The review is published annually and highlights countries that in the eyes of the U.S. are not doing enough to deter copyright infringement. Nintendo is one of the companies to submit recommendations on how other countries should tackle these issues.

The gaming company states that piracy is a chronic problem that results in “huge losses,” in part due to the inactivity of foreign countries who do very little to curb copyright infringement.

“In the past few years, the scope of online piracy for Nintendo has grown dramatically. Every month tens of thousands of illegal Nintendo game files are detected on the Internet. The legal environment to limit the flow of these files remains extremely challenging,” the company explains in its letter.

Like last year, Nintendo’s letter focuses on four countries – Brazil, China, Mexico and Spain – where these challenges remain unaddressed. For each of the countries the game company offers a set of recommendations on how the legal climate can be improved, hoping the United States Government will push for change.

According to statistics presented in the letter, no less than 16% of all online piracy of Nintendo products traces back to Spain. With 1.2 million downloads this is the second largest piracy market, just behind Italy with 1.4 million downloads.

Nintendo Piracy across the globe

While the volume of piracy has deceased somewhat compared to previous years, Nintendo wants Spain to take drastic action. Specifically, it points out that the local Intellectual Property Committee (IPC) should block pirate sites wherever possible.

“Since so many illegal video games are downloaded in Spain from foreign-based cyberlockers, and accessed through cyberlinkers or P2P linking sites hosted outside Spain, the IPC must address this issue by authorizing the blocking of linking sites,” Nintendo writes.

The irony of this suggestion is that Nintendo has made no efforts in the United States to have any of the major torrent or linking sites blocked. This is especially painful because their own research shows that many of the larger Spanish linking sites are hosted in America, and registered though U.S. companies.

In addition to blocking websites, the game company wants the U.S. Government to educate and train the Spanish on how to deal with copyright infringers effectively.

“The Spanish Government should work with the U.S. Government and rights holders to provide necessary IP training to Spanish prosecutors, judges and IPC officials, particularly focusing on Internet piracy and effective online investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of criminal copyright infringement on the Internet.”

Similar recommendations are made for Mexico, Brazil and China. In these countries Nintendo also wants ISPs to be held liable for their role in continuing high levels of Internet piracy. The gaming company says that this can be achieved by introducing notice and takedown procedures as well as stiffer penalties for companies that fail to take responsibility.

“Hold Internet Service Providers responsible for facilitating piracy under certain circumstances, including a requirement that ISPs expeditiously remove infringing content when notified by a rights holder representative,” Nintendo advises for Brazil.

Companies and individuals who continue to facilitate copyright infringement have to be prosecuted, Nintendo says, and to boost deterrence maximum penalties should be increased.

“Bring criminal prosecutions against major infringers, including those facilitating piracy on the Internet. The courts must impose stronger penalties against IP crimes, both traditional forms of piracy and online piracy, to raise awareness and foster deterrence,” Nintendo adds.

It is clear that Nintendo wants the U.S. to put more pressure on foreign countries, but whether these efforts will be successful has yet to be seen. In a few weeks the U.S. Trade Representative is expected to release its full Special 301 report.

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

However, while millions of apps are sold with a price tag of a few cents to a few dollars, the real beauty of the market is that countless games and utilities are completely (or at least initially) free of charge. These apps make their revenue from advertising or in-app purchases, reducing the barrier to entry to the lowest possible level and elevating user-bases to previously unimagined levels.

One such app that has done incredibly well is Flappy Bird. The game was introduced in May 2013 but in just over six months has turned into a giant, clocking up 50 million downloads on iOS and Android. The game is a social media phenomenon but now the dream is coming to an end.

Over the weekend Dong Nguyen, the creator of Flappy Bird, announced that he would be removing the game from sale, claiming it had ruined his life. While some gamers reacted with relief that they could reclaim some of their lives back, others late to the game are bitterly disappointed that it’s no longer available.

But of course, it is.

Torrents for both the iOS and Android versions of Flappy Bird are currently doing very well indeed on The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites. So-called DDL (Direct Download) sites, forums and associated file-hosting sites are also doing a roaring trade on the game’s withdrawal, and posts have been appearing around the web on where to get a copy of the game and how to install it.

But to have people bending over backwards to pirate what was until recently a free game is a huge opportunity lost. There are reports that Nguyen had been making $50K a day from Flappy’s in-game advertising, which is money that dozens of charities would happily fight over. Still, it’s Nguyen’s game to do with as he likes.

Which raises an interesting point.

The introduction of ad-supported models have removed a significant incentive for many people to pirate and have allowed free products like Flappy Bird to thrive and generate revenue for their creators. But what happens when their creators decide they’ve had enough? Someone illegally downloading Flappy Bird today is definitely not depriving Nguyen of any revenue and he’s on record as refusing to sell the game and has stated that he’s not interested in its future.

Does that make it completely Ok then, morally and by any other barometer, to snag a ‘pirate’ copy of a piece of gaming history and help stop it drift into oblivion?

With the Internet Archive now proudly and openly offering a torrent containing thousands of MAME arcade games from the 70s, 80s and 90s for free download, there is definitely a feeling that much-loved, abandoned (but probably still copyrighted) games should be kept alive.

Whether a game that died just 48 hours ago qualifies for resurrection is something up for debate but one thing is certain. The press this game has got will ensure that Nguyen’s next creation is a huge hit from the second it lands, even if it did take the needless death of a bird to achieve that.

Or maybe its sacrificial slaughter had been on the viral marketing agenda for some time….

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

After its launch in 1982 it went on to shift millions of units during a decade of production, but then disappeared taking its legendary gaming library with it. With its original adopters all grown up now and with cash to spare, the news that UK-based Elite Systems planned to resurrect the device was met with enthusiasm.

The company launched a Kickstarter campaign titled Bluetooth ZX Spectrum: Recreating the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, with the aim of creating a Bluetooth keyboard that recreates the look and feel of the original computer, complete with its ‘dead flesh’ keyboard. It was covered by dozens of enthusiastic news outlets and retro-gaming forums.

With a plan to interface the device with iOS, Android and Windows and using existing ZX Spectrum emulated games already being distributed by Elite, the Kickstarter was a huge success, reaching and then surpassing its £60,000 goal. But now, on the final day of the campaign, the project has found itself neck-deep in controversy.

Elite Systems already publishes emulated classic ZX Spectrum games on the App Store, and it will be these games that will work with the forthcoming Bluetooth device. However, games developers who created these games are now coming forward to complain that while they signed deals with Elite several years ago, the company hasn’t paid them a penny.

Steve Wetherill was lead programmer on classic Spectrum games Nodes of Yesod and Robin of the Wood. He says that he and his business partner Paul McKenna entered into licensing agreements with Elite in December 2010 to include their Odin Computer Graphics titles in the company’s ZX Spectrum emulator pack on the App Store.

“We received (initially voluntarily, but later upon my prompting) royalty statements from Elite showing sales of the Odin titles. Eventually these statements dried up completely,” Wetherill explains.

“Over time, it became clear that royalties due under the agreement (which were to be paid within 30 days of the end of each calendar quarter) were not being paid. It is now over three years since this agreement was signed and to date no royalties have been paid.”

Despite the lack of payment, Elite are still selling Odin titles on the App Store. Wetherill says he isn’t the only one suffering, with at least six other developers confirming that the have not received any payment for their games. In another case Elite are said to be using games without any permission at all.

“I am the author of Starquake, Firelord, and Wizards Lair for the ZX Spectrum. Like the other game developers here Elite Systems have been selling my games illegally, with no rights or contract to do so and making money from my original work which I hold all rights to,” developer Steve Crow explains.

Crow, who says that Elite have a history of selling games without permission, also notes an interview carried out by Pocket Gamer with former double Olympic gold medalist Daley Thompson, whose image was recreated in Spectrum button-bashing classic Daley Thompson’s Decathalon. The former athlete said that Elite approached him to be involved in an iOS release of the game but when he turned them down they included him anyway.

“Elite actually launched that game without my permission and without the official license,” Thompson explained. “It asked if I wanted to be involved in the project and I declined. Elite just went ahead and published it, anyway.”

Kickstarter backers have been calling for a public statement from Elite Systems on why they are developing a product designed to play games they haven’t paid for, but so far there has been no comment from the company.

TorrentFreak’s email to Elite with a request for comment has not been returned.

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

Studios including Ubisoft have even stated that some games might not be released on the format due to its vulnerability.

There are, however, clear signs that developers are finding ways around the problem. One particularly cute approach was taken in 2011 by game developers Alex Nichiporchik and Tom Brien. The baby of their new company tinyBuild was ‘No Time To Explain, a title that was funded through a Kickstarter campaign.

Like all games it ended up on The Pirate Bay but this one came with a twist. The characters in the game were donned in pirate attire.

“We thought it’d be funny to leak a pirate version ourselves which is literally all about pirates and pirate hats,” Alex told TorrentFreak at the time. “I mean, some people are going to torrent it either way, we might as well make something funny out of it.”

And, as Nichiporchik now explains to PCGamesN, it worked out really well. tinyBuild received dozens of emails from Pirate Bay users who found the game on torrents but went on to buy it afterwards.

“The press coverage spiked our sales,” he said. “Don’t buy into developers blaming piracy for lost sales, it’s just silly.”

So, with tinyBuild’s new game SpeedRunners, the company intends to give pirates what they want – a version of the game for free.

“I’ve seen it multiple times when people pirate some sort of software, fall in love with it, and then due to constant updates reminders end up buying it, just for the convenience. Basically, when developers provide a good service, people see the value in spending money,” Nichiporchik says.

The game will allow users to play the single player for free and then if they like it they get to choose whether to pay to take the game online. This try-before-you-buy approach is often put forward as a reason for piracy and surprisingly Nichiporchik not only agrees, but also participates in it himself.

“I am pirating Battlefield 4 right now,” he told PCGamesN.

“It’s a 23gb download. I want to see if it runs fine on my Bootcamp installation of Windows 8, as in if it’s playable. If it runs fine, I’ll happily install Origin and buy BF4 for the multiplayer.”

There’s no indication that there will be a special ‘pirate’ version of SpeedRunners this time around, but it’s nonetheless interesting to see how a reality that few can do much about is able to be better framed and redirected towards a net positive. In a sea of negativity surrounding piracy, that’s something fans can get behind.

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

After two years of development the game went up for sale yesterday, but the developers also considered those who might want to pirate it.

In addition to putting out a legit copy the brothers also released a cracked game which they voluntarily shared on The Pirate Bay. This modified version of the game comes with a slight change in gameplay.

A few hours into the game players of the “cracked” copy see a rather depressing in-game note, telling them that their virtual game is being heavily pirated.

Soon after that the player’s funds start to decrease. The other games they release are hit by piracy as well, resulting in the bankruptcy of the virtual gaming company they had just built up.

“Initially we thought about telling them their copy is an illegal copy, but instead we didn’t want to pass up the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers,” Greenheart’s Patrick Klug explains in a blog post.

Soon after Greenheart Games uploaded the cracked copy thousands of people downloaded it, and some pirates started to share their struggles online. As it turns out, pirates can get very frustrated with their virtual counterparts.

“Why are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me!” one pirate complained.

“I even tried making a cheap shitty game so the pirate message will pass, but the next game I make with the rest of my money will be pirated too,” another one whined.

While the irony of this little experiment is rather entertaining, the reality for Greenheart Games is that pirates appear to be far more interested in the game than legal consumers.

While there is no guarantee that any of the pirates would have bought the game if there wasn’t a cracked copy available, the stats below show that piracy is rampant, just as in the game itself.

Nonetheless Greenheart Games’ Patrick Klug explains in his blog post that he doesn’t hold a grudge against the downloaders.

“I’m not mad at you. When I was younger, downloading illegal copies was practically normal but this was mostly because global game distribution was in its infancy. To be fair, there are still individuals who either can’t make a legal purchase because of payment-issues or who genuinely cannot afford the game,” Klug says.

However, he does encourage those who can afford it to pay the 8 bucks it costs to get a legal copy. This guarantees that they can make a bigger and better version of Game Dev Tycoon in the future, and develop more DRM-free games like it.

Greenheart Games refuses to put DRM on their games because it hinders legitimate customers, while pirates get the hassle free version. In their experiment the brothers successfully turned the tables, but unfortunately this is not the case for most other games.

“If pirates are put through more trouble than genuine customers, maybe more will buy the real game. Sadly, for AAA games it is currently the other way. Customers get the trouble with always-on requirements and intrusive DRM, while pirates can just download and enjoy. A twisted world,” Klug writes.

This position may seem logical to most game fans, but ironically those who downloaded the cracked copy of Game Dev Tycoon would have been eager to fill their virtual games with DRM if they had the chance.

The full article about this experiment can be read here. Please consider buying the game if you’re interested, progress guaranteed.

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

For more than a decade it has achieved that task admirably but due to its great potential it still manages to feel somewhat under utilized at times.

BitTorrent Inc. is certainly doing its part to open up fresh avenues and applications for the protocol and today we learn of another company making use of BitTorrent to improve efficiencies and enhance end-user experience.

CCP Games is the Icelandic studio behind EVE Online, the space-based MMORPG game that first appeared in 2003. While BitTorrent enjoyed its 10th birthday a couple of years ago, EVE Online will celebrate its first decade this May, but not before a few changes have been made.

EVE Online currently has around 500,000 subscribers who are each required to run the EVE Launcher, a tool which installs, patches and repairs the EVE client. However, the company reports that they are not happy with aspects of the Launcher and how it behaves in certain situations.

“It is at times a bit cumbersome when it comes to updating the EVE client – how many of you had to download a full client install because the EVE Launcher patching failed? Quite a few according to our statistics,” CCP begins.

“Combined with our own desire to be able to push out EVE client updates more frequently and reliably, we have decided to go back to the drawing board and rethink some of the things we are doing; trying to find ways on how to improve the overall user experience,” they add.

To do so CCP are working on improving the Launcher’s self-update mechanism and its ability to download and update the EVE client. For this they will rely on an old friend.

“After careful investigation of a lot of different distribution and update mechanisms we have decided to base the EVE Launcher’s future download mechanism on the widely used and battle-tested BitTorrent protocol,” CCP reveal.

“The main reason why we are doing this is that BitTorrent itself can utilize a number of different transport channels at the same time and is thus less prone to failing on that level. Our current mechanism is built on HTTP 1.1 only, which is a protocol that was not designed for transferring large amounts of data.”

Due to this design shortcoming, HTTP transfers – especially partial ones – are prone to errors which can corrupt the EVE client. With Bram Cohen‘s baby, this isn’t an issue.

“With BitTorrent we do not have this problem as it can run on top of a number of different protocols. Furthermore the protocol does a double validation of transferred data, ensuring that it is actually what we wanted to download and not some digital garbage,” CCP explain.

“Eventually it is also possible to prioritize files over others when downloading which opens up a whole lot of possible future improvements to the user experience – for instance the ability to create your character while the game is still installing.”

While the BitTorrent implementation will be transparent, there are bound to be plenty of EVE users who understand the protocol and how it functions, and might therefore be worried about it greedily eating up available upload bandwidth as it seeds the client to other users. CCP say they have that covered.

“By default the new EVE Launcher will only make you share the data required for installing the client while you are downloading; once your download is complete you will not be distributing it to others, unless you explicitly enable this in the options – after all it might be useful for sharing the installation across your local network. We are also, by default, limiting the upload rate so that it should not affect your normal internet usage. This can be adjusted within the settings, should you wish to do so,” CCP conclude.

Facebook and Twitter previously revealed that BitTorrent is doing wonders for them too, so it’s great to hear of another successful application taking place outside the regular file-sharing space.

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

“Nintendo, along with its publishers and developers, is injured by the prevalence and ease of illegal online distribution,” the company explains in their letter.

“In the past few years, the scope of online piracy for Nintendo has grown dramatically. Every month tens of thousands of illegal Nintendo game files are detected on the Internet. The legal environment to limit the flow of these files remains extremely challenging.”

Nintendo wants Mexico, China, Brazil and Spain to be listed on the Government’s copyright watch list this year, and recommends specific actions to be taken in each of the countries. The game company picked these countries because of their high prevalence of game piracy, and the lack of enforcement.

Brazil is called out as one of the worst actors and Nintendo suggests that the country starts high-profile cases against online pirates and site owners, to deter others from committing the same offenses.

“Publicize legal actions and raids taken against infringers, especially for online piracy, to increase awareness and deterrence,” is Nintendo’s first suggestion.

In addition there should be stronger penalties against online pirates as well as criminal prosecutions of major infringers.

“Bring criminal prosecutions of major infringers, including those facilitating piracy on the Internet. The courts must impose stronger penalties against IP crimes (both traditional forms of piracy and online piracy) to raise awareness and foster deterrence,” Nintendo writes.

Nintendo further wants Brazil to implement new legislation so that circumvention of digital protection becomes unlawful and Internet providers can be held responsible for online piracy.

“Adopt and strictly enforce new laws that explicitly protect against the circumvention of technical protection measures and trafficking in circumvention devices; hold Internet Service Providers responsible for facilitating piracy under certain circumstances including a requirement that ISPs take down infringing content when notified by a rights holder representative.”

Nintendo makes similar suggestions for Spain, but here the company goes even further by specifically outlining how the text of the current copyright law should be amended.

Apparently, Nintendo is well-aware of the U.S. Government’s ability to alter Spanish legislation. In recent years the U.S. has been heavily involved in changing Spain’s copyright law, under threat of severe trade sanctions.

On top of these changes, Nintendo also wants Spain’s Intellectual Property Commission to block foreign file-sharing and cyberlocker sites and allocate more resources to the prosecution of both off- and online pirates.

“Since so many illegal video games are downloaded in Spain from foreign-based cyberlockers, and accessed through cyberlinkers or P2P linking sites hosted outside Spain, the IPC must address this issue by authorizing the blocking of linking sites,” the letter reads.

“Courts should be provided with greater resources to take on additional IP cases. Due to an overloaded Spanish judicial system, IP cases move too slowly to resolution.”

Nintendo’s recommendations for Mexico and China show some overlap with the above, but also focus more on circumvention devices.

Interestingly, several of the suggestions for foreign countries are still lacking in the United States as well. Many copyright holders are asking for site blocking provisions in other countries, while the U.S. public can still access these sites just fine.

Nintendo did support SOPA, which would make site blocking easier, but this bill failed.

Similarly, Nintendo requests more legal action against copyright infringers abroad, but is yet to sue a U.S. file-sharer. In fact, the game company isn’t even taking part in the “six strikes” scheme that will go live today.

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

Do to their ubiquitous nature the negative attitudes shown by many rightsholders barely make headlines anymore, so these days the publicity tends to go to those who see things slightly differently. And, it seems, the gaming community appears to be more open than most in that respect.

Last October the creator of Hotline Miami chose to give customer service to Pirate Bay users and this past weekend another indie dev has pleased potential buyers with another positive reaction.

Anodyne is a top down RPG/adventure game for PC, Mac and Linux and a couple of days ago found itself uploaded to The Pirate Bay. After a single “thanks” post in the torrent’s comment section, an unlikely visitor posted his opinion.

“Hi, I’m one of the two guys who made Anodyne,” a Pirate Bay user called Seagaia wrote.

Seagaia is Sean Hogan, half of the two man team behind the game, whose Pirate Bay username is mirrored on his Twitter account.

“It’s neat that Anodyne’s here and I’m glad that means more people can play it, though of course we’d love it if you bought the game,” he added.

Hogan then explained that they were trying to get the game accepted on Steam so if users could give it an upvote there they would be really grateful.

Adding to the fun, Hogan posted up some codes so people could download the game for free from Desura, which was well received in a Reddit discussion on the topic some hours later, which Hogan joined almost immediately.

“Yeah, piracy is inevitable so it’s better to embrace it – plus, it gives lots of people who couldn’t normally afford the game the opportunity to play it – and I think when you’re a small group of developers (only my friend Jon and I made Anodyne), it’s better to have lots of people able to experience your game,” he wrote.

Computer and Video Games picked up the story a little while ago and no doubt others will too, so there’s some much-needed good publicity right there. All-in-all a positive experience for the guys and fans of their games, then? Well yes, probably, except for one curious thing that no-one appears to have noticed.

The Pirate Bay is well-known for not removing torrents to any content, unless it’s criminally illegal in Sweden or contains malware or a virus. So with this in mind, try searching for Anodyne on the site. Actually, save yourself some time and don’t bother. The torrent, which was uploaded by a user called Frewyrn, has been deleted.

However, it is available via other indexes (and Google’s cache of The Pirate Bay page) and appears to be an Adobe Air installer. There is no indication of virus or malware and the torrent has plenty of seeders.

As far as we know The Pirate Bay haven’t started responding to takedowns so our money is on a delete by the uploader or perhaps an over-zealous moderator. Or maybe 2D top-down Zelda-like games have been outlawed in Sweden recently…..

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

Of course, no matter how good (or bad) a game is, one thing is almost certain – it will turn up pretty quickly on file-sharing sites. Hotline Miami is no different.

The game was released on Tuesday and then just a day later it turned up on The Pirate Bay. People were quick to download it and happy to leave mostly positive remarks in the site’s comments section.

However, a few people had a couple of problems getting the game to run.

“Whenever I try starting the game I get [an] error,” user randir12 explained. “Error defining an external function.”

“Sometimes the game works if I click ignore, but there’s no sound.”

It’s customary for torrent users to help each other out in comment sections, but on this occasion help came from an unexpected corner.

“Hey there! I’m Jonatan Soderstrom, me and my friend Dennis Wedin made this game,” wrote a user called cactus69.

“We’re working on an update that hopefully will take care of any/all bugs, and we’ll try to do some extra polish in the next few days. Would be great if you could update the torrent when the patch is out! It’d be great if people get to play it without any bugs popping up. Hope everyone will enjoy the game!”

But Soderstrom, who is the driving force at CactusQuid in Sweden, didn’t stop there.

“For the ‘Error defining an external function’ problem, try restarting your system and play again, it can pop up when your computer has been running for a while. We’ll try to figure out if there’s more to it than that,” he wrote to randir12.

Soderstrom then went on to address a joypad issue being experienced by another user.

In a sign of disbelief at the Swede’s attitude, what followed next were a handful of fairly abusive comments from people who simply could not accept that a games dev would act like this and that therefore Cactus69 must be an imposter.

“Just for the record, looks like cactus69 is really Jonatan Soderstrom,” confirmed a Pirate Bay moderator, quietening the storm.

A little while later Soderstrom returned to the site advising Pirate Bay users that a “patch should be up soon” and to “feel free to buy the game if you like it.”

Later on Twitter the game dev was pragmatic about the downloading of his work.

“I don’t really want people to pirate Hotline Miami, but I understand if they do. I’ve been broke the last couple of months. It sucks,” he wrote.

People who appreciate a decent attitude and great retro gaming can help to ease Soderstrom’s financial position. Hotline Miami is available from GOG for just $8.99 or from Steam at 8.49 euros if that’s your thing.

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

Despite the prophecy that piracy will stop development of movies, music and games, that never to come to pass either. Good products sell and in great numbers too – the massively successful Halo series from Microsoft is a testament to that, despite the piracy.

Late last week, and just about three weeks in advance of its official street date, Halo 4 leaked online and thousands of people downloaded the game. That’s nothing new – all previous games in the series appeared online too.

“We have seen the reports of Halo 4 content being propped around the web and are working closely with our security teams and law enforcement to address the situation,” said Microsoft spokesperson Joe DiMiero.

By the weekend it became clear what Microsoft’s response would be – an Xbox Live ban for those that foolishly connected their Xboxes to the Internet.

Anyone who has gone to the time, trouble and expense of modifying an Xbox, and then downloading a 16GB file should know all too well the risks involved and frankly it’s difficult to have any sympathy with them whatsoever. Piracy is a cat and mouse game and this time the mice got caught. It happens.

But worse still, in the last few days some pirates completely overstepped the mark, not by doing what they always do, but by attempting to ruin the game for everyone else. For the developers of Halo 4 and game lovers everywhere, that is completely unacceptable.

“There are people putting the whole thing on YouTube,” Frank O’Connor, Halo franchise director, told Polygon. “Microsoft is addressing that a single case at a time, it just takes a little while to handle.”

So OK, you’re saying, people just have to stay away from Halo 4 videos on YouTube and nothing will get spoiled. Well it’s not as easy that.

Some people who have pirated the game have been deliberately posting key-point spoilers wherever they can, from Xbox.com’s own forums and game discussion sites everywhere to social networks including Twitter and Facebook. It’s got to such a point that IGN have created a guide to help gamers avoid having Halo 4′s plot ruined by people who just want to mindlessly sabotage the enjoyment of others.

The vast majority of game buyers, game pirates, and the gray area dwellers who buy some and pirate some, detest this kind of behavior. Piracy won’t stop Microsoft making big money on Halo 4, that’s guaranteed, but now potential buyers can’t safely follow the online hype and discussions leading up to Halo 4′s release for fear that some clown will spoil the game.

You can’t easily put a price on beautiful story telling. Sadly, sabotaging that comes for free.

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