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Piracy Games

Russian Game Dev Tells Players To 'Raise the Pirate Flag' To Get Around Sanctions (arstechnica.com) 76

Posted by BeauHD from the well-if-you-say-so... dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: With Russian gamers effectively cut off from purchases on most major gaming platforms due to corporate sanctions against the country, the Russian game developer behind indie darling Loop Hero is encouraging Russian customers to pirate the game. In a Sunday post on Russian social network VK (Google translated version), Loop Hero developer Four Quarters said, "In such difficult times, we can only help everyone to raise the pirate flag (together with vpn)" to get the game. The developer then included a link to a copy of Loop Hero on a popular Russian torrent tracker to aid in that process directly.

In a follow-up post the next day (Google translated version), Four Quarters insisted that "we didn't do anything special, there's nothing wrong with torrents." The company also notes that players wanting to offer the developer donations in lieu of buying the game should refrain. "The truth is that everything is fine with us, send this support to your family and friends at this difficult time," they wrote.

While players outside of Russia should still be able to purchase Loop Hero on Steam, Valve said earlier this month that banking issues prevented it from sending payments to developers in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine (ironically enough). Valve recently told PC Gamer that developers in these countries will have to provide "intermediary banking information" in a foreign country to receive the payments they're due. "It's a very frustrating situation, and we hope to find the resolution soon," Valve wrote in a note to affected developers. Russia is reportedly considering legalizing software piracy to combat the sanctions imposed on the country for its invasion of Ukraine.
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Russian Game Dev Tells Players To 'Raise the Pirate Flag' To Get Around Sanctions More

Russian Game Dev Tells Players To 'Raise the Pirate Flag' To Get Around Sanctions

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  • Can you really call it piracy when the rights holder actively encourages you to make a copy and provides the means by which to do so?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      No, you probably wouldn't call it piracy, because the Rights Holder could give it just away for free.
      However, the more important question within that context: Who is the legal Rights Holder here?

      Unless the Russian developers have some super special contracts it's most likely the Publisher who holds exclusive distribution rights.
      According to Steam [steampowered.com] the Publisher in question here is Devolver Digital [wikipedia.org], a corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas.


      In my eyes a good example for how fucked up intellectual rig

      • In my eyes a good example for how fucked up intellectual rights contracts are

        How so? The developer of this game had every right to independently publish their game. These days, with the proliferation of digital distribution platforms, that's easier than ever. They instead chose to engage with Devolver Digital because, presumably, they saw value in the relationship.

        The dev can't have their cake and eat it too.

        • They also had every right to pass on their distribution rights to a Texan company, in exchange for payment... which they're (likely) no longer receiving.

          And apparently it's legal.

          This is one of the fucked up parts of copy-"we're doing this to provide the artist with a means of living"-right.

        • To stick with your analogy:

          The dev can't have their cake and eat it too.

          Apparently they neither ate their cake nor got the money in exchange.

          Although I'll admit I'm out on a limb here since I don't know about the financial implications between the devs, the rightholders and thr sellers (e.g. Valve). They may well have been paid full in advance instead of a steady cut, I don't know.

          However, there are more subtle details also possibly at play. For example, as a dev, I might want my product to be available, in particular to the people around me - friends

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fazig ( 2909523 )
          Sure, they had every right to independently publish their game.
          But that doesn't mean that how intellectual rights are managed as a standard business practice isn't fucked up in principle, where you technically make yourself liable for distributing something that was made through your own resources, your intellect, your labor.

          Under "normal market conditions", which I define for this particular case as: peaceful international trade, this often isn't much of an issue. Because like you said, there's many dig

      • It's not that messed up. No one really writes their own game from scratch anymore. It's all based upon components bought or licensed from other people. Ie, if you build a game using the SuperMoFo engine then it's not completely your game, depending upon the license that came with the engine. Similarly if assets were licensed, and so on.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fazig ( 2909523 )
          Hardly anyone has made anything from scratch for centuries.
          With the exception of some survival artists perhaps that live solitary lives in the wilderness, virtually all our societies are based on division of labour and trade between each other for services and goods. Homesteaders might come close, but not even there things are generally done from scratch without the least bit division of labour and trading. So I don't really see an angle in that "not from scratch" argument.


          Besides of that I work in tha

          • So you use a game engine - that means you license it and abide by those rules. Often that means a payment based upon number of units sold. Big name companies often just build their own engine, but usually not indie studios. If you have money, you can get a better license deal. Even outside of games this is true, I have worked on products where we paid a per-unit price for software, sometimes even with restrictions on where such software components could be used (in particular, one would not allow us to in

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by fazig ( 2909523 )
              So?

              They used GameMaker for their Loop Hero game.
              YoYo Games does have a subscription model https://www.yoyogames.com/en/g... [yoyogames.com] and by the looks of it, Four Quarters might be using the Enterprise package (based on the fact that the game is available on the Nintendo Switch). Their licenses don't require you to pay any royalties though.
              And the additional plugins and assets that you can usually buy for those engines (like here for GameMaker https://marketplace.yoyogames.... [yoyogames.com]) usually don't include royalties eit
    • I do not quite get it why he cannot do this the right way and ask Valve for the game to be free in these countries.

      Frankly, he is being an ass without any real reason for that.

      • Because Valve may not be allowed to do business with Russia. And giving something away for free may still be counted as business.

        Also, I don't know whether Valve accepts new clients from Russia right now (do they?).

        Also, Valve may not be the only one distributing the game.

        Finally, there's something awfully odd about asking someone else, with an interest not to do so, to carry out your civil disobedience actions, while you being the most legitimate source of such an actio (i.e. the dev who actually put work

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DVLNSD ( 9457327 )
      Nicely done PR stunt. Many comments in vk thread state that they have never heard of the company or game, but will definitely try it now and maybe buy later.

    • Yesm because it is not completely theirs. There are multiple components, multiple companies involved, and lots of contracts. Only if 100% of the code is theirs and they do their own distribution can piracy be justified. In other words they are not the rights holders, they are rights holders to only parts of the game, or possibly even none depending upon the contracts they signed to get it developed and published and sold.

  • Russia is reportedly considering legalizing software piracy to combat the sanctions imposed on the country for its invasion of Ukraine.

    Free planes [reuters.com], free software, free McDonalds franchises. [nikkei.com] What's not to love about free?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      What's not to love about free?

      Plenty. The Russians have learned to love being part of the global economy. They'd really rather pay for those planes.
      But screw all those tax-dodging Ireland-registered kleptocratic plane owners.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Not really. Big city Western Russians did.

        Talk to folks in Siberia, and it's a very different story. It's why their ultra nationalist party crushed the "omg Putin's anti-West party" in Siberia and Far East in last regional elections... running on a platform of them being far too soft on the West.

        • Most of them probably don't even know what neutrons are.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            It's not relevant how well they understand nuclear physics. What's relevant is that they know how to march to take Berlin.

            And Siberians have a lot of experience in the latter.

            • It's not relevant how well they understand nuclear physics. What's relevant is that they know how to march to take Berlin.

              And Siberians have a lot of experience in the latter.

              Marching to Berlin today will give them a quick lesson in nuclear physics.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                True. But they are far better suited to survive that scenario that Berliners. Or New Yorkers for that matter.

  • As much as I feel for the people of the Russian Federation. They don't seem to care what is happening or they know and refuse to take the steps to remove Putin. Yeah it sucks to being forced to pirate, but what is one to do when you are left no choice. The companies really had no choice. If they went against it they risked backlash from governments and customers.

    • Some Russians have openly declared that they feel the war is wrong, and they've lost their jobs because of it. It's dangerous to speak up in Russia right now. I'm ambivalent about what these devs did. It's up to them, but I'm not going to praise them for giving their game away. I would have given them high marks if they had the courage to actually speak out against the war, but that's a pretty high bar for most people.

      • Some Russians have openly declared that they feel the war is wrong, and they've lost their jobs because of it. It's dangerous to speak up in Russia right now.

        "Some Americans have openly declared that they feel transgender nonsense is wrong, and they've lost their jobs because of it. It's dangerous to speak up in the US right now."

        "Some Americans have openly declared that they feel CRT is wrong, and they've lost their jobs because of it. It's dangerous to speak up in the US right now."

        I could go on ...

        • I'm sure you could. Whataboutism is pretty popular around here, after all.

          But I certainly wasn't claiming the US is perfect. As you indicated, we have our own socially taboo subjects.

          • I'm sure you could. Whataboutism is pretty popular around here, after all.

            A comparison which treats social shunning as the same as a 15 year sentence in the Gulags is less whataboutism and more direct trolling. Russians who only lose their jobs are the lucky ones. Russian journalists who tried to report the truth ended up dead.

        • Evidence? In the US you can say that Joe Biden is a senile fool and not be arrested for that. Try this in Russia? And don't worry about gays in Russia because Putin has declared in his wisdom that none exist, so it is lterally impossible to be anti-LGBTQ there because none exist!

          CRT is a myuth though, get over it. They are not teaching reverse racism in schools, and even if they did it is not "CRT" But hey, it's a free country, and the Faux News can lie all they want and invent mythical culture wars an

          • CRT is a myuth though, get over it.

            Right, because if you call it something different, or don't teach every last bit of it at post-secondary level, it's not real.

    • They don't seem to care what is happening or they know and refuse to take the steps to remove Putin.

      When all media are controlled by president dictator since eons, it is very unfair to blame citizen for not having a good understanding of what is happening. Same thing is happening in North Korea, people can be brain washed and you can't blame them.

      • What tools are available though to counter these aggressive dictators other than war or sanctions? War would certainly be worse for the citizens in those regimes, surely. Or the west should just sit back and let Russia invade its neighbors and rebuild the empire, sit back while Kim Jong-un keeps making nukes? Or maybe send a strongly worded letter?

  • The name "Solarwinds" just comes screaming to mind for some reason . . .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Yes. In fact before the war, there was upcoming requirement being put on Yandex to block search links to pirated software download sites entirely, which is way more draconian of anti-piracy enforcement than anything going on in the West.

  • Nobody has to worry about that. In modern society it's possible to make a reasonable estimate of loss and add it to their war reparations bill that's already active in the global monetary system's collections department. Ukrainians are documenting every loss and registering it in the same international courts that Russia used to sometimes get their way when they were wronged in the area of International trade, so the de facto consent to be governed is already there. Depending how many yachts, private est

    • You're having a very "here" centric view.

      Russia is not North Corea - not by numbers, not by mineral and fossil resources, population, land surface... not by anything except the enemy they're sharing. You're analysing everything with regard to Russia's ties to "us" (USA, Europe, Canada etc), but are forgetting that there's another half out there - India, China, and essentially most of Asia.

      Thery have their own payment systems, their own economy etc. Yes, they're not entirely decoupled from us, but the depend

      • Very interesting take. I've considered it too. Those large nations would also have to consider what they want. They can band up and and trade among each other and create an alternate civilization, or they can be a part of the current civilized world. They have to have a hard look at which is more beneficial to them. China is currently trying to have the best of both worlds, but they know full well that the time to choose is coming. India is hungering at the steeply discounted raw resources from Russia

  • I am surprised no one commented on this yet but isn't this basically going up to the line of sanctions and not crossing it but spitting across?

    • Only in the sense that imposing economic restrictions on a whole country just to sway its (at times heavily opposed) leader is like giving a golden shower full-spread to everyone in that country, and claiming that your intention is only that the leader smell like piss.

      I guess.

      • claiming that your intention is only that the leader smell like piss.

        Nobody's claiming that. One of the key hopes is to stop paying for the bombs which are landing on nursery schools and hospitals and killing children together with their familes. Every penny that goes to Russia is another penny that will be used to help murder people.

        • I know the rationale, but it doesn't work like this. It's like keeping someone poor hoping that they won't have any money left for guns, alcohol ans tobacco.

          What will happen instead is that the first money gets spent for war, and whatever's left for the rest, e.g. the civilian needs. By the time Russia's run out of war money, the civilians have starved, frozen and lost all assets in the process.

  • They may see copyright as a soft target, not just games, but software, audio, video, everything that can be pirated. If you are thinking disruption and promoting cultural disorder its a natural to not only allow piracy in-country but to operate systems which encourage piracy in the West.

    It has two beneficial effects, or what they may see as beneficial. One is of course the financial losses it means for the IP owners. That's irritating, but probably no more. But the second thing is much more serious, you

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      I think the bigger problem for Russia is that as piracy grows, so too will malware, trojans, bugs, cyber attacks and all the other things that come from using broken / cracked / unpatched warez. When Microsoft releases a fix for day-0 exploit, Russia won't be getting it, at least not automatically. That makes them vulnerable and the problem will grow worse over time.

      In addition so much software these days has an online aspect to its function and none of that is going to work either. So for example, if a R

  • Feel sorry ordinary Russians being collectively punished for the actions of their government.
    Although happy that they're finding "workarounds".

    Imagine if the entire world boycotted America/Britain over the illegal Iraq/Afghanistan wars.
    So oil/gas prices increased massively, electronics became almost unavailable (as Korea & China) boycotted the US/UK, etc.
    And food prices increased, as the EU, Brazil, Asia, etc, all stopped supplying any produce, including clothes. ... just because of the actions of the U

    • Feel sorry ordinary Russians being collectively punished for the actions of their government.

      If you have a problem with the consequences of your government's actions... change them.

      • Or at least commit small acts of sabotage. Take some nails out into the street and "accidentally" drop a few. Go to your company email and click on some pieces of incoming malware. Change the timeout in the backup script to be just a few minutes short of the time needed for the weekly backup. Just try not to be actively complicit in murder.

  • Too easy for attackers to add malware to pirate software. It's not good security practice to use it.
  • Get used to one of the few antidotes to late-capitalism.
    Now this Russian game developer must rely on sales from within his own country AND he no longer has to compete with huge names like Counterstrike or Elden Ring.
    And game developers in other countries no longer need to compete with him.
  • I'm all for the sanctions hurting the people. At some point it will hurt enough they will rise up change their government.
  • Bought a GPU yesterday with BTC...
  • On the other hand, you could take some time to learn about the disgusting, sociopathic evil your country has unleashed on your neighbor and, ya know, maybe understand why you all are being cut off from the developed world.

    Your army is deliberately and willfully murdering unarmed parents in front of their children, burning their bodies to cover up their crime, and what you care about is playing your games?

    WTF?

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