underground gamer is offline for good

[gtmtnbiker]

It seems that underground-gamer has been taken offline for now due to legal issues. There's a rudimentary FAQ here

[EllertMichael]

Brutal.

[o.pwuaioc]

This news is what I woke up to today. I got up and first thing went to log on in order to play LoGD and some blackjack. That's pretty much all I bother with on there now. Still, everything is backed up, and the fellows on IRC repeated that there was no need to worry.

[wclem]

Serious bummer, these guys really helped to get me back into gaming. The forums were good too. It is a shame, I dont think they had things that hurt anyone when downloaded.

[o.pwuaioc]

Serious bummer, these guys really helped to get me back into gaming. The forums were good too. It is a shame, I dont think they had things that hurt anyone when downloaded.

Some of the older stuff apparently caught some eyes. It wasn't even overlap with GOG IIUC, but old EA stuff. One of the games rumored to have been cited was FIFA 98.

[Ack]

I figure I'll post this here, since it was linked:

1. What happened? TL;DR: We have legal problems. For details, see #9
2. Is this the same thing as with BG? BG's shutdown was pre-emptive. Trust me if I say that this one wasn't planned at all.
3. Does this mean UG is gone? No, we are not gone.
4. Is this related to you closing invites recently? This is what closing invites was supposed to prevent from happening.
5. How/when will we get to know more? irc://underground-gamer.com/#chat , we will release new information as it becomes available.
6. Is the user data safe? AFAIK no user data went anywhere. At least, no unencrypted data.
7. How are you sure it's safe? Scorched earth. Everything that COULD be wiped, was. Everything that could NOT be wiped was thoroughly encrypted.
8. Will UG be back? See #3. We can rebuild it. We have backups. We have the technology.
9. Further details? This is what is officially known:
[2013-05-31 10:53:40] <RetroJaro> Maybe it's just "get rid of GOG games." or something.
[2013-05-31 10:55:03] <lenk> Well, it's about games alright. But big publisher games. Like FIFA 98 and a few other well known ones virtually no one downloads.
[2013-05-31 10:56:15] <lenk> That's what you get when you have organizations whose sole purpose is scoring points by taking down sites. They don't care about what they take down. They just do what they are paid for.
[2013-05-31 10:57:49] <lenk> EA was just an example guys. Watchdogs represent much more than that.
[2013-05-31 11:03:49] <lenk> Companies don't care about UG. Copyright watchdogs make it their job though.

[o.pwuaioc]

^Bam, there you go. Funny how they pulled that IRC conversation and placed it straight into the FAQ.

[Retrodude]

Typically, I only pirate things that aren't available for sale or things I have on dvd that didn't come with a digital copy, but every time I hear about something like this, it makes me want to pirate everything just for spite. I don't think this was widely reported, but the Republican party recently fired someone who was working on a copyright law-related study because he had the nerve to say that current copyright law goes too far (which it does) and we need to roll it back to what it originally was (i.e. copyright lasts for 14 years with a single 14 year extention if you want to renew it).

Honestly, do you really think they care about so called "copyright infringement"? Year after year, the media companies bring in billions upon billions of dollars and independent studies have shown that the actual amount of money lost to piracy every year only equals about one percent or less (usually less). Financially speaking, it's not a major concern and it never has been. No matter what they say, this whole argument has never been about losing money. They're just greedy bastards who can't accept the idea of a free exchange of ideas and information (emphasis on free). That's not even mentioning the studies that show people who pirate tons of stuff tend to spend more money on movie tickets, dvds, music and so forth than people who never pirate anything. If you're gullible enough to actually believe the hogwash the copyright folk spout daily without looking into whether it's true or not, I pity you.

[marurun]

It isn't about money. It is about control. And control helps keep competition to a minimum.

[BurningDoom]

Typically, I only pirate things that aren't available for sale or things I have on dvd that didn't come with a digital copy, but every time I hear about something like this, it makes me want to pirate everything just for spite. I don't think this was widely reported, but the Republican party recently fired someone who was working on a copyright law-related study because he had the nerve to say that current copyright law goes too far (which it does) and we need to roll it back to what it originally was (i.e. copyright lasts for 14 years with a single 14 year extention if you want to renew it).

Honestly, do you really think they care about so called "copyright infringement"? Year after year, the media companies bring in billions upon billions of dollars and independent studies have shown that the actual amount of money lost to piracy every year only equals about one percent or less (usually less). Financially speaking, it's not a major concern and it never has been. No matter what they say, this whole argument has never been about losing money. They're just greedy bastards who can't accept the idea of a free exchange of ideas and information (emphasis on free). That's not even mentioning the studies that show people who pirate tons of stuff tend to spend more money on movie tickets, dvds, music and so forth than people who never pirate anything. If you're gullible enough to actually believe the hogwash the copyright folk spout daily without looking into whether it's true or not, I pity you.

No matter how much you try to paint the companies as being money hungry and only out to attack the little guy, the fact is you're still getting something for free that was intended to be something you had to pay for. You're stealing. And you're trying to paint the company out to be the big bad guy so you feel better about it. If that logic applies, then I guess it's okay to just walk into Wal-Mart and stroll out with a few video games without paying for them, because they're making tons of money off of everyone else that shops there.