Piracy & DRM Article

[aimeeandbeatles]

I havn't used my Rome Total War disc since 2007, I created an image ISO/some file type of it and have it up on a virtual drive. Hell I don't even RUN daemon tools very often the time and the disc is still in that virtual drive. Perfectly legal too

I tried virtual drives and it came out not working.

 

[Harbringer]

I think people are morons and DRM really isn't a big deal at all. Who cares about install limits? Its a minor inconvenience to make a phone call?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Who cares about install limits? Its a minor inconvenience to make a phone call?

If the company goes bankrupt, then you're screwed.

 

[Aramazd]

If the company goes bankrupt, then you're screwed.

How likely would it be for a major gaming house to go bankrupt and not have anyone pick up their IP?

 

[Maniacal]

How likely would it be for a major gaming house to go bankrupt and not have anyone pick up their IP?

Quite possible, or worse they contract it to antoher company, and either company can lose files.

Why should I have to make a phone call to spend possibly hours that might cost me money (I don't know if they do or not) just to prove I did not pirate the game I paid for and used up the install limit? Or what if I find it in 5 or 10 years and want to install it? I STILL play Civ2, MANY people still play old/older games.

 

[Splime]

I didn't think DRM was a big deal until it caused my Fallout 3 disc to not work. What happened was, the autorun activated, and then it said "cannot find disc". Turns out, there was some sort of program that it didn't like, but the DVD drive wouldn't work if I disabled it. (Personally, I think it's a disturbing practice that a game will refuse to run just because another program is present on the computer.)

In the end, I got the Steam version. The thing that annoys me about Steam is that only one person can be logged on the account at a time, which is sometimes a problem in my house since my family plays a few games on Steam.

 

[Harbringer]

If the company goes bankrupt, then you're screwed.

So how many times has this happened to you that you have such spite for DRM?

 

[Maniacal]

So how many times has this happened to you that you have such spite for DRM?

Why should it be let to happen? It's like, "Well we've never been hit by a lfood, let's never ever prepare for it until AFTER we get hit by a flood".

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It hasn't happened yet, but here's another case -- My mom often reinstalls her computer, and has to call Microsoft every time to re-activate Windows. And when they stop support for XP, what's the chance that they'll give resources so non-upgraders can still activate it (for free)?

It's not exactly the same, but still....

Hopefully if a company *does* go bankrupt, they'll at least supply a program to remove the install limits.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I have DRM on my computer and didn't have any problem yet. I think that if a company has to go bankrupt and no one is there to take care of it, they would be expected to unlock their game and rid all the users of the limitation, we'll see when that happens, the medium is still new.

I agree that the problem is probably over-priced subpar products plaguing the market with developers abandoning the patching too fast. This alone makes people pirate games more than anything else I'm pretty sure.

Be it Steam, or anything that is in some way linked to the internet, there is always a possibility of it going dead and being screwed for future re-installations. I prefer having a physical backup of some sort.

For me, the best anti-pirate system is probably

1) Pay for the game
2) Receive all the files you need to install it as many times as you want without the use of the internet service you paid the game with (so you can burn the installation files to a DVD or keep it in some manner) + a registration number
3) Make access to patches, mods, community developments, expansions, free DLC, etc., require a registration number.
4) Make sure there is a substantial amount of the above

 

[Harbringer]

Why should it be let to happen? It's like, "Well we've never been hit by a lfood, let's never ever prepare for it until AFTER we get hit by a flood".

You could get struck by lighting today, better go by some thick rubber boots immediately. My point is that the odds of a company going under, and not releasing a hands free patch before they do, is pretty slim. On top of that, they have every rite not to anyway, seeing as how they own the rites to there games, you just purchase the rites to license it, its in all of those EULAs that nobody reads.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

You mean "rights"?

The problem with click-through EULAs is that nobody (except maybe me) reads them, and they're scary!!

 

[Maniacal]

You could get struck by lighting today, better go by some thick rubber boots immediately. My point is that the odds of a company going under, and not releasing a hands free patch before they do, is pretty slim. On top of that, they have every rite not to anyway, seeing as how they own the rites to there games, you just purchase the rites to license it, its in all of those EULAs that nobody reads.

It's a bright sunny day, the chance of lightning is probably lower than my chance of dying in my car in about 30 minutes.

I don't see EA releasing anything for free, if they did go bankrupt, they wouldn't care, the studio that made the battlefront games was shut down without much of a warning and the employes were locked out of the building. They're certainly not going to spend their time releasing freedoms for their games, especially since they don't own the rights to them and probably have little access to them. EA it'self owns the rights to many games made by studios it owns, and a number of those studios get closed down and the employees have to find a new job. The people in EA's corproate offices who handle and 'own' the rights to games will not know how to do anything to cut the install limits.

By the time you get ot the EULA you can't return the game anyways.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

By the time you get ot the EULA you can't return the game anyways.

That's why I think DRM'd games (and software in general) should have a huge ugly yellow sticker on the box. So you can't miss it.

 

[Rub'Rum]

By the time you get ot the EULA you can't return the game anyways.

That's actually true and rather insulting in a way.

The truth is that EULAs, or most "terms of service" actually hold little in terms of actual judicial value. In Canada anyway, most provincial governments already have many laws protecting consumers that overrule all terms of service and EULAs. That is why even if a plane ticket says "we're not responsible for all the BS that can happen to you like missing flights because of unpredictable delays and having to stay in the airport for 2 days", well you can usually take your case to the courts and win 95% of the time. Terms of Service and EULAs seem to effectively only be useful in trying to make your claims for justice more convoluted.

 

[Maniacal]

Air Lines are usually good at handing out vouchers, or at least some are. The LA airport screwed us over (last time I go there) and Alaska Air put us up for the night in a 5 start hotel! And the hotel even let us use our food vouchers Alaska gave us at the bar as it was really late when we finally got there and the restaurent was closed. Plus we all got $25 'gift certificates' we could use for future flights with Alaska Air.

But yes, in the United Kingdom legally they have to accept the game back if you don't agree to the EULA ori t just plain won't work, there are a few laws you can quote to help you win that argument, I forget what they are though. It's just a big hassle though, the store clerks won't go quietly.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I still found it rather creepy that the SecuROM folder was hidden under the User/Application Data folder. I was looking for something else and saw it faded out.

 

[Aramazd]

I still found it rather creepy that the SecuROM folder was hidden under the User/Application Data folder. I was looking for something else and saw it faded out.

Windows hides its files as well.

 

[Maniacal]

I still found it rather creepy that the SecuROM folder was hidden under the User/Application Data folder. I was looking for something else and saw it faded out.

Well, yes, they are trying to hide it from being easily found and disabled/circumvented. In every flder with an image there is a hidden thumbs.dll (or something) as well.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I noticed that, too, but I thought it was to do with Picasa.