Sending treating letters to someone, based on some undisclosed discovery method from undisclosed company, circumventing the court, it is very wrong in my eyes.

i have some i think important questions about buying witcher 1+2 from gog:

1. which versions of the witcher 2 will be censored? i live in germany for example, and as far as i know german versions of witcher 1+2 are uncensored, is that right?

2. will i have compatibility issues transferring savegames from witcher 1 to witcher 2 depending on which version of witcher 2 i get? i mean i could live in japan or whatever, and i get witcher 1 from gog which is maybe a specific version thats not compatible with gettign their save over to the japanese one

So what you're saying is that you're ok with innocent people being threatened with thousands of dollars in fines and legal action?

You DO realize that going to court to prove your innocence costs thousands of dollars not to mention lost wages from work right? If you're innocent, they will still drag your ass to court and you still have to worry, lose sleep over, and be very upset about being falsely accused.

Many people simply pay these things regardless of guilt because it is cheaper to do so than to go to court and be found innocent by FAR. This knowledge is the very reason these things are done this way. It's EXTORTION.
These is so much wrong with this post I don't even know where to begin, not the least of which is you pretending that I'm the only one upset about this. Hell, I only found out about it from another person on this thread who is also boycotting and posted the link.

And Origin? Really? Are you being snide or are you just entirely retarded?

Considering this is a result forced upon them by a lost court battle, can't we give CD Projekt the benefit of the doubt and assume that this post (which essentially seems to boil down to a 'Darn, this sucks, let's try to make it up to you a bit for the rest of the sale' thing) is a genuinely sad apology?

@ jeffreydean1

If boycotting GOG, what are you doing here?
If you want to boycott, but, if GOG will die one day, remember that you will have it on my conscience.

I just found out about this TODAY. Im doing the same thing as everybody else is here. Talking. You may have missed it, but I specifically said I have like 60 gog games. Im not exactly a non-customer. Im just extremely upset to hear that a company I deeply respected has turned so evil so quickly.

And since you failed to respond to my last post to you which was ignored, I'll just assume you are perfectly ok with innocent people losing thousands of dollars because of this extortion because that is what will inevitably happen.

Um ... actually in these cases YOU have to prove that you didn't download the files in question, that's what's what part of the fuss is all about in the first place. How on earth are you going to prove that you didn't download something you didn't download? Sure, you can take the matter to court and put your trust in the judges, but it's very costly and stressful enough to give even innocent people sleepless nights, possibly over several months. If you're so confident that innocence protects against unjustice, you must be living in a different world than the rest of us. I know of lawyers advising their clients that the best way to handle it is to just pay the "fine" even if you aren't guilty and I know of people who followed their advise. That's why I don't trust CDProjekt Red's claim that so far only 100% guilty pirates were affected, because how would they know until someone has the guts and nerves to defy these scare tactics and take the matter to court. AFAIK confessions aren't necessarily an indication of guilt either, if you put a lot of pressure on the accused and scare them with horrible threats.

EDIT: Whoops, sorry, jeffreydean1 basically wrote the same already. Anyway, just to make it clear to anyone trying to further derail the thread, I am not supporting piracy, I am not planning to boycott GOG, I really disapprove of CDProjekt Red's tactics to fight piracy though, but this is a different subject than the Geo-IP policy. I believe CDP and GOG that they are sorry about the Geo-IP thing and that it's out of their hands now, and I believe it's a cause for concern but not the end of it all.

THIS. And not only this, but these extortion letters and agreements are designed to put a gag order on anyone involved in a settlement so even if you were innocent, you'd be breaking the law just for coming out about it.

Do you have any evidence that they're sending the letters to people that haven't pirated the game? It's hardly extortion to allow people that have pirated to buy their way out of it with a settlement that's way below the sums allowed for if it went to trial. Not to mention the money that they'd save on legal defense.

At this stage it's a supposition on your part that they're being deprived of their rights. CDPR warned people a year or so ago that this was coming and they chose to pirate the materials anyways.

Now, if it turns out that they're suing dead people, people who don't own a computer and refusing to follow up on leads that would be detrimental to their case, then I'll be changing my position. But at this stage there's no evidence to suggest that they're abusing the legal system except for a few questionable articles on pro-piracy sites without proper documentation.

@ jeffreydean1

I have to bring the case to court because I am innocent? Vice-versa. This office has to sue me if I do not pay. They must prove before a court that someone stole it, so what's the problem? Where did we know that they do? There is what is stressful for stock!
Courts are expensive? Who says that? After all, the U.S. famously that for lack of a sticker on the cup of coffee "hot note" people suing restaurants!

Sorry for my english.

Granted I'm not German, but I'd be very surprised if your court system worked like that. In most civilized countries it's innocent until proven guilty, although that's criminal only. In this case the plaintiff would presumably have the burden of proof to demonstrate that the defendant had infringed on the game.

If that's not the case, then you've got much more serious things to worry about than a few settlement letters going out to suspected pirates.

And when they bring you to court to prove you guilty... YOU have to go too. YOU have to spend money on a lawyer or risk being found guilty in a complex legal system. YOU have to lose wages from work because you have to be at court. YOU need to deal with the stress and sleepless nights of being dragged to court. YOU risk losing your job because you cannot be there.

Being taken to court affects people, even when they are found innocent. It is incredibly expensive and time consuming.

Fighting something like this when you're innocent is ALWAYS more expensive than just paying the fine and moving on with your life. That is the entire logic behind the way these extortion letters are designed. They make it cheaper to pay the fine than to go to court.

What exactly don't you understand here?
You've never heard of companies and people settling out of court because going to court to prove your innocence is more expensive than the settlement? That happens all the time in every country that has a modern law system including the United States, Canada, and most European countries.

'Innocent until proven guilty' is only relevant to the final verdict. The true threat in these letters of extortion is a prolonged court battle that will cause the defendant to lose work and pay thousands of dollars for legal aid. You MUST go to court to protest the charges being leveled against you if you are innocent or you will be found guilty. Going to court costs lots of money. Im not sure how much simpler I can explain this here.

This entire extortion racket was designed to get people to settle out of court. They DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO GO TO COURT. It's designed to force people to settle out of court regardless of innocence or guilt because it is far cheaper to settle than to fight it. That is the POINT.

He's not kidding man, that coffee was seriously hot! Like, wow! I think I should sue because I can't read so I didn't know it was hot (ignore the fact that I can write, the two are mutually exclusive skills I tell you! errr...I have a secretary to help me with that, yeah.)
Big money here I come! Whoop!
Expect to hear a voice message next time you get a coffee saying: Caution contents may be hot! You can thank me at my mansion in the tropics. ;-P
(Don't mind me I'm just trying to lighten everyones day a little, keyword=trying) :)

You are right if you mean there's no evidence to suggest that innocent people have been affected by CDProjekt's tactics yet. Just as there's no evidence to prove the contrary. There is proof that CDProjekt is using the cease-and-desist tactics though and that they believe that it's a fool-proof and appropriate way to fight piracy, and that's what we're questioning here. And as for these tactics in general, I personally know of innocent people who have been affected by it and I bet you can find lots of examples if you ask around. You are reasoning nearly as if IP equals individual and as if it's no problem at all to prove your innocence in matters as complex as the internet.


I guess you answered your own question there. This doesn't fall under criminal law, and civil law works differently.

Using this as an example to attempt the ludicrous claim that US courts are cheap is as intellectually dishonest as it is flat out wrong.

Most of those frivolous cases are made by lawyers who do the cases for FREE because they know there's a high chance of winning and then the lawyer takes a percentage of your settlement. Suing someone with the help of one of those scumbag lawyers cannot in any way be compared to defending yourself from a lawsuit. Defending yourself is going to be expensive since no lawyer except bottom of the barrel public defenders are going to do it for free and (as people keep forgetting) you have to lose work and miss wages in order to defend yourself and even possibly lose your job.