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[taikara]

Writing to PP would be a decent option, but it wouldn't exactly shut him down - he in all likelihood would just register for a new PP account.

Has anyone checked out what host he's using (not the same as ISP)? Some webhosts have strict policies on this sort of thing, and do shut down these kinds of sites. If that's a possibility, it would be a slightly bigger bump in the road than cancelling his PP account, I think - though again, he could just register on a new host and be up again in a few days.

Contacting the FBI (circumventing the ESA) could be another option - though unless this guy is making a lot of money, it would likely be futile - though if they chose (and were able) to investigate his activity, it could be very uncomfortable for him.

In all truth, though, the reason there are people like this guy doing this kind of thing is because it's real easy to get away with it, especially due to laws in certain countries (such as the Czech Republic) that make them a haven for this kind of activity because it's harder to take action against them.

As Tulac suggested, the best offense is a good defense - if we don't want him stealing and profiting off of our work, we should look into ways to protect our work. Requiring registration to download would be a deterrent (though it would also probably deter a percentage of new users). Putting up some kind of anti-leeching script on downloads could be another option, though it wouldn't stop him from ripping a review, and again, it might make our downloads incompatible with some download managers, which can be a real annoyance for many users.

[Mighty Midget]

I think you're right. First step would have to be to protect the site's contents better. How, is a totally different question. It's also true that it's impossible to prevent someone from stealing a piece of text. I think it would be a real downer if the measures taken prevents Smith & Jones from downloading or accessing Abandonia, so I would strongly suggest a serious brain-storming before applying any counter-measures.

Are there any billboards around where we, and other "victims" can reach his "customers", telling them they can get the stuff for free elsewhere, and that this guy hasn't made any of the stuff himself?

About law agencies. I thought that a law agency needed jurisdiction over the country where the "crime" took place. Of course, when a crime occur on the Internet, I'd say it happened in every country that has an Internet connection, but I doubt the Law sees it as that simple. Interpol perhaps? And how eager would they be to hunt this joker down? Fraud and infringement, sure, but on what scale? And, if ESA is aware of him, I'm pretty sure they have contacted the appropriate law agency. If he hasn't been locked up yet, then that would suggest they haven't got all that much on him. I don't think his government would protect him if the charges against him was severe and well founded. Look at TPB. They are located in Sweden, where Swedish copyright and bit-torrent laws apply. Still they have been shut down before after foreign pressure. Would this leech's government see any benefit from giving in to the same pressure?

(that's all for now)

[Romano]

I will post here a fragment of discussion Sebatianost posted in another Forum:

To follow up on the discusion - DO NOT CALL ESA ON THIS GUY!!! There's no legal grounds for them to act upon!

The thing is simple - he's not hosting any games, he's not putting them up and he's NOT DOING ANYTHING ILLEGAL! All that guy does is points to places where the games are. So the site hosting the game would get in trouble. That's like if ESA would shut down GOOGLE for showing you a link to a warez site after you've been trying to find it. So that guy is simply charging you so he'd find the links for you - he's payed for browsing, not distributing protected games. That's the main reason he could not have been shut down. For crying out loud - Czech laws have nothing to do with it as they had to sign to respect the international copyright agreements before they joined the EU. So he could be touched by the law if he was doing something illegal. He's just doing something unfair!To follow up on the discusion - DO NOT CALL ESA ON THIS GUY!!! There's no legal grounds for them to act upon! I guess this should be also mentioned in the open forum - so no one could try and contact ESA (like Tom said he did).

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[Tulac]

What about the stolen reviews are they not under some sort of copyright?

EDIT: Ah I see that they're technically not stolen so no help there, thanks for clarifying that Seb.

[catchaserguns]

Here is a suggestion but it may be too illegal and Immoral. How about somebody pit a virus on his site to crash it. I know some of you know some hackers. But it may make us seem lower than him. Its only a suggestion.

[Mighty Midget]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(catchaserguns @ Jan 13 2007, 10:25 PM) [snapback]274769[/snapback]</div>

Here is a suggestion but it may be too illegal and Immoral. How about somebody pit a virus on his site to crash it. I know some of you know some hackers. But it may make us seem lower than him. Its only a suggestion.
[/b]

That would only lead to a hacker war, I think, and a no win situation for everybody.

What I find interesting, is: How can we reach those who pay him and tell them they don't have to pay a penny. That could have some interesting financial consequenses for him, and will he bother if noone pay him anymore?

EDITED: Because I didn't read thorougly

[Eagle of Fire]

I have a solution, even tough it would take a lot of work on our part. And for everyone.

The idea would be to contact our own ISP and tell them the situation, asking them to block the own offending site whole ISP themselves. If sucessfull and done by a lot of hosting comapanies around the world, the offending site host will have to make this decision: boot the offender (which is kind of easy at this point) or fear of having most of the world blocking their source and thus slowly destroying their service.

This would take a huge amount of work for every single person around here to even work, but if successful a few times then after a while when the offending guy just open his site again, the hosting company he would be using at this time would know about the boycott and would simply boot him with a single warning.

Anyways, just a crazy idea from a dead sick person (atm).

[Mighty Midget]

That would mean that you couldn't get to other sites having the same ISP, wouldn't it? I think it would be wrong to harm innocent. There has to be a way to go for him, and him alone.

[taikara]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Romano @ Jan 13 2007, 07:55 PM) [snapback]274757[/snapback]</div>

I will post here a fragment of discussion Sebatianost posted in another Forum:

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Regardless of where the guy is getting his ESA games, it's only beneficial to report the issue to the ESA (if they would actually act on it). They take down the site that's hosting the game, they take down this guy as well. If that site happens to be us, well, shame on us for not being ESA compliant as we claim to be. However, though sometimes games do slip by on accident, AB tends to be really vigilant about such things in comparison to most similar sites - and it can only help our standing if less vigilant sites are reprimanded and forced to take down their ESA-protected downloads.

Regarding Czech laws, sure, they sign an agreement to respect international copyright laws, but some countries do not have a reputation for being very cooperative to international investigations, copyright or otherwise. Typically, such things are bandied about as political capital.

Though, to be honest, I'm not sure I should even be replying considering I believe it's a breach of forum rules to post something from the above mentioned "other forum" ... though I thought it might be beneficial to point out the flaw in that argument.

[bruno]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(taikara @ Jan 14 2007, 01:21 AM) [snapback]274782[/snapback]</div>

If that site happens to be us, well, shame on us for not being ESA compliant as we claim to be.
[/b]

Did i read this correct, for you it´s not a problem closing AB? :blink: , maybe i´m not understand that, did you like Reload be closed by a mistake??? <_<