Federal Trade Commission To Scrutinize DRM 211
Ars Technica reports that the FTC is getting ready to take a hard look at gaming DRM, setting up a town hall meeting to be held on March 25th. They're currently recruiting panelists, and they say the meeting will, in part, "address the need to improve disclosures to consumers about DRM limitations." The controversy over DRM came to a head in 2008 with the release of Spore and the multiple subsequent class-action lawsuits focusing on the SecuROM software that came with the game. Ars Technica says the town hall meeting will also look at "legal issues surrounding DRM" and "the potential need for government involvement to protect consumers."
Re:Are Pigs Flying? (Score:5, Informative)
Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe (Score:2, Informative)
I'm in Eastern Europe (Ukraine) right now on a trip. Walked into a DVD/PC games/PS2 game store. There were legal copies of a tiny number of games for sale at UAH 125 each (around $15, but this number is a bit warped due to the fact that the Ukraine currency has plummeted very recently) and a giant amount of games, dvds, etc for sale for around UAH 20 to 35 each, including all of the games that were for sale legally. curious, i went into another store, then another, and found that those dispensed with the formality of even having a few legitimate games. the selection of the games was far larger than you'd find in a typical best-buy. The shopkeepers made no secret of the fact that the games were not legal.
The thing is, it's not like these are little independent software stores run from the back of a truck. these are large multi-million dollar national (ukrain's population is about 50 million) professional chains selling this stuff.
Furthermore, at $15 (the price for the 'full' versions), the games are at least as affordable to the average ukrainian gamer as the $45 equivalents are in the USA. the situation where ukraine (or malaysia, or china, or you name it) is some poor backwater where we might as well just tolerate this since the potential users have no money. i mean, you have to have a serious PC to play most of the modern games, and serious PC prices are pretty much the same everywhere.
i asked the shopkeepers about business software like MS-Office. These were under the counter, but still easily available. one shopkeeper complained to me that his PC game business was down as people were flocking to the web to download stuff. a cousin of mine showed how through the university network (i mean directly on university servers) of ukraine's best university, she had access to from what i can tell tens of terabytes of films, games, software, etc just right there. this is a girl who drives a car better than most of you probably did at her age (19, new toyota land cruiser).
So, while slashdot obsesses over the attempts of companies to protect their own material and the inevitable over-reaches that happen in that quest, you might, just might want to consider that piracy prevention is a noble and fair goal to make people pay their share. we should be supporting sensible attempts at stopping the process wherein american and western european consumers basically subsidize the entertainment for the rest of the world.
Re:Woot! (Score:4, Informative)
RIAA and MPAA license to big game developers (Score:5, Informative)
What does the MAFIAA have to do with gaming DRM?
Re:Consumers are in the driver's seat now. (Score:3, Informative)
And once again pirates have it easier... (Score:4, Informative)
When Windows XP was released, some big customers were worried about depending on an external instance for authorization.
Microsoft appeased them by releasing the "Corporate Edition" that didn't require remote authorization.
Guess what happened?
The "Corporate Edition" got pirated. Once again, those who pirate the software are bothered less than legitimate customers...
Re:DRM Is just a last gasp (Score:3, Informative)
When copyright is revoked and universal distribution of everything for free is the rule, there will be no more DRM.
Only free software will exist, because nobody will be able to charge anything for it anymore.
You are mistaken. It is perfectly possible to make good money charging for an item that can also be obtained for free. You just need to know your market and have a good idea of people's cutoff point between cost and convenience.
There's plenty of companies reaping huge profits from selling plain bottled water in towns and cities were you can get perfectly good water for free through your kitchen tap. It's just that stepping into that store over there and plonking down a buck for a bottle of water is /so much more convenient/ than walking for an hour to get home so you can get free water. (And, yeah, there are other reasons too.)
What enterprising software vendors need to figure out in a copyright-free environment is what conveniences people want online and then provide them with such. One obvious one is to ensure that the software you sell them has been rigorously virus-screened and is delivered via secure mechanisms so that they can worry less about the security aspect. Timely, secure delivery of relevant updates is another. Liability coverage may be important to some (e.g. if the software you deliver screws up their computer you're responsible for it). Cleverer minds than mine would be gunning for the $billions in this market, of course, so the list would go on and you'd need to "(Click to read the rest of this comment)".
Re:Woot! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Woot! (Score:3, Informative)
I just wish I had saved the emails I shot back and forth with Valve over Steam, because I can tell you that I got screwed.
Ditto here.
I will never give Valve/Steam another penny of my money. And no, I don't pirate their software either- I refuse to support it outright.
Am I missing out? Probably, but I'm not going to cave in. I already paid $50 for software I'll never be able to use, so until I get a refund (which won't happen) I'm through with them.
Hell, when it happened I would have settled for an apology from them, and even paid a marginal fee to just get a new license number, but they basically accused me of giving out the serial number to thousands of people.
I offered to provide them all the original packaging plus a store and credit card receipt but they wouldn't even listen. I was even hung up on by their phone support, and my emails were constantly ignored.
I realize that just one consumer isn't going to make an impact, but I'm through being taken to the cleaners. For me it isn't even necessarily a matter of principles, but of simply being pissed on & subsequently pissed off.