Harden]

Not a personal attack

I think the ACs point wasn't that the game sucked, it was that the review was made up and the idea was stolen.

So, equivilant to me doing a cover of a song and selling it for money without permission.

I'm not saying I agree or not, although from the screen shots I swear I've seen similar games out there in the wild.

[Shakje]

He does actually appear like a nice person

but he seems to have seen his product being shared and jumped to the assumption that he's not making money because they're being pirated. The games when you look at the price of them just aren't worth it (especially for the price you're paying for them you can get at least two or three games that are better in terms of graphics, sound, design and functionality, and if the testimonials are false, or don't exist anymore I'd say they're the only reason someone might pay a second look to the games. It's obviously very difficult to be an indie game dev, but you've got to make some effort to match the current state of play.

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on your market

It's true that his games look dated, but strategy games are sold on AI - not visuals. Without playtesting it's difficult to see if they match up to more modern games or not.

Chasing after the state of the art is a losers game unless you have large resources behind you. It's true that people expect /some/ graphics and a friendly UI is definitely not optional, but once the base standard has been achieved adding gameplay is more important. Otherwise, the indie dev will find themselves pitted not just against full price new games, but cut price older games.

Having said all that, unfortunately conventional wisdom also says that strategy gamers don't tend to pirate - it's the big ticket items like the FPSes, similar action games and huge RPGs that are copied. Therefore, unless there's some specific exception around the wargaming community, it probably means the games aren't popular/good, regardless of pirating.

If unoriginal games were banned, it'd eliminate well over 95% of FPS and RPGs and nigh on 100% of racing games.. Monkey Island would have stopped at number one and Day of the Tentacle would never have been made.

[Mayhem]

dated?

His reviews were certainly honest and accurate at the time of publishing, but the changing world of the internet means half of them will have vanished ten years later.

The problem he has now is that he's trying to do the classic trick and coast on his past successes.

He started off with mostly clones of tabletop games, but did them well, and Slay was definitely addictive and entertaining, but I owned a copy for Palm Pilot in oh, 2003 I think. Looking at his website, he released a final version in 2004 and hasn't really done anything to it since.

In fact he seems to have released only one new game in the last two years, which is a dated looking populous clone for Iphone. I find myself agreeing with the original AC, it isn't piracy that is hurting his income, it is his business model. He has a good touch with writing AI, but only average skills at art. What he needs to do is contract someone to update all his art models and then he can repackage all his older games as modern reissues for whatever platform he likes - the underlying AI will hook in players, but the screenshots and art models are what will sell it to them originally. He can also offer the older version with no changes at half or quarter the price

[justinwregier]

The Pirate Bay

Im not sure where I fit into this string of comments but I just read the article and I must admit I have some thoughts. First and foremost I am a fan of the Pirate Bay. The site is not what it once was and that is a shame. Of course this statement may be twisted to implications of use and/or distribution of copyrighted material but then any and all comments here related to TPB probably could be used in such a way. I have never met the individuals behind the site but I would enjoy a coffee and conversation with them. The perspective that media in our current age is corrupt is well beyond what words can convey (maybe in another language besides english) yet the possible dialog would be awesome. As like so many people out there I personally support the artists I like. Typically I like to listen to music before I buy it which make record shopping these days some times difficult. Considering the gems out there I understand that talent has value but honestly if music cant be heard for free before I decide to buy... my money is not being spent easily. A concept like TPB intended is amazing! Imagine the bar it would raise if the albums are free and available for hard copy purchase! RADIOHEAD...

Anyway I am able to rant on and on but regardless of my opinions TPB has pissed off some wealthy bodies and that is just another example of the person vs the governing majority. Digital or any other medium there will always be the rise of another way, a way that is different and not accepted because profits control the choice.

A manifesto is being written somewhere right now. A political agenda is destroying freedoms somewhere right now. A person is being born somewhere right now. A person is dying somewhere right now.

Cheers to absolutes and long live (TPB) ideals that challenge the standard.

[amanfromMars 1]

Or does Tomorrow just happen with no Input from Today and the Future isn't Planned for Delivery?

"You might have a point if a program could be created in a day - but not even then " ... Peter Kay Posted Tuesday 4th May 2010 11:58 GMT

Every program created is only valid and ever Live for One ZerodDay, Tomorrow, with Today being Spent Presenting IT in a Sublime Pimp if it be Irregular and Unconventional and Constructively Disruptive and Virtually Subversive.

Share Plans for Tomorrow Today builds the Future, with Linking Bits which Daily Grow and Change Dramatically as New Ideas Emerge to Create Big Societies with Greater Ideas because of Information and Intelligence Received/Transmitted/XSSXXXXChanged.

And because IT Can with Human Knowledge now Advanced enough to Fly ITs Controls and Lead a SMART Course into Fabulous Fields Full of Perfectly Crazy Transparently Shared Inner Secret Dreams/True Desires ...... which you might like to Imagine and Realise is Heavenly. ...... and 4Paradise2 Virtual Programming for Cloud Applications and Shelf Promotions/Sensible Underground Investment in MkUltraSensitive and Stealthy Issues.

[sisk]

Ineffective Litigation

Here's the thing with TPB: Even if you somehow shut it down (like that's ever going to happen) something else is ready to take its place. And something will be ready when you take down its replacement. Basically so long as the record companies, movie studies, and software vendors stick to outdated business models, they loose. The smart ones are looking for ways to make money off filesharing rather than leaving it in the hands of pirates. The dumbest are the ones throwing money at lawyers to make piracy go away. Right or wrong sites like TPB are here to stay. Pressing charges on TPB founders is an exercise in futility.

The really ironic thing about the whole mess is that a lot of companies efforts to stop piracy have turned the pirates into the good guys in a lot of eyes. DRM poses little hindrance to a pirate, but a legit user runs into all kinds of problems with the latest DRM ideas.

And then there's that comment about Sony feeling raped. A company that charges $12 for a cd that costs them maybe $2 a piece to make (I'm being generous) and gives the artist anywhere from a dime to 50 cents of the profits....I'm sorry, who should be feeling raped here? Surely not the record executive.

[mark jacobs]

Just think about it...

All media amounts to a stream of 1's and 0's. If I circulate an MP3 file of Shakira's "She Wolf", I can get into trouble with the copyright owners. If I distribute a file of 1's and 0's and an executable that moves these bits around to form a stream identical to the MP3 file, could that be construed as copyright infringement? IMHO, I reckon it's time to let this go - all digital media cannot be copyrighted because it depends on bitwise interpretation. If I XOR all bits with my name, it wouldn't be copyrightable any more. If I then distribute this and tell people to XOR the file with my name, they would end up with a playable MP3 file, yet I haven't broken copyright. How do the big music companies going to deal with that? This DRM wrangling has gone on too long and it is getting ridiculous. A bit torrent is just that, a stream of ones and zeroes, so WTF are we paying for? Bit patterns?

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh?

""If I XOR all bits with my name, it wouldn't be copyrightable any more."

Says who? Are you simply talking out your ass or are you a copyright lawyer or otherwise familiar with copyright law?

"If I then distribute this and tell people to XOR the file with my name, they would end up with a playable MP3 file, yet I haven't broken copyright. How do the big music companies going to deal with that?"

Laws against distributing encrypted copyrighted media (I wouldn't be surprised if they exist already, but either way it's hardly an enigma that the legal system has no chance to cope with). Detection is more difficult, but by no means impossible. Most people downloading copyrighted media do so from unencrypted websites that list media descriptions in plaintext, and encrypted files require a key to decrypt (e.g. your name) which you need to be able to make use of the media. Unless your key distribution channel is completely safe, you are vulnerable. If your key distribution channel is completely safe, then you can just use it to send the media anyway and don't need to bother with the XORing.