Facebook is advertising video game piracy, have standards really sunk so low?

[CapriciousEntity]

I was browsing facebook earlier today when I noticed some ads on the sidebar that were explicitly telling me to go to a website to pirate video games.

Picture Proof:
Zelda: OOT - http://i.imgur.com/7VBwU.png
Zelda: MM - http://i.imgur.com/le2KW.png
Final Fantasy VII - http://i.imgur.com/3DTGU.png

While I've reported these to Nintendo and Facebook (still trying to find a way to notify Square), this did cause me to question the standards of how businesses conduct themselves online. While I understand that a place like youtube can accept millions of videos per day and it would be infeasible to check all of them for potentially infringing content, do we hold these same standards for companies that are directly accepting money from these third parties?

Personally, I don't believe that this sort of behaviour should be considered acceptable. Facebook is willing to promote the ads of anyone who is paying them money, legal or not, and that does not sit well with me.

tl,dr: Facebook is accepting money from people to promote illegal activity, is that okay?

PS: If this post has inadvertently caused you to crave Zelda/Final Fantasy/other retro game, could I recommend checking out Nintendo's virtual console/ Sony's PSN Store/other official store.

 

[tippy2k2]

I would be very very very surprised if this was on purpose.

Whether you agree or disagree with piracy is irrelevant; it's still an illegal act. My guess is that Facebook was either supposed to get Ad #1 and the marketing company they work with put in Ad #2 or something similar to that.

I decided to do some investigative journalism (IE I went to the website being advertised). It's a ROM/Emulator site (which I was under the impression is still illegal). Now this is according to their website so take it with a grain of salt...

Why are some ROM titles protected?
"Some games are protected by the ESA and are illegal to distribute. We fully support the gaming industry, so if you really like those games, buy them!"

It sounds like this site uses either games that have either lost it's copyright (there are WAY more old games on here and only a handful of PS1/Gamecube era games) or maybe they have some kind of deal with certain companies. See EDIT 2

EDIT: I should put my actual view down too. Facebook should have the ad removed. I've made it clear that I'm not a fan of piracy in the past but whether you like it or not, it IS still an illegal act...

EDIT the 2nd: DoPo below has confirmed for me that it is indeed illegal and that the site runners acknowledge that it's illegal...

 

[CapriciousEntity]

I would be very very very surprised if this was on purpose.

Whether you agree or disagree with piracy is irrelevant; it's still an illegal act. My guess is that Facebook was either supposed to get Ad #1 and the marketing company they work with put in Ad #2 or something similar to that.

I decided to do some investigative journalism (IE I went to the website being advertised). It's a ROM/Emulator site (which I was under the impression is still illegal). Now this is according to their website so take it with a grain of salt...

"Why are some ROM titles protected?
Some games are protected by the ESA and are illegal to distribute. We fully support the gaming industry, so if you really like those games, buy them!"

It sounds like this site uses either games that have either lost it's copyright (there are WAY more old games on here and only a handful of PS1/Gamecube era games) or maybe they have some kind of deal with certain companies.

The length of copyright is a lot longer than that, games from the NES/SNES era would still be under copyright. I highly doubt that these games (specifically, but not limited to, the ones advertised) would be made freely available under legitimate deals considering that many companies are now trying to push for those games to be available through legal means such as Nintendo's virtual console. Even square is selling Final Fantasy VII for the PC on their website right now, so it is highly unlikely that they would sign off on a deal that lets people take it for free.

http://na.square-enix.com/finalfantasyvii/go/article/view/blog/259589/final_fantasy_vii_pc_now_available!

 

[aguspal]

Videogame piracy = Low standards.


Holy shit. I mean, yeah it is bad, but from there to call it low standards... ugh... theres just quite a lot of other more important stuff to call low standards

Also anyone with half a brain can play those games you mentioned OP (I dont see why because all 3 of them suck hard, but opinons and all that crap)

 

[FalloutJack]

Excuse me while I laugh continuously for various reasons on why that is funny as hell.

 

[DoPo]

It's a ROM/Emulator site (which I was under the impression is still illegal). Now this is according to their website so take it with a grain of salt...

"Why are some ROM titles protected?
Some games are protected by the ESA and are illegal to distribute. We fully support the gaming industry, so if you really like those games, buy them!"

It sounds like this site uses either games that have either lost it's copyright (there are WAY more old games on here and only a handful of PS1/Gamecube era games) or maybe they have some kind of deal with certain companies.

Well, if you go to the forums, there is a stickied thread named "Legality of Roms". The first response suggests www.legalityofroms.net [http://cristgaming.com/pirate.swf] as an explanation, and everybody (mods included - they stickied the thread) seem to agree.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa...... whoa................. whoa..................... whoa............... whoa............. whoa..................... whoa....................................... whoa
[s/]Louis, this is not my Batman glass[/s]

There are a few things to point our here.

1) Welcome to the Escapist. Daystar Clarion is really the one in charge that everyone likes, ruling from the shadows. Don't insult the mods. Don't ask about the ponies. Stay out of the basement.

2) Low standards piracy does not equal. The debate on piracy is FAR from over and it's silly to just assume it's in any category.

3) Pretty sure those ads are just dummy links to scam sites.

4) If they're not, Facebook can't honestly be expected to check every single ad that they allow.

5) Really? You reported them to the companies? I mean, really? That's like trying to end racism by walking around in a shirt with Morgan Freeman on it.

6) I get this odd feeling that you are a spambot. Been having a run of those lately.

 

[DoPo]

3) Pretty sure those ads are just dummy links to scam sites.

Except it lists a real working URL.

6) I get this odd feeling that you are a spambot. Been having a run of those lately.

Bot - no. Something else...well, without trying to sound offensive - how often does a normal person find some weird ads on Fb and decides to register on the Escapist to make a new thread about it? Not very often, I think.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

3) Pretty sure those ads are just dummy links to scam sites.

Except it lists a real working URL.

6) I get this odd feeling that you are a spambot. Been having a run of those lately.

Bot - no. Something else...well, without trying to sound offensive - how often does a normal person find some weird ads on Fb and decides to register on the Escapist to make a new thread about it? Not very often, I think.

Ah. I stand corrected. Seemed logical and I couldn't be arsed to actually look for myself.

And I'm not entirely sure what you're insinuating with the second part of your response...

 

[DoPo]

And I'm not entirely sure what you're insinuating with the second part of your response...

Pointing out that the behaviour exhibited is suspicious. What exactly caused the thread, I wouldn't know, though.

 

[CapriciousEntity]

1) Welcome to the Escapist. Daystar Clarion is really the one in charge that everyone likes, ruling from the shadows. Don't insult the mods. Don't ask about the ponies. Stay out of the basement.

Thank you for the welcome, I have been here before, but forgot what my account was because I rarely post.

2) Low standards piracy does not equal. The debate on piracy is FAR from over and it's silly to just assume it's in any category.

I understand that the morality debate on piracy is probably never going to be over, however from a strictly legal standpoint, copyright infringement is illegal. The 'low standards' was actually more at the idea that Facebook is willing to advertise something illegal, but it didn't need to be piracy. Sorry if I wasn't very clear. I'd probably have raised this same issue if Facebook was advertising some other morally questionable (yet still currently illegal) activity, but probably not in a gaming forum.

3) Pretty sure those ads are just dummy links to scam sites.

Unfortunately it is for a site that has been around for years

4) If they're not, Facebook can't honestly be expected to check every single ad that they allow.

Well, this is actually the discussion that I was hoping to occur: Is this sort of thing acceptable? If advertising companies are willing to accept money to promote a product, should they have some level of standards as to ensure that the product is not illegal? I can understand youtube not being able to check and relying on user reports, but if a site is accepting money from other companies, should we hold them to higher standards?

5) Really? You reported them to the companies? I mean, really? That's like trying to end racism by walking around in a shirt with Morgan Freeman on it.

My intention wasn't to end piracy, I know that's impossible! Facebook has a report feature for ads, so that stuff like this does eventually get caught (though my argument is why shouldn't they have to check first). Nintendo also has an email address set up to report stuff like this, and I thought that they should at least be notified about this. If someone was infringing on my rights and advertising it on the largest social network on the web I'd probably want to know.

6) I get this odd feeling that you are a spambot. Been having a run of those lately.

Haha! I've never been called a bot before, I didn't know the tech had advanced to such a level where someone would think that a robot typed this!

Bot - no. Something else...well, without trying to sound offensive - how often does a normal person find some weird ads on Fb and decides to register on the Escapist to make a new thread about it? Not very often, I think.

Sorry, this probably did come off as a bit strange. I often lurk here and forgot what my old account was so I had to register for a new one when I actually found something that I thought was worth posting. You know how some people can occasionally go into big piracy rants about how it should be considered okay/legal, well I guess that I sometimes do that from the opposite perspective and seeing (what is currently considered) illegal activity being promoted through a very prominent advertiser made me want to start a discussion about whether or not we should hold websites more accountable for what they do, or if we should have lower standards for advertisers just because they are online. Imagine if a TV channel started advertising piracy/other illegal activity and we had the same 'they shouldn't need to check what they are doing' mentality.

Sorry if I came across as weird!

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

ubersnip

Well alrighty then. The whole thing makes sense and I retract most of what I said.

You DID come off as pretty odd.

Second post, overall weird content and add to that the recent influx of spam-bots along with the fact that at the end you essentially advertised stuff.

On the topic you originally intended to create, I stand by the idea that Facebook can't really be held accountable for every ad they have.

The TV comparison doesn't really hold up because with the number of Facebook pages that exist, no amount of moderators could hope to review every one.

To be honest, I think the user report system they have now is really the only way to do it.

 

[Arakasi]

I think the primary mistake that this thread makes is assuming that Facebook had any standards in the first place.

 

[DoPo]

Bot - no. Something else...well, without trying to sound offensive - how often does a normal person find some weird ads on Fb and decides to register on the Escapist to make a new thread about it? Not very often, I think.

Sorry, this probably did come off as a bit strange. I often lurk here and forgot what my old account was so I had to register for a new one when I actually found something that I thought was worth posting. You know how some people can occasionally go into big piracy rants about how it should be considered okay/legal, well I guess that I sometimes do that from the opposite perspective and seeing (what is currently considered) illegal activity being promoted through a very prominent advertiser made me want to start a discussion about whether or not we should hold websites more accountable for what they do, or if we should have lower standards for advertisers just because they are online. Imagine if a TV channel started advertising piracy/other illegal activity and we had the same 'they shouldn't need to check what they are doing' mentality.

Sorry if I came across as weird!

That makes more sense, now. I thought it odd somebody would run to the Escapist of all other places to post the thread. As their first one. But the thread wasn't even advertising anything.

 

[FunKing]

It's a ROM/Emulator site (which I was under the impression is still illegal). Now this is according to their website so take it with a grain of salt...

"Why are some ROM titles protected?
Some games are protected by the ESA and are illegal to distribute. We fully support the gaming industry, so if you really like those games, buy them!"

It sounds like this site uses either games that have either lost it's copyright (there are WAY more old games on here and only a handful of PS1/Gamecube era games) or maybe they have some kind of deal with certain companies.

Well, if you go to the forums, there is a stickied thread named "Legality of Roms". The first response suggests www.legalityofroms.net [http://cristgaming.com/pirate.swf] as an explanation, and everybody (mods included - they stickied the thread) seem to agree.

i did't realize how loud my surround sound was, and you just scared the hell out of me w/ that link...lol good job

 

[MetalMagpie]

4) If they're not, Facebook can't honestly be expected to check every single ad that they allow.

Well, this is actually the discussion that I was hoping to occur: Is this sort of thing acceptable? If advertising companies are willing to accept money to promote a product, should they have some level of standards as to ensure that the product is not illegal? I can understand youtube not being able to check and relying on user reports, but if a site is accepting money from other companies, should we hold them to higher standards?

Companies like Facebook and Google rely on being able to almost entirely automate the process by which people buy ad space, in the same way that Amazon relies on being able to almost entirely automate the process by which people buy books/games/etc. If they had to screen every ad they allowed onto their system, they wouldn't make money. They rely on having a high volume of small transactions.

In comparison, Kickstarter makes most of its money from a small number of very large transactions, so (for the time being) it can afford to slow down submissions enough to have a real human look at them. Even then, they don't have time to do a very thorough job.

However, all that explains is why it happens. The worthwhile question is: should this be a viable business model? Should companies be allowed to use unfiltered advertising to make money? And would we have to sacrifice free services like Facebook and Google if we wanted to hold internet advertisers responsible for their ads?

 

[charliejames]

i like that types of game..

 

[Evil Smurf]

I don't think FB care, they support a company which steals everything creative and rebadges it. *cough* ZYNGA *cough*

 

[Evil Smurf]

i like that types of game..

what?.....pirated ones?

 

[Emeight]

I was under the impression that Facebook serves up most ads based on your Google searches?