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Regarding SKOAR's Pirating Charades


KeezNah

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Hey, fellas. I wanted to know what your opinion was on this particular matter that's been bugging the shite out of me for quite some time. To put things in perspective, I recently posted a story on TAP about the lastest SKOAR issue. Let me just paste a quick reference from that, as I don't know want to sound like a broken record. Plus, I enjoy be lazy like that. :D

 

After some delay, SKOAR! #XVI — Oct-Nov 2007 has finally hit stands in most metropolitan areas. For the uninitiated, SKOAR! is an Indian Gaming Magazine published every two to three months by Jasubhai Digital Media, which also happens to publish its tech-centric cousin Digit. SKOAR! got its first wind in 2003, right after Computer Gaming World (now known as the Games For Windows Official Magazine) was no longer being officially distributed for reasons I’m not aware of (Come back to us, Jeff Green!). It’s considered the de facto gaming magazine here in India, largely because it’s the only gaming magazine widely available.

 

Recently in the past year, SKOAR! has been placing full versions of oldie-but-still-very-goldie PC titles on their DVDs, with the help of keygens and No-CD/DVD patches. With more and more readers becoming rapidly aware of the issue, there was much probing from the community regarding this controversy, demanding an explanation from the staff members themselves. However, it has come to the point that despite certain staff members (mainly the Managing Editor himself, Badri “Badjag” Narayan) being full-aware of their own actions, they just don’t seem to give a fig. SKOAR continues piling on whatever their torrents can fetch them, and Issue XVI is no different. Which makes us very sad pandas, quite frankly.

 

Now, I've spoken to EA regarding this matter and they were simply amazed something this publicly-open didn't catch their attention sooner. And that's what bugs me: Do Indian Distributors care about this sorta thing or not? I understand the whole legal structure here in India is about as shaky as bucket full of infected wombats on opium, but that's what cease and desist orders are for, right? How hard would it be for Microsoft to tell PC World to not include free copies of Vista in one issue by just saying, "Yo, stop that. I'll smack you. Hard."

 

Someone please put this in perspective for me, since I have little to any idea how distributors here in India operate. That, and they're just to shy wanting too answer my questions :(

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woh they actually give pirated full games with their mag?

 

Yes, indeedy. Please see the article for more details, along with pictures.

 

im sure vin will have some insight on this.....he worked for jasubhai and i think led the CGW mag

 

Vinit led CGW? This wouldn't happen to be the same Vinit Aggarwal, would it?

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^^ even i was wondering how they could distribute so many full versions of pc games in every issue ...... well even digit sometimes gives away full versions of old pc games .......... i only hope they too arnt ......

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thats really serious ..... damn!! theve really got the nerve ..... what shocks me is how could they????? skoar really on of the reallly really few gaming magazines in india .... and of considerable repute ...... i really am shocked .... beyond words...

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I could care less about them. Skoar is a pretty crappy magazine anyways.

By the way dude, if i am not wrong weren't you or someone from your website was a part of Digit ? prolly a forum moderator or some. I can't seem to recall but i had heard about your website from some other place but didn't bother too much during that time.

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What do you think Jasubhai will be sued or what ? They will prolly blame it at the place where their dvd's are written. Just blame the fellow who was responsible and its gonna be over with some compensation.

 

Keeznah - Imo you should put forward your findings towards some newspaper also

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They will prolly blame it at the place where their dvd's are written. Just blame the fellow who was responsible and its gonna be over with some compensation.

 

Check the article for references of SKOAR's Managing Editor (Badri "Badjag" Narayan) admitting to having put pirate games there, and his reasoning for doing so. It's not just the people who mass-produce these, it's the people who are sending them.

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this news saddens me personally. i worked at jasubhai in various capacities - editor/manager cgw, editor digit; badri was a freelancer on my team - and yes, we did make a few blunders along the way (software keygens on our multimedia cds), but THIS is beyond comprehension. the only logic (albeit flawed) behind such a decision is that people buy gaming magazines for the CDs - a few years back, bundling a couple of CDs (1gb+ data in the form of demos, patches, videos, etc) was exciting enough to make gamers shell out 200 bucks to buy the magazine. BUT with the prevalence & penetration of broadband connections, these demo CDs (or samplers as we call them) have lost their appeal - but this is a crazy and irresponsible way to sell a magazine. send me a list of games that they have pirated via their CDs and i'll personally email the concerned publishers to initiate legal action.

 

 

 

V

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