TorrentFreak wasn’t really surprised by the statement. CD Projekt had done exactly the same before with the first installment of The Witcher.

“Mark our words, CD Projekt aren’t going to get an easy ride with this,” we predicted back then. But would they carry it through?

While trawling through endless Germany-based lawsuits in connection with another issue, the answer was right there – documents which showed that CD Projekt were sending so-called pay-up-or-else letters to alleged pirates demanding more than 900 euros per time. So, early December 2011, we reported what we’d found.

Response to the news was mixed. Some thought it was OK to chase down pirates but soon it became clear that this company, who had built up so much goodwill with impressive games and a refreshing attitude to DRM, risked damaging their hard-earned reputation with people they needed onside – the gaming press and their readers.

One of CD Projekt’s most vocal opponents (TF aside) were RockPaperShotgun, who proceeded to give the company a pretty hard time over their actions. Their arguments are well-worn, centering on the potential of accusing the innocent with disproportionate actions. But now, just a couple of months later, it is all over.

“In early December, [a TorrentFreak] article was published about a law firm acting on behalf of CD Projekt RED, contacting individuals who had downloaded The Witcher 2 illegally and seeking financial compensation for copyright infringement,” says CD Projekt’s Marcin Iwinski in a statement sent to RPS. “The news about our decision to combat piracy directly, instead of with DRM, spread quickly and with it came a number of concerns from the community.”

“Repeatedly, gamers just like you have said that our methods might wrongly accuse people who have never violated our copyright and expressed serious concern about our actions,” Iwinski adds.

“Being part of a community is a give-and-take process. We only succeed because you have faith in us, and we have worked hard over the years to build up that trust. We were sorry to see that many gamers felt that our actions didn’t respect the faith that they have put into CD Projekt RED.

“Our fans always have been and remain our greatest concern, and we pride ourselves on the fact that you all know that we listen to you and take your opinions to heart. While we are confident that no one who legally owns one of our games has been required to compensate us for copyright infringement, we value our fans, our supporters, and our community too highly to take the chance that we might ever falsely accuse even one individual.

“So we’ve decided that we will immediately cease identifying and contacting pirates,” Iwinski writes.

The full statement can be found here and is important on a number of fronts, all previously outlined in great detail.

But perhaps the most refreshing thing is the tone of the announcement. Look, let’s be under no illusions, the decision to abandon this ill-fated scheme is a commercial one, but CD Projekt did not tow the typically corporate line with a carefully sanitized release saying that their scheme had simply run its course, they actually listened to and then addressed the concerns of their fans.

For those already targeted by the scheme it’s too late, but the company can now move forward doing what they do best – making great games without needless distractions.

Oh, and for the other games companies doing the same in Germany but currently flying under the radar – we know who you are and we’re coming for you next, so you might want to get your retaliation in first, it’s easier in the long run.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Like a breath of fresh air and bucking the trend of more and more prohibitive and invasive protection schemes, CD Projekt intend to release The Witcher 2 in May 2011 without any DRM. This impressed our readers.

“A lot of gamers, even many of those in, or in favour of, the torrent/filesharing community seem to be looking at this as an opportunity to show the industry that a company can release a game completely without DRM and still see it become a huge success,” reader Ben H told TorrentFreak.

“The message, I think, isn’t ‘don’t pirate’ but rather ‘let’s prove our point’ by supporting a developer who’s willing to treat its customers as customers, rather than criminals by default,” he concluded.

Although more of a console gamer, the name The Witcher did ring a bell with me, but not for any good reason. A couple of years ago, large numbers of Internet users started receiving letters from notorious file-sharing lawyers Davenport Lyons demanding cash settlements, a scheme that most readers will be familiar with and one which has gotten the company in a lot of trouble.

Among those letters were demands for payment on an Atari game with a familiar title – The Witcher.

Needless to say, alarm bells started to ring and since I was travelling, I quickly emailed Ben H back and told him what I remembered.

“I didn’t know that was related to The Witcher – after digging a little deeper it seems that Atari were the ones chasing up file-sharers, while the actual game developers maintain a much more positive and realistic position on piracy,” he told me in response.

“Atari are ‘marketing and distributing‘ The Witcher 2 as well, so I wonder if the DRM-free release indicates that CD Projekt have more control over things this time, or if their relatively file-sharer-friendly stance is actually quite shallow in practice,” he concluded.

As it turns out, those alarm bells were ringing for good reason.

“Of course we’re not happy when people are pirating our games, so we are signing with legal firms and torrent sneaking companies,” CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski told Eurogamer today.

“In quite a few big countries, when people are downloading it illegally they can expect a letter from a legal firm saying, ‘Hey, you downloaded it illegally and right now you have to pay a fine.’

“We are totally fair, but if you decide you will not buy it legally there is a chance you’ll get a letter.”

What Iwinski means by “totally fair” (using the Davenport Lyons operation as a guide) is that his “sneaking companies” will harvest IP addresses from torrent swarms with no oversight whatsoever and farm them out to ISPs via the courts.

The ISPs will then try their best, for a fee, to match them with their customer records, but will occasionally make mistakes and identify the wrong one. Letters will then be sent out by a lawfirm to ISP account owners who may or may not have done any sharing at all, and will be told that they are responsible for what happens on their connection. Then, in order to make nasty court cases go away, subscribers will be asked to pay a cash settlement.

So, while lack of DRM might be a great idea, sending out these awful letters is the absolute opposite. Mark our words, CD Projekt aren’t going to get an easy ride with this and nothing good will come out of it, especially if they dare to try this again in the UK.

In theory a DRM-free game should give consumers less incentive to download it illegally, but it’s also easier to share. We can’t look inside the minds of CD Projekt’s bosses but it’s not totally inconceivable that they secretly hope that many people will pirate their games. After all, the pay-up-or-else schemes are more profitable than actually selling games.

The Witcher 2 comes out in May 2011, which means that CD Projekt have plenty of time to change their minds. Let’s hope they do.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.