itch.io

Lol, whatevs. I've never even seen the game outside screenshots and I've explained the situation to death. If you're too blinkered to grasp the obvious, I can't help you further.

Obviously you can't see both sides, because you're still stuck on "is downloading a free game given away by the creators and right-holders of that game piracy?" with the answer being "Of course it isn't, are you daft?"

The argument is whether it is a dick move for the developers to call the people who downloaded the free version they gave away "pirates" of their game as part of a publicity stunt. I say it is a dick move and I won't support developers who would do that. 

I did not personally download any version of their game.

"the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work."

While I can't claim to know the subtle nuances of copyright law in every country, in the USA if the author distributes their work for free, they have authorized anyone who obtains that work from them to use it. Not to create derivative works, or sell reproductions, or for public exhibition or distribution, but certainly to use it.

By the by, I am twisting nothing, aside from my face into Jackie Chan-like expressions of disbelief at you people who are so brainwashed by the notion that developers are always the victims and consumers are evil incarnate that you cannot process the truth unless it fits that mold.

What happened here is the same thing as if a baker took a plate of bagels out to the street and handed them to people while whispering "stolen bagel," then proceeded to write an open letter which somehow organically finds its way to the papers telling what he had done and complaining that he can't run a business when people keep stealing his bagels, and then laughing at the people who came back to comment that the bagel was rather dry. That twat would be driven out of business, but do it with software and somehow you're automatically in the right?

Next.

Since I have no proof, I suppose I'll have to accept your statement that you didn't spread the story, despite the highly dubious timing of stories appearing immediately after your previously-unknown game pulled this stunt and all of the stories making the same incorrect assumptions and getting the same basic facts wrong as though they were prompted by something.

Everything else you've said is very snarky and assumes intent. You have no proof that anyone who downloaded your free game has ever downloaded any other game or anything else for that matter, legally or illegally. You act as though all torrents are illegal when that is far from the case. You act as though people are any more likely to read your bogus info file than they are to read a EULA - and moreover you act as if it hadn't said "cracked" in it the downloaders would have deleted it, twirled their waxed moustaches, and sought something that was certainly illegal.

And whatever your info file said, you did distribute a free game and then call those who downloaded it pirates of your game when they were not and could not be.

Now, yes, in the real world the odds are good that the vast majority were likely habitual pirates (though still not pirates of your game), but does your combative posture actually do any good for anyone (that isn't running a propaganda campaign)? Unless you can alter the hearts and minds of the human beast collectively, bitching that people took your stuff and moaning that people need to stop taking your stuff is going to have the same effect it has historically - none.

Had you an ounce of sense, your response to those who sought your help for in-game piracy would have been "We're glad you liked our game and wish to continue playing! The full version is available at..." rather than "Now you know what it feels like."

How it was distributed makes zero difference. As I stated before, even if everyone downloading it intended to pirate it, they failed.

Calling out people who did not pirate a game as pirates of a game is slander - "by definition" as a previous poster was fond of saying. Pissing and moaning about piracy does nothing to improve the situation for anyone.

Besides, they weren't merely pointing out the "delicious irony" (which, ironically, didn't actually exist) of pirates asking for help against piracy. They were sending out press releases about it, in which they somehow neglected to mention that the version with piracy was a separate version, leading to a bunch of articles about heroic indies magically thwarting pirates, leading to their dead-in-the-water game suddenly getting attention and getting Greenlighted.

The intent behind the move was simple: unfairly slam people everyone loves to hate to get publicity to get Greenlighted. The slander was intentional and malicious. It may not have been off-the-mark in any other case, but that isn't the point. The point is the reprehensible behaviour of the developers that everyone chooses to ignore because "pirates".

You're a pirate by definition for downloading a free version distributed by the developers - for free?

Mossyblog, you're insane.

EDIT: Okay, i'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you misread something.

To clarify:

1) There are two versions of the game.

2) One version is paid and does not contain artificial piracy.

3) One version was distributed by the developers themselves for free and contains unbeatable artificial piracy.

4) Therefore, if you are playing the version with piracy in it, you are absolutely NOT a pirate of this game, by definition, whether or not you intended to be.

Oh, this is that game where you seeded a free-but-unbeatable version via torrents, then falsely slandered those who downloaded it as pirates and mocked them for asking you for advice on how to beat the in-game piracy so that you could drum up the publicity to get it Greenlighted on Steam.

Yeah...I still don't support that kind of thing.