Why Bother With DRM? 376
Brad Wardell of Stardock and Ron Carmel of 2D Boy recently spoke with Gamasutra about their efforts to move the games industry away from restrictive DRM. Despite the fact that both have had their own troubles with piracy, they contend that overall piracy rates aren't significantly affected by DRM — and that most companies know it. Instead, the two suggest that most DRM solutions are still around to hamper a few more specific situations. Quoting:
"'Publishers aren't stupid. They know that DRM doesn't work against piracy,' Carmel explains. 'What they're trying to do is stop people from going to GameStop to buy $50 games for $35, none of which goes into the publishers' pockets. If DRM permits only a few installs, that minimizes the number of times a game can be resold.' ... 'I believe their argument is that while DRM doesn't work perfectly,' says Wardell, 'it does make it more difficult for someone to get the game for free in the first five or six days of its release. That's when a lot of the sales take place and that's when the royalties from the retailers are determined. Publishers would be very happy for a first week without "warez" copies circulating on the Web.'"
first weeks is exclusively "warez" (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Just an thought. (Score:3, Informative)
I'm no lawyer either, but I believe that only applies to trademarks, not copyrights.
Re:Just an thought. (Score:5, Informative)
They're defending thier IP in the eyes of the shareholders. Every public company has an obligation to its shareholders, if the current command structure lets pirated copies leak out from every hole, the shareholders might get new company leaders.
Re:DRM for DVD is bad... DRM from network is evil. (Score:3, Informative)
Uh, no it's not. Your account, yes. Your PC, no. You can only play online with the same copy from one place at any one time, but it's by no means locked to your PC.
Also, insert generic Slashdot joke re: girlfriends/children #46 here.
Not at all. (Score:4, Informative)
If you don't defend a trademark, you can lose it. I'm not sure how this applies to copyright.
That's why RMS doesn't like the term "Intellectual Property", by the way. It's a vague concept that combines three very different bodies of law: Trademarks, Patents, and Copyrights.
For that matter, think about just about every copyleft-style license -- GPL, Creative Commons, etc -- do those become invalid just because people are copying them? No.
If such a law exists at all (for copyright, instead of trademarks), I would think it would have to do with actually legally defending your copyright -- as in, when you're aware of the vendor down the block selling burned pirate copies, you should sue him. It absolutely has nothing to do with taking the law into your own hands with DRM.
Re:DRM for DVD is bad... DRM from network is evil. (Score:5, Informative)
I've got Stardock games on multiple computers right now, all at the current version, quite easily. I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Hell, the EULA explicitly says you can have it on more then one computer at once (two in Demigod's case).
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Informative)
GameStop doesn't sell used PC games because they have install restrictions. PC game producers admit to using said restrictions to limit or eliminate the resale value that businesses such as GameStop capitalize on. If these restrictions weren't in place, used PC games would have resale value, so GameStop would (in theory anyway) be interested in selling them.
I agree that a case filed by GameStop doesn't make much sense... PC game producers aren't legally obligated to follow GameStop's business model. On the other hand, a class action case on the behalf of PC game consumers may be in order if these restrictions and corresponding elimination of resale value weren't fully disclosed prior to sale.
Re:DRM for DVD is bad... DRM from network is evil. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Saw It in Music! Coming Soon in Games, E-Books (Score:5, Informative)
Brad Wardell of Stardock and Ron Carmel of 2D Boy
I don't know who that is but a few days ago I...
Stardock develops non-DRM'd games like Sins of a Solar Empire and now Demigod. They always make a big todo about how there's no DRM and then SecuROM (the DRM guys) get upset that they didn't use their DRM and say they'll download their torrents. Stardock has a Steam-like product called Impulse that many have said is akin to a light form of DRM, but still DRM.
2D-Boy are the developers of World of Goo, a popular indie game that was once reported to have something like a 90% piracy rate, which was argued by many to be unbelievable, etc. World of Goo has no DRM.
Re:DRM for DVD is bad... DRM from network is evil. (Score:3, Informative)
In addition to the above comments noting that it is just tied to your account, not your PC, note that the GOO system allows you to deactivate a game on your account and transfer it to another. 1 minute spent googling "transfer stardock games" would have found this out for you. Try doing a little research next time your tempted to make assumptions about how something works that you have no knowledge of.
Re:Play at your friend's house? Sell a game? Nope. (Score:4, Informative)
If you're talking about a LAN party, not all games really require you to buy a copy for everybody. Demigod (most recent example I have) lets you use one copy for everybody on the LAN. It even says you're allowed to do that in the game's manual.
It seems like it's next to impossible to find out what the policy is before actually buying the game, but some games are friendly towards LAN players. :)
Gamestop and Used Games (Score:3, Informative)
"What they're trying to do is stop people from going to GameStop to buy $50 games for $35, none of which goes into the publishers' pockets."
Really?
Last time I checked, Gamestop sells used games a day or two after they come out (at $60) for $55.
And I haven't seen a PC game or peripheral (new or used) in a Gamestop in ages.
Re:Play at your friend's house? Sell a game? Nope. (Score:3, Informative)
The Steam hate might have held some ground in 2002/03 while angry Counter-Strike players still clung to WON.net, but times have changed. Unless you're regularly blowing all of your monthly bandwidth on torrenting "linux isos", you can stomach a Steam game download or two with even the most draconian ISP.
"It's XXXXXX and XXXXX. My credit card's on that account, don't use it to download a bunch of games like you did last time, okay bro?"
Steam doesn't persistently store your credit card information. I'd be weary of any digital delivery service that did.
"Can you imagine how difficult it will be to bring a game to your friends' house to play?"
Okay, okay, let's just say your pal doesn't want to waste the bandwidth or time on downloading; that's fine. So, I don't know - as difficult as opening Steam up, navigating to "Backup games", burning it to a disc and walking it over? Personally, I can't imagine a mortal among us to tackle this Herculean errand.
"Wait a minute, I don't have any room on my hard drive left."
Gone are the days of juggling CDs and game installations to ensure you have 100MB of space left in order to pay tribute to the Windows 95 swap deity. If you're using an even remotely modern HDD of an even half-acceptable size (heck, even grandma's new HP for checking chain e-mails and visiting smileycentral comes with a 300GB drive these days), yeah, if you don't have enough space to install something from Steam? Not only are your computing practices more than likely idiotic to begin with, but you can most certainly deal with uninstalling some junk. Or hell, you've just proven you need it - so go buy a second HDD.
But you know what? The fact is, Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder, has gone on record mocking conventional DRM and stated, paraphrasing, that the mission of Steam is to make buying games, storing games, and accessing games easier and more convenient for the customer. Their content servers are widespread, well-maintained, and frankly - your aside about the "Butt Zappers server being slammed" is moot. Even the dreaded Slashdot phenomenon is a drop in the pond to Steam's full throughput. The recent roll out of of Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 content packs have proven testament to this.
The only real complaint of yours that stands is with respect to re-selling your games - but really, tough shit. It's probably the only real remaining trade-off of digital delivery, so just consider that you're trading resale value for a few dollars in publishing costs the next time you buy a Steam game a bit cheaper than the brick and mortar box cost.
As a final note to answer any forthcoming "but, but, but, what-if!?" conjecturing, Valve has stated repeatedly that in the event they close up shop, a means for us customers to retain our purchases will be provided. If you have to crusade against digital delivery, don't go after Steam.
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Informative)
The one right up the street from here sells used PC games.
Re:Hmmm (Score:1, Informative)
You don't have to, at least in the state of Washington.
But Judge Richard A. Jones rejected that argument, holding that Vernor is entitled to sell used copies of Autodesk's software regardless of any licensing agreement that might have bound the software's previous owners. Jones relied on the First Sale Doctrine, which ensures the right to re-sell used copies of copyrighted works.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/05/court-smacks-autodesk-affirms-right-to-sell-used-software.ars
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Informative)
You can't rent software programs in the US because of a law passed in 1990:
"The Record Rental Amendment of 1984 and the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 both amended Section 109 to prevent all owners of software copies or phonorecords to distribute said copies through the acts of rental, lease, or lending, or by any other act or practice in the nature of rental, lease, or lending unless authorized by the owners of the copyright, with an exemption for non-profit educational institutions and non-profit libraries.
The acts specifically excluded:
A computer program which is embodied in a machine or product and which cannot be copied during the ordinary operation or use of the machine or product; or
A computer program embodied in or used in conjunction with a limited purpose computer that is designed for playing video games and may be designed for other purposes."
First sale doctrine [wikipedia.org]
Prior to that you could rent computer software both through the mail or from local shops. I used to do it quite often in the 80s.