Ubisoft re-selling torrented music?

By Robert Purchese Published 16 March, 2011

UPDATE: Ubisoft "investigating" the matter.

UPDATE: Ubisoft has told Eurogamer it is "currently investigating" the matter.

ORIGINAL STORY: Ubisoft has been accused of downloading a torrented version of its own Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood soundtrack and then re-selling it as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game on PC.

The evidence comes from a user on Reddit, who noticed that the Digital Deluxe Edition soundtrack was encoded by "arsa13" - the same alias linked to illegal rips of the Collector's Edition soundtrack.

This poses a delicious question: is Ubisoft now guilty of piracy?

We've asked the publisher for an explanation.

The Digital Deluxe Edition of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood arrives tomorrow. Included are two exclusive single-player maps; two multiplayer characters; one Ezio skin; a codex written by Altair (hero of Assassin's Creed 1); themed trading cards; map of Rome; a film documenting the lineage of AC; a Making Of documentary and - yes - the game's soundtrack.

Pre-order the game on Get Games for a free Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Ertardo #1 1 year ago

    This is hilarious.

  • UncleLou #2 1 year ago

    This poses a delicious question: is Ubisoft now guilty of piracy?

    Boring answer I am afraid: no. They are the copyright owner, they can't infringe their own copyright, and arsa13 can't derive any rights from his illegal rip.

  • mcmonkeyplc #3 1 year ago

    Lolz

  • wizlon #4 1 year ago

    I'm pretty sure you can't pirate something you own.

  • Quak #5 1 year ago

    Why would they need to download a torrent version? Surely they have the original files in SVN or SourceSafe or whatever they use?

  • Shikasama #6 1 year ago

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    Whether they are technically guilty of piracy or not, fuck them because that is amazing.

  • StolenGlory #7 1 year ago

    This is fucking brilliant.

    At least we now know that Karma hates DRM too.

  • utterdrivel #8 1 year ago

    Why would they do this?

    Did they lose the CD?

  • midnight_walker #9 1 year ago

    @UncleLou

    But even so, as a byproduct of the torrenting they will have been uploading the soundtrack to other nefarious downloaders. Or at least, that's how I understand this process works.

  • cianchristopher #10 1 year ago

    Rockstar did something similar to this. The version of Max Payne on Steam is actually a rip of the game from a torrent site, as the original release had some restictive DRM that made it easier not to use it.

  • thesombrerokid #11 1 year ago

    @midnight_walker that still isn't pirating, they're granting an implicit license to whomever they uploaded to.

    this is reminiscent of the time they used scene cracks in a patch to disable their own drm.

  • coolbritannia #12 1 year ago

    Could it not have been encoded before it was torrented, or is my techno spazzery showing again?

  • Whitster #13 1 year ago

    @sven_vath

    You mean you couldn't be bothered to use Media Player or iTunes, software that comes with every computer sold?

    And I thought I was lazy!

  • kalinichenko #14 1 year ago

    really?
    Edited by kalinichenko at 16/03/11 @ 11:47

  • raduciu #15 1 year ago

    I think Ubisoft loves pirates only they're afraid of admiting it.
    Edited by raduciu at 16/03/11 @ 11:43

  • menage #16 1 year ago

    Why the hell would they do that?

  • SandyMcD #17 1 year ago

    @whitster
    I've torrented stuff I own too - there was a spate of nasty CD copy protection a few years ago that prevented the discs from being ripped by anyone other than hackers.

    First Kings of Leon album had it, one of the Faithless albums and quite a few others. If you so much as tried to play them in some models of iMac, the disc would lock in the drive and you'd be looking at a repair bill from Apple.

  • bad09 #18 1 year ago

    Unbelievable but this is Ubi and as stated earlier they have form with the Rainbow 6 crack threy used as a official "fix".

    They don't need this just as they start to come round to customers needs on the DRM stakes. Not that I'm buying Brotherhood, they've not removed the internet DRM off AC2 yet so I'm stuck waiting to contiunue the series.

  • Doctor_What #19 1 year ago

    Hang on though - if they can sell a cracker's work to disable their DRM, do they then have to pay the person who cracked it for their work? Surely the cracker has rights for the code they used to crack the game?

  • bad09 #20 1 year ago

    "Surely the cracker has rights for the code they used to crack the game?"

    Yeah, watch crackers infect their cracks with bullshit always online DRM to stop publishers stealing them :)

  • chrisola #21 1 year ago

    Ubisoft IS arsa13

  • orangpelupa #22 1 year ago

    Yups long time ago there also a case like this.

    Game X have DRM problem then Publisher X release a patch. But after seeing the patch in Hex Editor. The patch contain the "Release Group" name :p

    so the patch is just a no-dvd crack.

  • andy25801 #23 1 year ago

    Seems like a publicity stunt to sell a game that I wasn't aware of.
    It worked perfectly. Now pre- ordered.

  • spekkeh #24 1 year ago

    just like you can't plagiarize yourself, you can't pirate yourself. Still pretty lulzy of course.

  • midnight_walker #25 1 year ago

    You weren't aware of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood?

    Really?

  • linea #26 1 year ago

    Sod what Ubisoft think about it.... I'd like a quote from arsa13.

    I wonder if he's furiously filling in a Ubisoft job application as we speak?

  • mrpsb #27 1 year ago

    Or don't download from Get Games because it costs a fiver more than on Steam.

  • Caimbeul #28 1 year ago

    If true, they may not have infringed their own copyright (if indeed they own it and not the artists) but by distributing it (again if they did) then i THINK that then relinquishes the copyright on so much as they cant nail anyone else for downloading it.

  • Sodding_Gamer #29 1 year ago

    Fairplay lol

  • Quak #30 1 year ago

    > i could be arsed finding software and ripping them

    I think you mean you couldn't be arsed. If you could be arsed then you would have done so.

  • Vertius #31 1 year ago

    Philosoraptor says: If you illegally download your own soundtrack, can you be sued?

    Reminds me of the Okami Wii box in the U.S., which used art watermarked by IGN. In each case, the question must be asked...why is it easier to get the content from someone else when you OWN IT!? SUrely you have your own, higher-quality assets!?

    Just bizarre...

  • curtlikesmeat #32 1 year ago

    Is there any pwnage better than self pwnage?

  • bf #33 1 year ago

    Funny stuff. Something tells me that the person responsible for putting the collection got fed up with internal procedures, or couldn't figure out ripping.

  • Darren #34 1 year ago

    What an embarassing thing to do considering Ubisoft's main reason for using its draconian online DRM scheme in the first place was because of piracy!

    /snigger

    Seriously, why the hell did Ubisoft have to download a torrent anyway; surely they have the original music files on a hard drive or CD somewhere?

  • dingo75 #35 1 year ago

    Pro tip for the DRM removing patches in the future Ubisoft:
    Delete the skidr0w.nfo, razor1911.nfo, reloaded.nfo files before zipping.

  • Vice.Destroyer #36 1 year ago

    For all those that say, why couldn't Ubi use its own master recording. Sometimes, it is not possible. I recently was in the embarrassing situation of not having a document created by my own company in August 2010 to give out to a customer. I had to actually find the document on docstoc.com, where it was available for download for $19.99.

    I had to essentially steal my own companys work to pass it onto a customer. Sometimes, it is just easier and faster than tracking down the person responsible for putting it back online.

  • Jamieb87 #37 1 year ago

    mmm, the ironing is delicious!

  • BuddyChrist #38 1 year ago

    Lost my copy, just wanted it again.

    Ubisoft in classic piracy excuse SHOCKER

  • linea #39 1 year ago

    Clearly the person responsible thought 'sod waiting until my manager contacts the manager of the department which has the assets to sign off releasing them so that someone else again can send them off to me, when their manager gets back from holiday, if they remember, I'll just torrent them and then I can go home'.

    I'm so glad I'm self-employed now

  • SG #40 1 year ago

    Quak
    16/03/11 @ 11:21

    Why would they need to download a torrent version? Surely they have the original files in SVN or SourceSafe or whatever they use?

    This.

  • UncleLou #41 1 year ago

    @UncleLou

    But even so, as a byproduct of the torrenting they will have been uploading the soundtrack to other nefarious downloaders. Or at least, that's how I understand this process works.

    But it's not copyright infringement if the copyright owner uploads it. I'd go so far and say the bits and bytes other torrenters downloaded from Ubisoft are legal, too. :)
    Edited by UncleLou at 16/03/11 @ 14:26

  • DirectAim #42 1 year ago

    arsa13 works for ubisoft! You read it 1st at eurogamer!!!

  • Eraserhead #43 1 year ago

    I don't quite understand this story... presumably if they have the same encoder name, then the torrent version and official version are identical, yes? In other words, the torrent wasn't re-encoded, just uploaded as is.

    Sooo... isn't it more likely that "arsa13" was the original Ubisoft encoder name, and that's why the torrent version also has it, rather than the other way around? That seems to make a whole lot more sense.

  • homerbert #44 1 year ago

    My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that the act of creating a rip of something can be argued to be a "derivative work". Now the ripper doesn't own the derivative work because he hasn't got the rights to the original, but equally, the original copyright owners don't own the alteration. Essentially you can say that ripping is like remixing, from a legal POV.

    From what I understand it's a pretty shoddy legal grounds, but it's enough of a deterrent to stop say, Marvel Comics, just torrenting their back catalogue.They are slowly scanning all their old comics, rather than taking the work already done by pirates.

  • King_of_Hyrule #45 1 year ago

    How can Ubisoft be "investigating the matter?" They downloaded the torrent and are distributing it. What's the alternative? They used the original music files and added "encoded by arsa13" in the metadata for fun?