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Anti-piracy group tricked pirates, sold them illegal copies of 'Deus Ex'

Vigiland Defender persuaded pirates to actually pay for a game through a little experiment involving leaked software, a simple hack, and a survey: all to show that torrents are only hated because they are misused. We later confirmed that the game the pirates bought was also an illegal copy. This story is pretty bizarre — read it for yourself.

  • Joseph Parish

    Oct 14, 2011

    Joseph Parish

    Anti-piracy group tricks pirates to sell games

    Deus Ex: Human Revolution Screenshot
    Deus Ex: Human Revolution Screenshot

    You see, Vigilant Defender wants to get hired by game publishers to turn torrents into a profitable distribution method, and the survey was designed to ferret out the people who are willing to open their wallets. Since 27.7 percent of respondents claimed they had no intention of purchasing the game, Vigilant Defender offered them access to a 1Gbps download at a reduced price, calculated from the respondent's answers — it managed a pirate-to-payer conversion rate of 8 percent that brought in €681,000. Apparently even pirates can't pass on a good deal. When we asked Vigilant Defender how it got discounted digital copies of a new release game, it wouldn't say; we were told only that the proceeds "would be a donation going straight back to the publishing/Developer company."

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