Gamers, EFF Speak Out Against DRM 203
Last month, we discussed news that the FTC would be examining DRM to see if it needs regulation. They set up a town hall meeting for late March, and part of that effort involved requesting comments from potential panelists and the general public. Ars Technica reports that responses to the request have been overwhelmingly against DRM, and primarily from gamers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also took the opportunity to speak out strongly against DRM, saying flat out that "DRM does not prevent piracy," and suggesting that its intended purpose is "giving some industry leaders unprecedented power to influence the pace and nature of innovation and upsetting the traditional balance between the interests of copyright owners and the interests of the public." Their full public comments (PDF) describe several past legal situations supporting that point, such as Sony's fight against mod chips, Blizzard's DMCA lawsuit against an alternative to battle.net, and Sony's XCP rootkit.
Re:Wrong battle? (Score:5, Interesting)
DRM is also the problem. Where does this idea come from that you can only fight on one front?
Re:Wrong battle? (Score:2, Interesting)
The anti-circumvention provisions in the DMCA is based on the assumption that DRM works. It is much harder to defeat the DMCA if you ignore the fallacy of DRM because, then, legislators will keep believing it helps a large part of the US economy (that is, the media industry).
Will they Listen? (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is that I don't see the political establishment listening to "a bunch of gamers and the EFF."
I think it tying together the Sony Root Kit issue with farms of own machines used for SPAMing, scaming, or organized crime would get a little attention.
The biggest problem I have had with DRM is that I rented Ratatouille [amazon.com] last year and was unable to play it on a standard DVD player, unable to play it on two different computer DVD players, and of course unable to make a copy (which I only tried because I couldn't play it.) The disk cause me to have to unplug and plug back in my Toshiba DVD player to even get it to eject, it totally locked up the player.
Re:NSA offering 'billions' for Skype eavesdrop (Score:5, Interesting)
What a timely story (Score:5, Interesting)
DRM has become a bad sore for consumers (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony may argue stating that the movies wont play because they are pirated. They are not. They were DVD's bought from reputable stores.
This is how bad DRM has become. Consumers are at the mercy of manufacturers of DRM laden products.
Re:DRM has become a bad sore for consumers (Score:2, Interesting)
I know everyone likes to hack sony with the rootkit issue (there are other distributes still doing this in Germany). But really they are no worse and no better than the rest. Well there is one difference, they make players and are also a distributer.
Sony and it's rootkit (Score:1, Interesting)
Maybe not (Score:3, Interesting)
"The presence of unencrypted transport stream rips of HDTV broadcasts proves the existence"
Not necessarily. I've noticed that almost every HD cable box has a component out that supports 1080i. There are boxes that will capture this stuff (for Myth as one possible use). The 1080p rips out there likely came from BluRay cracks.
In many ways, it's like WMP files from MS. The one genuine crack disappeared pretty quickly, and has not been repeated. However, I'm not convinced it's because WMP is "hard" to crack, rather it's because it's just easier to rip a CD or use MP3's already "in the wild".
I like to think of breaking DRM like water in a vessel. The water doesn't need lots of ways to get out, it only needs one. And when it comes to music, it's not worth breaking the DRM. For video, it's worth it, so it's broken.
Re:RIGHT battle! (Score:3, Interesting)
More like going down the freeway at 60mph in first gear where you're right over the redline...
I've already given up! (Score:1, Interesting)
I gave up on PC gaming years ago... The last commercial game I purchased came with a Starforce infection. I still play older games from the "90s (and games from Id Software). I also enjoy independant games. The rest of the commercial game industry deserves to crash again (like in the "80s) for not treating their customers with a shred of respect. Ubisoft, EA: you will not be missed!
Re:Wrong battle? (Score:4, Interesting)
When killing the enemy it is important to smash their weapons. DRM is an enemy weapon and breaking it is simply part of a continuing war to let communications be free from any governments desire to keep people in their own little box.
I don't see the point of this (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps I'm just in a bad mood today, but... what good are these discussions?
The whole DRM mess has been chewed over and over and over again, and we always get the same results:
* DRM or not DRM doesn't matter: piracy is around 80% either way. This has not changed for 25 years.
* Company managers are too reality-disfunct to realise this, and are willing to pay for (expensive) DRM systems to include in their product.
* Dito politicians, usually bought by the industry, and who are worthless by definition anyway.
* Nobody will do a boycott.
* We cannot change any of these points.
Possible solutions:
* Buy the original with DRM and live with it.
* But the original with DRM and download a pirate copy.
* Download a pirate copy only.
* Refuse any DRM games, buy from the indy market instead.
Note on the last point: I bought very very few 'normal' games in the last few years (I refuse DRM), but quite a few from these interesting small companies. Cheaper, ofter better (even if the graphics usually aren't), lots of fun, and you have the feeling that you're supporting the good programmers directly instead of some worthless CEOs 3rd Mercedes 500SEC.
I bought (and can highly recommend) games like "World of Goo" or "Galactic Civilization II".
HOWEVER: some indy games have now come out with DRM. Beware of these! A good example would be "Defense Grid". An excellent, cheap game, but sold only via STEAM or Greenhouse, both of which are a form of DRM not allowing you to play the game without internet access. And even if you install them on a different PC (eg at work, with net access) and transfer the registry info, it won't work as it's registered to your CPU ID.
(Yes, I'm very pissed off about this specific example. Particularly as the support from Greenhouse does not exist).
Re:RIGHT battle! (Score:3, Interesting)
You do realize that by purchasing the game anyway you're sending the message that the DRM is ok. That you'll still bend over backwards to take it you know where regardless of what the publishers do? If you want to stop game DRM, don't buy DRM'd games. I know that you'll start shaking unless you get your fix, but there are plenty of options out there.