The ESA, the association which represents the main players in the video game industry such as Activision or EA, has just presented a compilation of pirate sites and services to be eliminated as a priority.
Does ESA mean anything to you? This is the Entertainment Software Association, an American association which represents the main players in video games such as Activision-Blizzard, Epic Games, EA, Ubisoft, PlayStation, Nintendo and Microsoft. The institution is also responsible for organizing the famous international video game show every year: E3. Finally, we should rather talk about it in the past tense because after the cancellation of the 2023 edition, we still don’t know if E3 will return in 2024…
But let’s forget about E3 and focus on the new report published by the ESA. The organization has just shared a list which in his eyes brings together the main pirate sites and services which threaten the JV industry. This list was submitted to USTR, the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
1fichier and Megaup.net are in the crosshairs
In this report, the ESA lists these threats according to different categories. Thus, the institution first mentions download and hosting sites like 1fichier.com and megaup.net in particular. Let us recall in passing that Nintendo won its standoff in France against 1fichier.com in April 2023. Indeed, the Paris Court recognized the site’s responsibility in the distribution of pirated copies of the Japanese manufacturer’s games.
If Megaup has not yet been sued by video game players, the ESA considers the platform to be a growing concern. According to his figures, downloading of illegal copies increased by 135% in 2023. For the ESA, there is also another problem: Megapup’s lack of responsiveness to DMCA notices (claims for copyright infringement).
“Megaup hosts hundreds of unauthorized copies of copyrighted video game titles and has only a 33% response rate to ESA takedown notices, despite receiving numerous takedown requests ”, assures the ESA.
Also read: IPTV – anti-piracy organizations submit list of services to be eradicated
ESA targets cheat sellers and illegal shops
The association then continues with the sites which offer cheat software and tutorials to bypass the main anti-cheat systems on the market. She mentions in particular mpgh.net and unknowcheats.me. “All cheat software is created by the community and Unknowcheats.me encourages users to develop and distribute these illegal products,” writes the ESA.
@Finally, the Entertainment Software Association aims unauthorized online stores, and in particular playerauctions.com and G2G.com. These two platforms illegally sell in-game items such as skins, virtual currencies or even progression boosts. With this list, the ESA hopes to alert law enforcement, policy makers and foreign governments to the main threats to the video game industry.
Source: TorrentFreak