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.

Comments

Standardized EULA

[haystor]

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.

Re:Standardized EULA

[snowraver1]

At least you would have an idea what your rights are, and the rights of the publisher. As it stands now, you have no rights, and really, so idea of the publishers rights either, becuase, really, who reads the EULA?

Re:Standardized EULA

[mrchaotica]

As it stands now, you have no rights...

Only if the EULA is upheld, that is. The typical EULA should be declared null and void by any reasonable court, for several reasons (contract of adhesion, doctrine of first sale, etc.).

Re:Standardized EULA

[geobeck]

The typical EULA should be declared null and void by any reasonable court...

You have to go through a pretty big haystack to find that needle.

To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[Smidge207]

*sigh* Here we go again. Seriously, a code is the most simplistic and effective means of copy protection. One key = one install. Simple as that.

If you implement measures, that online / LAN multiplay is restricted to valid and unique CD-keys and executables cannot be cracked easily is one of the most reasonable methods to balance between players and publishers available.

It serves the following purposes:
- prevent non-paying customers from using unpaid-for online servers
- (inofficially) let people (via keygens) rather freely test-drive the full software, offline on their own machine with the option to buy a key and make your installation legit and online-enabled in seconds.
- ban detected cheaters from online play and introduce a financial risk to cheating (you have to buy a new key when you're caught) which deters non-hardcore cheaters from trying
- prevent mass copying of your software: if the same key is encountered online in the thousands, disable the key
- all this encourages defined and responsible ownership of the software: if you give out your key, you possibly cannot play online anymore

- and inofficially: limit the resale-value of a used key: as a buyer, you cannot be sure if the key is not banned for cheating or shared with the entire school/workplace of the reseller.

I don't know of people who been hindered from doing legit things with their paid-for software because of a cd-key. But I know several people who "test-drove" dozens of pirated games with a keygen who found out the game was so crappy that even downloading it was a waste of money and time.

=Smidge=

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[corsec67]

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?

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[FishWithAHammer]

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.

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[badboy_tw2002]

Obviously you can make money providing support or documentation for your game: that's the FOSS way.

In terms of a game, just release a version without any sensible controls or UI, and have them call you while they play it so you can dig around the logs and tell them they are low on life and should probably go find a health pack. Alternately, you can provide customization support such that they can add scripts to get the info without having to dig through the logs. That HUD script in turn will be rewritten in a "better" language and released as a fork with a slightly different license, at which time your userbase will splinter into two camps - both whom are completely right and the spawn of Satan at the same time.

See now, that wasn't so hard was it?

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[AmaDaden]

You know what my reply to that is? "Fuck you

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. Due to all the information that we have at our finger tips if you ever even look like you are thinking this you will get your ass handed to you. People HATE giving money to people they feel are assholes. If they have to then they have to. But if they can avoid it they will.

The other side of this is that if they hear good things about you they will come to you. The next pair of shoes I buy I will buy though Zappos. Why? Look at these stories. http://consumerist.com/tag/zappos/

As for you making money I would recommend
1)Accept donations. Some people might like your stuff so much they will over pay for it.
2)Ask people who did pirate the game to donate if they liked it. This sounds dumb but it's a way of saying "Look I know some of you are gonna steal this game and there is nothing I can do about it. But Please if you actually like it and would like to see more post-pay for it. I'm not gonna be a jerk about it. I'm just trying to make a living." Most people have trouble ripping off people that are honest and human.
3)Try to make it easier to buy then steal. Steam is great network for that. At this point I buy games on steam so that I never have to go CD fishing ever again if I want to play an old game

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[FishWithAHammer]

Package a game with some tangible thing -- that increases both my costs and the cost of the game, and in theory drives more people to piracy. Plus, there's pretty few ways, if any, for an independent developer to actually provide anything in that tangible form that anybody would actually want.

Support -- dunno about you, man, but I'd hope that a game doesn't need support. If it does, I didn't do my job as a developer and a designer.

Online services -- this is possible/plausible, especially if I do add the possibility of a multiplayer component (the problem being that everything's balanced for single-player, and multiplayer involves ongoing costs).

Steam is looking more and more tempting, really. Or try to get a WiiWare kit (the game has HTPC and standard-TV resolution modes already, wouldn't be too hard!) and go that route.

I have zero interest in making life more difficult for those who purchase the game. But, at the same time, I just expect a modicum of fairness afforded to me as the creator ('specially as I've got a couple artists and a fellow musician to pay...).

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[FishWithAHammer]

I actually thought of something interesting.

A key system that does phone home--but does the validation on the user side. If the key's not legitimate, i.e. a keygen result, it won't be in the server database, though the game still unlocks. It doesn't change the game at all, but instead displays a message that more or less says only "I know this key isn't legitimate, but I'm going to let you play the game anyway." Let the versions unlocked with this, just keep the "Register This Copy" button on the homepage. (I plan to do registration through PayPal, built straight into the game, in the first place, if somebody wants to bypass the need to go input the key themselves the first time--so they can still go get a legitimate copy if they want.)

Could be workable. I doubt a pirate is likely to spend any time cracking it when all they have to do is sit through a "do you really want to just steal this game?" message before being allowed in.

Re:To the extent that they lightened the DRM load:

[orclevegam]

I have no interest in having my work valued at zero unless you "feel like it." I can just as easily not release it.

Having never seen or played your game (to my knowledge) I currently value it at zero. Even if I had seen it (and even played it), I'd probably still value it at or around zero, sorry, but that's just the way things go with a free market. No one is guaranteed success, and just because you wrote a game does not intrinsically mean it has value to everyone nor more importantly that it has the same value to anyone. Now, I can sympathize with you, I'm a programmer and I do like to think that what I make has value and that people are willing to pay for it, however the onus is on me to convince the public that my software is worth paying for, and no amount of DRM is going to do that for even half of the public.

Your potential market for any piece of software can be broken down into a number of categories and various things you do will effect exactly how that breakdown occurs. The categories are as follows:

• Doesn't even know about your software
• Is aware of your software but not interested in it
• Is aware of your software but values it at less than what you're asking for it
• Is aware of your software and values it at more than what you're asking for it

Now, on the topic of that third category (Is aware of your software but values it at less than what you're asking for it) this is where your pirates come from. It's important to note that some people will value your software at or very close to zero and will therefore never pay for it no matter what you do, so some of these people might as well be considered lost sales no matter what. Your job is to try to maximize sales to all categories and this is accomplished in a number of ways. In the case of categories 1 and 2 (don't know and not interested respectively) advertising and demos (either full or partial) go a long way towards shifting these two into groups 3 and 4. Group 4 is essentially sold already, all you need to do with them is keep shipping a quality product that works well and doesn't hassle the paying customer. Group 3 is the problem group. Your options to win them over are to lower your prices, or convince them that your product has more value in it (demos, and various incentives are a great way to do this as the demo gets them actually interacting with your product and able to more fully evaluate it, and the incentives are effectively added to the value of the base product).

how much does DRM cost

[PhrostyMcByte]

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.

Re:how much does DRM cost

[goltzc]

I wonder how many companies that have spent a lot of money on DRM schemes are publicly traded. Investing in DRM sure seems like a proactive (yet pointless) way of making sure your investors believe that you are protecting your sales.

Perception of money saved > Actual money saved

Re:how much does DRM cost

[Shihar]

I am a pretty avid game buyer. I got out of college, got a job, and suddenly found tossing out a couple hundred on video games occasionally wasn't a large expense. If I see a game that I want, I generally just buy it.

I skipped over Red Alert 3 and Spore.

Those are two games that I normally would have not thought twice about buying. I like video games, and they are not such a big expense for me where I have to spend much time thinking about if I want to buy it or not, but in the case of those two games I took a pass because of DRM. I can merrily ignore DRM if it doesn't affect me. Limited licenses, crippling applications installed onto my computer, nice big loop holes for security breaches? Thanks. I'll pass. Video games are nice, but not worth crippling my computer or supporting that kind of anti-consumer behavior.

EA needed to be taught a lesson and hopefully they learned it. Spore had the most crippling DRM of all times and was the most pirated game of all times. Pssst... EA... DRM doesn't stop pirates. It sure does piss off people who on a normal day would hand you a sweat wad of cash without thinking twice.

It's not April 1st yet!!

[elrous0]

Well, maybe in some part of the world.

All aspects of securerom?

[SuiteSisterMary]

Does this also remove the other aspects of SecureROM, other than just 'number of installs?' Like the whole 'Hey, you have Nero installed! Therefore, you can't run this game! How dare you have standard computer equipment like a CD burner installed in your computer!'

Re:All aspects of securerom?

[Shakrai]

This happens sometimes when I try to play Heroes of Might and Magic V! It's like playing russian roulette.

Yeah, because not getting to play 'Heroes of Might and Magic V' is totally equivalent to a 16.667% chance of blowing your brains out ;)

Re:All aspects of securerom?

[Anachragnome]

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 was my first experience with SecuROM. It disabled my CD burner...permanently. EA owes me $55 for that one.

In total, SecuROM has been the demise of three of my drives. There was no way to determine whether or not a game had it back then, so it was hit and miss. SecuROM, or EA, owe me approx. $150 for disabled drives over the last 12 years or so.

Since I NEVER expect to receive a buck from them in compensation, I protect my drives instead. I stopped BUYING THEIR GAMES. And every one that I bought in the past, I have since downloaded cracked versions and use them instead.

Is that what you wanted, EA?

Drop SecuROM, entirely, or you've still lost a customer.

Had to return Battlefield expansion packs

[syousef]

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.

Hm...

[grub]

Once downloaded, the tool will search your drives for EA games infested with the draconian online DRM system

I bet that's not a quote from EA's documentation.

Cool...

[Anonymous Coward]

We can have congress pass legislation that they didn't read to fix the problem of EULAs that nobody reads.

Re:Cool...

[commodore64_love]

This isn't funny.

It's sad.

Re:Cool...

[omnipresentbob]

It is sad. Which is why there should be legislation that makes them read the bills.

http://www.downsizedc.org/page/read_the_laws

Re:Cool...

[commodore64_love]

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.

One day....

[Daetrin]

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.)

Re:One day....

[Red Flayer]

and just released a tool to retroactively remove DRM from older games.

No they didn't. In essence, they released a tool to reset your "activated" flag from TRUE to FALSE.

So when you try to install and activate on a second machine, you can -- as long as you have unactivated on the first machine. This is nice, since it allows for continuance of the doctrine of first sale. This is not nice, as it still leaves the DRM.

All this does is make their DRM adhere to certain consumer protection laws.

Also note that they have not committed to release Sims 3 DRM-free; instead, they have vowed not to use the broken DRM tool they have been using up til now.

Hulk mad.

[commodore64_love]

>>>it's still possible to run out of activations in the event of hardware failure or other source of data loss

Hulk crush EA's company cars. Grrrr.

This does NOT remove the DRM, just moves the game!

[Sowelu]

Many of EA's games can only be installed three times on different computers (based on hardware ID codes)--and then, even if you never gave away your CD key or anything else, you don't get to install them ANYWHERE. Serious problem if you get three new computers! This tool lets you de-authorize a computer, saying "I don't want to play the game on THIS computer any more. Credit me with the ability to install it on a new place again." Of course that doesn't help if your hard drive dies; that one ability to install it dies with your drive, and you can't take it back. The DRM is still very present.

I don't understand

[lancert]

I've never understood people's belief that they have the right to someone else's work be it music, videos, games, software or whatever. Calling EA an evil overlord for trying to profit from their work and protect it from being stolen is totally goofy. If you don't want to pay for it, you shouldn't have it. I'm sure people are going to trash this statement but if you don't like the DRM they install with it, don't buy it. But stealing a copy of something because you don't like the DRM is theft. Plain and simple.

Obviously

[dazedNconfuzed]

What you don't understand is that EA's DRM was screwing up computers of people who DID pay!

Spore deauth tool stinks

[spyrochaete]

I uninstalled Spore a few weeks ago and just tried to reclaim the activation with EA's new tool. All I get is this message:

Important Message!

There is a problem with verifying ownership of your game. Please verify your game registration code and reinstall your game."

What the hell does that mean? I have to install the game again? So do I run the deauth tool while it's still installed? And then uninstall it again?

Screw this. If my game ceases to work I'll just pirate it.

You are wrong

[Brain-Fu]

But stealing a copy of something because you don't like the DRM is theft. Plain and simple.

Legally speaking, it is not theft. Copyright infringement is an entirely different legal concept than theft. So you are wrong.

Morally speaking, you are wrong too. Theft deprives the owner of use, whereas copyright infringement does not. So it is not morally similar to theft (it might still be wrong of course, just as murder is wrong even though it is not theft, but this does not make it the same thing as theft).

I know you think I am splitting semantic hairs. Of course, I disagree. I think your sloppy use of language obscures the truth and frustrates our efforts at thinking clearly about this issue. It is not "plain and simple," and your misguided attempts at making it so are not helpful.

The issue is not one of entitlement, production, or theft...but one of boundaries. One person's interest in securing the profitability of a work is directly conflicting with someone else's interest in being able to make full use of the (hardware AND software) resources available to them. Perhaps my natural desire to play a game for free should not supersede your "right" (sic) to ensure that every copy of your work is paid for. But, conversely, neither does your desire to get paid justify forcefully taking control of my computer (and the computers of every person in the world) away.

So, we need to work out these boundaries. In order to work them out fairly, we need to understand them in exacting detail. Thus, we must avoid oversimplifications like yours.

Re:Old School DRM is the Best School

[c0d3g33k]

Most people would find this reasonable.

Nope. It's just as damned inconvenient and braindead as other schemes that artificially induce limitations that aren't there to begin with. One instance at a time is just as stupid as any other limitation.

Example:

Limited software in question is installed on 3 computers: Workstation at the office, laptop and home workstation.

Scenario 1: Working on project at office workstation. Suddenly called to important meeting with important executive to deal with an important issue. Grab laptop, head off to meeting - no time to logoff, generate new key, whatever. Productive discussion ensues. Executive asks for a quick review of discussion concepts using expensive software he paid for. Activate laptop, start software. Bzzzt! Didn't generate stupid license key, so no efficient conclusion to discussion. Executive leaves meeting with mandate to find new tool ASAP without stupid licensing scheme.

Scenario 2: Good week at office. Project done, system deployed. Vacation next week. No need to generate key - won't need it. As vacation starts - emergency phone call to fix unforeseen issue. Bzzt! Sorry - can't use home system to fix problem. Long drive into office causes family to miss plane, vacation ruined, divorce ensues. Solemn vow never to use stupid software again.

Scenario 3: Good week at office. Project done, system deployed. Generate key for laptop just in case - not stupid like scenario 2 guy. Sunday morning - emergency call. No problem - just fire up laptop, install key, fix problem. Bzzzt! Hard drive failure - laptop won't boot. Home system can't use exclusive key made for laptop. Stupid licensing scheme cursed forever, new tool found.

The problem with schemes that impose limitations is that they are ... limiting, and at some point those limitations will cause a problem that shouldn't have been one.

Only human beings would invent technology that removes limitations (like cost-free digital reproduction that sounded like Utopia in the sci-fi novels ... and the marketing copy) then turn around and impose artificial limitations to nullify the benefit that the new tech offered.