Video Game Piracy

                      Video Game Piracy: Are Your Children Turning You Into Law-Breakers?

 

We’ve all heard about illegal downloading and file sharing from the music and movie industries, but it turns out that the same issue affects the video game industry – and, sadly, most of the offenders are our own children. Copying or distributing copyrighted material such video games without permission of the manufacturer, is illegal and may affect the parents, as they are often the official Internet subscribers.  
 
While video game piracy probably isn’t a common topic at your dinner table, a recent Wakefield study by Nintendo of America shows that most of us need a crash course in what video game piracy is and its consequences…and sooner rather than later as children get older, they’re more likely to have pirated video games.

The Wakefield survey results show that ten percent of kids between eight to 12, and 16 percent of teenagers, say that they have participated in video game piracy. Unfortunately, the results also suggest that parents generally don’t believe that piracy is a serious issue. Although 94 percent of moms and 91 percent of dads agree that video game piracy is wrong, the study shows that most parents would let their kids get off with a simple warning or light consequence if they learned their kids were pirating material.

To make matters more serious, those who download illegal video game content for free from the Internet are vulnerable to risks such as viruses and unwelcome content. They can also be at risk to leaks of personal details, such as financial data, possibly resulting in identity theft. It is now confirmed that the games downloaded may not always be what they claim to be.  A recent study by a group of European academics, most of them from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, found that up to 25 percent of files downloaded from the most popular peer-to-peer download sites are fake, not what the downloader was looking for.

These are all enormous risks that every parent should be informed about. The good news is that there are great ways for gamers of all ages to have responsible online fun. For example, a range of Nintendo game content is available, such as Nintendo WiiWare, Virtual Console and DSiWare games, which can be purchased online via the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop. http://www.nintendo.com/ds/online/shop
http://www.nintendo.com/wii/online/wiiware
In addition, some kids have already started learning about the appropriate use of intellectual property in elementary school through an Entertainment Software Association (ESA) program, an organization representing companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.

For more information about piracy and the right way to copy digital content as well as links to Nintendo’s online game content, please visit the following websites:

Comment by Dr. Robert M Beechinor on February 11, 2011 at 5:02pm

I bet Somalians have LOTS of pirated video games.