Illegal copies and youtube

[Yttrium]

We all know that Illegal downloading of music, films and games is a thing on the internet.

But lately I've been finding "Howto" video's on how to install "factorio"
A very low resolution shows you what seems to be some decompresser and then the familiar factorio screen comes up. in reality when you press the download link it will take you to a malicious site that will instantly try to install spam ( or worse) and if you're lucky it will install an outdated version of factorio.

I hope to prevent anyone from downloading a bunch of spam and that these video's will be removed using the youtube flagging system.

here's a link to the video's that I was talking about;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrSnnYLnAYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q34sd3UlBdo

[ssilk]

The content of the links for the videos are meanwhile removed, so I think this is no longer an issue for me. Or do I miss something?

[Koub]

No you're right, both have been removed, and the corresponding account closed

[SpiritofTheWolfx]

I find it funny how there are these videos of how to install a pirated copy of the game when it is literally Download a reliable torrent, open the torrent with Winrar and poof there is the file for the entire game XD.

[Klonan]

I sent take down requests to YouTube for a bunch of videos just before the steam release,
If anybody finds more on YouTube, please email the video ID to support@factorio.com and i will add it to the list for my next batch of take downs

[zytukin]

You can find youtube videos like that for anything that can be pirated.
Games, Apps, Music, Movies.

Search youtube for a popular movie and count how many only show a preview and have a link in the description to see the full version on a site full of spam, or require you to download some 'special' spyware/virus loaded software something to see the movie.

[Krayt]

Klonan, can you manage to do something about websites offering cracked / pirated Factorio version, too?
If yes, you have a look at the website mentioned in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21386#p134486

[SpiritofTheWolfx]

Klonan, can you manage to do something about websites offering cracked / pirated Factorio version, too?

Yeah they can. If they want to that is. Depends too. A lot of the trust worthy 'crackers' (They ones that pirate and crack the game without any virus' or anything harmful.) Are from Russia. If I understand correctly. Their 'pirating' laws are different then North America and the such where you can be arrested and sent to jail or pay a massive fine. Plus most of the trust worthy ones will take their upload down of the Dev's ask them to nicely. But on the other hand dev's can only do so much to 'stop it'. Its really not worth the effort. People will still upload the game/whatever if they want to. The people that want to buy the game will buy the game. The people who want to pirate the game will pirate the game. They aren't 'losing sales' because people are pirating the game. Those are the people who wouldn't even buy it if they couldn't pirate it. Also. The Dev's have every right to remove the torrents and such for the game. There is absolutely no arguing with that.

[HanziQ]

Klonan, can you manage to do something about websites offering cracked / pirated Factorio version, too?

Yeah they can. If they want to that is. Depends too. A lot of the trust worthy 'crackers' (They ones that pirate and crack the game without any virus' or anything harmful.) Are from Russia. If I understand correctly. Their 'pirating' laws are different then North America and the such where you can be arrested and sent to jail or pay a massive fine. Plus most of the trust worthy ones will take their upload down of the Dev's ask them to nicely. But on the other hand dev's can only do so much to 'stop it'. Its really not worth the effort. People will still upload the game/whatever if they want to. The people that want to buy the game will buy the game. The people who want to pirate the game will pirate the game. They aren't 'losing sales' because people are pirating the game. Those are the people who wouldn't even buy it if they couldn't pirate it. Also. The Dev's have every right to remove the torrents and such for the game. There is absolutely no arguing with that.

The easiest thing is probably DMCA on Google Search and Youtube.
Also we might be losing sales, not everyone, who pirates, wouldn't buy the game, it's very difficult to prove or disprove lost sales.

[zytukin]

Also keep in mind that some people who pirate a game later buy it if they enjoy it.

I wont lie, I pirated the game when I first heard about it (didn't know there was a free trial), then bought 2 days later. I pirate most games to check them out before buying them since I get bored of most games pretty quickly. Sometimes within hours, usually after a day or two.

[Krayt]

Also keep in mind that some people who pirate a game later buy it if they enjoy it.

I wont lie, I pirated the game when I first heard about it (didn't know there was a free trial), then bought 2 days later. I pirate most games to check them out before buying them since I get bored of most games pretty quickly. Sometimes within hours, usually after a day or two.

Also keep in mind, that people disappointed by having major errors in certain pirated copies not always consult the official forum, but maybe are misleaded that the game was full of bugs.

[zytukin]

True, but the most common issue with pirated games is them not starting and anybody with a bit of pirating experience will know it isn't a game bug and be able to easily fix such an issue, even find out about it ahead of time. Like that topic you posted a link to on page 1, his problem could be easily remedied and he could have easily found out about that problem (and a possible solution) before even downloading it.

Really don't want to post specific details on the official forum though.

[Luingar]

mm. delicious necro. ON this topic though, i'm strongly in favor of entertaining DLC methods. Perhaps some form of key check (check if validated with steam, then check to see if using an install key blacklisted by factorio.com), which, if the check fails, causes the production of all electricity to be divided by 1+([hours of gameplay*last digit of gameplay seconds]/100). Then just keep an eye out for forum posts complaining about weird steam production jaggedness and give them terrible advice

[sillyfly]

mm. delicious necro. ON this topic though, i'm strongly in favor of entertaining DLC methods. Perhaps some form of key check (check if validated with steam, then check to see if using an install key blacklisted by factorio.com), which, if the check fails, causes the production of all electricity to be divided by 1+([hours of gameplay*last digit of gameplay seconds]/100). Then just keep an eye out for forum posts complaining about weird steam production jaggedness and give them terrible advice

You mean DRM? I don't see how this is DLC...

But last time I checked the developers were against including DRM in Factorio, which I'm thankful for - it's mostly a hassle for honest users.

[GoldenPorkchop80]

You mean DRM? I don't see how this is DLC...
But last time I checked the developers were against including DRM in Factorio, which I'm thankful for - it's mostly a hassle for honest users.

Yeah, I wouldn't like DRM as well.

But, if they did include it. I would vote for "Peaceful mode stuck in disabled mode, Biter spawners generate regardless if they are turned off, all biters have 100X original health, and biter damage is 15X more powerful."

[Gammro]

Im generally against DRM, but these solutions seemed pretty funny:

Operation Flashpoint/ARMA series: Degrading game experience. Your weapons get more inaccurate over time and eventually you turn into a seagull or rabbit.

Garry's mod: Gave an error 'Unable to shade polygon normals' with the steamID attached. Caught over 2500 pirates that sought help with the error.

IMO the best:
Game Dev Tycoon(Though nog really DRM but another build by the developer): The games you make get pirated so much, you don't make any profit.

[zytukin]

I think it was GTA 4 that had your character be drunk all the time if the game was pirated.

Played a mob style game long ago that had the screen flipped upside down if it was pirated.

[daniel34]

This idea (funny game bugs) is not new, The Settlers III (German: Die Siedler III), more than 17 years ago, already had something like this:

Settlers III was also famous for its peculiar copy protection: in pirated versions of the game, iron smelters would only produce pigs instead of iron, which made weapon production impossible.

I think that was the first game that I actually played for hours on end, and was pretty similar to Factorio in some ways.

[starholme]

Crysis - Warhead makes your gun fire chickens

[Lo Wang]

mm. delicious necro. ON this topic though, i'm strongly in favor of entertaining DLC methods. Perhaps some form of key check (check if validated with steam, then check to see if using an install key blacklisted by factorio.com), which, if the check fails, causes the production of all electricity to be divided by 1+([hours of gameplay*last digit of gameplay seconds]/100). Then just keep an eye out for forum posts complaining about weird steam production jaggedness and give them terrible advice

I think a vast majority of pirates buy games they feel deserve their money. That's just my opinion though. I've bought Terraria and Zomboid twice on Steam and GOG after pirating them to see what I was getting, I played them both for an hour and was pretty much like "OMG WTF TAKE MY MONEY!" and instapurchased them. Besides, when you pirate games you miss out anyway, because a majority of the time you don't have full access to patches, etc. I bought Factorio on Steam and will instabuy when/if it goes to GOG.com, too.
I don't see why simple CD keys went out the window? Back in the old days if you didn't have a CD key you could still play the game but generally missed out on the good stuff like multiplayer.