Is the best term to describe the situation is "Guilt by association" or "collective guilt."?
In my opinion, just because you didn't cause the original offense doesn't mean you're automatically exonerated from the possibility that you ALSO commited an offense too. In this case, receiving "sensitive" material without the owners permission is an offense in itself, regardless of whether that party had originally and illegally obtained it in the first instance.
Did EA have the right to do this yes. You can bet all they did was contact the host that the site was on and complained and it was the host that closed the site. Did it do any good getting the site closed. None at all infact with all this talk about it im sure lots of people that would never have seen the pics and vids will no go and look at them. The site is already back up and still showing the vids so in the end nothing has changed.
Did EA have the right to do this yes. You can bet all they did was contact the host that the site was on and complained and it was the host that closed the site. Did it do any good getting the site closed. None at all infact with all this talk about it im sure lots of people that would never have seen the pics and vids will no go and look at them. The site is already back up and still showing the vids so in the end nothing has changed.
erm....no it aint. The whole domain has been taken down. This can be either could be accidental (e.g. hardware malfunction or failure to pay the bill), or on purpose (e.g. the providers of the domain hardware disagree with the purpose of the site, or the current temporary owners of the domain name took it down for other reasons). Given the sensitive information that they had in their possession, chances are that it was taken down on purpose due to investigations. And rightly so.
It's tough to say whether they have the right to shut down a page when the site is a 3rd party, but they DO have a right to sue, whether they could possible win or not.
And I doubt "Leakerz" has the money to fund even a winning case. So they took the 2nd smartest option. 1st smartest would be to pull an "Iphone 4" and publicize the crap out of the incident- show EA strong arming the little guy...
It's tough to say whether they have the right to shut down a page when the site is a 3rd party, but they DO have a right to sue, whether they could possible win or not.
And I doubt "Leakerz" has the money to fund even a winning case. So they took the 2nd smartest option. 1st smartest would be to pull an "Iphone 4" and publicize the crap out of the incident- show EA strong arming the little guy...
I've yet to see any confirmation that EA DID force the site to shut down. Looking at the article on the site, apparently the domain hosters took it down. Now whether that was due to pressure from EA has still yet to be proven. The point is that the domain hosters may have done it on their own.
Making a big deal out of "EA strong arming the little guy" wouldn't be a smart idea at all. Anyone with half a brain can see that Leakerz are in the wrong here. They are in possession of sensitive materials that don't belong to them and neither have they been given the permission by the material owners to show it. It is in their best interests to "keep their heads down" if they don't want more of the same from other MMO companies such as Blizzard.
Ok, some people here have no clue what they are talking about, and others are on the right track. Let me break this down for you as a game developer and owner of patented, and copyright information.
The NDA between the tester and company, is soley between the tester and company, however, the tester violated the NDA by breaking the terms of the agreement and sharing confidential information that will be giving the company monetary gain, and an edge so to speak over the competition. The information leaked could or could have not been "ground breaking" information that was the main feature or features of the Intellectual Property. EA as the owner of the company that owns the electronic license, giving BioWare the RIGHT to use the intellectual Property, is also covered by the electronic license agreement between LucasArts and BioWare, thus gining them the right to protect said intellectual Property.
The reason why this is important is this; IF the information leaked was ground breaking information, and was intercepted by competition, say Blizzard Entertainment, they could implement those features in games that are already on the market, and claim that they "did it first, and how revolutionary thier game or games are becoming". Yes EA could still implement thier "stolen" features, but it would not have the same effect as features that no one has ever seen in the genre before. Now EA having the right to take the Leaker site down, no they have no right to take the site down and that would have to go through a very long legal battle. However they do have the right to have them cease and desist on placing CONFIDENTIAL material on thier site. Through a legal battle they could have the site dismantled for repeat offence of posting confidentail material that is protected under patent and copyright law.
The material they are posting is protected under US and International copyright law, as well as trademark, and patent law. They own the patent on the intellectual property, as in the game design document and information within, that document is updated often according to patent law to keep the patent active. The Game Design Document serves as an enginnering tool to "build" the intellectual property into a proprietary, artisitc expression. thier sole purpose for building the IP is for monetary gain. As for the copyright, the game is protected under copyright law, with or without filing for copyright, as it is a produced artistic expression. The " sceenshots" break copyright law as they are considered photography, and the screenshots show the protected Intellectual Property, and the site has written documentation supporting the screenshots. So that information was posted without expressed written legal permission from EA, BioWare or the Licensor, LucasArts, and they have the right to have any and all material removed from any public or private viewing whether there wan an NDA or not, as it is thier property. The tester as the "photographer" can only take screenshots for private use not to share with any other party. (honestly I still havent figured out, why companies dont disable the screenshot feature until open beta...)
I could keep going, but i'll leave it at that.
And for anyone who says i'm wrong....thats fine, I just got finsihed with my patent prep work for one of our GDD's....You don't have to patent a GDD, but it is a blueprint and business plan for your project.
It's tough to say whether they have the right to shut down a page when the site is a 3rd party, but they DO have a right to sue, whether they could possible win or not.
And I doubt "Leakerz" has the money to fund even a winning case. So they took the 2nd smartest option. 1st smartest would be to pull an "Iphone 4" and publicize the crap out of the incident- show EA strong arming the little guy...
I've yet to see any confirmation that EA DID force the site to shut down. Looking at the article on the site, apparently the domain hosters took it down. Now whether that was due to pressure from EA has still yet to be proven. The point is that the domain hosters may have done it on their own.
Making a big deal out of "EA strong arming the little guy" wouldn't be a smart idea at all. Anyone with half a brain can see that Leakerz are in the wrong here. They are in possession of sensitive materials that don't belong to them and neither have they been given the permission by the material owners to show it. It is in their best interests to "keep their heads down" if they don't want more of the same from other MMO companies such as Blizzard.
While by law, that is true, that's not the way the public would percieve it. The Gizmodo/Iphone 4 case is a good example. Most folks thought kicking down a dudes door over a phone is a bit much, and the "victim", technically, bought stolen property.
So here, strongarming to get a site shut down over some friggin' pictures? IMO, that's a PR nightmare for EA.
what gives E.A the right to take down the website Leakerz. This is the Internet and it should have freedom.
When somebody gets a leaked papparazi picture of some celebrity that you dont see them take down the site right away.
So they broke the NDA its not like they murdered someone, you shouldn't have the right to take their website down....
its not their fault that your BETA got leaked!
This is really a poor analogy and thread. The NDA is an agreement, a contract. A photograph is different, often taken in public, and the only way that is going to be stopped is with proof that a restraining order is needed. The NDA is always a legal thing, photographs are only under certain circumstances.
WIth that said, the NDA is the NDA and if players/testers cannot respect that they shouldn't be part of the testing team.
From my knowledge leakers.com wasn't tied to the NDA as they weren't involved in the beta, only divulged the leaked data that was provided to them. Might be a subtle difference but it is an important one nonetheless.
From a legal point of view it would be interesting to have expert opinions about how far goes the ownership of LA / BioWAre over the leaked videos and pics and so their right to claim them or have the web site shut down.
Do not read that I approve publishing leaked video, still my curiosity about the legal part holds firm.
Its very similar to how cops enforce drug laws. You might not know your friend has drugs in your car but if you get pulled over and he/she gets found out your still going to jail with them. Sames goes for the NDA
what gives E.A the right to take down the website Leakerz. This is the Internet and it should have freedom.
When somebody gets a leaked papparazi picture of some celebrity that you dont see them take down the site right away.
So they broke the NDA its not like they murdered someone, you shouldn't have the right to take their website down....
its not their fault that your BETA got leaked!
As other people have said, the NDA gives them the right.
There seems to be a lot of people in this day and age that think they can do whatever they want, just because they want to. It's not the case and companies aren't standing for it either. The NDA is a contract and breaking it allows them to take lots of legal action against those who broke it. EA isn't the first one to run into this issue. This happens with every major MMO release everytime, and everytime the sites get shut down when they realize they can and will be sued severely. In the end it's not a gain for the site to be run into the ground by lawyers just to keep up a couple sneak preview picks.
I've seen a lot of people go into beta's lately thinking they can just ignore the NDA and release all the info, and no it never works. Just like there are a lot of people who feel they should be able to run a private server/emu of whatever MMO they like because they don't want to pay monthly fees, or want to have their own world for their friends. Also illegal and allows companies to take all kinds of legal action.
People need to realize freedom does not equal abilitiy to break the law and do whatever you want.
And no I highly doubt this would get the same reception that the iPhone incident got. The iPhone was lost by an employee, the person who found it was smart enough to sell it to a site and make some money. Yes it was illegal to sell the property like that which gave Apple legal action it could use. However after Apple got the phone back simply by asking, they decided to go nuts and have cops raid the guy's house. That is the part that had everyone realize apple is nuts. Forcing the website down is the same as the give us our phone back step. No one cares about that step. Now is EA sent cops after these people after they took the website down, you'd have a similar story to the apple one. As it stands now, no one would take pity on the website for breaking the law.
leakerz wasn't part of the NDA, they just posted the videos... they shouldn't be held accountable.
I was unable to read any further in this thread. I seriously didn't know that people this stupid existed.
Those videos belong to EA/Bioware, they are currently (and directly) held under the NDA. They absolutely should be held accountable because they knew the videos they were posting were protected by the NDA. Big picture-wise it doesn't matter WHO broke the NDA, just that it was breached and EA/Bioware HAD to take action, if they discovered who leaked the videos, they were probably removed from Beta and blacklisted (as most MMO companies do). And this website had it coming to them.
Moral: Don't post things that you know you shouldn't.
leakerz wasn't part of the NDA, they just posted the videos... they shouldn't be held accountable.
I was unable to read any further in this thread. I seriously didn't know that people this stupid existed.
Those videos belong to EA/Bioware, they are currently (and directly) held under the NDA. They absolutely should be held accountable because they knew the videos they were posting were protected by the NDA. Big picture-wise it doesn't matter WHO broke the NDA, just that it was breached and EA/Bioware HAD to take action, if they discovered who leaked the videos, they were probably removed from Beta and blacklisted (as most MMO companies do). And this website had it coming to them.
Moral: Don't post things that you know you shouldn't.
Completely agree. Unfortunately over the last decade society constantly uses the "Homer Simpson" attitude by feigning ignorance and blaming others even when they're holding the metaphorical smoking gun. Society seems to be rife with this individuals and its time that the legal system put a stop to it. The internet doesn't give people the right to do what they want, when they want and to ignore all laws.
Anyone who posts details about IP's (which includes screenshots, videos) when they haven't been given permission by the IP owners deserve all they get. And no one can say that Leakerz didn't know about the implications surrounding the release of such information. EA should politely ask for the removal of ALL sensitive information pertaining to their products and Leakerz should oblige. And if they don't oblige with EA's request, then they deserve all they get.
Every single beta small or large is plagued by leaks and everytime we have these same threads with these same posts. With the same people claiming that such and such a site was closed down and will shortly be in court. Then the same legal enlightenment posts with the same rebutles then arguement for and against.
If you have a beta you will have leaks I don't care if it's EA or Gaia herself, they can chase ghosts around the internet to their hearts content but it won't make any difference.
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
I'm not entirely sure you understand what he means by 'copy'. He is not referring to someone literally duplicating the game and selling it as 'their' Star Wars: The Old Republic... he's more referring to the practice of industrial espionage and reverse engineering.
Someone from Company B sneaks into Company A and, one way or another, obtains materials from A's product. Company B uses this to design a product that looks similar, works the same and often has a similar name. Fans of Company A's product are drawn away by this second product. Stellar Battle : The Empire's Fall is born!
Legally, sneaking into someone else's company and stealing IP is illegal... but you have to prove it happened, either with proof of how they recieved it or a killer case proving their their product -must- have come from your IP. It is often not convincing enough to point out how similar things are to a judge because A) Your patent describes very specific things belonging to you and judges are encouraged to believe in coincidence in most jurisdictions. The law exists to protect the innocent more than to catch the guilty in most first-world countries... so the judge is going to live Company B every chance to make excuses rather than risk sentencing an innocent party.
The litigation for all of this can and often does take years which can ruin the success of the project anyways. So many companies are forced to accept that they don't have the position, evidence or time to sue company B currently if they want to make money on their project, and they may shelf the issue til a later date or forget about it altogether (hoping Company B's product isn't good enough to compete despite what they stole).
So yeah, companies do practice industrial espionage and yeah, they steal from each other occasionally. There's nothing stupid or light about the subject and it has been known to kill successful companies. It's big stuff.
NDAs are for hiding things before the pre-orders takes place.
You really think that they have the NDA because some other game studio would copy their game?
It's a license of a well known IP and anyone copying it would get sued to hell and back in true american fashion.
NDA's are used mostly so that the company can release their own info at their own pace and build the hype, think in terms of a research-developed marketing scheme. If everyone knew what was being revealed there would be no point in a big reveal! And we all know many things change on the line between Point A and Point B, if someone leaks info that is generally negatively-perceived and it changes the next day then the game loses hype (Read as: $$$) for no reason.
It's tough to say whether they have the right to shut down a page when the site is a 3rd party, but they DO have a right to sue, whether they could possible win or not.
And I doubt "Leakerz" has the money to fund even a winning case. So they took the 2nd smartest option. 1st smartest would be to pull an "Iphone 4" and publicize the crap out of the incident- show EA strong arming the little guy...
I've yet to see any confirmation that EA DID force the site to shut down. Looking at the article on the site, apparently the domain hosters took it down. Now whether that was due to pressure from EA has still yet to be proven. The point is that the domain hosters may have done it on their own.
Making a big deal out of "EA strong arming the little guy" wouldn't be a smart idea at all. Anyone with half a brain can see that Leakerz are in the wrong here. They are in possession of sensitive materials that don't belong to them and neither have they been given the permission by the material owners to show it. It is in their best interests to "keep their heads down" if they don't want more of the same from other MMO companies such as Blizzard.
While by law, that is true, that's not the way the public would percieve it. The Gizmodo/Iphone 4 case is a good example. Most folks thought kicking down a dudes door over a phone is a bit much, and the "victim", technically, bought stolen property.
So here, strongarming to get a site shut down over some friggin' pictures? IMO, that's a PR nightmare for EA.
PR nightmare? Not really, seeing as how 99.9 percent of the gaming population could care less or doesn't even know about it. The only people that actually care are probably leakerz themselves and they apparently are back up and running. maybe they will be more careful next time they throw stolen property on their sites and expect to get away with it?
At least they will when it comes to TOR. LOL
Yea, right... I am sure that people will just stop buying EA games in masses now because some site most people don't even know about got shut down. Yea, I heard about the site, and I looked at the video while it was up, but I would never have known about them had I not been googling SWTOR to begin with.
Only parasitic minds thinks it's wrong to shut down sites like these. Despite that I do frequent sites with leaks, but TOR is something I don't like to spoil, just get to know the gameplay, classes etc but not the story.
Only parasitic minds thinks it's wrong to shut down sites like these. Despite that I do frequent sites with leaks, but TOR is something I don't like to spoil, just get to know the gameplay, classes etc but not the story.
leakerz wasn't part of the NDA, they just posted the videos... they shouldn't be held accountable.
That makes about as much sense as saying "Leakers didn't rape the victim, they just posted the videos." And yes that is an extreme and somewhat silly analogy but I use it to make a point.
EA didn't force leakerz to take the videos down, EA's lawyers did by either requesting or demanding they do so or face a lawsuit. Whether you or I feel leakerz did any, or did no wrong doesn't matter at all. What does matter is that leakerz felt that keeping the information up wasn't worth the risk of getting involved in and possibly losing a massively expensive legal action with EA.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
what gives E.A the right to take down the website Leakerz. This is the Internet and it should have freedom.
When somebody gets a leaked papparazi picture of some celebrity that you dont see them take down the site right away.
So they broke the NDA its not like they murdered someone, you shouldn't have the right to take their website down....
its not their fault that your BETA got leaked!
Its the Leakerz owner's fault for registering the site in a country that has laws. When 50% of countries have 0 internet laws, one would think that when you post something that would be controversial, you should at least buy the server there. EA has the right to take down anything, because they have a lot of money, thats how the US system works, thats the system in all G20 countries. If you have a lot of money, you can even get someone killed, or even convince a US government to attack Iraq and Afghanistan so you can lower the religious fanaticism there in a 15 year span to make more profits by selling stuff that as of today goes against their morals, but tomorrow might become "acceptable". I dont understand why people still dont grasp the concept that money runs the world.
Can you enlighten me? How can you be so ignorant?
Oh, btw, there are plenty of other leaking sites out there. Just like P2P, when one is taken down, 3 are born.
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Thanks Belledaire
Is the best term to describe the situation is "Guilt by association" or "collective guilt."?
In my opinion, just because you didn't cause the original offense doesn't mean you're automatically exonerated from the possibility that you ALSO commited an offense too. In this case, receiving "sensitive" material without the owners permission is an offense in itself, regardless of whether that party had originally and illegally obtained it in the first instance.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Did EA have the right to do this yes. You can bet all they did was contact the host that the site was on and complained and it was the host that closed the site. Did it do any good getting the site closed. None at all infact with all this talk about it im sure lots of people that would never have seen the pics and vids will no go and look at them. The site is already back up and still showing the vids so in the end nothing has changed.
erm....no it aint. The whole domain has been taken down. This can be either could be accidental (e.g. hardware malfunction or failure to pay the bill), or on purpose (e.g. the providers of the domain hardware disagree with the purpose of the site, or the current temporary owners of the domain name took it down for other reasons). Given the sensitive information that they had in their possession, chances are that it was taken down on purpose due to investigations. And rightly so.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
No the .com is not back up they are working on moving it to a new server but as i said the site is back up just running on .net.
Well personally speaking, I hope EA gets in touch with them to get all sensitive materials removed.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
I guess none of these people upset about this have never read any of the NDAs they have agreed to when entering a beta.
It's tough to say whether they have the right to shut down a page when the site is a 3rd party, but they DO have a right to sue, whether they could possible win or not.
And I doubt "Leakerz" has the money to fund even a winning case. So they took the 2nd smartest option. 1st smartest would be to pull an "Iphone 4" and publicize the crap out of the incident- show EA strong arming the little guy...
I've yet to see any confirmation that EA DID force the site to shut down. Looking at the article on the site, apparently the domain hosters took it down. Now whether that was due to pressure from EA has still yet to be proven. The point is that the domain hosters may have done it on their own.
Making a big deal out of "EA strong arming the little guy" wouldn't be a smart idea at all. Anyone with half a brain can see that Leakerz are in the wrong here. They are in possession of sensitive materials that don't belong to them and neither have they been given the permission by the material owners to show it. It is in their best interests to "keep their heads down" if they don't want more of the same from other MMO companies such as Blizzard.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Ok, some people here have no clue what they are talking about, and others are on the right track. Let me break this down for you as a game developer and owner of patented, and copyright information.
The NDA between the tester and company, is soley between the tester and company, however, the tester violated the NDA by breaking the terms of the agreement and sharing confidential information that will be giving the company monetary gain, and an edge so to speak over the competition. The information leaked could or could have not been "ground breaking" information that was the main feature or features of the Intellectual Property. EA as the owner of the company that owns the electronic license, giving BioWare the RIGHT to use the intellectual Property, is also covered by the electronic license agreement between LucasArts and BioWare, thus gining them the right to protect said intellectual Property.
The reason why this is important is this; IF the information leaked was ground breaking information, and was intercepted by competition, say Blizzard Entertainment, they could implement those features in games that are already on the market, and claim that they "did it first, and how revolutionary thier game or games are becoming". Yes EA could still implement thier "stolen" features, but it would not have the same effect as features that no one has ever seen in the genre before. Now EA having the right to take the Leaker site down, no they have no right to take the site down and that would have to go through a very long legal battle. However they do have the right to have them cease and desist on placing CONFIDENTIAL material on thier site. Through a legal battle they could have the site dismantled for repeat offence of posting confidentail material that is protected under patent and copyright law.
The material they are posting is protected under US and International copyright law, as well as trademark, and patent law. They own the patent on the intellectual property, as in the game design document and information within, that document is updated often according to patent law to keep the patent active. The Game Design Document serves as an enginnering tool to "build" the intellectual property into a proprietary, artisitc expression. thier sole purpose for building the IP is for monetary gain. As for the copyright, the game is protected under copyright law, with or without filing for copyright, as it is a produced artistic expression. The " sceenshots" break copyright law as they are considered photography, and the screenshots show the protected Intellectual Property, and the site has written documentation supporting the screenshots. So that information was posted without expressed written legal permission from EA, BioWare or the Licensor, LucasArts, and they have the right to have any and all material removed from any public or private viewing whether there wan an NDA or not, as it is thier property. The tester as the "photographer" can only take screenshots for private use not to share with any other party. (honestly I still havent figured out, why companies dont disable the screenshot feature until open beta...)
I could keep going, but i'll leave it at that.
And for anyone who says i'm wrong....thats fine, I just got finsihed with my patent prep work for one of our GDD's....You don't have to patent a GDD, but it is a blueprint and business plan for your project.
While by law, that is true, that's not the way the public would percieve it. The Gizmodo/Iphone 4 case is a good example. Most folks thought kicking down a dudes door over a phone is a bit much, and the "victim", technically, bought stolen property.
So here, strongarming to get a site shut down over some friggin' pictures? IMO, that's a PR nightmare for EA.
But some people fail to realize that leakerz is already back up.
Its very similar to how cops enforce drug laws. You might not know your friend has drugs in your car but if you get pulled over and he/she gets found out your still going to jail with them. Sames goes for the NDA
As other people have said, the NDA gives them the right.
There seems to be a lot of people in this day and age that think they can do whatever they want, just because they want to. It's not the case and companies aren't standing for it either. The NDA is a contract and breaking it allows them to take lots of legal action against those who broke it. EA isn't the first one to run into this issue. This happens with every major MMO release everytime, and everytime the sites get shut down when they realize they can and will be sued severely. In the end it's not a gain for the site to be run into the ground by lawyers just to keep up a couple sneak preview picks.
I've seen a lot of people go into beta's lately thinking they can just ignore the NDA and release all the info, and no it never works. Just like there are a lot of people who feel they should be able to run a private server/emu of whatever MMO they like because they don't want to pay monthly fees, or want to have their own world for their friends. Also illegal and allows companies to take all kinds of legal action.
People need to realize freedom does not equal abilitiy to break the law and do whatever you want.
And no I highly doubt this would get the same reception that the iPhone incident got. The iPhone was lost by an employee, the person who found it was smart enough to sell it to a site and make some money. Yes it was illegal to sell the property like that which gave Apple legal action it could use. However after Apple got the phone back simply by asking, they decided to go nuts and have cops raid the guy's house. That is the part that had everyone realize apple is nuts. Forcing the website down is the same as the give us our phone back step. No one cares about that step. Now is EA sent cops after these people after they took the website down, you'd have a similar story to the apple one. As it stands now, no one would take pity on the website for breaking the law.
I was unable to read any further in this thread. I seriously didn't know that people this stupid existed.
Those videos belong to EA/Bioware, they are currently (and directly) held under the NDA. They absolutely should be held accountable because they knew the videos they were posting were protected by the NDA. Big picture-wise it doesn't matter WHO broke the NDA, just that it was breached and EA/Bioware HAD to take action, if they discovered who leaked the videos, they were probably removed from Beta and blacklisted (as most MMO companies do). And this website had it coming to them.
Moral: Don't post things that you know you shouldn't.
Completely agree. Unfortunately over the last decade society constantly uses the "Homer Simpson" attitude by feigning ignorance and blaming others even when they're holding the metaphorical smoking gun. Society seems to be rife with this individuals and its time that the legal system put a stop to it. The internet doesn't give people the right to do what they want, when they want and to ignore all laws.
Anyone who posts details about IP's (which includes screenshots, videos) when they haven't been given permission by the IP owners deserve all they get. And no one can say that Leakerz didn't know about the implications surrounding the release of such information. EA should politely ask for the removal of ALL sensitive information pertaining to their products and Leakerz should oblige. And if they don't oblige with EA's request, then they deserve all they get.
Free speech is a right, common sense is a duty.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Every single beta small or large is plagued by leaks and everytime we have these same threads with these same posts. With the same people claiming that such and such a site was closed down and will shortly be in court. Then the same legal enlightenment posts with the same rebutles then arguement for and against.
If you have a beta you will have leaks I don't care if it's EA or Gaia herself, they can chase ghosts around the internet to their hearts content but it won't make any difference.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
NDAs are for hiding things before the pre-orders takes place.
You really think that they have the NDA because some other game studio would copy their game?
It's a license of a well known IP and anyone copying it would get sued to hell and back in true american fashion.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
I'm not entirely sure you understand what he means by 'copy'. He is not referring to someone literally duplicating the game and selling it as 'their' Star Wars: The Old Republic... he's more referring to the practice of industrial espionage and reverse engineering.
Someone from Company B sneaks into Company A and, one way or another, obtains materials from A's product. Company B uses this to design a product that looks similar, works the same and often has a similar name. Fans of Company A's product are drawn away by this second product. Stellar Battle : The Empire's Fall is born!
Legally, sneaking into someone else's company and stealing IP is illegal... but you have to prove it happened, either with proof of how they recieved it or a killer case proving their their product -must- have come from your IP. It is often not convincing enough to point out how similar things are to a judge because A) Your patent describes very specific things belonging to you and
judges are encouraged to believe in coincidence in most jurisdictions. The law exists to protect the innocent more than to catch the guilty in most first-world countries... so the judge is going to live Company B every chance to make excuses rather than risk sentencing an innocent party.
The litigation for all of this can and often does take years which can ruin the success of the project anyways. So many companies are forced to accept that they don't have the position, evidence or time to sue company B currently if they want to make money on their project, and they may shelf the issue til a later date or forget about it altogether (hoping Company B's product isn't good enough to compete despite what they stole).
So yeah, companies do practice industrial espionage and yeah, they steal from each other occasionally. There's nothing stupid or light about the subject and it has been known to kill successful companies. It's big stuff.
Not liking you back just takes too much energy.
some people fail to realize that that .com is not back up
NDA's are used mostly so that the company can release their own info at their own pace and build the hype, think in terms of a research-developed marketing scheme. If everyone knew what was being revealed there would be no point in a big reveal! And we all know many things change on the line between Point A and Point B, if someone leaks info that is generally negatively-perceived and it changes the next day then the game loses hype (Read as: $$$) for no reason.
PR nightmare? Not really, seeing as how 99.9 percent of the gaming population could care less or doesn't even know about it. The only people that actually care are probably leakerz themselves and they apparently are back up and running. maybe they will be more careful next time they throw stolen property on their sites and expect to get away with it?
At least they will when it comes to TOR. LOL
Yea, right... I am sure that people will just stop buying EA games in masses now because some site most people don't even know about got shut down. Yea, I heard about the site, and I looked at the video while it was up, but I would never have known about them had I not been googling SWTOR to begin with.
Only parasitic minds thinks it's wrong to shut down sites like these. Despite that I do frequent sites with leaks, but TOR is something I don't like to spoil, just get to know the gameplay, classes etc but not the story.
I CREATED MYSELF!
"<Claus|Dev> i r pk"
SW:TOR|War40K:DMO|GW2
The site is not shut down though..
That makes about as much sense as saying "Leakers didn't rape the victim, they just posted the videos." And yes that is an extreme and somewhat silly analogy but I use it to make a point.
EA didn't force leakerz to take the videos down, EA's lawyers did by either requesting or demanding they do so or face a lawsuit. Whether you or I feel leakerz did any, or did no wrong doesn't matter at all. What does matter is that leakerz felt that keeping the information up wasn't worth the risk of getting involved in and possibly losing a massively expensive legal action with EA.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
Its the Leakerz owner's fault for registering the site in a country that has laws. When 50% of countries have 0 internet laws, one would think that when you post something that would be controversial, you should at least buy the server there. EA has the right to take down anything, because they have a lot of money, thats how the US system works, thats the system in all G20 countries. If you have a lot of money, you can even get someone killed, or even convince a US government to attack Iraq and Afghanistan so you can lower the religious fanaticism there in a 15 year span to make more profits by selling stuff that as of today goes against their morals, but tomorrow might become "acceptable". I dont understand why people still dont grasp the concept that money runs the world.
Can you enlighten me? How can you be so ignorant?
Oh, btw, there are plenty of other leaking sites out there. Just like P2P, when one is taken down, 3 are born.