The fate of small studios is in the hands of the players. However, some of them illegally make their copy of the game available on the Internet, from which anyone can download it. The creators thus lose revenue and face financial collapse.
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Donors received copies
The game studio Zima Software has become a victim of Internet pirates in recent days. Her latest title, the seventh sequel to Polda’s adventure, has been published on the Internet, from where it is illegally downloaded on a large scale.
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“We had a financial campaign on HitHit and promised the contributors that we would send them a copy of the game. Unfortunately, it happened that one of the contributors published his copy on the Internet, “Petr Svoboda, the main developer of Polda 7, described Práva.
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On the crowdfunding server HitHit, the creators of Poldy 7 collected 1,437,011 crowns from contributors, a million more than the original target. However, they must pay taxes and server fees from the contribution. According to Svoboda, they had about 700 to 800 thousand crowns for development, which did not cover all costs.
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The authors have encountered piracy in previous episodes, but for the first time it happened that someone published a copy of the game before the official release date.
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According to Svoboda, there are only a few ways to defend against internet pirates. “We can defend ourselves by putting anti-piracy protection on the game, which is relatively expensive. We had some protection there, but it was not so good, “said Svoboda. He added that if not enough official copies were sold, developers would have to stop developing games.
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According to the developer, defending oneself in court is unnecessary. “It’s very difficult, you know the Czech courts, it would take years, and we don’t even know the true identity of the person who published it,” Svoboda warned.
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According to lawyer Adam Kraus, this is a typical example of unauthorized distribution of a copyright work. “I do not assume that the developers have placed in the terms of the campaign that you can continue to distribute it after receiving the copy. By receiving a copy of the game, the user did not obtain a license to distribute it, “Kraus explained to Práva.
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According to a copyright specialist, developers should turn to server operators where games are being distributed illegally to download pirated copies, or go to court.
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“The court may decide to ban further dissemination. Creators can then claim a penalty fee. This is twice the price of the license. Much depends on the extent to which the work has been used illegally, “Kraus described. The prices of computer games in the Czech Republic range between 700 and 1700 crowns.
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Helpless trials
According to Kraus, Czech copyright law is well harmonized with that of Europe, and there are tools to prevent lost profits.
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“It simply came to our notice then. But I think there are opportunities for better punishment of piracy under Czech law.
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There should be a case law and clarify who exactly is subject to specific obligations under copyright law and to what extent the authors can enforce compensation. The Czech courts often do not know how to deal with this, the practice is not uniform, “Kraus added.
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Piracy is nothing new on the Internet. The Czech creators from CBE Software, who are behind the internationally acclaimed horror game Someday You’ll Return, which took place in the environment of Bohemian Switzerland, also faced problems. Immediately after the release of the game, 98 percent of the copies were illegal.
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Filmmakers are also fighting piracy. Last year, the Prague High Court ruled that it would not be possible to download pirated copies of six Czech films, including Pelíšky or Sharply Watched Trains, from the Uloz.to server. However, the server appealed to the Supreme Court.
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Czech games in the world |
| Czech game developers are known all over the world. Critics and players alike as well as financial achievements can boast titles such as Kingdome Come: Deliverence, Beat Saber VR or the Mafia series, which has become iconic. The Euro Truck Simulator series of truck simulators are also internationally successful. |
| Behind all these titles are large Czech studios. In addition to successful game sales, the studio also earned on its own sales. Warhorse Studios, which is behind Kingdome Come: Deliverence, was bought in 2019 by the Austrian video game publisher THQ Nordic for CZK 1.1 billion. The Beat Games studio, developed by Beat Saber VR, bought Facebook in the same year. The sale price remained secret. |
| The qualities of the Czech gaming business are also evidenced by its sales. In 2020, they amounted to a record 5.3 billion crowns. |
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