Sega’s Big Piracy Bust

Below is a release from Sega, in which is says that many web sites and auctions related to Dreamcast piracy have been stopped.

As part of Sega’s aggressive efforts to cease the counterfeiting of its popular Dreamcast videogame titles, Sega of America today announced that they have shut down more than 60 illegal websites and 125 auction sites that were trafficking pirated Dreamcast games. The company is working closely with Yahoo! Lycos, Excite, eBay and Amazon to shut down auctions of people who were attempting to sell illegal games and pirated boot disks.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Sega and all software publishers are protected against software pirates. Any individual selling or proliferating pirated software is liable under civil and criminal prosecution.

“Sega supports a creative community of talented artists. Pirates are parasites that hurt this community and will not be tolerated by Sega,” said Peter Moore, president and chief operating officer, Sega. “This is just the first step in an even bigger action the company will undertake to stop this problem. We will continue to take aggressive steps to protect our business, consumers and the creative talent we have at Sega.”

“Piracy is one of the biggest business threats our industry faces, and Internet piracy is especially virulent,” said Doug Lowenstein, president, Interactive Digital Software Association. “As IDSA fights the war on piracy on behalf of the industry at large, it’s vital that individual companies also are vigilant in protecting their intellectual property, as Sega has done today.”

The interactive entertainment industry lost more than $3.2 billion to pirates in 1998, not including the millions of dollars lost to Internet piracy. Sega and its third party partners will continue to take aggressive action against counterfeiters in order to protect its intellectual property.

To avoid buying counterfeit items, it is recommended that consumers only buy official Sega Dreamcast videogames from major retailers. Consumers can ensure that they have authentic Sega Dreamcast games by looking for the following: 1) The underneath of the game CD should be silver – not black or gold – with three clearly visible tracks; 2) The first track should be large, the middle one small and the third medium-sized. The middle track should state “copyright Sega Entertainment Ltd.”

Consumers with leads and information relating to software piracy can e-mail them to stoppiracy@sega.com.

This all really started when Sega found out about Utopia; now we’ve found out Dreamcast piracy is much worse than originally thought. You are encouraged to do your part, and report any illegal activities to the E-mail address stated above.