Pirating 'Glorious Mission'? You May Be Violating Military Secrecy Laws!

Pirating computer games isn’t cool. (And neither are drugs, kids. Stay in school.) But generally, game pirates get accused of violating copyright laws, not military secrecy regulations. So Chinese game sites offering free downloads of the game Glorious Mission, which was developed in connection with the Chinese military, got a surprise yesterday when developer Giant sent a stern warning about pirating the game that suggested pirates may be violating legal regulations that forbid the distribution of military secrets.

The issue is that some sites, whether knowingly or not, have been distributing the “military-use version” of the game. There is also a “civilian” version for regular gamers (though it hasn’t been released yet), but the military-use version can only be distributed and played by the People’s Liberation Army. Apparently, that means it counts as a secret, and distributing it elsewhere is a violation of military secrecy regulations.

That said, I highly doubt anyone’s headed to the gulag over this game, which from all appearances seems to be a knock-off Call of Duty that’s meant more as a recruitment tool for shooter fans than it is a way of distributing any real secrets. Still, if you’re pirating the military-use version of the game, now might be a good time to stop doing that, reformat your hard drive, and then overwrite it 35 times, Gutmann-style.

Just sayin’.

[Via Sina Tech]