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EA Releases DRM License Deactivation Tool
Dr_Barnowl writes "Electronic Arts has posted a SecuROM de-authorization management tool. Once downloaded, the tool will search your drives for EA games infested with the draconian online DRM system, and help you download their respective individual de-activation tools. This isn't a perfect solution, since it's still possible to run out of activations in the event of hardware failure or other source of data loss, but since the announcement that this particular DRM system will be dropped for The Sims 3 , it would seem that EA has had a minor epiphany about DRM."
I'm sure EA's hand was forced in part by the FTC's recent warning against deceptive DRM practices. Hal Halpin of the Entertainment Consumers Association commented further on the issue, suggesting to developers that such measures need to be displayed on game boxes, and that standardization of EULAs could be next on the list.
Having a standardized EULA would be a bad thing if it were standardized by the government. They'd be unilaterally agreeing to the terms of the EULA, while right now it is unclear if a EULA is even binding at all.
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I wonder how much these companies spend licensing and supporting DRM. Even leaving out sales lost because of DRM, I have a hard time imagining them making up those costs.
Well, maybe in some part of the world.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I have had to return two of the Battlefield expansion packs because I could not activate them even after spending several hours on the problem. No matter what I did the online part of the process did not work and I was denied access. These expansion packs were online only so I effectively couldn't use the software at all. Fortunately I bought from a gaming shop that does take returns on games that do not work. I wrote to EA, asked for help. Then again to revoke whatever I'd registered. No reply of course. One day these greedy fools will realize that they're shooting themselves in the foot with DRM. Sure some piracy will be curtailed in some circumstances. So will some legitimate use. In the long run they lose out because the game becomes hard to use and not worth the effort.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
One day these greedy fools will realize that they're shooting themselves in the foot with DRM.
They removed the DRM from Sims 3 and just released a tool to retroactively remove DRM from older games. One could make a reasonably cogent argument that that day is today.
(Good thing that day wasn't tomorrow, or no one would have believed them.)
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Simple question:
Do you want the version people pay money for to be as good as the version without DRM that they can get from The Pirate Bay?
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
That's not a simple question at all.
Of course I want it to be that easy. But making that easy vastly increases the likelihood of small-scale copies (letting a friend borrow the disc, etc.), which for an independent game is considerably more problematic than TPB.
Your approach is "give it to us or we'll steal it." You know what my reply to that is? "Fuck you, I won't release it at all."
Creators deserve to make money, too. I want a solution where everyone benefits.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
What you don't understand is that EA's DRM was screwing up computers of people who DID pay!
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
It is sad. Which is why there should be legislation that makes them read the bills.
http://www.downsizedc.org/page/read_the_laws
The First Congress spent almost six months writing, debating, and rewriting the Bill of Rights, and it was only one page long. Our Congress passed a 780,000 million dollar stimulus bill with thousands of pages and most never read it.
When the Founders envisioned the Congress, they pictured a body of men who would be highly-intelligent, logical (it was the Age of Reason), and careful in their deliberations, to carefully read every word and weigh its effects.
Boy were they wrong.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall