BlueDev

Join Date 12/2003

+16

How NOT to stop piracy

-or- Consumers are NOT crooks

Piracy is a problem. I understand that, and am sympathetic with software developers whose livelihoods depend on the number of units of their software being sold. I really am. They have a right to protect their intellectual property as best they see fit.

And, as a consumer, I have the right to tell some of them to stick it.

It seems to me that many software companies are stuck back in the 80s and early 90s when it comes to software protection. And game developers and publishers are the worst offenders I have encountered. I won't lie, I remember days of copying a stack of 5.25' or 3.5' floppies to get a game from a friend. And I remember friends borrowing discs, installing the program and giving the discs back. Yes, that kind of hand to hand piracy occurred. But the physical nature of the medium made it pretty inefficient, and it absolutely necessitated the exchange of something palpable.

That is the kind of piracy that disc-in-drive checks and anti-copying technology prevent. You know, decades old piracy.

Yet game developers continue to fight and flail against this type of piracy. And in the end, the only people they screw are the honest consumers. But what frustrates me the most is this: most developers admit to this fact. Yet they still continue to use it. Starforce, Securom and a handful of others are simply schemes to punish those who purchased the software legitimately.

Even a casual gamer, such as I, am well aware of the problems caused by certain copy-protection schemes. Some methods rendered the games incompatible with the consumer's CD ROM drive, preventing them from playing the game they just bought. Others have installed bits of potentially malicious code, while even others have required the user be online to play the game, even if they want to play offline by themselves. And as far as audio discs, well, who can forget the recent Sony root kit disaster.

I have conversed with some game developers who even recognize copy-protection only foils the most casual of pirates, while causing uncountable headaches for those honest consumers who got hosed. But they insist it is a "necessary evil" of the industry. Blind fools is what I call them.

Games are cracked before they are even released. Movies are available on the net while still in theaters (and not just the hand-held camera versions), and audio CDs show up weeks and even months before they become available to those of us who want to actually purchase the album. So what good are these anti-piracy schemes anyway?

None. Period.

The pirates get a version of the game that already has the copy-protection stripped out of it, with no need to have a physical disc in their drive. The pirates can watch the movie whenever they want, on any machine they want without care of the region of the disc or player. The pirates gets the music already ripped on their computer, ready to transfer to an iPod, burned to a disc, used to make a mix CD.

The honest consumer gets a headache.

Fortunately there are a few forward thinking companies. They know piracy happens, but chose to reward those who purchase the game, rather than punish them. That is the answer, in my opinion. Update the game with enough new, exciting, exclusive content that we really want to buy it. Put the CD in a nice package, with lyrics, notes, maybe even some fun extras, and then let us use that music for ourselves without restriction or recrimination. Give us a compelling reason to buy that DVD, with bonus content that isn't crap.

In short, stop punishing us for buying your product.

To those who have caught sight of that vision: Thanks and good job.

To those who haven't: Pull it out.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1806

The pirates can watch the movie whenever they want, on any machine they want without care of the region of the disc or player.

The A-triple-C in Australia determined that region-encoding of film titles, etc is a restriction of trade [and discriminatory] so has been ruled invalid. You are free to LEGALLY purchase region-free DVD players in Australia...for that reason.

Therefore our 'market' is open to importing hard-to-get titles from overseas [as we do]. I spend a fair bit on Amazon to that end....

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Therefore our 'market' is open to importing hard-to-get titles from overseas [as we do]. I spend a fair bit on Amazon to that end....

You know, in my most recent article about the RIAA some folks from Australia mentioned that things are better off in that regard as well for music. Perhaps I should move. . .

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Boycott Starforce and any publisher that uses them. I will buy no new releases from UBI because pretty much everything they put out includes it now.
This Link is where you can check to see if the game you are thinking about buying is infested.

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But The StarDockians Rule! No copy protection to break my computer!
Hooray for SD!

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This Link is where you can check to see if the game you are thinking about buying is infested.

Thanks for the resource Geezer. Starforce is a virus, plain and simple. Good to know we can avoid it.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

Games are cracked before they are even released. Movies are available on the net while still in theaters (and not just the hand-held camera versions), and audio CDs show up weeks and even months before they become available to those of us who want to actually purchase the album. So what good are these anti-piracy schemes anyway?

When various items appear months before official release, it makes you wonder how many industry insiders are taking back-handers and the like to line their own pockets from mass pirating operations.
The answer to what use are anti-piracy schemes therefore must be none....and given that honest consumers are penalised, inconvenienced and on occasion have their equipment damaged, it's downright criminal when the industries concerned should be cleaning up their own backyards first.

If anything, these companies implementing intrusive and inconveniencing anti-piracy measures are going to see a downturn in sales figures, rather than actually protecting their intellectual property. Eventually even the more honest of consumers will turn to pre-infested pirated software and etc to avoid the damaging slime that comes with the official company releases.

Seems some haven't heard the saying about 'don't sh!t in your own nest'

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thomassen

Join Date 01/2003

+10

I often find my self getting cracks for the games I own because I don't want to foll about with taking the CD in and out all the time.

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I often find my self getting cracks for the games I own because I don't want to foll about with taking the CD in and out all the time

I have done that as well. Even worse, though, I have had a couple of games that I actually HAD to download a no CD crack simply to be able to play the game, thanks to the copy-protection.

Idiotic.

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I've been thinking about another way to handle copy protection, I think a new cp should be developed . Lets say each disc comes with a code that must be entered on a website to register it before installing it, and that once registered, that cd cannot be used to install from unless you unregister from the site. Besides that no cp on the disc itself.

I think in order to stop piracy, we should be looking away from the cd, and more forwards security from the game developer itself.

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People who are willing to pay for a product will pay, and those who aren't will always find a way to pirate/steal. There will always be a way around copy protection.

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I so argree, copy protection punishes the honest consumer. It has gotten so bad that I will ALWAYS check every possible CD/game purchase to see if it has some copy protection scheme on the disc. And if it does, back on the rack it goes. I find myself purchasubg more older CDs due to the fact that I have never owned the music on CD AND it has NO copy protection. Also I am going for more indy releases. Same thing with games. I am generally buying and playing older titles or from smaller publishers that do not encumber the disc with crapware.

I am hoping that the media companies will see the damage they are doing with Copy Protection, however I am not waiting around for it. And that may be the death of Big Media as we know it.

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I think the key here is, as "hard" copies of music (CD's, etc) are downplayed by the producers, we'll buy our tune for 99 cents off of iTunes, and, at least in theory, repurchase the same tune 5 to 10 times over because of various hard drive crashes, and software modifications, so that the labels make insane profits off of each tune. Remember, we can't copy, so copying them from HD to HD or backing them up is expressly forbidden.

Screw 'em. If I can't download "Ring of Fire" for free, I'll just learn to PLAY it on my brand new Ibanez (see my related article "I Have an Ibanez", for more details). They can't sue for royalties on THAT!

(or did I, err...give 'em an idea?)

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