Okay, the design of the Voluntary logo could have been better but a whole host was submitted and most were ruled out because they looked too similar to the BBFC one - there could be no confusion between a voluntary scheme and a mandatory one. Not that the trendies listened to this; they preferred to go public slagging off 'fuddy-duddy' old ELSPA for being too worthy.

ELSPA were also in the news this week six years ago for introducing a new aspect to their activities - a dedicated Crime Unit, headed up by ex-coppper (and ex-FAST man) John Loader. The new division would pursue pirates directly instead of informing third-party organisations such as FAST, which had previously been the case.

Over the intervening years the ELSPA Crime Unit has had some spectacular successes and it now employs 12 staff, including eight full-time Investigators, and it also calls on a large number of freelance private investigators for specific tasks. Now there will be some people reading this who think this is taking a 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' approach. Do they need all these people to root out a few kids who give each other copies of a few games?

As with the Voluntary Age Rating symbols though, those who say this are obviously not fully informed of the reasons why ELSPA are taking such actions. It's like the recent ELSPA advertising campaign that stated that "80 per cent of those people convicted of piracy are also involved in drugs, theft, prostitution and other crimes." This was immediately questioned (questioned as in 'what a load of bollocks!') in some quarters. There were plenty of, "I'm a pirate, all my mates are pirates and none of us are involved in anything criminal," voices heard.

Firstly, piracy is a criminal offence and if you're caught there is now the possibility that you will go down for it. Last month, for instance, a chap was convicted for 'just' being in possession of 26 copied discs. Prison sentences of up to six months aren't unusual and neither are fines of £5,000 plus costs. But that isn't the point.