Obama Administration Moves to Curb Videogame Piracy

The Obama administration has announced the formation of a new task force set to handle infringements on intellectual properties. Eric Holder, who is the Attorney General of the United States, has said that growth in industries like computer software and videogames cannot be guaranteed unless developers are certain that they can make money from their creations and that those interested in stealing them can be punished by the law.

Michael Gallagher, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Entertainment Software Association, stated that “We applaud the Justice Department for its commitment to protecting intellectual property and commend the Attorney General for his leadership in establishing the new Intellectual Property Task Force,” adding that “Intellectual property is the lifeblood and backbone of entertainment software.”

The ESA is saying that the videogames industry lost about 3 billion dollars because of piracy in 2007. The group is also revealing that the figure does not include Internet-based piracy. Eric Holder has not detailed the exact measures the new task force will set out or whether new legislation is being prepared.

The PC is the gaming platform most affected by piracy at the moment but there are also serious concerns about its impact on the PlayStation Portable from Sony and the Nintendo DS. Some publishers and developers have stopped or severely limited creating games for these platforms because they fear their sales will be low and losses will be too high because of piracy.

Publishers have tested a variety of Digital Rights Management schemes to stop the phenomenon but they seem to do little to deter pirates from cracking games and re-releasing them. The latest move comes from French publisher Ubisoft, which aims to require online authentication and store saved games online in order to limit piracy in the upcoming Settlers VII: Paths to a Kingdom.