And the show goes on

Game Pirates Rule the Seize

Warcraft III, the much-anticipated sequel from Blizzard Entertainment, hits store shelves on July 3. The series, which is the company's most recognizable franchise, hoped its rollout would create a big splash in an industry that thrives on glitz and glamour.

That wasn't to be. While designers rushed to complete the game, groups of crackers around the world were trying to get their hands on Warcraft III before it was released. It's a regular dance between game companies and pirate groups. The bigger the game, the more intense the pressure on both sides. In this battle, the game companies almost never win.

Three weeks before Warcraft III hit stores, it was cracked.

I am reminded of The Day, back when Apple, Atari, and Commodore (oh my) ruled the computer universe, and IBM was just trying to get a PC off the ground. Several, er, acquaintances had vast collections of pirated software. "Demon dialers" would locate other computer systems by systematically dialing every phone number in a given area code with a given prefix. On and on, it was a game.

When I asked why he had all the pirated stuff, the answer was, "They're like money. You upload stuff to earn credits to download stuff."

This game continues, only now a little more anonymously and with somewhat broader distribution via the Internet. Rather than learning a specific electronic bulletin board system (BBS) phone number, you get an FTP address, access name and password.

You would think after all this, the companies trying to fight it would understand: they can't stop it. As fast as they develop a new anti-piracy scheme, as fast (or faster) someone cracks it. Here's the example of Warcraft III. There are others. Windows and Office XP with the "product activation" feature removed float around everywhere.

And look at how fast someone figured out how to make copies of Sony's "copy-protected" music CDs, with nothing more than a magic marker.

I have to wonder how much money is spent preventing the "billions of dollars lost to piracy."