As reported at the Australian, Microsoft has sought $125,000 in compensation as part of an anti-piracy sting from a software trader who has been selling Microsoft product illegally.
To find out more, click here.
Australia, 10 March, 2010 –
Nintendo confirms that the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service have seized game copiers (commonly referred to as R4 cards) and other counterfeit Nintendo products from an importer attempting to distribute the products in Australia. This is the first Australian customs seizure of game copiers of this type.
Video game piracy continues to be a serious problem in Australia. Nintendo attributes it to the availability of game copiers, the devices that circumvent the technical protection measures embedded in the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi systems that enable the play of illegal Nintendo software downloaded via the Internet. Game copiers infringe Nintendo’s trademarks and copyright and breach the “circumvention device” provisions of the
Nintendo has been working with the Australian enforcement authorities to curtail the spread of piracy for more than 10 years.
The seizure in Australia follows another recent significant Nintendo action. Earlier this month, Nintendo has taken successful action in the Federal Court in Australia against an importer and online seller of game copiers establishing that these actions are illegal and the consequences are real.
Nintendo is also taking action against distributors and sellers of game copiers and other infringing devices in many other countries around the world. In some countries, successful criminal proceedings have been brought against the manufacturers, suppliers and sellers of game copiers.
For further information regarding the recent Federal court civil action against the importer and online seller of game copiers please see our Media Release dated 22 February 2010 titled “Nintendo Successfully Takes Action Against R4 Cards” which can be found at: http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=news&nid=79
For more information about Nintendo’s global anti-piracy activities, please visit: http://ap.nintendo.com
Copyright Act. For further information contact:
Heather Murphy
Public Relations Manager
Nintendo Australia and New Zealand
murphyheat@nal.nintendo.com.au
+61 403 242 209
+61 3 9730 9900
Australia, 19 February, 2010 –
Nintendo confirms it has successfully taken action against an Australian company in relation to game copying devices, commonly referred to as R4 cards. In September 2009 Nintendo filed proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against RSJ. IT Solutions Pty Ltd which trades as “GadgetGear” – an online seller of gadgets, including gaming consoles and accessories- and the individual directors of the company, Patrick Li and James Li.
GadgetGear and its directors have now acknowledged that game copying devices infringe both Nintendo’s copyright and Nintendo’s trademarks and that they are illegal circumvention devices. As a result, GadgetGear and the directors have agreed to permanently refrain from importing, offering for sale and/or selling game copier devices. GadgetGear and the directors will also pay Nintendo a total of A$620,000.00 by way of damages. GadgetGear will also be delivering to Nintendo all its stock of game copiers for destruction.
Nintendo guards its intellectual property rights in order to protect the interests of its valued consumers, its own interests, and others in the games industry including independent content creation organisations, developers and publishing studios and all distributors of Nintendo products. Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise the gaming industry by using all means available to it under the law. In particular, Nintendo is currently contemplating bringing further actions against other sellers of game copying devices in Australia.
Since 2008, Nintendo has pursued over 800 actions (including customs seizures, law-enforcement actions and civil proceedings) in 16 countries, confiscating well over a half million Nintendo DS game copiers. Piracy not only affects sales, it affects the price of video games and employment in the video game industry. Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the detriment of video game enthusiasts. When there is a decrease in game development, there is also a decrease in the number of jobs in the industry.
The existence of piracy jeopardises the strength of the video game industry overall.
For more information about Nintendo’s global anti-piracy activities, please visit: http://ap.nintendo.com
For further information contact:
Heather Murphy
Public Relations Manager
Nintendo Australia and New Zealand
murphyheat@nal.nintendo.com.au
+61 403 242 209
+61 3 9730 9900
A new documentary has been created by Year 12 students at Thornbury High, Melbourne about supporting artists within the music inudstry. The documentary was created and produced by Year 12 students and looks at issues of illegal file-sharing in the context of the need to support artists and songwriters. The students also interview fledging Australian artist mcArtney.
Check it out directly at YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMHlL8sHmhg.
Australia, 9 February, 2010 –
Nintendo confirms the settlement of a Federal Court action against an individual in Australia for illegally copying and uploading to the Internet the first game file of Nintendo’s highly-anticipated video game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Wii™ console. The game file was first made available for illegal download worldwide on 6 November, 2009, a week prior to its official release in Australia.
This legal proceeding was commenced to protect the creative rights and innovation of game developers, and to combat the growing international problem of Internet piracy. Under Australian law, copying and distributing games without the permission of the copyright holder is a breach of the Copyright Act.
The legal proceeding resulted in a settlement in which the individual will pay to Nintendo the sum of $1.5 Million dollars by way of damages to compensate Nintendo for the loss of sales revenue caused by the individual’s actions.
Upon the game being uploaded to the Internet, Nintendo was able to employ the use of sophisticated technological forensics to identify the individual responsible for illegally copying the file and making it available for further distribution. On 23 November, 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order in respect of the individual’s residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from those premises in order to gain further evidence against the individual.
Nintendo guards its intellectual property rights in order to protect the interests of its valued consumers, its own interests, as well as the interests of game development companies. Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise our industry by using all means available to it under the law.
Nintendo has been working to combat piracy for approximately 20 years. Piracy is a significant threat to Nintendo’s business, as well as over 1,400 game development companies working to provide unique and innovative games for the Nintendo platform. Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the detriment of video game enthusiasts. When there is a decrease in game development, there is also a decrease in the number of jobs in the industry. The existence of piracy jeopardises the strength of the video game industry overall.
For more information about Nintendo’s global anti-piracy activities, please visit: http://ap.nintendo.com
For further information contact:
Heather Murphy
Public Relations Manager
Nintendo Australia and New Zealand
murphyheat@nal.nintendo.com.au
+61 403 242 209
+61 3 9730 9900
This report presents the findings of some research into the involvement of organzied crime and terrorist groups in counterfeiting a wide range of products. It presents detailed cases studies into one area of particular interest – film piracy to show how the broader problem of criminal and perhaps even terrorist groups are finding new way s of funding their activities.
To read the report click here.
Sydney: On 29 October, Victoria Police raided a residential premises in Moe in rural eastern Victoria, shutting down a large-scale illegal movie piracy lab, seizing over 6,000 illegal movie DVDs and computer equipment.
The Police raid of the Moe residence revealed 18 illegal DVD burners, five computers, seven printers and more than 6,000 pirated DVD movies, including illegal copies of “UP” and “The Proposal” which are currently being shown in Australian cinemas. The pirated DVDs were allegedly being sold locally for $5each. A 50-year-old male is assisting police with their inquiries.
Commenting on the operation, Neil Gane, Executive Director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), said, “Movie piracy has become a highly-profitable racket for criminals, however, they are seriously deluding themselves if they think they can escape the law. The excellent work by the Latrobe local area command of the Victorian Police has today stopped this criminal operation in its tracks, and the suspected movie pirate will be held accountable for his actions. Movie piracy is not a victimless crime: It threaten community cinemas and DVD stores and the livelihoods of many Australians.”
Penalties for copyright crimes are up to $60,500 and/or 5 years jail per offence.
About AFACT
In 2008, state and federal police conducted 51 raids involving movie piracy and seized 544,697 pirated DVDs. They also seized 488 burners capable of producing 12 million pirated DVDs a year with a potential street value of over $61million.
AFACT works closely with industry, government, police and educational institutions to address copyright theft and protect the interests of the film and television industry as well as the interests of Australian movie fans.
Australia’s copyright industries are the 3rd largest contributors as a percentage of GDP in the world, second only to the US and UK.
In 2006/07 they contributed 10.3% GDP to Australia’s economy [up 66% since 1996], represented 8% of our employment and generated 4.1% of total exports.
The film and TV industry in Australia alone contributed $4.4 billion to GDP and supports 50,000 jobs, including small businesses under threat from movie and TV piracy, and independent cinemas, video rental stores and film and television producers across the country.
In 2007, the film and TV sector contributed an estimated $1.8 billion in tax to the Australian Government.
Australian judge jails music and movie pirate
Courts take copyright piracy seriously
SYDNEY – On the 21 August, Sydney’s District Court recorded criminal convictions and handed a three month jail term to the owner and operator of an Australian commercial piracy operation.
On the 21 August, Sydney’s District Court recorded criminal convictions and handed a three month jail term to the owner and operator of an Australian commercial piracy operation.
On 21 May 2009 a jury found Yong Hong LIN guilty of 15 indictable copyright offences following a three week trial and more than 12 hours of deliberation. The criminal charges were the first to proceed on indictment in the District Court since amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) in 2007.
54 year old LIN owned and operated an Eastwood music and movie store raided by New South Wales Police on 27 February 2007. The raid followed an extensive investigation by investigators from the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI).
The police raid netted more than 16,000 pirated movie and music discs being openly offered for sale to the public. The haul included discs imported into Australia from illegal manufacturing plants in China as well as illegally burnt discs produced locally. The illegal discs from China were purchased wholesale by LIN for 50 cents and sold for $7.
Before handing down the sentence Judge Knox commented: “I do not think that a fine or a community service order is appropriate in terms of being a deterrent sentence… the proper penalty… is one of a period of imprisonment.”
The jail term given by Judge Knox is the second such custodial sentence handed out to pirates in the last ten days. On Friday 14th August, a South Australian court sentenced Brian Rutherford to a seven month (suspended) jail term following an Australian Federal Police raid in March this year.
The indictable charges brought against Mr LIN by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions led to a dramatic three week trial, which saw music and movie industry experts give evidence about counterfeit discs manufactured in China and illegally imported into Australia to the detriment of the local movie and music industry.
“The movie and TV industries make a significant contribution to Australian jobs and our economy and need the protection of strong laws, effective enforcement and deterrent sentencing,” said Neil Gane, Executive Director of AFACT, commenting on the conviction. “We are at a tipping point and jail terms are without doubt the only way the courts can provide the strong deterrence needed to stop such profitable and damaging crimes.”
“The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the courts have sent a strong message: that criminals who steal music for commercial gain will find themselves facing serious charges and may ultimately end up in jail,” said Dean Mitchell, Investigations Manager, MIPI.
LIN was charged with 31 offences relating to copyright theft; the jury convicted on 15 offences and acquitted on the remainder.
Criminal penalties for copyright infringement are up to $60,500 and 5 years imprisonment per offence for individuals, and up to $302,500 for corporations.
Movie piracy should be reported to the AFACT hotline: 1800 25 19 96
Music piracy should be reported to the MIPI hotline: 1800 06 16 16
About AFACT
AFACT works closely with industry, government, police and educational institutions to address copyright theft and protect the interests of the film and television industry as well as the interests of Australian movie fans.
Australia’s copyright industries are the 3rd largest contributors as a percentage of GDP in the world, second only to the US and UK.
In 2006/07 they contributed 10.3% GDP to Australia’s economy [up 66% since 1996], represented 8% of our employment and generated 4.1% of total exports.
The film and TV industry in Australia alone contributed $4.4 billion to GDP and supports 50,000 jobs, including small businesses under threat from copyright theft, and independent cinemas, video rental stores and film and television producers across the country.
In 2007, the film and TV sector contributed an estimated $1.8 billion in tax to the Australian Government.
In 2008, state and federal police conducted 51 raids involving movie piracy and seized 544,697 pirated DVDs. They also seized 488 burners capable of producing 12 million pirated DVDs a year with a potential street value of over $61million.
Contact:
For interviews with Neil Gane, AFACT, contact:
Stephen Jenner: (02) 9997 8011
After hours: 0409 776 196
info@afact.com.au
www.afact.com.au
About MIPI
Music Industry Piracy Investigations Pty Ltd (www.mipi.com.au) is the anti-piracy organisation for the Australian music industry. MIPI represents close to 125 music labels through their association, ARIA and over 2,000 music publishers and songwriters through their association, AMCOS.
MIPI operates a toll-free piracy hotline on 1800 06 16 16 and a report piracy form that can be accessed at http://www.mipi.com.au/Report-Piracy.html.
Contact:
For interviews with Dean Mitchell, MIPI, contact:
Samantha Hales: (02) 8569 1177
After hours: 0466 362 374
mipi@mipi.com.au
www.mipi.com.au
David Giles is the Director of Development at gaming company Tantalus Media. David talks about the impacts of piracy to PC gaming development and the wider gaming community.
1. How many employees does your organisation employ locally?
We have between 50 and 60 staff at the moment. We also outsource on a regular basis to other local development studios and if you count them into the mix we move up to about 70 to 80.
2. Can you provide us examples of games that have been wholly or partly developed by your organisation in Australia?
Top Gear: Downforce, MX vs ATV Untamed, Pony Friends, Cars Mater National, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.
3. Can you give us a profile of a typical gaming developer in your organisation?
Well, I guess you could split the developers into four groups the first being the game designers. These are people that come up with the game ideas and focus in on exactly how the game will work before any art or code has been produced. The designers look beyond the cool factor in games and focus on what makes the game cool.
Next we have programmers and artists. The programmers usually have programming degrees from University and have decided that games are their passion rather than databases. The artists all work in 3D but many have strong illustration backgrounds before they moved into 3D. Artists as programmers may specialise in different areas with the game development cycle.
The last general group are the producers they are responsible for managing the game project from start to finish. Their general mandate is quality on time.
4. How does gaming piracy directly impact you?
The Australian industry is not a huge one and every time a game is downloaded and copied it can have a significant impact on our local game developers. So much so that PC game development is very rarely carried out by Australian game developers these days because publishers are more cautious about its chance of succeeding financially partly due to the rampant pirating of titles.
Once upon a time a small Australian development team could work on a PC title and make enough to live off, that avenue is fairly well closed now.
5. What would you want gaming pirates to know?
If we want the Australian game industry to survive and grow then it needs to be financially profitable. Every time a game is pirated it puts all of the industry at risk even more so for the fledgling Australian game development community.
Steve Fawkner is the founder of Infinite-Interactive, a video game development company based in Melbourne. Steve has taken time out of his busy schedule to chat about gaming piracy and how it is preventing developers from creating cutting edge, innovative games.
1. How many employees does your organisation employ locally?
We have almost 50 people here full time, and a number of contractors. This could be anywhere from 5-20 people depending on the stage of production that we are in with our projects.
2. Can you provide us examples of games that have been wholly or partly developed by your organisation in Australia?
Our most recent releases have been Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and Neopets: Puzzle Adventure on DS, Wii, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Our most notable release of recent years was probably Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. This game has won a whole raft of Game of the Year awards.
Our releases stretch right back to 1989 when we released the original Warlords strategy game, the first of a series with over 10 sequels.
3. Can you give us a profile of a typical games developer in your organisation?
Our developers tend to fall into three categories. There are the software engineers who generally have the same qualifications as any member of a programming team in the IT industry. There are the artists who work either as illustrators or 3D modellers/texturers/animators. Their backgrounds tend to vary widely, not all of them have any formal qualifications, although most do nowadays. Finally, there is the design and production staff, who quite often come from a technical background. Their responsibilities mostly revolve around making sure everything gets done and that the games are fun to play.
I’ve painted some pretty broad strokes there – within each discipline are many niches and sub-disciplines that are quite distinct from each other.
4. How does gaming piracy directly impact you?
Gaming piracy has made the PC a totally unviable platform for us. Piracy can be performed in such a casual manner today that it is often easier to pirate a game than to buy it. We have moved into the casual game space on consoles and handheld systems to get away from all the piracy.
Piracy began to impact us in 1995 when the first CD-ROM burners became commonplace. We toughed it out for another nine years but it got progressively worse until we had to relegate PC games to second place in 2004.
5. What would you want gaming pirates to know?
It’s really simple. You’re harming innovation. Developers don’t make much money even if they are successful. Most of us are here because we love creating games. The harder life is for us developers, the more we have to play it safe, and the less innovative games you see each year.
I don’t believe that piracy will ever actually kill PC gaming, I’m not that naive and would never try to tell anybody as much, but it WILL reduce the number of titles available down to a few AAA releases every year along with all the shovelware that gets bundled together cheaply. That whole spectrum of really interesting experimental games that you once saw on PC have mostly vanished already. It would be really sad to see them gone altogether.
To those pirates who say “if you wrote good games, you wouldn’t care about piracy”, I say “then why do you still pirate good games?”
