AND NOW, A TREATISE BY LORD BRITISH ON THE VIRTUE OF WAREZ [Author: Lum the Mad]
Richard Garriott’s new lords and masters, NCSoft, made the news again, oh boy.
NCSoft, a Kosdaq-listed online game developer, has established a powerful user base fairly quickly in the last few years thanks to the enthusiastic game buffs willing to pay a subscription fee for the popular network-based game, Lineage.
In other words, NCSoft is one of the key beneficiaries of intellectual property on the Web. Unfortunately, the company did not live up to its corporate identity earlier this year. The reason: It was caught using unlicensed and pirated software, including Starcraft, another popular online game developed by Blizzard of the U.S.
NCSoft’s actions, particularly given that it’s one of the few highly profitable game makers in Korea with enough cash to buy licensed software, highlights the depth of the software piracy problem.
Now, Lord British, don’t copy that floppy. Thanks to Quarter to Three for the headsup.