New Study: DRM Incites Piracy
Posted 05/29/09 at 09:00:00 AM by Paul Lilly
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The general consensus among consumers is that DRM sucks, and the often draconian measures used to prevent copyright infringement do very little, if anything, to prevent software piracy. The argument is that DRM only shackles the honest consumer, while pirates figure ways around the copyright schemes regardless. But could DRM also be giving otherwise law-abiding citizens cause to cross the legal line?
That's exactly what DRM is doing, according to the first empirical study of its kind in the UK. In a new paper titled, "Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment." Cambridge law professor Patricia Akester says she spent the last several years interviewing lecturers, end users, government officials, rights holders, and DRM developers to see what affect DRM was actually having.
In one example, Akester cited a situation in which a blind person who bought a legal electronic copy of the Bible from Amazon could not utilize text-to-speech. Amazon's policy is not to refund eBooks once they've been downloaded, and the publisher proved little help. Seemingly out of options, Lynn Holdsworth, the individual in question, ended up tracking down an illegal copy without the text-to-speech limitation. Not exactly what one envisions as the typical pirate.
You can read Akester's lengthy paper here, or view the shorter version here.
DRM
Submitted by p309 on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 11:25pm
Digital Rights Management, huh? How can some of you say that limiting installs to 4 or 5 is fine? How can requiring the Media to be in the drive be "fine"? It's not fine, it's not good at all. My 4 year old grandson likes to play Microsoft's Motocross Madness 2. I bought this game what, 10 years ago? How in the HECK can a company expect this CD to last thru 10 years of being handled, put in and out of the drive, etc., just to PLAY the game? And don't tell me to write to MS to get another disc. I already have one, I bought it.
How would it be if THIS Cd were limited to 5 installs? I would have been facing trouble 8 years ago. You really want that for your games 10 years from now? THINK! The games are ours, we bought them, and we should be free to do what we like with them. Prosecute the pirates, persecute the pirates, but don't mess with the people that BUY the software. The DRM is BS. If you buy a book, are you prohibited from loaning it? No, there are libraries that loan copywrited material. So, what makes a game so different? The limited installs are the same as "Can only loan the book to 5 people, and then you have to burn it, or call us for another license". Total crock.
Submitted by Sodman on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 3:50am
I personaly own over 50 original games for my PC, the first thing I do when I get a new game is to download the latest patch to fix all the bugs hopefuly and then download a NO CD/DVD so I dont have to keep swapping out discs when I change games (not sure if what I'm doing is considered pircay or not).
My point is, software companies are wasting a lot of money on elaborate disc protection schemes in a futile effort to stop piracy, hardcore pirates will nearly always find away around disc protection schemes, all your doing is giving them noteriety for being the first ones to break your so called unbreakable protection schemes and the only people you are potentialy stopping from copying games are the casual/non hardcore gamers which a simple non restrictive serial number or old style look in manual for correct word style protection would be just as effective.
don't wast your time and money on protection schemes, honest people will always be hones and buy the games they love and the dishonest pirates will pretty much always be dishonest and find the way to take what they want for free. so let the honest people have their cake and enjoy it.
Submitted by MeTo on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 6:53am
Now they are going to digatal stream through your web browser no install so you wont have the code to steal. Check out TW 2010 EA is starting there.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by MeTo on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 3:01pm
If people don't like DRM for one reason or another JUST STOP BUYING GAMES PERIOD. Stealing games will just piss them off then they will go the RIAA route and come after the thives. Stop playing games after awhile there sales will fall and they will say what can we do to increase sales we have to figure a better way to protect us and the "CUSTOMER".
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by SEALBoy on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 1:59pm
Captain Obvious just told me he can't believe there was actually a study on this.
Yes, quite obvious to the
Submitted by quicks0rt on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 2:03pm
Yes, quite obvious to the likes of you and me, but I want to add that a study like this lends better credibility than some Joe Schmoe speculating on the state of DRM. There should be more marketing studies on this subject, not less.
Submitted by themasterjosh on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 12:28pm
I have lots of "pirated" software and videos of stuff I already own (xvid version of DVDs I own and software cracks cause I lose CDs all the time). The only DRM scheme I have liked is Microsoft with the software activation. I've reinstalled the same Retail copy of XP on multiple machines (only exists on one at any given moment), and I only have to spend a few minutes explaining it is only installed on one comp.
Just a nit...
Submitted by Cache on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 11:43am
As someone involved in some professional testing and data, there is a very wide difference between 'what everybody knows', and hard, emperical data. Remember that just a few centuries ago, 'everybody knew' that there were witches in Salem. 'Everybody knew' that the earth was flat. 'Everybody knew' that the universe was filled with aether.
Just because something is common knowledge in no way validates it as true or not. Without data to support a particular point of view--data that has been carefully collected, assimilated, analyzed, investigated, and subjected to rigorous cross-testing--the point of view is irrelevant. As we 'all know'.
a good point but they have
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 11:49am
a good point but they have yet to prove Witches don't exist, the world isn't flat, and that the universe isn't filled with aether.
Everybody know this after all
How much of this is Wishful Thinking?
Submitted by Wildebeast on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 10:03am
I doubt anyone here is a Fan of DRM --but at the same time how many of us have violated copyright 4 times or more, for one product?
I never liked even games that only run with the disc in the drive ---I had a $200 drive burn out, playing that type of games. We all know that plenty of games actually do run better, if you alter them to run from hard disk. This IS a breach of copyright --one I'd call "reasonable use," as long as the original disc is not sold, given away, or installed on someone else's machine.
I don't think anyone is able to actually track this kind of use, relative to out-and-out copying for resale.
The publishers seem to throw it all in the same category ---probably because they'd like to sell us all a license that's only good for 12 months, for the same $50-60. EVERY copy from a Torrent, is a Violation, to them.
You'd think they'd be feeling better about console title sales... I've got Perfect Dark Zero [an xbox 360 launch title]. If they really believe console games are pirated less, why haven't they fixed the near-broken elements of games like this?? (I know, my example's just 1 publisher.)
I think it would take an incredible amount of analysis of statistics --mostly numbers that NO ONE has-- to even tell the relative copyright violations for sale or re-sale versus "violations" by people owning a valid license and looking to tweak/improve the performance on their own machine.
The torrents have statistics, but what about companies in the far East or maybe third world countries, who just do whatever to reproduce the game and sell their new disc(s) for $15???
They are trying to compare apples, oranges, and tomatoes ---calling it all "edible fruit produced," when they don't know if everyone calls a tomato a fruit and not all of them are edible.
I have no idea why anybody thinks they've got all the info on this. It would take a boat load of Statisticians to figure out, even if they are willing to use estimates... but we're meant to believe Copyright Attorneys have the answers??
Submitted by bbotzong on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 9:14am
When I purchased my new Blu-Ray drive, I was excited to play movies on my home theater (which I later found out to be not worth the extra money for any small difference in picture quality!!). I did everything by-the-book. I purchased compatible video cards, regulation cables, approved software. YEA! Couldn't wait to fire it up. The picture came up very choppy and looked like crap. I went through an upgrade process reminiscent of the dark-ages... After everything was brought up to current day, it wouldn't play AT ALL! WTF? I started to get messages about components not being approved, or software not being enabled. I called the company that made the player and they had me call the company who made the drm who had me call the company who made the video card. Well, after about a week of this baloney, I just broke down and purchased a cracking program. It sits idly in the task bar until a disk is inserted. When it sees protected content, it removes it. Now I get what I paid for... pretty decent quality playback of disks I purchased.
Had it happen to another game program as well. Little did they tell you when they sold you their DRM protected crap, but you only got five installs. I change configurations like some people change shoes. I've done three MoBo upgrades this year alone. I'm always tinkering with my setup. I've reloaded Windows about a half-dozen times, either upgrades, or different flavors of the o/s. However, they didn't tell you when you installed that you have to officially uninstall the program before you do an upgrade. So, the last time I did an upgrade to my system, I tried to reinstall the game and got the 'too many installs' garbage. I called them and they scolded me for not uninstalling (although, NOWHERE in the setup process does it show an install count, nor does it warn you about their crappy count system!!). Well, after some creative researching, I now do not have that problem any more. They forced me to go to a place where I could download a patch which gets around their sh$tty DRM.
Given a choice, I will NEVER buy a DRM protected product again. I will support DRM free producers. I'm also on a mission to ask people WHY they spend extra money on the biggest marketing fraud ever perpetrated on consumers, to wit, BluRay.
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 9:26am
THIS
is why my copy of Spore Creature Creator sitson my shelf still in its shrink wrap
Submitted by N25PHILLY on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 8:08am
What about Sims 3? Already pirated over 180,000 times and it has no DRM? When can we just accept that a**holes are a**holes and not try to make excuses for them?
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 8:48am
not really relevent
The article is taking about how DRM creates pirates where there were origially costomers.
Submitted by MeTo on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 9:00pm
Why is it not relevent Sims 2 started using a form of DRM then Sims 3 has a form of DRM and the pirates have 180,000 copys before you can even buy it at the store. How do you think that got out to torent sites?
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 7:41am
even spores draconian DRm was sliped to torrents DRM free. DRM doesn't stop priating, no drm doesnt stop pirating. What the article is saying though is when the DRM effects the paying customer, which is want to do, legal inonnocent costomers turn INTO priates to get what they paid for
Submitted by MeTo on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:48pm
So i guess DRM drove them to the life of CRIME. Stealing is stealing so they are no longer legal inonnocent customers if they bitorent a DRM free copy of a game that is supposed to have DRM.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 8:43am
when said DRM has PROVEN to brick your optical drive, AND you PAID FOR and OWN a legal copy, i don't really consider it theft. They have my money, i'm just getting a mod for it that makes it work.
Submitted by MeTo on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 9:44am
Which violaiates your end user licence aggrement that makes it illeagle you are a thief.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 9:48am
considering the alternative is to install it and brick my laptop? I'd love to see how they hadle THAT court case.
"Your honor i installled their softhwere, 30 minutes later my $2000 laptop cease functioning"
Submitted by MeTo on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 10:03am
Then you should have returned the game for your money back and restored your PC back to factory fresh install all would have been good.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 10:04am
howyou restore to factory fresh when they softwhere bricks your optical drive, which is part of the laptop?
Submitted by MeTo on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 10:35am
Boot off thumb drive install from recovery partition. Take it in to shop they know how to fix things. Stop trying to ligetamize why you stole somebodys game.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 11:01am
again how is it theft when i went into Best Buy and bost the shrink wraped box, and still have that shrink wrapped box unopened?
The best you can argule is i broke the EULA so it woultn brick my PC like it has others.
Submitted by MeTo on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 9:33pm
It's people like you that are driveing then to digatal streaming games. No more DVD/CD to buy or in your case "steal" from best buy. And when you torrent a copy you steal beacuse you did not pay the intelectual property owner. And by the way how did it brick your DVD drive if you did not even open the shrinked box.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 8:15am
howdid no not pay the intelectual proerty owner? I went in store
gave them my debit card
charged it
walked out with the game
Then grabbed the no BS torrent buecause after 5 minutes online i found people with laptops just like mind got their system bricked by SecureTrojen
Submitted by MeTo on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 9:30pm
You Said "again how is it theft when i went into Best Buy and bost the shrink wraped box, and still have that shrink wrapped box unopened?" Where i come from bost is slang for Steal.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by quicks0rt on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 2:20pm
Stop feeding the troll, please. Obviously the person lacks intelligence when he/she thinks having to fix your computer is acceptable after a piece of software you paid for caused it.
Submitted by MeTo on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 9:40pm
If you read his story he never installed the store bought shrink warped box game he bost at best buy so how does he know his computer would even brick. If you knew how many games have secure rom That "you dont allways know about" you might be shocked. and when you go online big brother is watching you.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 06/03/2009 - 8:43am
yeah but none of them are mine. The last store bought game for PC i bought was...
Final Fantasy 7
a decade ago.
for the last few yers its all console or Steam.
OH MY GOD!
Submitted by Havok on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 6:26pm
18 + POSTS IN THIS ONE THREAD!!!
wow.
OMGWTFBBQ
Stop Flaming (and this article effects me too)
Submitted by Stry8993 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 7:22am
For one, ofcourse everybody knows. Quit being so indignint. The people at MaxPC, whether up-to-date or not, take their time to find, and write this information, for us. At least be appreciative of that fact guys. You people, are really beginning to take things for granted. In times like this (financial and by other means) its not easy to maintain a print business, let alone an online counter-part, and staff the people to run both. Take it easy.
And this does effect me as well, to be honest, I bought GTA IV off of Steam, the Games for Windows Live has been broken from the get-go, and many times, have I been told to uninstall, and reinstall, and run the SecuROM this, and the SecuLauncher that. I told Rockstar. Never again. If you don't get this right the next time, I'm downloading it. Because its not fair that I pay YOU [Rockstar Games/and or the Publisher] 60 dollars of my hard earned money (I make 12 an hour, so 5 hours there abouts of my time) to loyally and faithfully pay you for YOUR hardwork. So why do people who get it for free, get to play it, and I don't? Sure, 10% got those gameplay altering glitches from cracking it wrong, but the other 90% aren't stupid.
Battlefield 2 as well, the 1.5 Patch was supposed to add Vista Compatiblity, or correct the issues therein, but its been in Beta, for god knows how long now, and so, I had to download a Mini Disc Image, and the 1.4 Long Address Extension Exe, in order to play the game on Vista (and have 64-bit compatiblity) even though I bought the game.
In closing, I appreciate the article, because a study adds the final nail in the coffin. Now I'm off to play Spore *wink wink*
Submitted by kiaghi7 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 6:54am
Water is wet! More on this breaking headline at 11!
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/evchk/images/c/ce/WOW!.jpg
Honestly now, not to take a swipe at Maximum PC, but did anyone out there NOT already know this? Pirates of software specifically alter files in order to defeat the DRM because they are STEALING the software, and thus couldn't operate it otherwise.
The majority of games that I
Submitted by Caboose on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 7:30am
The majority of games that I have purchased, I have also obtained cracks (and keep a backup of the original exe) so that I can play the game without needing the CD (Battlefield series, Call of Duty series, C&C series).
I picked up Mass Effect for PC a week ago (no, not for the potetional alien lesbian sex scenes) and remember when I got it home that people were ripping on it for having a terrible DRM. I installed the game, filed away the box and CD and fired up the game (after patching of course). Oh my... the game runs just fine with no disc. If there's a 3 install limit, whateve. That's something I can deal with. But when developers force you to keep the disc in the drive JUST to authenticate the bloody game, nothing gets run from the disc and you can't remove the disc from the drive until you've exited the game, thats where I have a problem.
Online activation, and systems like Steam, or limiting the number of installs to 3 or 5 are just fine.
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by kiaghi7 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 1:39pm
Yes, a legitimate buyer can very well use a no-cd patch or a crack, and so forth to play without the CD's, or even some games allow for it already. However we're not talking about what legitimate buyers do with their copy of the game, the subject is that DRM is a reason for pirates to pirate.
Online activation is NOT just fine and this is coming from a legitimate buyer. Take the recent Empire Total War debacle, where people couldn't get the game to activate because Steam is a pipe-dream and woefully ill equipped to do what Valve wants it to be... Hence why it's patched routinely and it still doesn't make muster.
Limiting installs is equally NOT just fine, when you purchase a game, your ability to install and uninstall the game ad infinitum is integral to the value there of. There is no limit on how many times, or on how many DVD players, you can watch your movies. There is no limit on how many times you can read a book, or even how many people you can read it to, or let read it. DRM in its current form is a pathetically inadequate disguise for greed and inability to accept that people who are perfectly legitimate buyers may well want to control the fate of their purchase.
I've long endorsed limiting things with CD-keys, keeping updates to only those with legitimate copies, and so on. To which the industry whines that those methods can be defeated, however I would reply that all of their heavy handed methods are just as easily defeated and particularly culpable for the piracy.
The way DRM is structured and "argued for" by the various industries, they are very literally suggesting that the mere act of sharing a video game with your friend (I've loaned and borrowed countless games over the years) is itself an act of piracy! Pretty soon, Nabisco is going to start putting DRM on their cookiees because they are tired of people "treat sharing", this rampant phenomena is "costing" the baked treats industry millions of dollars every year! Those thieving kids!
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 2:04pm
this rampant phenomena is "costing" the baked treats industry millions of dollars every year! Those thieving kids!
Alreadybeing done, sorta.
I just grabed a bottle of Sobe Vitiman water, one of those 21 oz bottles.
"serving size per container, aproximatly 3"
seriously who is going to "share" their vitimen water? Their giving you "3 installs" for the cost of "1"
Also, tonight at 11 o'clock,
Submitted by I Jedi on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 7:24am
Also, tonight at 11 o'clock, it’s true that eating healthy and exercising regularly can help make your body healthier and stronger. More details as this shocking reality become available.
Really?
Submitted by Seana7a7 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 6:36am
This is just stating the obvious anyone who has any interest in games knows this.
Submitted by MeTo on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 6:05am
What software publishers need to do is take the RIAA road go after the pirate. The ISP's keep a compleat list of download's where they come from and where they go. Stop all this DRM bull it only hurts the legitimate copy buyer that's not hooked up to the internet so they can't get online activitaion (believe it or not about half of the computers in the world are NOT hooked up to internet)
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
Submitted by comptech08 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 6:34am
Actually if you go off of World Internet Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
There is only about 23% of the World that do not have access to the internet.
Submitted by MeTo on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 9:39pm
Just beacuse they "have access" doe's not mean you have the internet hooked up so that figure means nothing. It just say's they have access. As in the cable runs to there house giving "access" but they can't afford it so they don't hook it up. Or they just don't want it.
Linux Mint,Duel boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.
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