CD Projekt Red on why they billed pirates €1000

Speaking to Eurogamer, CD Projekt responded to the controversy and tried to shed a little bit of light on why they took such rash actions against pirates.
"As you know, we aren't huge fans of any sort of DRM here at CD Projekt RED. DRM itself is a pain for legal gamers - the same group of honest people who decided that our game was worth its price, and went and bought it. We don't want to make their lives more difficult by introducing annoying copy protection systems.

"Moreover, we always try to offer high value with our product - for example, enhancing the game with additional collectors' items such as soundtracks, making-of DVDs, books, walkthroughs, etc. We could introduce advanced copy protection systems which, unfortunately, punish legal customers as well. Instead, we decided to give gamers some additional content with each game release, to make their experience complete.

"However," CD Projekt added, "that shouldn't be confused with us giving a green light to piracy. We will never approve of it, since it doesn't only affect us but has a negative impact on the whole game industry.

"We've seen some of the concern online about our efforts to thwart piracy, and we can assure you that we only take legal actions against users who we are 100 per cent sure have downloaded our game illegally."

CD Projekt sent out a warning in November 2010 telling pirates that they would face consequences if it continued. That said, the final bill which was €911.80 seems more than a bit excessive. A bill for the cost of the game might have been more appropriate. The controversy deepened when some of those who were billed claimed never to have even heard of the game.

Eurogamer also noted that CD Projekt RED has taken these actions before, as they once used the same tactics against some who pirated the original Witcher title.