All gamers know that piracy is a pretty big deal. It is cited as one of the main reasons why PC development has been lacking compared to console games. SOPA and PIPA are directly related to companies being angry with piracy and copyright infringement. Ubisoft's hated DRM policies are their attempt at trying to cope with the losses. No one knows what the right means of attack really is. Most companies, like Ubisoft, try to go too far in their attempts.
CD Projekt RED, developers of the Witcher series, recently had a bit of controversy surrounding them when they tried to go after pirates of their games. They demanded compensation from anyone who pirated their games, stating that they had the means to find the thieves. Of course, they retracted these claims rather quickly, knowing that a vendetta against pirates wasn't going to end up with anything good. Most likely, it would just annoy the people who buy the games legally.
We can't just hold this one company to blame for such a crazy idea. According to Torrentfreak.com, multiple companies have tried this exact tactic in the past. Some of the companies include Ubisoft (big surprise, right?), Codemasters, and Eidos/Square Enix. Each of these companies have used IP-tracking to find supposed pirates of their games and sent cash-settlement letters to them. These letters are essentially threats, demanding compensation to avoid lawsuits.
This isn't the way to do this, guys. Bullying people around, even pirates, is just going to end up with bad publicity for your company. There have even been cases of IP-tracking being completely wrong, causing letters to be sent to entirely innocent people. I understand why these companies are frustrated and can sympathize with them. Still, this isn't the way to do things.
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