Battlefield 4 DRM Locking Out Part of North America Until EU Release

An anonymous reader writes "On the whole, Battlefield 4 had a reasonable launch. The have clearly learned from their past experiences with Battlefield 3 and, more notably, SimCity. Still, some customers are unable to access the game (until, presumably, October 30th at 7PM EDT, 39 hours after launch) because they are incorrectly flagged by region-locking. Do regional release dates help diminish all the work EA has been putting into Origin with their refund policy and live technical support? Should they just take our money and deliver the service before we change our minds?"

Re:Welcome to the rest of the world

[houstonbofh]

Sorry... That was the first patch. The game is here... http://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/9114398/Battlefield_4-RELOADED [thepiratebay.sx]

How is that DRM supposed to work again?

I am one affected

[ruiner13]

This seems to be tied to certain ISPs, especially Uverse. They claim they can't verify it is a US IP address, even though I'm in indiana and the IP clearly comes up under a US company's IP block (AT&T). The first EA person actually had the nerve to tell me my ISP programmed the release date wrong. The second one said it would be fixed in an hour. Finally after getting a manager he said they are aware of the problem and can only wait until 7pm tomorrow. I asked why don't they just completely remove the lock outs to let people play the game they paid for, acknowledging that some regions may get early access. That was "impossible". I bet people pirating the game are playing just fine, I feel like a fool for parting with $100 for the deluxe edition. Not buying another EA game. Some have suggested using a VPN service to somewhere else in North America that the Origin virus can verify you to North America properly. Silly...

Re:I am one affected

[LurkerXXX]

You buy from EA, you get what you pay for.

Don't want to pay to be treated like shit? Don't buy from EA.

It's been that way for years. Why are people acting suprised?

Re:Welcome to the rest of the world

[crafty.munchkin]

Meanwhile, a lot of other Aussies (myself included) have used VPN services to activate and play the game yesterday and today... as well as using them to avoid paying the 50% Australia tax! ;)

Re:Welcome to the rest of the world

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop getting so hung up over the literal meaning of the word when you know exactly what we're referring to. It's pedanticism at its worst.

It's not mere pedantry. The difference isn't equivocal or superficial; making a copy of a thing is fundamentally different from taking it away from another. An idea or expression is only "yours" until you share it with the world; the fact that the law protects right-to-copy and physical property doesn't make them equivalent.

For those who need a refresher: Copying is Not Theft [youtube.com]

Re:Welcome to the rest of the world

[SCPRedMage]

Actually, the law HAS changed. Originally, copyright was for a much shorter time (14 years, renewable for another 14 years if the creator was still alive), but in modern times the length has been pushed so far that the "for limited times" part of the constitutional clause that gives the U.S. government the authority to CREATE a copyright law is, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. Anything you see created today will still be copyrighted long after you die.

Unfortunately, this makes the public domain a nearly worthless concept; copyright is limited so that things will eventually become public domain, but with copyrights so long, nothing relevant to modern society belongs in it. Hell, we have entire forms of media that will never have a single item enter public domain until you are dead, buried, and dust.