Sleight Of Hand: If We Don't Call It DRM, We Can Pretend That DRM Is Gone
from the poof dept
I was upset that I had to miss the FTC's workshop on DRM earlier this week. I had been invited to speak at the event, but had already committed to speaking at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville, so had to decline. But, from the writeups about the event, it's quite clear that many in the content industry still believe DRM is a good idea (or, rather a "necessary" idea), despite the fact that it doesn't work. DRM, despite what they might say, does not "enable new business models" at all. It simply gives the content holders the illusion that they can somehow control the content. But, it never stops any copying at all. So, it actually tends to just annoy those who are trying to legitimately purchase and/or access the content. Because those who are going to access it in an unauthorized manner will do so separately.That said, a bunch of folks have sent in a series of stories this week that are somewhat amusing. Basically, it seems that video game companies have decided to stop calling DRM "DRM." This follows a series of horrific PR nightmares, where firms made use of DRM in ways that significantly limited the value of certain games, and players (or potential customers) of those games struck back in trashing those gaming companies for treating them as criminals. So, now, we have stories about Valve launching a new DRM that "makes DRM obsolete" even though it's still DRM. Then there's EA -- who received the biggest brunt of consumer backlash for its DRM choices. It's releasing the new Sims "without DRM methods that feel overly invasive." But, of course, it will still have DRM.
It's really difficult to understand what these execs think they're doing that benefits them in any way. It's not about enabling new business models. Any business model they're talking about can work just fine without DRM. It's not about "keeping honest people honest," because you don't have to keep honest people honest -- that's why they're honest. It's not about stopping unauthorized file sharing or "piracy," because no DRM has yet been shown to do that at all. It's not about "slowing down" unauthorized file sharing, because once an unauthorized copy is out there, it gets pretty quickly copied everywhere. One copy is all it takes and then nothing is "slowed down" at all. The only thing DRM serves to do is get in the way of legitimate customers trying to do what they want with content they thought they had legally purchased. In other words, it destroys value for legitimate customers -- and it's difficult to see any business rationale where that's an intelligent move.
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Filed Under: business models, drm
Companies: ea, ftc
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Used Sales, the next great enemy
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To be honest, I think this is simply Gabe Newells bid to pacify upper management at the various publishers they do business with.
He knows more than anyone the futility of trying to stop piracy.
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The more I've seen about Steam's new DRM, the less I seem to understand. So each consumer gets his own personal binary. What difference does that make? Sounds like, for offline games, you could still share that binary. So the personal binary is authenticated when you log in online? How is that different from the current system, except now prevents you from using your friend's CD to reinstall a game for an online account that you paid for... you now have to redownload your personal binary.
Am I missing something?
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Re:
The only thing you are missing is that the binary is tied to the machine. Move it to a different machine (or reinstall the OS) and it then has to "Validate" via the steam servers that you own it.
So, you COULD go into offline mode, copy the binary, take it to your friends house, log on from there and validate it, then move it to offline mode so your friend can play it whenever.
Except every time steam starts, it assumes online mode. So it won't revalidate unless you give your friend your login and password. But then, you can't play when he logs in as you.. :)
So.. It's pretty effective at stopping it.
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Valve is a good service
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Re: Valve is a good service
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Re: Re: Valve is a good service
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Re: Valve is a good service
Steam is nice sometimes, but half the time I can barely download purchases. The speed is killer sometimes.
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The "keeping honest people honest" only highlights that copyright is no longer intuitive enough for the average honest individual to follow. I think it is fairly intuitive to most people that stealing from another person is wrong; on the other hand, the numerous examples of far reaching copyright are far from intuitive and have left many people questioning why these rules are necessary in the first place. For example, why shouldn't I be allowed to register all members of my household for a game (Spore), and why do I have to pay 300 dollars (for Windows) for each computer in my house?
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Probably because you either don't know how to (easily) find a pirate copy of Windows or don't know that almost any Linux distro is as good(if not even better) than Vista.
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Maybe he bought the superduper professional version
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Real Culprits
If an ISV believes their product can bring them $5M if everyone who wants it buys it, and they're convinced that once it's out 30% of the users will "steal" it, that means they can afford to spend $1.5M on DRM in the hope that those "criminals" will be thwarted.
Now, if I'm a DRM provider, I can say I'll sell them a license to use my unbreakable disk condom for $500K. That means Mr. Media Executive will make $1M more than he otherwise would have, and would be a fool to not buy and use it.
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Securom's the bugbear.
- EA employees have repeatedly posted on the official TS2 site that Securom will not be used on game disks.
- Currently, the EA Download Manager (digital distro program) will install Securom to 'protect' digitally downloaded games and items purchased from the TS2Store.
- Currently, when preordering TS3 one is presented w/a statement saying the game uses Securom.
- Currently, the EULA for TS3 at ea.com states that all updates to TS3 will require installation of the EADM software, which currently installs Securom. Also -
- that same EULA describes ingame advertising and info collection that will be enabled in TS3, which a game producer had stated some weeks ago was not going to be used.
Only the statement that disks will not include Securom surprised me as a longtime TS2 player. Combined with the rest, as of right now, it's just the usual 'hey! now we're treating you 10% less crappily than we did yesterday!' type of foot-dragging we've unfortunately come to expect from EA regarding their DRM.
[Kind of reminds me of their withdrawl of the 'authenticate every 10 days or your game stops working' hooraw with their release last year, Mass Effect for PC - oh look! we're being benevolent! now you're just stuck with online auth only and 3 lonely activation limits you won't know you're using up until we tell you to buy another copy of the game! see? we DO care! kind of...]
Who knows what the EULAs, etc. for TS3 will say tomorrow; lucid communication from EA is not currently a strong point. But EA quite lucidly trumpeted the fact that The Sims sold over 100 million copies around this time in 2007, just prior to introducing Securom v7 as their DRM of choice.
100 million copies sold, and hence, BOUGHT, using nothing but a confined disk check and anticopy.
Securom and the problems it caused (and continues to cause) in that game community - and the unconsionable do-nothing response from EA - destroyed trust and brand loyalty for a whole lot of formerly devoted players like me (and sent a bunch of them over to an interesting new place some call the 'dark side' to avoid those problems). EA's continued use of proven problematic DRM is the sole barrier to purchase for this ex-customer. I'm too lazy to pirate (and I don't want to anyway), but it's all the same, they don't get my money anymore.
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True
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Re: True
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LOL.
I'm thinking of joining the atom police - where do I sign up?
by the way, on the same subject, did you see this:
http://www.mediafuturist.com/the-end-of-control-essays.html
I'm reading the pdf now and the guy makes the same point in a very interesting way.
The amazing thing is that you would expect your artist friends to embrace freedom as an ideal and a way of life, because who needs freedom more than a true artist?
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They are not making a business decision Mike...
The fact that these Businesses/CEO's/Leaders keep insisting on DRM is clearly not a fact based policy, it is an emotional one.
It's the old "Cut off your nose to spite your face" -- these people are so consumed with anger and fear that someone, somehow, is 'getting a free ride' or ... 'taking advantage' of them that they are willing to act irrationally and ultimately self defeating to try and prevent it.
So, its really not that hard to understand why they are doing it. Emotional responses are rarely logical. But it is hard to rationalize how presumably sane, successful, talented individuals can fall into this trap. Peer pressure maybe?
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Post #19
Do they allow internet access from mental institutions?
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DRM
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Doesn't DRM circumvent legal copying?
In addition, I'm also allowed to create one backup copy of the software I've purchased.
So how does DRM not constitute an illegal attempt at my rights as a consumer?
Not that it matters, as I no longer purchase software with DRM on it. I simply find an open source version of it or do without.
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CDs
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Steam & Valve's DRM
I don't think there's anything wrong with a little bit of authentication, and Valve has done pretty well so far, so I have high hopes that their new system will be equally unobtrusive. I think it's a bit unfair to lump their efforts into the same group as EA's draconian DRM schemes.
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Steam Valve no good
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