UK video game pirates now being targetted a la the RIAA


Hey, video game pirates! You’d better prepare yourself for a strongly worded letter from a powerful British law firm, because your days of illegally downloading Dream Pinball 3D are over!

Five publishers—Atari, Codemasters, Topware Interactive, Reality Pump and Techland—have retained the services of Davenport Lyons, which will now be harassing 25,000 Britons it deems to have illegally downloaded video games published by the Gang of Five. They’ll be asked to cough up £300, or about $600, to settle out of court. Those who ignore the strongly worded letter can expect to be taken to court, where they’ll face a most unkind enemy: the British legal system. In the words of Gregg “Opie” Hughes, good luck, bro.

The law firm will drag some 500 people into court for committing the most heinous of crimes imaginable: downloading a stupid game from mininova or the Pirate Bay.

A similar scenario ended with a woman being forced to pay more than £16,000 for downloading a Topware game.

Serious stuff.

How great would it be if someone simply refuses to cooperate, gets thrown in jail, and then becomes a cause celebre? “Someone’s doing five years in prison for having downloaded Jumping Jacks 3D? Well that’s silly.”