View Full Version : Pirated Europa Barbarorum
pezhetairoi
06-24-2008, 06:47
Guess what, guys? There are people in Malaysia who've downloaded EB 1.1, burned it into a disc, and are selling it at pirated CD stores in Johor Bahru for 30 ringgit (15 Singapore dollars, which is about 9-10 US) under the name of 'EB 2.0'. One of my students went to Malaysia during the holidays and spotted it at the roadside beside The Sims 7, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Halo 4... o.O
Behind, it claimed 'whole new game play! tons of new units! Never seen before action!'
Imagine, selling a free game for profit.
And by the way, nowhere did it mention that RTW was needed for the game to run.
Wonder if the team ever expected that this day would come?
Guess what, guys? There are people in Malaysia who've downloaded EB 1.1, burned it into a disc, and are selling it at pirated CD stores in Johor Bahru for 30 ringgit (15 Singapore dollars, which is about 9-10 US) under the name of 'EB 2.0'. One of my students went to Malaysia during the holidays and spotted it at the roadside beside The Sims 7, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Halo 4... o.O
Behind, it claimed 'whole new game play! tons of new units! Never seen before action!'
Imagine, selling a free game for profit.
And by the way, nowhere did it mention that RTW was needed for the game to run.
Wonder if the team ever expected that this day would come?
I did...
in Kuwait, you found norton antivirus going for 3$, word and office for 2$, and all sorts of other CD's, all under 15$. my brother got an American conquest CD for 2 1/2$; in the markets, they sold for ~52.5$. they had a full black market of this stuff. conclusion: in Kuwait, all games get pirated; why should be different in Malaysia?
wonder if EB is sold in Kuwait too..:clown:
pezhetairoi
06-24-2008, 07:13
Thing is, in Kuwait, expensive games get sold cheap. In Malaysia, free games get sold expensive. :D
Olaf The Great
06-24-2008, 07:22
Is it possible to sue? I mean it's a free game, and its in another country.
But yeah, as a friend of mine would say "That's a bunch of balls".
Content © Europa Barbarorum. All rights reserved. Software ©2002-2005 The Creative Assembly Limited. Total War, Rome: Total War, Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion and the Total War logo are trade marks or registered trade marks of The Creative Assembly in the United Kingdom, European Community, United States and/or other countries. All rights reserved.'
Does this mean that EB is copyrighted too or just Rome total war?
Celtic_Punk
06-24-2008, 07:39
i believe you can sue, as its breach of license, and theft of your intellectual property.
the license being freeware, which means it cannot besold.
assuming you put THIS IS FREEWARE on your terms of use.
and if you dont win, ill be happy to present my services of trained muscleman to teach these rookies a lesson in international piracy laws.
Edit: this shit just grinds my gears. its one thing to steal some game and pirate it for money, but when you take the hard work of individuals who never expected payment for such stellar work, and you turn around slap em in the face and sell it for profit. damn... just damn.
Teleklos Archelaou
06-24-2008, 07:41
That's hilarious. :laugh4: I may be one of the only other people on here who has seen those Malaysian software stores and I can imagine it. I'd love to see what their packaging looks like though. :grin: I hope you are kidding about Halo 4 and Sims 7 being sold - it would be funny to see who is actually dumb enough to buy them.
note: There is no way we can do even the remotest thing about this though. Those places are shut down constantly and reopen next door. There is no reason to lose any sleep over it when absolutely nothing can be done about it.
Olaf The Great
06-24-2008, 07:44
i believe you can sue, as its breach of license, and theft of your intellectual property.
the license being freeware, which means it cannot be sold.
assuming you put THIS IS FREEWARE on your terms of use.
and if you dont win, ill be happy to present my services of trained muscleman to teach these rookies a lesson in international piracy laws.
Edit: this shit just grinds my gears. its one thing to steal some game and pirate it for money, but when you take the hard work of individuals who never expected payment for such stellar work, and you turn around slap em in the face and sell it for profit. damn... just damn. Yeah this is really retarded, yet somewhat..terribly...hilarious
These people deserve to be ruined financially, and by financially I mean..well you get the idea, and so do the idiots who buy it :)
Also, props for saying "grinds my gears" shoelaces, pennies, and Donald Trump haytahs(haters)., grind mine too.
Celtic_Punk
06-24-2008, 07:49
well you are right in the fact you cant stop it, but you know you can still get a few of the buggers. sure a few DIFFERENT guys will pop up later, but you can still take it to a personal level, and destroy atleast 2 or 3 of the guys.
i think the EB team should look into this, and if theres anyone in this community to happens to live in that part of the world, they should keep their eyes open for it, get some info on the ones doing it, and then perhaps you can bring a couple of the guys in.
by no means is this a final solution (my god i sound like hitler :jawdrop: ) to the problem but you can still take a few of them out.
think of it like a hydra, sure the heads will grow back, but you can still hurt em badly. and id rather go down fighting then sit down, bend over and take it in the rear.
to Olaf the Great: hahaha i hate pennies too man!
Olaf The Great
06-24-2008, 07:55
well you are right in the fact you cant stop it, but you know you can still get a few of the buggers. sure a few DIFFERENT guys will pop up later, but you can still take it to a personal level, and destroy atleast 2 or 3 of the guys.
i think the EB team should look into this, and if theres anyone in this community to happens to live in that part of the world, they should keep their eyes open for it, get some info on the ones doing it, and then perhaps you can bring a couple of the guys in.
by no means is this a final solution (my god i sound like hitler :jawdrop: ) to the problem but you can still take a few of them out.
think of it like a hydra, sure the heads will grow back, but you can still hurt em badly. and id rather go down fighting then sit down, bend over and take it in the rear.
to Olaf the Great: hahaha i hate pennies too man!Look up "Know what's bullshit" and "Angry video game nerd" on youtube.
Celtic_Punk
06-24-2008, 08:03
seen em
hahahahaha did you see the one where hes trying to fly that top gun game, and he cant get passed the second level because landing on an aircraft carrier is harder in-game than in reallife?
Olaf The Great
06-24-2008, 08:27
seen em
hahahahaha did you see the one where hes trying to fly that top gun game, and he cant get passed the second level because landing on an aircraft carrier is harder in-game than in reallife?
I saw ALL OF THEM. Even the recent ones from a week ago(the Caleco vision's AC adapter...oh my)
I saw ALL OF THEM. Even the recent ones from a week ago(the Caleco vision's AC adapter...oh my)
AC adapter? the AVGN website says Star trek games were last.. unless.. you were talking about the double feature of those 2 Atari alternatives, Coleoco vision, and intellivision-now they were hilarious (Beeeey-17eeeeeeyn bowmerrr). http://cinemassacre.com/AVGN/Nes_Nerd_videos.html
hey, did you see the war between AVGN and the nostalgia critic? its in the news section of his website-youll love it.:beam:
General Appo
06-24-2008, 10:34
Ahem. Pez, you live not too far from this store don´t you? Then I must kindly ask you, as one member of the EBF Council of Ten to another, WHY THE FU*K HAVN´T YOU KILLLED THESE MOTHERFU*KERS!!!???!!??
:smg: :sorry: :hmg:
I don´t care how you do it, just hurt them!
:wizard: :lam::scastle3:
~:snowman::chucks::pirate2: :sharky: :damnmate: :wall::brakelamp::tnt::charge:
:candle:
:duel::scastle::helloo::whip::croc::boxing: :7gangster::ballchain: :viking: :hanged::rifle:
Yeah, I like this one, this is what you should do to them:
:hanged::hmg:
Only 9 - 10 dollars?
Swéét!
It's way cheaper than when I bought it!
Sir Edward
06-24-2008, 11:08
I hope you are kidding about Halo 4 and Sims 7 being sold - it would be funny to see who is actually dumb enough to buy them.
note: There is no way we can do even the remotest thing about this though. Those places are shut down constantly and reopen next door. There is no reason to lose any sleep over it when absolutely nothing can be done about it.
Okay so a couple things. I am pretty sure that Sims 7 is really the 5th expansion pack (Bon Voyage) of Sims 2, and Halo 4 is really Halo 3 plus the first map expansion pack. Kind of silly, but you got to say new and improve some how. I remember when I was in Argentina 4 years ago they were claiming to be playing Age of Empires III, when it hadn't even come out yet. Turns out they thought Age of Mythology was suppose to be part of the series and were counting it. Not justifying the practice just saying there is some reasonin the madness to look for .
Next your attitude TA towards this seems a little more realistic then the guys who are asking for the balls of these sellers on a silver platter. As much of a pushover as it will make me sound there ain't squat that can be done legally. If something could be done about these pirates you would think multibillion dollar companies like Sony would be able to stop blackmarket DVDs reaching the streets of Hong Kong. And you guys some how expect mighty EB (no direspect to your legal department (is there even a legal department?)) to crush these people with the long arm of the law? I am not saying its right people, it isn't, I'm just sayng it's a sign of the times.
you guys should just consider it a homage
Thing is, in Kuwait, expensive games get sold cheap. In Malaysia, free games get sold expensive.
That's the reason behind people saying SE Asia will be the powerhouse of the future, and not SW Asia.
But those guys might as well sell an empty CD, because it won't do a thing unless proper installed under RTW.
Swordmaster
06-24-2008, 11:51
Only 9 - 10 dollars?
Swéét!
It's way cheaper than when I bought it!
I got my old EB copy for $8. That was 0.81, however, which you can get for less than $3 nowadays.
Don't interpret me in the wrong way, but if these guys have wasted their time packaging a mod like EB and are sell it, I can only mean they deem the content is worthy of value, which is always good to know.
As for the legal issues, they are totally in the hands of CA, since they have all the legal rights. EB is a free content and doesn't work by itself: it always needs the original game. As such, in practice, these guys are actually pirating the original game and distributing EB along with it. So, the only entity that can legally persecute them is CA.
Swordmaster
06-24-2008, 13:39
There's even nothing about it in the License Agreement. The only thing these pirates are doing is promoting the reading of more history. :laugh4:
Krusader
06-24-2008, 14:51
Seriously...if anyone can prove that EB is being sold in Malaysia as Pez says, I might bloody give them an EB tshirt.
And yes as Teleklos says, no need to lose sleep over it. Not much can be done.
WOW. Thats really shitty.
Ozymandias the Great
06-24-2008, 15:37
Let's speak about copyright law for a moment. *puts on lawyer pants* In the U.S., there is an automatic copyright, which means, if you make something, it's copyrighted. However, if you plan to take it to court, you have to register the copyright with the government. Now, there are 6 rights associated with copyright. By making EB a free download, you grant the downloader the right to play the game as much as they want. However, because you don't specifically release the other 5 rights, I believe (I'm not sure) that even though you didn't say "Thou shalt not copy and sell", it is illegal to copy and sell EB and thereby transfer the rights to others. I learned this in my electronic music class, not law school, so I can't say this is exactly right, but it's the information I have.
I say more power to them! If they are crafty enough to make ppl pay good money for a game that is given away for free then they deserve it. Stupid people must be exploited at all times.
edit: Just wanted to mention that I too have visited these places in Malaysia as well as in Thailand.
People still buy software in those parts? :laugh4:
Ayce deserves a balloon.
:balloon2:
Olaf The Great
06-24-2008, 16:59
But yeah, I want to see the packaging :)
The Persian Cataphract
06-24-2008, 16:59
I've never laughed so hard in my life. Seriously. I don't know what's more stupid, that the pirates think they are being clever, or that there are stupid individuals who buy software otherwise marketed under a free license.
How many computers do exist in Malasia? It'd be cool for a tourist to buy a pirated game in Malasia, that game get discovered in the check-in and the guy get sent into a Malasian prison for 3 years for buying EB 2 :D
Flying Pig
06-24-2008, 17:05
Frankly guys, it's free anyway. While they're selling CA property if they include RTW (HINT HINT!) it's not worth you chasing them. Frst, you can't prove that you made it, seeing as your acount is not vbound to your identity, and all that's happening is some poor guy is making a bit of money with your help. Other freeware gets sold fully legally under GNU2 and so there is a good legal defense (at least over here in the UK) and really, you shoulddjust feel flattered
keravnos
06-24-2008, 17:33
Nobody will do anything about them and if anyone would that is CA, not us.
I just want to see the face of anyone buying that CD then coming here, discovering it is a free download... heh.
Anyways, that is just cool, to be considered as good as other fully commercial games of NOW. EB, a mod of a game which was released in 2004.
General Appo
06-24-2008, 17:49
Yeah, and 1.1 was released about then as well, right?
Olaf The Great
06-24-2008, 18:43
Although if CA finds out about this, they may assume the EB team is the one that's selling the copies.
Chaos could insue, although most likely not :)
People still buy software in those parts? :laugh4:
When I was living there I always bought my pirated games. Mainly because they were dirt cheap and that the low low internet speeds made it too much of a hassle to download.
MarcusAureliusAntoninus
06-24-2008, 22:06
Ha! I just saw this. That is hillarious.
Nothing we can do, though. By the software agreement, all EB content belongs to CA, Sega, and/or Activision, anyways.
Celtic_Punk
06-24-2008, 22:17
ive been to hong kong, they got stalls in stanley market that sell stuff like that... i bought pokemon chrystal and everytime you pick up an item it says "*your name here* *itemname* bag f*ck"
gets a kick outta me everytime lmao
The General
06-25-2008, 09:37
While it's amusing in a sense, it's annoying, too - people making money at the expense of the EB team and their hard work. :whip:
I would just love to read the description on the back of the case. I remember when I used to buy movies in Thailand or China, it would always crack me up to read the crap they printed on the back of the cds
pezhetairoi
06-25-2008, 15:26
Well, quite a storm kicked up here.
To answer the question of everyone, I don't have the photo because my student just showed me in his phone before he deleted it, but the cover was just a big version of EB's symbol (the bronze circle with 'EB' in it) and 'EB 2.0' superimposed on top of it. Very unprofessional :\
Coupla screenshots of pezhetairoi (me! me!) and the ubiquitous cohors, together with a few lines of hype. That was all the description there was. Nondescript, in other words. Which doesn't do justice to EB, i daresay.
And as I said before, not a single line of 'This game requires RTW to run. Buy today! From the store next door to us, they still have 10 copies left.' Nah. They had RTW Gold selling there. Pirated DVD games, wtf. Or so my student said.
TA, I kid you not about Sims 7 and Halo 4. Some very adventurous technopreneurs they have there in Malaysia.
I wish I live close to one of them stores, though. :\ The distance between Singapore and Johor Bahru is 2 hours, most of which is sitting through the jam on the Causeway... Couldn't be bothered to travel there to do some knuckledusting. If they come to Singapore, maybe.
Quite the compliment to the EB team, isn't it?
Hooahguy
06-26-2008, 17:22
i want to know whats going to happen when the real EBII comes out? will they call it EBIII?
:laugh4:
i want to know whats going to happen when the real EBII comes out? will they call it EBIII?
:laugh4:
I imagine it will actually by 33 1/3, just like loaded gun....:smash::clown:
i want to know whats going to happen when the real EBII comes out? will they call it EBIII?
:laugh4:
I laugh when I think which name they grant the Football Manager 2008. Football Manager 2010? >_>
well, they have not heard Of Muhammad's (PBUH) attitude towards cheating, have they?:inquisitive: he once scolded a man for hiding rain-damaged grain under a coat of fresh grain..the same is tragically being done here; they take a product (no insult here), like EB, and they say its EB II, using the catchy title to make it look better than it really is (again no insult intended to EB-your mod rocks, and I'm sure the makers rock). the point is the copyright laws don't do a jot when it comes to those eager for profit, and I'm sure they won't give a hoot in that regards..
conclusion: all that is funny, but what can one do about them?:book:
I still can't get over this: pirated EB? wonder if its bugged..
pezhetairoi
06-27-2008, 00:49
Problem is, it isn't. We can't wish it's bugged, because then the real, free EB would also be dragged down with it.
I like your Prophet's style of dealing with cheating. If only there were more such people in the world today. Too bad, there are more people who would ask him to hide rain-damaged grain in ALL the sacks rather than just one, than there would be people who would scold him for even hiding it in one sack.
I really wonder what's the point of advertising EB 2.0 if no one has ever even heard of EB1.0, though. It'd be worse wouldn't it? 'EB 2.0? I've never even heard of EB 1.0. Must be a lousy game to be so unknown.' *does not buy, does not ever find out that it's free for download*
@Jolt: Maybe 'Football Abramovich 2008'?
phonicsmonkey
06-27-2008, 04:12
While it's amusing in a sense, it's annoying, too - people making money at the expense of the EB team and their hard work. :whip:
Well, I just bought RTW:Alexander specifically for the purpose of playing EB 1.1 using the Alex.exe
I will never play the Alexander campaign itself - so you could argue that CA are making money at the expense of the EB team and their hard work :clown:
I laugh when I think which name they grant the Football Manager 2008. Football Manager 2010? >_>
Maybe not in Malaysia, but in Thailand the current year is 2551. So that may be a 500 year old relic you found there :laugh4:
pezhetairoi
06-28-2008, 02:20
Oh gods. Amazing to know Ronaldinho is still alive 540 years from now.
I know how that happened:
"they hook'd him up on Alex.exe, where he achieved the immortality trait"
blog entry elswhere..
Oh gods. Amazing to know Ronaldinho is still alive 540 years from now.
And Cris Ronaldo's worse dream. Being alive for half a millenia and not having been World's Best Player even once. >_>
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