When you have one of the year's most anticipated games, you'll also have people who want to get their hands on it as soon as possible -- at any price or, in some cases, any risk. Such was the case with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year, and it's happening this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is already making the rounds in bootlegged form.

Contrary to its approach to Modern Warfare 2's piracy, which was to seek arrests for anyone found selling illegal copies of the game, Activision is simply asking Black Ops pirates to cut it out, and quite politely it seems. VentureBeat has posted the story of one bootleg buyer who has uploaded a series of videos detailing being tracked down by the publisher's private investigators, IP Cybercrime, on YouTube. According to the article, rather than report individuals such as him to the police, IP the firm is requesting that they "stop selling and to tell them where they got their wares," adding that "Most of the pirates were scared, surrendered their game copies and cooperated."

That's not to say the investigators aren't willing to employ more serious methods in dealing with people who don't give in to the "good cop" approach. "One young pirate was being a 'wise ass' and adamantly refused to cooperate," VentureBeat reported. "So the investigators called his mother."

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/22/activision-playing-good-cop-with-call-of-duty-black-ops-pirat/#comments

Posted: Oct 22, 2010 11:29 pm