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Microsoft's Peter Moore: Don't sue the pirates

Game software organizations such as the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) make it their duty to go after and shut down pirates. Often, the pirates who are captured and prosecuted are used as a banner headline to warn others that pirating is not only a bad idea, but also illegal.

Whether the action of putting pirates behind bars is a deterrent to prevent illegally copying software is debatable, but one voice from within the game industry, namely Peter Moore, of EA's sports division, thinks that tracking down pirates and suing them is not the answer.

He says suing individuals for pirating is not the way the game industry should go. He made his remarks at the Leipzig Games Convention last week and is suggesting that other ways could be used to prevent piracy, although he wasn't specific on what those ideas were.

"I'm not a huge fan of trying to punish your consumer. Albeit these people have clearly stolen intellectual property, I think there are better ways of resolving this within our power as developers and publishers.

"Yes, we've got to find solutions. We absolutely should crack down on piracy. People put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into their content and deserve to get paid for it. It's absolutely wrong, it is stealing.

"But at the same time I think there are better solutions than chasing people for money. I'm not sure what they are, other than to build game experiences that make it more difficult for there to be any value in pirating games."

Moore continued by saying that DRMs, especially those imposed on music CDs, created a backlash from consumers.

"If we learned anything from the music business, they just don't win any friends by suing their consumers. Speaking personally, I think our industry does not want to fall foul of what happened with music."

So what could these "better solutions" be? It's anyone's guess but preventing software piracy has been the Holy Grail for the video game industry ever since the first title was published.

It still may be awhile before it is found.

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