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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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
DRM isn't about preventing piracy. It's about showing consumers who's boss.
You are welcome on my lawn.