CDProjekt CEO is a former cracker and software pirate

[Infinitron]

http://torrentfreak.com/game-devs-want-warez-pirates-to-switch-sides-120228/

However, it is not unprecedented for one-time games crackers to switch sides. This writer personally knew three individuals who jumped from the 1980′s Commodore 64 demo scene to land decent jobs at Ocean, Imagine and distributor Mastertronic.

But there are more famous examples.

In the 1990′s (and as can be seen from the video embedded below, 50 secs in), an individual known as SS Captain roamed the cracktro high seas with a group called Katharsis.

Two decades on he’s better known as Marcin Iwinski, CEO of CD Projekt.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Old news, bro.

 

[Ulminati]

So we now have a carte blance to pirate potato games if we want to waste our HDD space with their overrated turds?

 

[Hellraiser]

In his defense software piracy wasn't illegal in potatoland until like 1994 IIRC. The communists weren't keen on this whole copyright thing and the post-communist governments had bigger shit to deal with than copyright protection.

 

[Lagole Gon]

REALLY old news.

He mentions his pirate career in many interviews.

 

[hoopy]

REALLY old news.

He mentions his pirate career in many interviews.

No, that's his other pirate career. Who do you think taught the Somalis everything they know?

 

[Turisas]

That's a pretty crappy cracktro.

 

[Elwro]

And yes, I remember the software copyright law being introduced in 1994 in Poland.

 

[Lagole Gon]

REALLY old news.

He mentions his pirate career in many interviews.

No, that's his other pirate career. Who do you think taught the Somalis everything they know?

Yeah, we taught them to steal german cars, but they took it a little bit too far.

Interesting trivia - a potato was an official Haiti voodoo king once.

 

[asper]

I for one think it's awesome that a scener is CEO of CD Project. :nostalgictear:

 

[Spectacle]

grEEtz tO mY Old schOOl scEnE brO!

 

[pocahaunted]

SS Captain?

 

[Kjujik]

In his defense software piracy wasn't illegal in potatoland until like 1994 IIRC. The communists weren't keen on this whole copyright thing and the post-communist governments had bigger shit to deal with than copyright protection.

That's right,untill 1994 software piracy was legal. Back in the day you could just walk into a computer store with your own floppy disk and have the game copied on the spot. Also C64 games were broadcasted on public radio, so you could just pop in a cassete and record them. It sounded like a bunch of beeps and squeaks when you listened to it, but worked (almost) perfectly.
Basically most people had more serious problems to deal with back then.

 

[asper]

This thread is now about the Polish c64 demoscene

 

[Grim Monk]

http://torrentfreak.com/game-devs-want-warez-pirates-to-switch-sides-120228/

However, it is not unprecedented for one-time games crackers to switch sides. This writer personally knew three individuals who jumped from the 1980′s Commodore 64 demo scene to land decent jobs at Ocean, Imagine and distributor Mastertronic.

But there are more famous examples.

In the 1990′s (and as can be seen from the video embedded below, 50 secs in), an individual known as SS Captain roamed the cracktro high seas with a group called Katharsis.

Two decades on he’s better known as Marcin Iwinski, CEO of CD Projekt.

I wouldn't be surprised if Torrent Freak picked this up from the Codex.

We've mentioned it a ton of times.

Also if your interested, here's one of his groups "Game Release Texts":
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/mirrors/amigascne/Scrollers/K-Groupstext/Katharsis/Katharsis-LetsStrip.txt

 

[CorpseZeb]

IIRMC, CEO of People Can Fly (Adrian Chmielarz), was also a "pirate", selling polish version of Bomb Jack (ZX Spectrum version) under "Coda" brand name. Before (c) law was introduce in the Poland, there was a nice, steamy jungle.

 

[thesoup]

Tim Schafer also pirated in his youth. He even admitted it during his job interview at Lucas Arts, though accidentally.

 

[deus101]

A better cracktro from that group.
http://pouet.net/groups.php?which=2979




However, these are my faves.


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I remember reading about a small local media storm, where it was discovered that a republican office holder were part of the (cracker)scene.

The fact that he refused to denounce those days were admirable. Scene(even pirate ones) = family!

 

[Gerrard]

http://torrentfreak.com/game-devs-want-warez-pirates-to-switch-sides-120228/

However, it is not unprecedented for one-time games crackers to switch sides. This writer personally knew three individuals who jumped from the 1980′s Commodore 64 demo scene to land decent jobs at Ocean, Imagine and distributor Mastertronic.

But there are more famous examples.

In the 1990′s (and as can be seen from the video embedded below, 50 secs in), an individual known as SS Captain roamed the cracktro high seas with a group called Katharsis.

Two decades on he’s better known as Marcin Iwinski, CEO of CD Projekt.

I wouldn't be surprised if Torrent Freak picked this up from the Codex.

They already did
http://torrentfreak.com/game-devs-want-warez-pirates-to-switch-sides-120228/
Someone posted it in the comments in one of the older articles though.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

In his defense software piracy wasn't illegal in potatoland until like 1994 IIRC. The communists weren't keen on this whole copyright thing and the post-communist governments had bigger shit to deal with than copyright protection.

What kind of defence is it? Would stealing a car be OK to you if it wasn't illegal?
Also, the categorical imperative still applies. He should pay a 20x compensation for every game he stole from the owners. Preferably in a way that would take into account how paying it would affect him when he wasn't a big company owner.

 

[Morkar Left]

These games were pirated from the capitalistic enemy. That makes him not a pirate but a privateer.

 

[spectre]

But did he have the letter of marque?

I don't think the problem is that he was a cracker and a pirate. It's about how he flaunts about his company's pay-up-or-else anti-pirate schemes, etc.
Still, anybody with a half-brain sees how big a douchebag that makes him, poetic justice is served.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I don't think that's an unusal thing for him to do during the time he was young, and as people pointed out copying games was considered normal in the East Block. (that was however a different story before 1989 because of ideological reasons). It won't be a problem his career, in fact it only shows he had the required intelligence.

Better show me a former CEO who is now a cracker and pirate, THAT would be a story.

 

[MetalCraze]

That makes CDP look so good in a light of their paranoid anti-piracy bullshit that makes Ubisoft burst with envy.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I don't want to defend CDP, now that they chose the path of making shitty games and hiring unethical german laywers.
But skyway, I assume you and me lived in the same time and we should know that today is a different time than the 1980s.
Before 1989 the only way to get games was to go into peoples homes, often complete strangers, to copy their discs, lots of them.
In 1989 all changed when I could suddenly walk into shops where games were sold in real boxes, not just floppy discs with felt tip inscription.