An article appearing on Times Online today reported that the gaming industry is making a stand against the piracy of their products. It seems that publishers Atari, Topware Interactive, Reality Pump, Techland, and Codemasters have authorized the law firm of Davenport Lyons to spread letters around to over 25,000 individuals that they believe are involved in piracy of their products. The first barrage has already begun, as court orders are being completed and filled that stipulate that ISPs must hand over the IP address of file shares that the companies have retrieved.

A partner with Davenport Lyons, Roger Billens, reinforced the rapidly developing picture that Atari et all are not messing around this time. According to Billens, his clients were “incensed by the level of illegal downloading,” such as in the case of Topware’s Dream Pinball 3D which was purchased 800 times legally but was illegally downloaded about 12,000 times. These gaming firms are no doubt hoping that the massive letter writing campaign will, according to Billens, make people “think twice if they risk being taken to court.”

Not everyone is happy with this retaliatory strike that the British gaming market is taking against pirates. According to an article that appeared in the London Times, an unnamed source, who has some connection to the Entertainment Software Publishers Association, stated that this policy was an overly extreme one not looked on well by the industry at large due to the fact that it focuses directly on the very market these companies target and thus gaming publishers tend to try to find other solutions to the piracy problem. These large scale legal actions are already generating negative press in the case of Isabela Barwinska, an unemployed mother of two who was the first to receive one of the letters drafted by Davenport Lyons, demanding she pay over 16,000 pounds to Topware after she downloaded Dream Pinball 3D through a file sharing site.

Not everyone can be as pitiable as Barwinska, but she’s not going to be the only one who lives in such circumstances and demanding that 16,000 pounds be paid for a game that costs only 20 pounds is, quite frankly, boorishly harsh. It’s not that I don’t believe that these companies shouldn’t be able to take a stand against people who illegally download their product -- they should be able to do get a profit on what they create -- but the “kill ’em all and let Bob sort ’em out” approach to situations like these tends to make a situation worse instead of better. You write a letter saying “pay us what you owe,” which could be at or above 100 pounds, and most people would most likely pay it. Ask for 16,000 pounds and even those who can afford it will take to the press and the courts, and what started out as being an attempt to get your own back will end up with you looking the bad guys.

Hopefully they’ll come to their senses and find a less draconian approach to this problems.

- Via Play.tm