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Genshin Impact: Major Private Server Dev Faces DMCA SubpoenasAndy Maxwell, 10 Oct 11:07 AM With over 60 million players every month, Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact: Major Private Server Dev Faces DMCA Subpoenas Andy Maxwell, 10 Oct 11:07 AM With over 60 million players every month, Genshin Impact is one of the greatest success stories in videogames. The game stepped over the 60 million threshold in March 2022, and just over a year later hit a record 66.5 million. Since August, however, interest in the game has declined. The situation is hardly catastrophic but from a second 66.5m peak two months ago, player numbers in September returned to levels last seen in March 2022. Whether this is a concern for developer Cognosphere is unclear but after taking legal action against both leakers (1,2,3) and in-game cheaters (4), Cognosphere has a new target in its sights. Private Servers Upset Business Model On a base level, Genshin Impact is free-to-play but through so-called 'gatcha game' mechanics, players are encouraged to spend virtual currency earned in-game or purchased outside the digital realm using real money. For those in the know, however, unofficial private servers provide an attractive third option. These servers have the ability to set their own rules, meaning a potential fast track to virtual riches for players short on time, patience, or money. The fact that the required software is easily obtained and mostly easy to set up, means there's no shortage of servers. That's not to say all can be used for free, but it's not uncommon for donation models to thrive in a world where time and money are already at a premium. Cognosphere Targets Private Server Developer Last Friday, Cognosphere's attorneys filed applications for three DMCA subpoenas at a district court in California. Each application claims that Cognosphere's copyrights have been infringed by a third party and as a result, service providers are required to hand over the personal details of the alleged infringer. The first application targets GitHub and claims that a user called "casksteven" infringed Cognosphere's exclusive rights in Genshin Impact. In an email to GitHub dated October 6, Cognosphere's attorneys advised GitHub that "without limitation" the infringing content included material posted to the 'Sweaty-Launcher' repo. Sweaty-Launcher is a piece of software that allows users to connect to two types of private servers, GrassCutter and Weedwacker. "The Content infringes Cognosphere's exclusive rights under copyright law. Specifically, it infringes Cognosphere's rights in its popular video game Genshin Impact," the DMCA application reads. The repository URL receives a prominent mention in the application and the screenshot below shows what appears there. However, for reasons that will become clear, we've blurred out a section depicting a character from Genshin Impact. Cognosphere is demanding "Information, including name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), e-mail address(es), and IP address(es), or other information within your possession, custody or control, sufficient to identify the user(s) responsible for making available for distribution and/or otherwise controlling the materials currently or formerly available at the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL'):" Surprisingly, "the materials" do not relate to Sweaty-Launcher at all, but merely the image included in the 'readme' section of the free software. The corresponding DMCA takedown notice sent to GitHub requests "expeditious action to remove or disable access to the Genshin Impact Artwork as referenced above. Furthermore, it is requested that GitHub take appropriate measures to prevent further infringements by the party responsible, including pursuant to any 'repeat infringer' policies maintained by GitHub." Second DMCA Subpoena Application In a second DMCA subpoena application targeting web hosting company Spartan Host LLC, Cognosphere again outlines its exclusive rights in Genshin Impact before demanding the identity of an alleged infringer, including their name, address, telephone numbers, and email address. According to the filing, the user in question maintains the website www.casks.me. While that domain no longer exists, the service itself is operating from a new domain. "Tianli China is one of the largest Genshin servers in China, and we have close to a million register player, with thousands online at anytime. We are experienced with Genshin and handling mass players," the service's promotional material reads. This invitation to the 35,500-member TianLi Community on Discord arrives courtesy of casksteven himself while other connections to the casks.me website are easily found elsewhere. Surprisingly, Cognosphere shows no specific interest in the private server here either, despite some site announcements receiving over 780,000 views in their own right. In common with the complaint and subsequent DMCA subpoena application at GitHub, the application targeting Spartan Host also concerns allegedly infringing images, four in total, most likely screenshots. By examining an archived copy of the website we managed to find one example; it features a login screen with a HoYoverse logo, within the frame of a mobile phone. Since Cognosphere is prepared to spend significant sums protecting these images, it raises the question of why they're so special. They represent a tiny piece of what is obviously a more logical target, one that probably uses other Genshin Impact assets without appropriate licensing, in much more significant ways. Third DMCA Subpoena Application In its third DMCA subpoena application, Cognosphere targets Google LLC, doing business as YouTube. This time the allegedly-infringing material is contained in a total of eight YouTube videos, but how they violated Cognosphere's rights is unclear. The application and DMCA notice sent to YouTube states that Cognosphere owns the rights to the "gameplay and audiovisual elements" of Genshin Impact but no specifics regarding infringing video content are mentioned. The videos have already been removed, not by YouTube itself, but by the channel owner – casksteven. At the time of writing, GitHub is yet to take action against the image on the casksteven repo. The DMCA subpoena applications are available here: Github (1,2), Spartan Host (1) and YouTube (1,2) – (all pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Movie Piracy is Strongly Linked to Box Office Revenue Ernesto Van der Sar, 09 Oct 09:44 PM Over the past 18 years, we've seen our fair share of piracy studies and research, but a finding presented this week 'obviously' stands out. Piracy research firm MUSO looked into the link between movie piracy volume and box office revenues. With piracy data on hundreds of films, the UK firm sits on a research goldmine. The company decided to put this to work by calculating the correlation between movie piracy and box office attendance. Piracy vs. Box Office Demand MUSO predicted that the demand for films through legal and illegal channels might be similar. Put differently, the demand for films at the box office follows the interest in these titles on pirate sites, especially when they have just been released. Indeed, the data didn't disappoint; that is exactly what the research found. The research compares the daily piracy numbers of 98 film releases with their official revenues at the box office. This data sample includes popular films such as "The Lion King" (2019), "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021) and "Spider-man: No Way Home" (2021). Consumption of both legal and pirate versions was measured starting on the day of their respective releases until the film was no longer in theater or when a VOD version came out. Strong Correlation The results reveal that both authorized and unauthorized demand follow a similar pattern. Demand for films is greatest when they have just been released, and interest typically drops off after that, with occasional peaks during weekends. With a Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient of 0.85, the connection between pirate and box office demand is quite strong. According to MUSO, one can be used as a proxy for the other. "[T]here is a very strong, statistically significant, positive correlation between Box Office revenue and unlicensed consumption. Therefore unlicensed consumption data can be used as a proxy for Box Office data and vice versa," MUSO writes. This overall conclusion makes sense. New releases tend to be most popular, both at the box office and on pirate sites. It isn't exactly an earth-shattering finding but does this research actually show that piracy is a good proxy for legal consumption and vice versa? Questions Remain It's important to note that correlation is not causation; here it shows is that both types of consumption follow a similar pattern. The correlation may simply show that there's a higher demand for something just after it's released. That same logic might apply to book sales too. Secondly, it's worth highlighting that this particular correlation test is a rank comparison, which means that the magnitude of the changes may be quite different between piracy volume and box-office revenue. That doesn't make it an ideal proxy measurement. Finally, it's worth stressing that the researchers compared the (ranked) total piracy volume vs. the total box office revenue for all films combined. This means that popular films will have a much higher effect on the correlation. Summarizing the data for all films means a lot of information gets lost. Even if there's no correlation at all for some smaller titles, that could get lost in the pile of data. It would be interesting to see a follow-up analysis to see if there are different patterns for some films, to gain additional insights. There could be specific conditions where piracy volume is less, or even negatively correlated with box office revenues. That could be interesting to learn from. All in all, however, the overall conclusions make sense. People's interest in new releases typically peaks early and drops off after that. Similarly, films that are popular at the box office tend to do well on pirate sites, and the other way around. MUSO will likely cite the finding to help rightsholders use piracy data to their advantage. MUSO can show movie companies that if a title does well on pirate sites in a specific region, they better make sure that it's available legally as well. 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