Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

Burnt games come cheap

Pirated CDs are sold openly

Hyderabad: As you reach for your wallet to pay the bill, you can hardly miss the smirk on the face of the young man, standing next in the queue, busily thumb-typing messages in a language that would be alien to most others.

He has a reason to smile. He had hardly paid Rs. 150 for the same games CD, for which you just dished out Rs.1500 or more. His pirated CD would be as good as the genuine one you just bought. The only difference is that he bought it in a small shop in a cellar, that would turn many claustrophobic and not in an air-conditioned mall.

With youth taking to playing computer games and online games more and more, Hyderabad too has its own shady bazaars where popular pirated games CDs like Prince of Persia, Need for Speed, Splinter Ce ll, NBA 2007, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto, etc., are available at the drop of a hat.

“The original games CD costs about Rs.1,500 to Rs.2,000, but the pirated CDs are available for just Rs. 100 each. So why waste my pocket money on the originals when I can get the same at a much cheaper price,” argues Vishal, a college student and one among hundreds of youngsters thronging these shops to buy pirated games CDs.

It is not as if authorities are unaware of the piracy. In April last year, a games development company had conducted raids on shops selling pirated CDs on MG road and other places in the twin cities.

The intense raids had some salutary effect, but that lasted only a month. CD sellers, who got the wind of the raids, stowed away trunk loads of pirated CDs and resumed their business a month later.

Now the companies do incorporate programmes in the CDs which can locate the computers playing the ‘cracked copies’, but this too is no deterrent to the hackers.

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