Lesser-Known Facts About Piracy (2)
In our last article, we shared lesser-known facts about online piracy; we are continuing our adventure with a few more, hoping you don’t know them yet and that they will amuse you!
Some video game creators had fun trolling pirates
As we know, when it comes to creativity, video game developers are at the top of the list. They love subtle (or not always so subtle) Easter eggs to create a bond with the player. But some have used their talents to have a little fun with pirates and keep them from playing pirated versions of certain games.
One of the best-known anti-pirate bugs is probably the one in Arkham Asylum, in which Batman couldn’t glide if you were playing a pirated version, which made it hard to get through certain parts of the game, rendering it, in practice, unplayable.
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In the FPS Serious Sam 3, players using a pirated version were harassed by an extremely fast and rather disgusting scorpion that, above all, could not be killed. It followed you absolutely everywhere and generally ended up killing you, forcing you to start over… in a game where it was still there.
In GTA IV, some important parts of the missions didn’t work if your copy was pirated, but there were also much funnier anti-piracy features: at completely unpredictable moments, cars would accelerate to a totally uncontrollable speed, or engines would start smoking and then break down. Since it is possible to drink (and get drunk) in this series of games, known for its politically incorrect side, people playing a pirated version would also find themselves drunk at random, making the camera blurry and uncontrollable. Except they hadn’t had any alcohol… here again, because of all these variations, the game was hard to play.
The most fitting is probably the game Game Dev Tycoon, a simulation and management game in which players take on the role of game developers themselves. If they play the pirated version, no matter what happens, at some point they will start losing money; the reason? Piracy, of course. Their fictional video game company becomes unviable because of the massive piracy it suffers. Their profits are eaten away whatever they do, and the company ends up going under. A fun way to teach pirates a lesson.
The pirate site FMovies gets as much traffic as the major official streaming platforms
FMovies receives more than 160 million visits a month, which has become a major problem for the entertainment industry. It is the first time a pirate site has rivalled official platforms such as Netflix, Amazon or Disney (it actually gets more visits than Disney+ alone).
The oldest torrents still online are now more than 20 years old
The oldest torrent on the famous torrent site ThePirateBay is apparently an episode of a Swedish TV show uploaded in 2004. The oldest torrent online across the whole web, however, is reportedly a film made by Matrix fans in New Zealand, called Fanimatrix, which is still shared today by Matrix fans and enthusiasts of piracy curiosities.
The war in Ukraine had unforeseen consequences for the video game industry
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the exodus of Western companies from the country had tragic consequences, as any war does, but what is less well known is that it also had repercussions on the video game market.
Seven out of ten gamers said they pirated at least one game in 2022, and 51% of them admitted to pirating more over the past year than before, no longer having access to the entertainment they loved. By one estimate, the shortfall for Western publishers could reach $300 million.
A Utah city council approved a bylaw authorizing a reseller of illegal IPTV services for the city’s residents
On March 15, 2023, after several months of studying the project, the Mapleton city council unanimously approved the setup of the Xtreme HD IPTV reseller plan. The city council thus officially became an IPTV reseller for residents, hoping to save money and make a profit! Such a surreal decision shows how little some people know about IPTV, and how much the need to regulate this area remains very important.
Mozart was, in a way, the first to pirate music
At the age of 14, Mozart visited the Sistine Chapel in Rome. A composition by Gregorio Allegri called “Miserere mei, Deus” was then played only during Holy Week. Its score was one of the Vatican’s secrets, and no one was allowed access to it except three people. Performing the work outside of very limited occasions was also forbidden, and anyone who risked it would be threatened with excommunication. After hearing it for the first time, Mozart was so impressed by the music that he went back to his hotel and transcribed the entire work from memory, returning two days later to check the transcription against the performance. The papal authorities learned of it, but were so impressed by the young genius that they ended up rewarding him rather than punishing him.
Join us in June for a new article on a brand-new theme for the month of June. In the meantime, if you have a film, a series, software or an ebook to protect, don’t hesitate to call on our services by contacting one of our account managers; PDN has been a pioneer in cybersecurity and anti-piracy for more than ten years, and we certainly have a solution to help you. Happy reading, and see you soon!
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