Authors Without A Yacht (AWaY) discussion

....the virus also took a screenshot of the player's desktop and uploaded it to the same website. If they were hoping to catch the pirates doing something embarrassing, they succeeded: One guy was caught reading plant-related erotica.

Read more: 6 Hilarious Ways Game Designers Are Screwing With Pirates | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/article_19162_...

Yeah, we did stuff like that in some of the games I did also, way back in the day. We would change character attributes to make them weaker, we would suddenly introduce a boss monster that was unbeatable, we would change the room layout and leave player stranded with no way out or we would change the color palette, giving the players black on black graphics, etc.

All of these things would show up way in the game so you really had to play the game for some time and to a certain point for these to take effect. Pirates don't do that. They do quick spot checks only and then release the cracked product.

As a result we had people call our support hotline, asking for help because there was a black screen graphics glitch or because they could not defeat a certain monster.

Our response was usually "Can you give us your address so we can send you a replacement copy?" or "Well, if you had bought the game instead of stealing it you would not have this problem. As luck has it we can sell you a copy right now..."

It really created some funny situations with those customers on the phone as you can imagine.

Can you think of any way we authors can protect our books? :)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that someone who stole a game would still expect tech support on it.

It's too bad our publishers can't do something like that with out E-books, such as have the middle section of the book disappear from a pirated version.

I was thinking have the parts of the book, including the end change to Latin or some other language.

If they feel save that the publisher can't track whether they own a pirated copy or a bought one, they will go to quite some lengths, actually, with their claim of entitlement.

"You have to send me a corrected version NOW!" or "I will report you to the Better Business Bureau if you don't give me a new copy and a strategy guide to make up for my inconvenience", that sort of thing. Some even tried to get "their money back" - which they never paid in the first place, of course.

You would not believe the conversations that happen every day in customer support departments.

Ever ask to see their receipt? Wouldn't you love to be able to say? "Sorry, we don't sell through them. They are pirates.

Yeah, those were funny times.

Thank you for the comments, Guido. I, too, wish that publishers could get together, and do something of this sort.

The best hope would be if all publishers joined The Copyright Alliance (dot org) and worked with Game developers.

We just don't have time or resources for each industry reinventing (or inventing) the wheel.

In fact... one of the problems with copyright enforcement is the "I'm All Right, Jack" attitude of most authors and publishing houses.

Getting ones own file down appears to be good enough for most authors (not the AuthorsAgainstE-BookTheft). They don't loudly insist that the entire pirate account is removed for cause.

I don't understand why RWA doesn't go after pirates as part of their mandate. They're suppose to represent us--romance writers and especially those who are published. It ticks me off. I pay dues every year and get zip, well, I get more regulations but no help in this venue.

I agree with you, L.J. I believe that RWA keeps a list. One can email reportpiracy@rwa.org

But, what do they do with the list?

If you haven't done so, join the One Voice arm (free) of thecopyrightalliance.org

Thanks for telling me about them. I went to the URL and joined. Interesting group.

Rowena,

I went to the link in your post and all I got was a list.

Joe Vadalma
http://papajoesfantasticworld.com

Six tricks..., Joe? They were pretty good tricks.