Around a week after the manager of ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit, John Hillier, was misquoted in The Sunday Post newspaper as saying that 90% of American DS owners play pirated games, the UK's industry body has released its official statement on the subject... to be exact, it's made a statement regarding the situation in the United Kingdom.
The statement reads:
Just what exactly the phrase, "Broadly speaking, it is well known ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit fights vigorously..." is supposed to mean is currently being deciphered by our own 'Meandering Waffle Decryption Unit'. This is because we can't believe it means either "Broadly speaking, people know about what we do" or that it means "Broadly speaking we actually do something"... we'll get back to you once the MWDU has done its work.
But what of the fact that Hillier was apparently quoted speaking about the USA? An unofficial response was made late last week denying that Hillier ever gave The Sunday Post figures on American piracy. Since that comment (which SPOnG understands ELSPA would have preferred to remain out of print) was published, however, ELSPA has refused to comment further.
Given the time frame, SPOnG was expecting an in-depth statement chock full of facts and figures, not a bland re-utterance of the fact that ELSPA endeavours to combat game piracy. Surely such a statement could have been put together and approved within hours of ELSPA learning of the story.
It also hasn't escaped our notice that the 'official' response makes no mention of whether the facts ascribed to Hillier were in fact put forward by him.
SPOnG has to wonder if ELSPA dragging its heels on the subject is really serving the UK's games industry's anti-piracy efforts any favours.
You can read the comments published in The Sunday Post here.
The statement reads:
"The ELSPA Intellectual Property Crime Unit is evaluating the R4 game copying device, as it allows for the downloading and play of illegal Nintendo DS software available via the Internet. We are aware that Nintendo has taken actions against these devices in other countries and we are working closely with them to consider next steps in the U.K.
"Broadly speaking, it is well known that ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit fights vigorously against products and devices that violate our members' intellectual property rights, this includes devices that circumvent the security of our members' products and promote the play of illegally copied software. We take great stock in ensuring this continues to be the case."
"Broadly speaking, it is well known that ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit fights vigorously against products and devices that violate our members' intellectual property rights, this includes devices that circumvent the security of our members' products and promote the play of illegally copied software. We take great stock in ensuring this continues to be the case."
Just what exactly the phrase, "Broadly speaking, it is well known ELSPA's Intellectual Property Crime Unit fights vigorously..." is supposed to mean is currently being deciphered by our own 'Meandering Waffle Decryption Unit'. This is because we can't believe it means either "Broadly speaking, people know about what we do" or that it means "Broadly speaking we actually do something"... we'll get back to you once the MWDU has done its work.
But what of the fact that Hillier was apparently quoted speaking about the USA? An unofficial response was made late last week denying that Hillier ever gave The Sunday Post figures on American piracy. Since that comment (which SPOnG understands ELSPA would have preferred to remain out of print) was published, however, ELSPA has refused to comment further.
Given the time frame, SPOnG was expecting an in-depth statement chock full of facts and figures, not a bland re-utterance of the fact that ELSPA endeavours to combat game piracy. Surely such a statement could have been put together and approved within hours of ELSPA learning of the story.
It also hasn't escaped our notice that the 'official' response makes no mention of whether the facts ascribed to Hillier were in fact put forward by him.
SPOnG has to wonder if ELSPA dragging its heels on the subject is really serving the UK's games industry's anti-piracy efforts any favours.
You can read the comments published in The Sunday Post here.
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Comments
Joji 7 Feb 2008 02:31
1/2
Why is it so hard, to eat humble pie when you are wrong?
Get a grip ELSPA.You look silly right now.
Get a grip ELSPA.You look silly right now.
TimSpong 7 Feb 2008 10:14
2/2
Joji wrote:
Why is it so hard, to eat humble pie when you are wrong?
One question?
Why would you eat humble pie if you were right?
Cheers
Tim