Rockstar To Use SecuROM DRM On Grand Theft Auto

from the not-smart dept

Given the incredibly negative reaction that many video gamers have been giving any video game that uses the rather draconian SecuROM DRM system, you would think that most video game companies would think twice about using it. Yet, apparently, Rockstar has decided to move forward in using it on the PC release of Grand Theft Auto IV. It won't be quite as draconian as Spore in that there won't be a limit on the number of installs, but the whole thing makes very little sense. The DRM won't stop the game from being pirated -- and once a single copy is available, it will be available everywhere. While Rockstar also claims that cracked copies will have some hidden easter eggs that make the game somewhat unplayable, it's quite likely that folks will figure out ways around those changes as well. In other words, it's not actually going to stop any piracy, but it may serve to annoy legitimate purchasers. So why bother?

Filed Under: drm, grand theft auto, securom
Companies: rockstar games

Video Game Without DRM Has Piracy Rates About The Same As DRM'd Games

from the so-why-bother? dept

Reader SteveD sent in this story a week ago, but I just got around to looking at the details. Apparently the makers of the video game World of Goo, which (as mentioned) was released without DRM, have roughly calculated the rate of piracy on the game to be about 90%. The calculation is certainly a rough one, and people can quibble with the number, but the basic reasoning seems sound. A lot of folks focused on that 90% number, but didn't pay as much attention to the more important comparison: how this compared to a DRM'd game. The game makers noted that it had almost no difference compared to another game released with DRM, showing that adding the DRM did absolutely nothing to prevent piracy. So why do video game companies keep insisting they need DRM?

Filed Under: drm, piracy, world of goo

Sega Apparently Learned Nothing From EA's Spore-DRM Mistakes

from the this-isn't-hard dept

You would think that, given the widespread negative publicity generated by EA's choice to use draconian DRM with the release of Spore, that other video game companies might recognize that they'd be better served going in a different direction. Unfortunately, that's not the case with Sega, whose Sports Interactive subsidiary has released the latest copy of its incredibly popular Football Manager product, only to find that many, many legitimate customers are discovering they cannot activate the offering because the DRM is not working properly. And, not surprisingly, this is now leading to numerous negative reviews on Amazon, as people point out how the DRM has stymied their ability to actually play the game they've purchased (while some have noted that cracked copies of the game are already widely available). Congratulations, Sega. Not only have you failed to stop piracy, you've also pissed off many legitimate paying customers, and made sure that the game is poorly rated on Amazon. What do you plan for an encore?

Filed Under: backlash, drm, football manager, spore, video games
Companies: sega, sports interactive

Apple Adds HDCP To New Laptops; Piracy Continues, Legit Users Get Annoyed

from the yes,-again dept

It appears that Apple has begun using HDCP copy protection technology on some content it sells through the iTunes Music Store, and implementing it in its latest laptops. HDCP "protects" content as it travels across different types of connections, and is generally implemented in such a way that an HDCP-compliant source won't play content on a non-HDCP compliant connected display. So HDCP-ified content can't be played on a number of older displays, or ones that don't use one of the compatible types of connections.

You know how this thing goes down: movie studios insist on some new magic method to protect their content from piracy, it gets implemented, does nothing to stop piracy (sometimes even helps pirates), and ends up getting in the way for legitimate customers. In this instance, a guy who'd bought a movie from iTunes tried to play it over a projector connected to his Mac via a VGA connection; instead of being able to enjoy the content he'd legitimately purchased in a reasonable way, he was greeted with an error message. So here's a customer who legitimately purchased some content, and is being stopped from enjoying it in a perfectly reasonable, legitimate and legal way. Once again, it's puzzling to see content and technology companies implement these roadblocks to frustrate their paying customers. What's the incentive for this guy to pay to download a movie, rather than download a pirated version that he can watch on his projector? Apparently, it bears repeating for content and device companies: you don't stop piracy by annoying your paying customers.

Filed Under: copy protection, drm, hdcp, itunes
Companies: apple

Blu-ray Working Great, For Pirates

from the unintended-consequences dept

Blu-ray "won" the next-generation DVD standards battle, but that victory has, thus far, been pretty hollow, as consumers haven't wholeheartedly embraced the new format (and the new DVD players they need to take advantage of it). But one group of people is loving Blu-ray: Asian movie pirates. The pirates rip Blu-ray movies, then burn them onto DVDs using the AVCHD format, at a resolution that's lower than Blu-ray, but still higher than standard DVDs. The lower resolution means the pirates can burn onto regular blank DVDs, not blank Blu-ray discs, holding their costs down and creating fat profit margins on the $7 bootlegs. Wasn't one of the reasons the movie industry was so hot on Blu-ray its fantastic DRM that was supposed to make life hell for pirates? All it appears to have really done is annoy customers, while Blu-ray itself is making the pirates' business even better.

Filed Under: blu-ray, drm

Music Execs Still Confused Over Music Business Models

from the getting-there,-though dept

Reader Chris Gruel writes in to point out that at a recent conference various music industry execs seemed to embrace the concepts of free music, but the details aren't as encouraging as they might be. While it is good that these folks recognize where music is headed, they seem a bit confused about how to make it work as a business model. First, as a group, they all seem to think that "ad supported music" is the business model that will work. We've seen absolutely no evidence to support that (and, in fact, most ad supported music ventures are struggling).

The second disturbing point is that, while the folks on the panel agreed that DRM is dead, they still claimed that "the industry needs to protect the rights of content owners by compensating them when music moves from one individual to another." The only way that happens is with DRM, and it misses the point. If they actually put in place business models that embraced the infinite nature of music to make scarce products more valuable, they would realize that they don't need to "protect" the content, and they would want to encourage the free movement of the music from one individual to another, because it drives up the value of those scarce resources.

As an example, if a musician is giving away their music to sell more concert tickets, then they shouldn't worry about annoying advertising that drives people away, or trying to cash in on every transfer of a song. Instead, they should want the songs to spread as widely as possible to build up a larger fan base. The larger the fan base, the more people who are interested in seeing the live show, the more tickets they can sell (and potentially at higher prices, too). And, before someone jumps up and down in the comments about musicians who don't want to perform live, this applies to other business models we've discussed as well -- such as getting fans to to pay for the creation of music or for selling exclusive limited editions. Oh well, the execs can keep arguing about what the world should be -- while others out there are actually making things work without them.

Filed Under: business models, drm, economics, free, music industry

EA Sued Repeatedly Over DRM

from the don't-piss-off-your-customers dept

We had already pointed out one class action lawsuit filed against EA for its use of SecuROM DRM on the game Spore, but it appears that others are getting in on the act as well. GamePolitics has news of two more class action lawsuits filed against EA over its DRM choices. At some point, you have to wonder if this is just people piling on and hoping to win a cash settlement out of EA -- but again it does demonstrate how short-sighted the DRM decision was on the part of EA.

Considering that the game is available to download as an unauthorized file on various file sharing systems, it's pretty clear that the DRM did absolutely nothing to prevent any piracy on the game. However, it did significantly harm the company's reputation, and now they have to spend time and money fending off lawsuits. My guess is that the money spent on these lawsuits, combined with the revenue not recognized from folks who planned to buy the game but didn't because of all this, will actually greatly outweigh any real "losses" from piracy.

Filed Under: class action, drm, lawsuits, securom, spore
Companies: ea

Don't Buy The Open Source DRM Hype

from the useless dept

Back in 2005, we wrote about Sun's doomed plans to offer an "open source DRM" solution. Not surprisingly, that went nowhere fast. Last year, Tim Lee took apart the claims of "Marlin," a supposedly new "open source DRM" solution. As Tim noted, open source and DRM are a contradiction in terms. So, it's not clear why last week some were celebrating the latest version of Marlin. As some pointed out, just because it's open source, doesn't mean that it should be "blessed" by the tech crowd. DRM is about destroying options for what you can do with bits. Open source is about multiplying the options. To mix them together makes no sense.

Filed Under: drm, marlin, open source

If The Handbag Industry Took After The MPAA

from the not-all-that-far-fetched dept

Lauren sent in an amusing spoof put together by a website about handbags, looking at how the handbag industry would be different if it had the equivalent of the MPAA around. It's an amusing little satire, with things like demands that you not appear on YouTube with a handbag and getting threatened with lawsuits for sharing handbags. Then, of course there's Handbag Rights Management, which pisses off legitimate handbag buyers, but the industry insists is necessary to stop copying.

Of course, this might not be as far-fetched as it seems. Remember the 17th century French button makers? They tried to do something along these lines. And, the fashion industry (including handbag makers) have been pushing for new intellectual property restrictions, and claiming that if they don't get them, counterfeit fashion items will help terrorists (which is one of the points in the spoof post too!). It appears that truth may have beaten fiction to the punch line.

Filed Under: drm, handbags
Companies: mpaa, riaa

Amazon Caught Deleting Negative EA DRM-Related Reviews... Again

from the uh-oh dept

You probably remember the uproar that surrounded the release of Spore, where plenty of people were pissed off at EA's decision to use draconian DRM and made their feelings known via thousands of 1-star reviews on Amazon.com. At one point, all of those reviews disappeared from the site, leading some to accuse Amazon of censoring the reviews. Amazon quickly said that it was a glitch and the reviews came back.

However, it appears that "glitch" has come back -- and once again it's for thousands of DRM complaints on an EA game. EA released Crysis Warhead with the same awful SecuROM DRM, and the reviews made that clear. But, just as with Spore, the Crysis Warhead reviews magically disappeared. Amazon is once again claiming that it was a glitch, just like last time. As the article notes, there is one possibility, which is that Amazon has an automated system that tries to flag spam reviews, and the actions of the DRM complainers triggers that mechanism. That would make some amount of sense, though Amazon shouldn't keep calling it a glitch if that's the case.

Filed Under: amazon reviews, deletions, drm, reviews
Companies: amazon, ea