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Fake GameCube Discs Found in UK

April 5, 2005, 6:47 pm EDT
Total comments: 14

Discovered during piracy raid in Staffordshire.

MAJOR RAID REMOVES OVER £1/2 MILLION ILLEGAL CONTENT FROM UNREGULATED MARKETPLACE

Operation at Midlands car boot sale removes 20,000 counterfeit games, films and music

Tuesday 5 April 2005/... In the early hours of Sunday morning, a team of anti-piracy officials swooped on illegal traders at a Staffordshire car boot sale, leading to the removal of 20,000 fake DVDs with an estimated street value of over half a million pounds.

The manoeuvre, led by Staffordshire Police and supported by ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association), Staffordshire Trading Standards, FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) and Customs and Excise, uncovered a total of 20 stalls at Himley, Wombourne selling copied games, films, music, business software, 30,000 contraband cigarettes and a quantity of Viagra tablets. Pirated copies of Doom 3, a title rated as suitable for adults only, was the most prevalent games title, while officers discovered a small amount of previously unseen fake Gamecube mini discs.

Roger Bennett, director general of ELSPA commented: "This case illustrates the way in which piracy poses a threat to members of the public, allowing titles containing unregulated adult-rated content to be sold illegally without the enforcement of our rigorous ratings system, which is strictly adhered to by legitimate retail outlets. ELSPA would like to thank all those involved for their efforts to eradicate computer and video games piracy."

Two persons from the West Midlands area have been reported for offences against the Trade Marks Act 1994. The case is currently proceeding with the offenders now facing possible prosecution.

ELSPA (The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) represents the interests of the UK games publishers. It has a dedicated anti piracy unit with investigators based across the UK and often works closely with the Police and Trading Standards to combat computer games piracy.

Anyone with any information on computer games piracy should contact the police, their local Trading Standards Office or call the ELSPA anti piracy unit hotline on 08705 133405.

Talkback

BlackNMild2k1April 05, 2005

when they say 'Fake' GC disc do they mean disc that look like authentic games but have no useable data, or mini dvd-r with gamecube games burned onto them?

ArbokApril 05, 2005

Quote

Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1
when they say 'Fake' GC disc do they mean disc that look like authentic games but have no useable data, or mini dvd-r with gamecube games burned onto them?


Exactly what I was wondering. I assume it's the former, otherwise they probably would have said "Pirated Gamecube Discs Found in UK", although it's only my guess.

BlackNMild2k1April 05, 2005

Well they did say 'fake' DVD's, and I know those DVD's have the actual movie on them (most of the time), but when they mentioned Doom 3, they did refer to it as 'pirated'. So I'm not quite sure what they would have meant by 'fake', but I do suppose they would have said 'pirated' as you pointed out.

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusApril 05, 2005

It's very nice how you here very little about GameCube piracy. Nintendo sure did a great job with their system design to prevent piracy. Next step... preventing the buying/selling of used games and rentals face-icon-small-disgusted.gif

zidapiApril 05, 2005

Yeah i agree with Rize, Nintendo did an excellent job with anti-piracy measures this generation. Gamecube piracy is only now becoming possible (compared with less than a month for Xbox and PS2), and with only 18 months or 2 years at the most of life left in the cube. Nintendo definitely deserves props for keeping the pirates at bay this long, my only concern is that with the revolution being backwards compatible we may see piracy on the system early in its life.

BranDonk KongApril 06, 2005

Backwards compatibility most likely will NOT lead to piracy. You can't install a PSX modchip in a PS2, you won't be able to install a Gamecube modchip in a Revolution (yes, I know there are other ways, but there's no need to inform the uninformed).

ib2kool4u912April 06, 2005

Maybe the were actually doughnuts with a peice of paper taped to them that said "GAEMCUBE DISKC". That would qualify as a fake Gamecube disc, right?

Ian SaneApril 06, 2005

"Next step... preventing the buying/selling of used games and rentals"

Wait. What? Is Nintendo planning on preventing used sales and rentals? I don't know how anyone could actually do that but if they did I wouldn't buy their console.

vuduApril 06, 2005

It was a joke, Ian. Relax.

Although, I do believe video game publishers do earn profit on used game sales in Japan. But that's not the point.

nickmitchApril 06, 2005

Really how?

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusApril 06, 2005

Rental is also prohibited in Japan, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were Nintendo's fault since they tried to do it here too.

vuduApril 07, 2005

Quote

Originally posted by: TVman
Really how?
I believe it has to do with some loophole in the law that somehow makes videogames classified into the same category as movies. Back in the day, the Japanese movie industry was losing a lot of revenue in theaters because theaters would sell their reels to other theaters once they were done with them. In order to encourage movie making Japanese lawmakers ruled that movie makers would earn trickle-down revenue when used movies were sold. I'm not sure if this applies to video and DVD sales, too, or just reel movies.

Somehow video games got lumped into that category too, and as a result publishers get paid when a used game is sold. I'm not sure if the console manufacturer also gets paid.

I read all this on Gamespy.com probably about a year ago, so I could be slightly off. If anyone knows more, feel free to chime in.

Ian SaneApril 07, 2005

"Back in the day, the Japanese movie industry was losing a lot of revenue in theaters because theaters would sell their reels to other theaters once they were done with them. In order to encourage movie making Japanese lawmakers ruled that movie makers would earn trickle-down revenue when used movies were sold."

That is incredibly nonsensical. Why not instead make it illegal for movie theatres to sell their reels to other theatres? What do we do in Canada and the US to prevent theatres from doing that?

ShyGuyApril 07, 2005

IIRC, Most first run theatres in the US lease the movie from the distributor rather than own it. Now theatres that show old movies I believe can own the reel.

More Elegant Solution than how the Japanese did it I think.

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