THIA and our stance on piracy

[Dot50Cal]

So apparently, some people just can't get it through their heads what is an isn't acceptable here at the boards and have been bombarding the moderators with PM's, whining about infractions and such because they just couldn't wait to tell everyone that they illegally watched Degeneration. So now its time to set some things straight:

1). Admitting you pirated any form of meda (and lets be honest, the only reason you'd be saying that you "JUST SAW" Degeneration was piracy) earns you a one month ban from the site.

2). THIA distinguishes from BETA and RETAIL games. Thus, beta games won't earn you a ban.

3). Mag scans - no no. The only thing we currently allow is non English mag scans for the news page.

4). Dark Biohazard is a mod which requires the retail version of RE2. Trying to bring up the mod, in some sad attempt to try and equate people praising the mod and those who brag about download Degeneration is just pathetic.

5). From now on, there are no more warnings. If you let on that you pirated something, you are gone for 30 days. Repeated infractions for this will earn you a permanent ban.

[missvalentine]

ok so pirating = the devil

got it, no pirating then.

[Helegad]

4). Dark Biohazard is a mod which requires the retail version of RE2. Trying to bring up the mod, in some sad attempt to try and equate people praising the mod and those who brag about download Degeneration is just pathetic.

Uh? What does DBH have to do with Degeneration?

[Carnivol]

Uh? What does DBH have to do with Degeneration?

"Someone" felt the need to drag it in while complaining about our decisions in relation to the whole Degeneration leak thing. So Dot50Cal felt the need to put it up on the list.

[Andyfer_Ruu]

I'll stand up and admit it was me who did it, and i've apologised on the thread i brought it up in.
I dont know if Dot's still watching this piracy thread, but to quote what i said....Fair enough, and i apologise to Darkmoon and Dot and anybody else on the forum that feels the same.
I also thank you for giving me a warning.

[rewak]

Magazine scans seem a bit far, but fair enough. Although im guessing old magazines are still fine (such as ones that have 1.5 screens for example, of which there are many)

[Helegad]

I don't see why magazine scans are illegal. It's just pictures, for god's sake.

[Dot50Cal]

I'll stand up and admit it was me who did it

You weren't the only one

[Guest]

I didnt understand why scans are forbidden here o.o

[Andyfer_Ruu]

Ohhhhh..
I didnt know that.
I hope they apologised to you aswell.

For the comment above - I didnt know that either 0.o although i dont put scans or pics up on here anyway. Would that also include links? just so i know, so i dont make the mistake of doing it sometime.

[Carnivol]

I don't see why magazine scans are illegal. It's just pictures, for god's sake.

We're talking about recent magazine scans. You know how scans often pop up on the web even days before a magazine pops into the mailbox of subscribers?

Internet in general has been a bad thing for the old paper printers, and they depend a lot on their exclusive coverage. If that exclusive coverage ends up being put online in the form of 1:1 copies, especially while it's still hot off the press, they lose part of their selling point. We may however quote some of the content and/or give a brief summary of it.

The only reason we may allow some foreign scans is because this is mainly an English site and various smaller "local" magazines are usually never really in the international type of sense, and they usually maintain a solid userbase in their local countries as people in general don't expect to find their content online, their stories do not always get international attention and recognition and in general they wont be "hurt" in the same way an international magazine would. And even in the case of international magazines, we'll still be selective about what we put on the front page.

Personally, I prefer to just use a scan of the frontpage of the magazine + a summary/description of the content.

[Rombie]

It's never about the legality of the situation (and the declining interest and death of various magazines means it's too costly for most publishers to even consider legal action), but as Carn mentions, the exclusivity for sales of the magazine when it hits news stands which they're trying to protect, which is why old magazines will never be an issue.

My only main issue of the problem when it faced me while working on REFan was the smacking of hypocrisy by both IGN and 1Up in their contact to me regarding items I posted on my site at varying times. In both cases they told me I was not to post the item or any details other than the original location, which I felt was very rich when both sites would frequently repost information and scans from Japanese magazines, like Famitsu, without permission.

In the case of IGN, my decision to tell (resident fat oaf) Tal Blevins this very fact (he was the staff member who attempted a cease on me, threating to go to his "legal team" which IGN did not have in 2002) then caused him to make an attempt on a personal vendetta against me on IGN's forums, which eventually backfired. I probably wouldn't have pulled the same stunt on them, calling his bluff, these days due to the fact IGN is now owned by Fox and thus has money, and most likely an actual legal team, to waste on frivolous court proceedings.

I have a big bee in my bonnet about people throwing their legal weight around though, so I tend not to be too restrictive about hinting that you can find whatever it is if you look.... but since the 1up/EGM thing, which I did comply with in the end, I've done nothing but ever post screen grabs from videos or just a single screenshot from the magazine, links to external sites offering the item in question, or post covers of the magazines with summary attached as also noted by Carnivol. It's really just to cover your ass.

[Neptune]

yeah best bet Rombie, i didnt know IGN were owned by FOX, and they indeed as u sed wud have a legal team.

abolsutly no point risking it in the slightest.

[Helegad]

Hmmm, I guess you're right about the "hot off the press" magazines, but maybe the rule can be that you can't post current issues of magazines until a.) it's over one month old, or b.) it has been superseded by a new issue.

[Rombie]

^ Still too soon I'd think. Certain print publications will go worldwide, and so you really need to give it a few months to be fair on the publishers if you're really caring about their sales.

For example copies of EGM are sold here in NZ in two forms, air freight (usually within a week of the US publish) and general release (which are shipped and cost about a 1/3 as the air fright)... but the general release doesn't tend to turn up for about 6-7 weeks after the original appears.