The article linked below is about how a long time music fan was forced to become a pirate due to the absurdities of DRM.
While I personally don't have any philosophical issues with copy protection/DRM, I have said for years that many DRM/copy protection schemes are counter productive -- they turn legitimate users into pirates.
When Galactic Civilizations II was released with no copy protection whatsoever, some people said that we must not care about piracy. Of course we do. We worked hard on the game and hope/expect people who want it to pay for it. But there are too many times when copy protection and DRM end up hurting legitimate customers.
Stardock and TotalGaming.net don't use DRM. Our delivery program, Stardock Central, uses SSD (Secure Software Delivery) which in essence functions as a way to verify that the user downloading it is who they are (basic activation) but after that, you're done. There's no DRM, digital license, net connection, etc. needed. And even if you lose your serial #, CD, etc. no problem, the automated system will resend you everything you need in email.
What we think people who publish games and music need to remember is this: The goal is not to eliminate piracy. The goal is to increase sales. People who are dedicated to stealing your product will steal it.
The focus should be making sure it's more convenient to buy your product than to steal it. It can be a delicate balance. But as the story linked below shows, too many publishers are obsessed at eliminating piracy rather than reducing sales lost to piracy.
Read the whole thing below.
