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Stardock, Microsoft Unveil Their Own New Anti-Piracy Methods
Island Dog sends news that shortly after Valve showed off their new anti-piracy methods in Steamworks, Microsoft and Stardock were quick to demonstrate their new, similar technologies as well. All three companies are bending over backwards to say that this is not traditional DRM. Stardock (the company behind the Gamer's Bill of Rights) calls their system Game Object Obfuscation (Goo), "a tool that allows developers to encapsulate their game executable into a container that includes the original executable plus Impulse Reactor, Stardock's virtual platform, into a single encrypted file. When a player runs the game for the first time, the Goo'd program lets the user enter in their email address and serial number which associates their game to that person as opposed to a piece of hardware like most activation systems do. Once validated, the game never needs to connect to the Internet again." Microsoft's update to Games for Windows Live has similar protections. "You can sign in and play your game on as many systems as possible, but you have to have a license attached to your account. Of course, this only works for online games."
"Goo" for Game Object Obfuscation?!? Why not simply Controled Update Management?
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I'm still a huge Steam fan, but I must admit I've developed a soft spot for Stardock and their little Impulse. Windows Live, however? No thank you!
Demented But Determined.
The only flaw I have with Steam is that they dont allow you to tie activation keys to your account. I have a few games that I have valid CD keys, and are games sold on steam, but it wont let me input them into the system and have it added to their content download system. So if I want to use one of the best features of steam, I'd have to purchase it again in the steam system.
The only flaw I have with Steam is that they dont allow you to tie activation keys to your account.
They do for some games, such as Unreal Tournament 3.
Others such as Crysis, Fallout 3 they do not however.
See here for a list of games you can do it with: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-WUSF-3601
It associates your account with the game the first time you run it? How does this combat piracy? Almost all software that is available for piracy is the pre-installation package.
What problem is this bulky, resource eater solving?
That's rather telling. "DRM is bad. DRM is what stops me from stealing software." Nice to see you address the issue directly, at that.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Seriously, these protections that are "not DRM" still manage my rights to things that are digital. However unintrusive these things are to my system, they are still doing the same thing and therefore this re-branding of it is just stupid.
Hopefully people are bright enough to see through this little marketing exercise.
To defeat this system, all I need to do is to "share" my email account with other folks, or just setup an account just for game purposes. What about that?
Such an unfortunate choice of acronym. Pity they did not choose on that is truly reflective of the gaming platform they are pushing. Platform Object Obfustcation. Even Peer Encrypted Encapsulation would have been better.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The ability to "steal" content unfortunately is a necessary part of it being accessable and usable.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Oh, you can steal the software, just walk into Gamest... (no, not Gamestop, my daughter manages one)... er, Best Buy and shoplift a copy. That's the only way to steal software.
You might have a hard time infringing its copyright. You would also have a hard time excersizing your right to resell what you bought and paid for, should you decide to buy it rather than shoplift.
It was smart of you to post AC, so nobody would know who the dumbass that doesn't understand the difference between stealing and infringing copyright is.
Free Martian Whores!
I've been saying that for years now. Stardock/Impulse/etc. are DRM. They limit the ability to distribute digital media.
You still need an internet connection to enable it from the wording in the summary. What happens when that server is no longer alive? How am I to play the game? What if I don't have internet when I install it on my laptop on a plane to play when I'm bored?
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
In the end I'm going to buy the games on steam, unless its not offered there, even if I dont get a discount like publishers offer (ie: EA). I love steam for the pure fact that I can download my games onto another computer, or if I reformat my computer its not a pain to find CDs and install things.
On the other side, it's always annoying the need of connecting to internet to register an offline game.
I have friends that don't have internet access. Few years ago even I didn't. Also, an ISP subscription is an extra cost, which not everyone is willing to pay.
They should provide an alternative(which I doubt they will now).
The good, the evil and the vacuum tubes.
What if I decide that I played the game enough and I want to give or sell it to somebody else? Must I give them my email account as well? Or what if I decide to give it to by kid/brother/wife/dog so he can start using it on his/her/its PC?
And what if I buy a new PC after I changed providers, so I don't have my old email address anymore?
It manages my rights digitally, so it is just a different kind of Digital Rights Management. Perhaps they have forgotten what DRM stand for?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Which Gamestop? I want to see if they have Battletoads.
The PS3 has region free gaming. In fact, I just imported an Asia/Chinese game Demon's Souls and it runs perfect on my US PS3.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
The ability to "steal" content unfortunately is a necessary part of it being accessable and usable.
Just when I'm out of mod points...
But yes, that's exactly it: if it's not usable after theft, it's probably also not usable after something else went wrong.
As far as I understand, GOO does require online activation, which means that after Stardock goed bankrupt, you probably won't be able to install it on a new machine anymore. And if you are able to install it on new machines without requiring Stardock's permission, that pretty much means you can "steal" it.
Probably the third time I've written this, but the solution to the rampant piracy on the PC gaming platform is simply to offer the games as subscription downloads via a service such as Steam.
Effectively you would rent the game - Depending on how much you pay per month, you get a set amount of refundable credits to spend on the games. Newer games would cost more, whilst older titles would cost less. You could play as many games as your tokens permit, and revoke your rent on a game once you're done with it; or, more importantly, when you discover it is not for you or doesn't work well on your system. I'm lucky to own a console. I've bought PC games in the past, played them for a couple of weeks, gone off them but am effectively stuck with them. With my PS3 games, I just sell them back to the shop.
Additionally, the service could offer things like trophies and achievements (yes, I know Windows Lives already does this). Throw in a few classics that are free to play (such as Doom and Quake) and you've got a system with a lot of appeal.
The nice thing about this service is that, because it's a subscription, you can play the games on any machine by just logging into your account. There's probably a major, major flaw with this idea... but it looks good on paper.
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
I've used Stardock's Impulse a little bit and while I can't comment on all games on it, the 3 I have it works quite well. You can tie a license key to an account, however I have installed and played 2 of the 3 offline never connecting to the internet to play or install, simply by entering the license key in the normal installation. Then I can then tie it to Stardock Impulse which will automatically tell me about updates and help me install them. To register it with Impulse I simply entered the license key again with the online component. In fact Impulse recognized that I had the game installed and asked me if I wanted to add it into the system.
Also, I can then log into stardock impulse on any other computer and it will allows me to re-download and install the game on that one as well. Well I've only done it for one so far, Sins of a Solar Empire, so again I can't comment for all games.
In fact, I play offline all the time and only fire up Impulse (I haven't needed to run it to play the games) when I check for updates.
With GOO, you are able to decouple your e-mail from the game and transfer ownership.
That's where every DRM system fails: If you can't steal it, then you also probably can't buy it and use it. Broken is broken, regardless of intent.
The capacity to copy DVDs, is what gave me the capacity to play them. When DeCSS came out, I started buying DVDs.
My lack of capacity to access Bluray discs is what keeps me from copying them, but it's also what keeps me from being able to play them. When I get a HD TV, if I can't access (play) Blurays, then I'm not going to buy any. I'll just pirate them.
HEADSHOT!
Steam often has "free weekends" where you can download and play the game for free for a set period of time. If you like it you can buy it and keep playing. If not, it just deactivates and you have the option to delete it.
Oh, you can steal the software, just walk into [...] Best Buy and shoplift a copy. That's the only way to steal software.
Well I prefer the other way, go to the developer HQ, and take all copies of source code and art there. That's what I call software theft, why stop at a copy ?
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
Not a traditional DRM
Um...sure guys. Whatever you say.
How do you define "traditional". From my end, I don't get to see the implementation details, just whether or not I can run the game/program without any hassles and maintain my anonymity. If you're forcing me to identify myself or otherwise check in with you, it's still traditional DRM.
Get a clue. If the game phones home at any point, I don't buy it.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
Your real name wouldn't happen to be Axel Gembe, would it? ;)
Demented But Determined.
According to TFA, the authentication mechanism is supposed to be open so that any non-Stardock server can support it. I'm assuming that setting up a new server would require some type of permission from the publisher, but there weren't many details about how that would work.
Hell is other people's code.
The ability to "steal" content unfortunately is a necessary part of it being accessable and usable.
How true that is. When you look at the effort involved in keeping all your little registration codes straight for buying games online or keeping all CD's paired with their authentication keys versus pirating a game, piracy is the least hassle hands down. They're teaching everyone the wrong lesson here.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
This is Bad News for me.
I like computer games. I have been buying games for years. I spent over $1000 for my Atari800 games. I spent over $1500 for my Amiga games. I spent that much for just MSDOS games. I have spent at least $2000 for Windows games. I have purchased many of the commercial games available for Linux.
I want to play my computer games. I still go back to games that I purchased years ago. Most of the time, I can use emulation/virtualization to enjoy a good game as long as I like.
At this point I have hundreds of data-points that show that the normal state of a game is unsupported. The normal state of a game developer is shutdown.
As far as I can tell, any game that requires on-line activation might as well be a rental. Just as soon as I start to like it, it will become unsupported. I would like to play Spore, but there appears to be no point. As soon as I start to enjoy it, it will be gone. The same thing goes for most of the current crop of 'activation required' games.
Fortunately, I already own a LOT of really good games that I can play however I want, anytime I want. The last week, I have been playing Starships Unlimited 3. Plays great in Wine! if you like turn-based strategy, you should pick up a copy from:
http://apezone.com/starshipsunlimited.php
before they go out of business.
Miles
You didn't actually address GP's concerns though. The fact that you initially have to activate the game online at all is restrictive. Maybe not so much now, but what about ten years down the road when you install the game for nostalgia's sake and the lisence server has been long since taken down?
If you don't think this will be a problem, and that these games will be able to be activated online until the end of time, then you need to wake up and pay attention to the history of DRM. There are already plenty of examples of servers being shut off, leaving people without access to the media they paid for.
Or maybe you just only play modern games. That's OK, as long as you realize that a good percentage of gamers out do pick up the older stuff every once in a while.
This is, of course, ignoring the fact that 10-15 year old games are routinely played on computers today.
I'll stick to buying used classic PC games. These idiots aren't getting a dime from me!
DRM isn't about preventing piracy. It's about showing consumers who's boss.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Not sure who is being a dumbass here. Stealing and theft as English words (not as a legal concepts) apply perfectly validly to a variety of uses that have nothing to do with tangible property or depriving the victim of its use: "he stole my idea", "identity theft" etc.
That's true, but copyright infringement is only "theift" to someone wanting to load the language for political purposes. Everyone knows that "stealing an idea" isn't really stealing and that identity thieves don't become the person whose identity they've stolen, but those who call copyright infringement "theift" see no difference between stealing a CD and downloading it from Pirate Bay. Equating copyright infringement with theift is a dishonest use of language, that, may I say, only the dishonest use.
Free Martian Whores!
If I understand the Stardock system, once you've paid for and activated the download, it's permanently transformed into a usable game, and can be copied as much as you want. There's no registration code to keep straight (IIRC, Stardock keeps it's own database of what your registration codes are, so it you lose everything they can give them to you again).
This sounds like the ideal system to me:
* Download a file from the Game co or FilePlanet or wherever, that needs a key to unlock.
* Game co sells you activation of what you download (no phoning home ever again), and will let you re-activate as often as you please.
* You can copy the activated game as often as you please.
* If you want to play with friends, eveyone needs a different activation key, so piracy is somewhat limited.
* If an activated game shows up on a warez site, the Game co can associate it with the person who bought the key.
The last is incredibly useful to deter piracy for one key reason: without any legal authority, merely contacting the owner of the credit card that paid for the game and telling them that "the game is being illegaly copied and they should probably stop that" will be remarkably effective if it's a parent that paid for the game, and their kid who's sharing it.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Too bad I hate
(1)Needing an internet connection to play a 1-player game
(2)Forcing me to give a company my email account when I purchase a game
(3)Being treated like I'm a criminal for wanting to play their game
Luckily for me, the more companies that adopt DRM or other anti-piracy measures, the more free games I get. If they treat me like a customer, they'll get my money. If they treat me like a thief, they won't.
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
Piracy isnt about avoiding DRM, its about showing the companies who's boss.
Good-bye
I assume you mean "remarkably effective" in the sense of the kid getting punished (and therefore being less likely to share other games in the future) rather than the sense of undoing the distribution of the already-shared game, right?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The GP is a copy/paste troll. Please ignore.
Not true. Copyright "infringement" is also about extending rights into perpetuity, crushing fair use, limiting parody and free speech, and taking away the rights of the consumer to do what they want with the stuff they own.
You are welcome on my lawn.