Thanks to DRM, Some Ubisoft Games Won't Work Next Week

I Must Be Missing Something Here by eldavojohn · 2012-02-03 04:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

Install software at new site.
Test software at new site.
Lock writes and edits to old database.
Dump old database.
Migrate old database to new site and populate.
Switch DNS or whatever directs traffic to point at new site.

That should be a matter of minutes and since I would guess this is largely just a reading and verifying service, there shouldn't even be an interruption for game validation. There are other strategies to employ if that database dump takes a long time but nothing that should require an unknown downtime.

Uh, I do this stuff with two-bit websites that I don't even make a profit on. What the hell is money monger Ubisoft doing?

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My work here is dung.

Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by mcavic · 2012-02-03 04:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

That would require duplicate hardware at the new site. It's hard to convince people to shell out, even when their pockets are deep.

The real question is why you need DRM on a game (or anything else) that's been purchased outright. And a related question, why do you need an Internet connection to play a single player game?
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Drinking+Bleach · 2012-02-03 04:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

Not hiring you, apparently. In seriousness, it is a very good question. I've done similar things not just for sites that don't make any money, but for sites that just sink more money than they ever have hope to make. Ubisoft is just showing a prime example of their incompetence here.
oh and since it's probably oblig: Guess who this move affects the least? the pirates.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by NeutronCowboy · 2012-02-03 04:47 · Score: 5, Informative

No, this is exactly how it is done. I work with some of the largest data centers in the world (not on the scale of Google or Facebook, but close behind it), and the only difficulty with scale is that moving the data takes a whole lot more planning. Especially if you're planning to keep writing to the old db for almost the entire time of the move. It took us a while, but we now move massive data clusters between geographically disparate data centers in what appears to be a 5 minute window. The reality on the backend is of course very different - but that's the point. Our customers don't give a rat's ass about how difficult the move is - all they care about is that they're paying us to make that problem go away. And therefore, we do.
What Ubisoft essentially did was the cheapest, dumbest way of moving a data center: switch of the database(s), replicate for a few days, start it back up.

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Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Moryath · 2012-02-03 04:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

Are you kidding?
This is the basic problem with DRM. It treats every customer as if they were a criminal.
Pirated game: always works.
Non-pirated game: customers suffer through shit like this.
And the companies wonder why things like no-CD cracks have been rampant basically forever? I mean fuck, we wound up hand-rewriting the stupid "black text on dark fucking red" sheets from games like Zak McCracken in the old days, and it wasn't a question of piracy, it was just so we didn't have to stand under a 300W floodlight to read the goddamn sheet!
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by TWX · 2012-02-03 04:51 · Score: 4, Interesting

One could always split existing hardware between a couple of sites if there's enough duplicate equipment, and suffer moderate outages instead of full-blown darkness, then once the switchover has happened, move the rest.
Or set up a virtual network between the two banks of hardware at different physical locations, and switch the traffic routing and whatever other addressing is necessary, and once the new location is up and working and backfeeding the old location, then down the old location and move the rest...
But I agree, it's stupid to use DRM for a purchased game, especially beyond initial activation at the time of installation. If I remember correctly, the id folks intentionally removed DRM once they'd sold enough copies of their software, and actually credited piracy with increasing the popularity of their games to the point that they became a known force...
I guess I look at piracy differently. Sure, there are some people who would have bought a product that now won't, but there are lots and lots of people who end up with pirated copies of something that never would have purchased it in the first place, or never would have purchased it at a price that the seller is willing to sell it for. One cannot count those kinds of pirates as lost sales, since there never would have been a sale. There is a third case though, where someone pirates something and exposes their associates to it, who then go out and buy it because it appeals to them.

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Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Kenja · 2012-02-03 04:52 · Score: 5, Insightful

The whole point is that they dont think they have customers. They have thieves who have been thwarted.

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"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Firehed · 2012-02-03 04:56 · Score: 3, Insightful

The procedure is reasonably accurate. Although to further minimize downtime, you dump your pre-move database while things are still running, keep the remote site up with replication, and don't write-lock it until you've switched your DNS (you've been dropping the TTL over the last couple days leading up to the move, right?) and put a static "site moving, refresh in a minute" page up on the old site. Obviously too simple for something of Facebook scale, but it worked quite well for a site with a handful of servers.
Of course, Ubi's setup for DRM servers will likely be wildly different than a bunch of web servers and a couple of DBs. I imagine a bunch of open connections with almost no data flowing over them

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How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by v1 · 2012-02-03 04:59 · Score: 2

"Switch DNS or whatever directs traffic to point at new site.
or whatever? Go learn something, then try to participate in the discussion.
I'm no DNS savant but I do understand how to temporarily change my records' TTL values to something like say, 5 minutes. Is that what you were referring to?

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I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Kagetsuki · 2012-02-03 05:04 · Score: 2

You realize pointing sites at a particular DNS set and using forwards to load-balance is a commonly used scheme don't you? And you do realize there are caching services that handle front end connections while the actual database servers or application servers lie behind them - you know like how Slashdot uses Varnish?
"or whatever" is about as accurate as you get unless you want to list out pages upon pages of different traffic handling schemes that only have DNS pointing at front-line servers.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by alen · 2012-02-03 05:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

this involves spending money to support games that have already been sold
the smart way is to turn off the servers
load into truck
move to new DC
unload
rack them
turn on and change configs
sure people can't play the game but the revenue is ours already. not like they can return it
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by ae1294 · 2012-02-03 05:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

It doesn't matter what mechanism Unisoft use.
The technology is available today to make the impact of this change be no longer than it takes BGP to converge on the internet if they move the IP addresses with them... or around the duration of a TTL expiry for a DNS record.
There is NO reason why it has to be any longer ..
No there is a reason. UBISOFT DOESN'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Technician · 2012-02-03 05:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

MS is guilty of this dumb move early on. Back when optical mice where the new item, I bought a MS optical mouse for a system I was building on my coffee table. In the software installation, the optical mouse driver hung up the install looking for an Internet connection to register the software. I was like WTF and returned the mouse as defective and unable to function on a stand alone system.
Not everyone who plays stand alone games are connected with an always on connection. Many locations are still on dial up. Multiple machines mean many are not connected while waiting for the phone line. Tying up the phone line for hours is not an option either.

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The truth shall set you free!
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-03 05:15 · Score: 2, Informative

If they (Ubisoft) were smart the handshake would be signing a date stamped random nuance (and probably the cd-key).
Client has Ubisoft public key, so they can verify the signature.
So, umm, if you can "build a 'bot" then go for it.
Easier to hack the client to have the the verification function always return true.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Hatta · 2012-02-03 05:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

I'm not a gamer, but I was wondering why some clever geek hasn't just fired up snort to see what their server's saying to the game, then built a 'bot that interacted in the same way with it locally.
The same thing that prevents some clever geek from just firing up snort to see what your bank's server is saying to your browser, and building a bot that interacted with it in the same way locally.
I have no idea if they've actually done it properly, but public key cryptography can be used to prevent exactly the attack you described.

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Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by idontgno · 2012-02-03 05:21 · Score: 3, Insightful

And that's a critical point. Support is not a revenue center. If they could get away with it, a large fraction of business would wash its hands and walk away.
If their own revenues (like, e-commerce servers) were at risk during this transition, you can be for damn sure that there would be a live warm cutover of a full parallel installation at the new site, with dual operations and a slow de-constitution plan at the old site for fallback purposes.
But a DRM server? Meh. I suppose we should feel grateful they're bothering to stand the things back up at all.
Which is why I don't buy single-player software which requires a live phone-home. Even Steam is pretty close to verboten, though not necessarily (since the games I'm thinking of can run without Steam authentication, at least for a while).

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Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Seq · 2012-02-03 05:26 · Score: 5, Funny
1. Install software at new site.
Maybe DRM prevents them from installing in two places?
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-- Seq
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by VGPowerlord · 2012-02-03 05:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

The problem with locking writes to the database is that all the games mentioned save their save games to Ubisoft's servers. Meaning that as soon as the DB is write locked, players are (essentially) locked out of their games.

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GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Hatta · 2012-02-03 05:46 · Score: 2

You're right. If you can modify the executable you can tear out the protection. The fellow upthread was suggesting that someone code a dummy server, which couldn't be done if they used PKI.

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Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Mr.LightFoot · 2012-02-03 05:50 · Score: 5, Interesting

I do this for a living. Migrating sites for major companies the size of FB and MS and the like. I can tell you, with a well planned execution w/database moves, loads, etc., it takes months of planning to make sure everything works well. The general plan above is accurate in terms of the basic/high-level steps. There will be outages. For a DB such as this, I'd estimate at least 1/2 a day is required but it can be several days to get all the bugs worked out post migration. DNS takes about 15-30 min to replicate to the TLD and then spread across the DNS caches out there which can take up to 24-48 hours depending on where you are located and what ISPs do. Some ISPs cache DNS for a longer than TTL so I've seen up to a week when we migrate large sites before it becomes available to end users. Mileage may vary.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Jason+Levine · 2012-02-03 05:56 · Score: 4, Insightful

It's not whether you have it or don't have it, but whether you are willing to put down money for it and whether the money you are willing to put down is what the seller is asking. Suppose you were willing to purchase Photoshop for $100 but Adobe won't sell it to you for less than $500. If you go out and pirate it, your action is not a lost sale. Absent any pirated copies of Photoshop, you wouldn't have plunked down $500 for it. Perhaps you'd have gone with Paint Shop Pro for $100 or GIMP for free, but you wouldn't have given Adobe your money. (In an odd way, your pirating could be a "lost sale" for one of Adobe's competitors, but only in the most abstract sense.) However, if you would have been willing to pay Adobe's price for Photoshop, but decided to save that cash and pirate the software instead, then your actions would validly be a lost sale.
The problem is that many content owners see pirates and think "these are all lost sales." In reality, some are lost sales and some aren't. Furthermore, some use piracy as a "trial version." If they like the pirated version, they'll pay for the non-pirated version in order to give money to the creator of the product. For these people, piracy actually increases purchases because they might not have bought the item had they not had the "trial version" via piracy.

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My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by blueg3 · 2012-02-03 05:59 · Score: 2

It cannot, it can only be used to make it more difficult. If your computer is one of the endpoints for an SSL connection, you have access to the cryptographic material necessary to decrypt the communication. (Obviously, since both the endpoint and the monitor are software running on your computer.) It's just tricky, but some traffic-capture software will decrypt SSL connections using just such techniques.
Of course, for a Web browser it's a lot easier. Take an open-source web browser and hack it to record the SSL traffic. Obviously your browser need to be able to decrypt the SSL, and you're able to modify your browser. The reason people don't bother with this is that tricking your browser into thinking that the bank is telling you "yes, you totally have a million dollars" doesn't do anything. It just displays text on your screen.
Intercepting the DRM communications, on the other hand, is more useful. Unless critical game data is provided to you during this online exchange, though, it would be easier to hack the game to not bother contacting the server in the first place.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by arkhan_jg · 2012-02-03 06:02 · Score: 2

That is how they initially cracked Assassins Creed 2; intercept the traffic, work out all the possible answers, and build a fake server that always gives the right answer. Since the request only has to go to a local port, much faster than the real server.
These days, they've learned to decode the client-side part of the DRM, so just hack the .exe so it doesn't even try to talk to the real servers any more.
Bullshit like is why I've been boycotting all ubisoft games since it came out. Between Assassin's Creed sequels and the Anno series alone, they've lost about 5 full price sales. I'm old enough and earn enough now to buy full price games when I want; what I'm not going to do is piss about wasting my time jumping through the always-on-activation hoops. So their DRM converted a prior release-day paying customer to 0 sales. Shame they don't factor that into the 'piracy is killing our business!' crap.

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Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by Hatta · 2012-02-03 06:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

You're right. But if you're going to modify the game executable it makes more sense to remove the protection entirely, than it does to reverse engineer the cryptography and reimplement the authentication server.

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Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by leonardluen · 2012-02-03 06:44 · Score: 2

and when you are in offline mode they disable certain parts of the game.
not sure about assassin's creed, but in Might and Magic: Heroes 6, they disable the "dynasties" which give your character some special weapons and powers when in online mode.
A bigger issue however is that when in offline mode you are unable to load any saved games that were played in Online mode, and if you happen to be in an online game you are immediately kicked to the main menu.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by leonardluen · 2012-02-03 06:50 · Score: 2

I also will no longer buy any ubisoft games until they give up on this DRM crap.
what finally did it for me was when their DRM servers were down over the last christmas and new years weekends when i had vacation and was unable to play the games i had bought.
i think most of their games have an "offline mode" but it cuts feature out of the game, and at least for a few of their titles titles will not allow you to load saved games that were started in online mode.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by hairyfeet · 2012-02-03 08:28 · Score: 2

I do the same friend, haven't had a Ubisoft game since either Riddick or the first far Cry, can't remember which came later. the problem with just voting with your wallet in this case is what i call "PPT Math" which they use to get ever more draconian laws. you see they'll just break out a PPT and tell the congress critters they are buying "If you see here we sold X amount on consoles, and since there is Y amount of PC gamers that play this particular genre then logically we should have had X+Y sales but since we didn't it MUST be those evil pirates stealing our precious!" and they get worse laws that fuck us ALL over.
For a great example of PPT math see the media companies who despite posting record profits year after year (while fucking the artist with Hollywood accounting so they don't have to share any with the scum that actually made the things) whip out a PPT that says "If you see here it shows they stole elevnty bazillion from us so we'd have had a super duper super cereal year if it weren't for those ebil pirates ZOMG!" and we get all these lovely laws like DMCA, ACTA, and their attempting to ram SOPA/PIPA which I'm sure they'll get after the election.
No what we need is for the EFF to set up some web pages where those of us not buying nor pirating from companies we find odious can sign so that the EFF can hand it to congress critters when these corps try to use PPT math to get us screwed. Because as it is now its a "heads i win, tails you lose" situation for these assholes.

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ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Re:I Must Be Missing Something Here by AmiMoJo · 2012-02-03 11:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

This really harms brick and mortar game shops too. I can't just go in and buy a game I like the look of any more, I have to research it online first to see if the DRM will fuck up my PC or make it too much of a hassle to bother with. And that usually means reading Amazon reviews, and since I'm there already now I might as well just order it from them too.

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const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC

You get what you pay for by argStyopa · 2012-02-03 04:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

Complaints about this will NEVER MATTER until it impacts the bottom line.

STOP BUYING UBI GAMES.

Unless and until publishers see a recognizable impact on their sales that they can attribute to repressive DRM, they won't stop.

And remember, a lot of these guys BELIEVE the bullshit line about every pirated game is a "lost sale" so the negative impact of DRM would have to be a pretty massive number.

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-Styopa

Re:You get what you pay for by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-03 04:42 · Score: 5, Funny

I WRITE random WORDS in caps SO I can YELL LOUDER for no apparent REASON
Re:You get what you pay for by RogueyWon · 2012-02-03 04:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

This is what I did - across all platforms for games whose PC release contains this particular DRM. Actually, it's been surprisingly easy. Despite consuming games at a voracious pace (see my various journal posts etc), it's been quite striking how few of the Ubisoft franchises I actually care about. There have been times I've been vaguely irritated to be missing the Assassin's Creed sequels, which do look interesting (better than the first one, which I played on PS3 before the DRM plans were known), but even there... there's no shortage of alternatives.
I did buy one game by accident which included an "always online" DRM requirement - Command & Conquer 4. It wasn't made particularly clear when you bought the thing and, with it not being an Ubisoft game, I assumed it wouldn't be pulling a stunt like that. Ultimately, though, the best form of copy protection that C&C4 had was the fact that it was so utterly shit that nobody would want to play it (and I say that as somebody who liked C&C3).
Re:You get what you pay for by i+kan+reed · 2012-02-03 04:50 · Score: 2

I already have. When I'm browsing steam these days, a EA or Ubi logo means I instantly go back and look for something better.
Re:You get what you pay for by SuricouRaven · 2012-02-03 05:05 · Score: 2

But if you do have DRM your games will *still* be pirated. I have yet to encounter even one piece of single-player DRM for games that defeated the pirates - it only takes one cracker, and their work will be all over the p2p networks in hours. Multiplayer is a different story, yes - you can use things like requiring unique serials then that really do bother the pirates - but single player? No, DRM is useless. Might buy a couple of days.
Re:You get what you pay for by sakdoctor · 2012-02-03 05:07 · Score: 5, Funny

I suffer FROM eTourettes you INSENSITIVE CLOD .
Re:You get what you pay for by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-03 05:38 · Score: 5, Informative

"Sadly, and I speak from experience, if you don't have some DRM your game will be pirated and you will make zilch."
This is simply wrong, try the humble bundle http://www.humblebundle.com/, no DRM and plenty of profit. The games which lack DRM and make no money are usually not very good or have made the Proun mistake ( the only difference between the demo and the pay version is access to a single map, not enough incentive to buy it for most people)
Re:You get what you pay for by columbus · 2012-02-03 08:04 · Score: 2

I'm not sure if I agree with you.
A couple of my old favorite games (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion & Warhammer 40,000 - Dawn of War: Dark Crusade) were sold without any DRM whatsoever and both were commercially successful. I guess Dark Crusade was more of a niche game, but Oblivion was a big hit, no 2 ways about it.
Interestingly, another sequel to Dark Crusade - Soulstorm was later published; Soulstorm included DRM and sold more poorly than its predecessor. There were other factors in play; personally, I think that Dark Crusade was a more well balanced game. But I do believe that there is not a direct correlation between DRM and increased sales.

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friends don't let friends teleport drunk
Re:You get what you pay for by toriver · 2012-02-03 09:56 · Score: 2

But your DRM will get cracked and DRM-free copies will be found on torrents. And then the only people suffering the DRM effects are the paying customers.
Good Old Games manage without DRM. Stardock manage without DRM. Plenty of others, too. Piracy is a fact of life, try instead to make it as interesting as possible to buy it. The pirates are not your customers anyway.

I just... by trunicated · 2012-02-03 04:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

There's just so much wrong with this... it's amazing...

They're locking users out of game they have paid for
They're unable to move a set of servers without preventing downtime for customer facing attributes
They're completely oblivious to the reasons why these are bad things

It just leaves me completely flabbergasted. I can't imagine this entire process coming to this point without someone, somewhere in the decision process saying "Who gives a shit what they think? Just do whatever's cheapest right now"

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There's a reason there is no "Disagree" mod...

Re:I just... by Rary · 2012-02-03 06:09 · Score: 5, Interesting

You're missing the best part. They're creating a period of time during which the only people in the world who can play the game are the pirates.

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"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
Re:I just... by SuperTechnoNerd · 2012-02-03 07:38 · Score: 2

Yes, but if they have that much control over your product, why would they care? They already got your money.. They know they got you by the balls and that you will wait happily for the servers to come back on line. They know you have no choice.

Total FAIL by NeutronCowboy · 2012-02-03 04:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

Failure in implementation of DRM, failure in how to build the DR portion of the datacenter, failure on how to do the transition, failure on how to provide some measure of compensation for intentionally breaking your customers' games.

Hello Ubisoft. Meet Sony. They'll show you around my shitlist.

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Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.

Yarr! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-03 04:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

I don't understand. I seem to be unaffected by this.

Now, on t' more pressin' matters. Where did I put that bottle o' rum?

Reward the pirates by MetalliQaZ · 2012-02-03 04:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Since their DRM is ineffective at actually stopping pirates, here we have the perfect example of "defective by design". Anybody with a DRM-cracked pirated version will not have any disruption. Nice job, Ubi.

I get heated over this kind of thing every time I pop in a DVD from Netflix. They send you discs without any special features that are loaded with up to 15 minutes of unskippable advertisements and previews. If I had just downloaded the move, I could jump right in. I am willing to pay, but I see nothing but disincentives to do so! Fools.

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"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"

Re:Reward the pirates by Chris+Burke · 2012-02-03 04:56 · Score: 4, Interesting

I get heated over this kind of thing every time I pop in a DVD from Netflix. They send you discs without any special features that are loaded with up to 15 minutes of unskippable advertisements and previews. If I had just downloaded the move, I could jump right in. I am willing to pay, but I see nothing but disincentives to do so! Fools.
If you popped the DVD into a Linux system and used one of the Linux players, then you could skip all of that stuff since they ignore the "unskippable" bit.
It's still illegal, since it depends on the DeCSS code for breaking the encryption (fuck you DMCA). Morally, though, it's perfectly fine.
Does Netflix streaming service do that? I have only limited experience with it, when a friend used his account to stream movies to the Wii that another friend had brought, and I don't recall any ads unskippable or otherwise.

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The enemies of Democracy are
Re:Reward the pirates by Technician · 2012-02-03 05:20 · Score: 2

They send you discs without any special features that are loaded with up to 15 minutes of unskippable advertisements and previews.
Have you tried playing it on GeexBox? I use that for any DVD with a malfunction in the menu.
I put the movie in and it plays.. What a concept. If I want a menu and extras, I can bring up the menu.
Needless to say, it isn't blessed by the DVD consortium.

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The truth shall set you free!
Re:Reward the pirates by KhabaLox · 2012-02-03 05:47 · Score: 2

I use Netflix Streaming several hours a week. My kids use it even more. There are no ads, no unskippable bits, and no bonus material. On some titles there is a distributor logo at the head (5 seconds), but that's it. We use it mostly to watch recent television series that we missed (e.g. Arrested Development, Breaking Bad for my wife and I, Power Rangers, Fireman Sam for the kids). Occasionally we'll find a movie we want to watch, but the selection is . . . eclectic, to put it kindly. And sometimes the licensing deal expires when you're halfway through a series, which is annoying.
Best of all, it's convenient. It's fairly quick to start up on my Sony IPTV and my Roku - probably 30-45 seconds from the time the tv is turned on to when the show starts queueing the stream, and about another 10-20 seconds to start the stream.
Very occasionally we get "content errors" and it doesn't play, but repeated tries will work after about 5 minutes. I've also seen a message 2 or 3 times telling me that I'm streaming on another device, and our account is only allowed one simultaneous stream, but most of the time one kid is watching on the iPad, the other on the TV, and we don't have problems.
However, there are times where I suspect Time Warner is throttling my internet connection, but that's probably just paranoia from hanging out on /. too much.
Overall, I give Netflix streaming a big thumbs up. Cheapest (legal) video entertainment around.

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Ceci n'est pas un sig.
Re:Reward the pirates by Tom · 2012-02-03 08:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's still illegal, since it depends on the DeCSS code for breaking the encryption
I host it on my site till this day, despite being a named defender in the DVDCCA case. They served me papers, but they never served me an order to take it down.
No, it's not as easy as that. We've had three court cases around DeCSS. The one in Norway was dropped, DVDCCA vs. The Internet was decided in our favour and Universal vs. Reimers was decided against us.

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Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org

Poor System Architecture by ackthpt · 2012-02-03 04:43 · Score: 3, Funny

This is news?

Next thing you'll be telling us Credit Suisse has bad data ...

oh, wait.

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar

Far Cry 3 by headkase · 2012-02-03 04:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

I really want to buy Far Cry 3. Chances are however I will not be. Because Ubisoft is no doubt going to put their "always on" DRM on it. This article is the exact reason that that is unacceptable to me. So, Ubisoft can go about all they want championing how they're "putting it to those evil pirates" (roll-eyes) but in the mean-time they are losing out on me, yes, the person who wants the game but isn't going to submit to their idiocy. So, I lose because: no executive with a testosterone problem is going to back-off and admit he has shit for brains. And the cycle continues.

And as Gabe Newell so succinctly put it: Piracy is a Service Problem. So what's Ubisoft doing? Creating more value in the pirated versions. Way to go guys, golf-clap.

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Shh.

Re:Far Cry 3 by Ihmhi · 2012-02-03 04:51 · Score: 3, Interesting

Buy it used and then crack it? You get the game, Ubi doesn't get a new sale, and you don't have to deal with the DRM.

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Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Re:Far Cry 3 by headkase · 2012-02-03 05:08 · Score: 3, Interesting

It's not a case of "damage to be routed around": unless the unthinkable happens and Ubisoft does a 180 I'm not buying it in any way, shape, or manner - or going to pirate it either. I have plenty else to play and I don't want to have anything to do it until they smarten-up.

Put it another way: the extreme Ubisoft is taking makes me feel dirty by having anything to do with it so I won't.

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Shh.

Re:Stop buying their games and enabling them by ackthpt · 2012-02-03 04:45 · Score: 2

You can

Right.

The next time I get a pile of their games with some piece of video hardware, motherboard, USB cable, guitar pick, can of condensed chicken fat or sack of kitty litter, I'll not install it.

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar

Dont worry. Ubisoft has great technical support by unity100 · 2012-02-03 04:46 · Score: 5, Funny

that fixes those things before they become an issue. they even have their own trendy name :

razor1911

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DRM works by sakdoctor · 2012-02-03 04:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

First I stopped buying.
Then I stopped pirating.
Then I stopped caring.

Re:DRM works by couchslug · 2012-02-03 09:31 · Score: 2

"First I stopped buying.
Then I stopped pirating.
Then I stopped caring."
Sounds like my Windows experience...

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"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."

"Delivering better uptime"? by daveewart · 2012-02-03 04:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

You can "deliver better uptime" by not using DRM in the first place. Voila, 100% 'uptime' with no infrastructure required.

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"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe

You wouldn't steal... by SJHillman · 2012-02-03 04:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

You wouldn't buy a new car that you had to call the dealer for permission every time you wanted to go for a drive.

You wouldn't buy a handbag that you had to ask the clerk to open for you every time you wanted to take money out.

You wouldn't buy a TV if you had to wait for permission from Time Warner just to watch the commercials.

So why buy DRM?

Brought to you by the Media Consumer Association of America.

Re:You wouldn't steal... by mhajicek · 2012-02-03 05:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

And they wonder why I won't buy Diablo III.
Re:You wouldn't steal... by SJHillman · 2012-02-03 05:31 · Score: 2

I didn't realize you had to call OnStar every time you started your car. You may be doing it wrong.
Your credit card analogy is flawed. First, credit cards are you borrowing someone else's money. Second, debit cards are you accessing your money being held elsewhere. To make it fit the DRM analogy would be needing to swipe your debit card to use money in your wallet... the game is installed locally so you're not using remote content but you still need to check against a remote server.
Non-skippable ads are a far cry from your DVD player calling a server halfway across the country to let you watch a movie. This is a much more acceptable form of DRM than the product crippling DRM Ubisoft requires.
Re:You wouldn't steal... by spauldo · 2012-02-03 07:09 · Score: 2

I completely agree with the first two points of your post. The only DRM car analogies I know are the devices that can shut your car off for nonpayment (some used dealers install these) and the device that tests your blood alcohol level before the car can start. Both of these are (in my opinion) good uses of DRM.
DVDs are another story entirely. Non-skippable ads are annoying. I don't find them acceptable. It's not DRM though - sure, any licensed DVD program is supposed to enforce it, but it's not preventing you from accessing material.
Region coding and disc encryption are DRM, and rather nasty. Sure, thanks to DVD Jon and his associates we can bypass the encryption (although not legally), but any licensed DVD device is required to enforce the region coding. Only a firmware hack can get around it.
I remember back when DeCSS first came out, and what they did to the poor boy who released it. It was a classic case of money makes right. Cooler heads prevailed eventually.
I used to buy VHS tapes all the time. I've only ever bought one DVD, and it was only because my desire to support the artist outweighed my desire to boycott the DVD consortium (Weird Al rereleased UHF due to fan demand, and probably at a loss, so I figured I'd make an exception since it was a DVD-only release). I doubt I'll buy another one. I haven't even looked at Blue-Ray (because FUCK SONY) but I don't think I'll be buying any of those either.

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Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
Re:You wouldn't steal... by nahdude812 · 2012-02-03 07:31 · Score: 2

The problem with using physical world analogies for software piracy is that the former depletes the available item supply, while the latter does not. Stealing a $60 physical good hurts the creator of that good FAR more than stealing a $60 virtual good. To the point that the cost of the former is the opportunity cost against the thief, plus the opportunity cost against the customer who would have bought it, plus the material cost, plus the distribution cost, which can collectively come pretty close to the overall cost of the good. The cost of the latter is exclusively the opportunity cost against the pirate, who very likely would never have bought the product either way. Trying to make analogies between piracy and theft is like trying to claim a public drinking water fountain is stealing from bottled water distributors.
I get that software companies, being companies, need to make a profit to exist, and that they tend to feel like each pirated copy is a lost sale like it would be in the physical world where they can only produce so many copies, most of which they eventually sell. It's really not the same in the software space though. Trying to create this sort of scarcity artificially (the goal of all DRM) only hurts their customers. Meanwhile every major DRM-laden software release has a pirated version available anyway, usually within only a few days. Those who wish to pirate still pirate away. Those who wish to pay for the product get something less functional than the free version they could have downloaded. I have previously purchased games, then downloaded them anyway because the DRM interfered with my ability to use what I bought.

you might start seeing cars that needed "permission" to be driven
Funny, it seems like I recall my car possessing some kind of permission enabling device that doesn't involve asking the dealer every time I start it up. I wish I keyould remember what it was keyalled. It also doesn't come with some kind of limit as to how many people are allowed to drive my car, or try to violate first-sale doctrine by preventing me from selling it to someone else when I'm done with it.

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Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Re:You wouldn't steal... by spauldo · 2012-02-03 07:38 · Score: 2

If every time someone saw an unattended car they would just jump in an drive away you might start seeing cars that needed "permission" to be driven in such a restrictive manner as it would be like calling the dealer or the manufacturer for permission.
Um, they have those. They're called "keys". They're given to the guy who buys the car. After that, the dealer no longer has any say, and the owner has complete control over who can operate the vehicle.
Similarly, if every time someone saw a purse they thought "JACKPOT" and ran over to grab it, it might be nice if they were locked and needed permission to be opened. Think of high-security buildings where you get let in to a man-trap where you identify yourself and ask to be let in. If you aren't authorized the outside door opens and the police take you away.
What?
Purses already need permission to be opened. It's a legal question. Seriously, you want a situation where you someone needs to get 3rd party authorization to open a purse, or they'll be immobilized and apprehended? How many tazed grandmothers do you think it will take before that idea goes out the window?
So we have software that everyone seems to want but only a few (usually around 5%) are willing to pay for. The solution seems to be to just take it, don't pay and so what... If you have a software product that has 100,000 users then anything you can do to change that 5% number to 6% is a huge win. It can mean someone's job.
I seriously doubt your numbers. The concept though, sure - increasing the number of paying customers increases profit.
Some kinds of disc copy protection do this. Requiring the CD to be in the machine is one of those. Requiring an install key is another. This will keep people from just copying the game and handing it around to all their friends.
Anything harsher than this does the opposite. The same people that will pirate a NoCD hacked game will also pirate a game that bypasses the DRM. You gain none of those customers. You lose legitimate customers because your DRM interferes with their ability to play the game they paid for. "I can't play C&C4 (or whatever) because dad's on the phone and we're on dialup" is the type of behavior that breeds the next generation of pirates.
Also, never forget that a pirated copy does not equal a lost sale. I've downloaded NoCD cracks for many games I've purchased legally, and many other do the same. Someone who is pirating a game because they can't afford it isn't going to buy the game anyway.
The problem with software today is in many places pirated software (not paid for) vastly exceeds the paid-for kind. If an individual who dedicates his time to putting out free software, that is probably OK. When a company has employees that are getting their jobs cut because of lack of income, well, I suppose if you asked those employees they wouldn't say piracy was just fine. Now, if the publisher has accepted this and decided that their products are free (to pirate) but they will be compensated by ads it is fine - until of course the pirates also disable those nasty ads.
You confuse free software with pirated software. They're not, in any way, shape, or form, the same thing.
People will be much less likely to seek out a pirated ad-free version of a game than they will a drm-free version of a game. Sure, some people probably will, but most will just put up with the ads, unless they're so intrusive as to make the game unplayable.
In many cases the point is to remove revenue from digital goods - see, they're free to make so they should be free to take, right? Except that isn't how the world of the 1900s works and many of us are stuck using this completely outmoded concept called "money". Thet want it at the grocery store, they want it at the gas station and there doesn't seem to be any way out of it. Maybe when the rest of the world catches up to the 21st Century we can get rid of money completely. Until then, my e

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Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by ackthpt · 2012-02-03 04:52 · Score: 5, Funny

How does this make you feel?

Is this Eliza?

>

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar

Might & Magic 6 - seriously failgame by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-03 04:54 · Score: 4, Interesting

* The single-player campaign is available in both online and offline mode (of course! Anything else would be outrageous!)
* However, if you ever lose connection in online mode, you're kicked out.
* Oh, and did I mention that in this overhead map strategy game, where a single map usually takes hours, campaign saves from "offline mode" are not compatible with "online mode" and you must effectively restart the game? LOL YOU CAN OF COURSE PLAY OFFLINE AT ANY TIM.. no, gtfo.
* And that a core component of the campaign mode are "Dynasty Items", "Dynasty Heroes" and "Dynasty Bonuses" which are unlocked during campaign mode and become persistent across games - except that they only work in online mode?
* So the story will make frequent references to wielding the Sword of Legendary Dragonslaying except that you have no such thing in your inventory and will never have it or any other uber-item because you decided like a chump to start in offline mode in case you were worried about losing connection while playing.

And that's aside from any other of the numerous gameplay issues and servers being down. A lobotomy of a game.

No worries by mwvdlee · 2012-02-03 04:56 · Score: 3, Interesting

No worries; I'm sure there's a downloadable bugfix to repair these broken games.
Assuming your country hasn't blocked those websites yet.

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Small Claims Court by i8a4re · 2012-02-03 05:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

Everyone who can't play a game during this move should take Ubisoft to small claims court. Lawyers are not allowed in small claims court, so this is an advantage for you. Just claim the value of the game as damages and the cost to file the claim. If Ubisoft doesn't make an appearance, you win by default. If they show up and you lose, you still caused them to lose far more money than they got from you for buying their game. If you win and they fail to pay your claim, you can put a lien on them or have an equivalent value of their property seized.

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If I drive fast enough at the red light, it'll appear green.

Re:Small Claims Court by subreality · 2012-02-03 11:42 · Score: 2

Assuming the clickwrap license is a valid contract, maybe.
But they would still have to waste time showing up in court to make that argument. You lose filing fees, they lose a plane ticket and wasting some executive's time.
It's kind of exploiting the legal system, but hey, I'm tired of being on the sucking end of that arrangement. Letting them swallow for a turn would feel nice.

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by stanlyb · 2012-02-03 05:05 · Score: 4, Funny

Gooooooood, especially when i look and i dont see any Ubisoft games on my shelf.

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by mcgrew · 2012-02-03 05:09 · Score: 4, Interesting

How does this make you feel?

Smug. DRM is why I stopped buying computer games a long time ago (I do miss the gaming scene sometimes). Yes, piracy costs sales -- they say DRM is for piracy, and DRM has cost them hundreds of dollars they would have gotten from me had they not treated me like the thieves they are. I'm sure I'm not the only one who refuses to buy anything that has less functionality than if I'd pirated it.

Stupid, stupid corporations.

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Free Martian Whores!

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by idontgno · 2012-02-03 05:09 · Score: 3, Funny

Meta-x psychoanalyze-slashdotter

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Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by durrr · 2012-02-03 05:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

I hope someone ambushes the convoy and destroys their servers. The backlash from "lol sorry your DRM games are broken forever" would be the most hilarious ever in the history of DRM.

Pirate version still working of course by Tridus · 2012-02-03 05:22 · Score: 2

You have to wonder what special kind of fail Ubi management is when they've failed to notice that they're breaking their own product for their actual customers while the pirate edition continues to function perfectly well.

I mean, even your average MBA isn't this stupid. These guys must be top of their class.

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-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by TheCycoONE · 2012-02-03 05:37 · Score: 5, Informative

I buy from gog.com since they seem to be actively targeting the anti-DRM crowd. Of course most of the computer games are quite old - still I didn't own all the good ones when they were new.

Anti Consumer by poly_pusher · 2012-02-03 05:58 · Score: 3, Interesting

This really is getting ridiculous. I buy an obscene amount of games. Partly because I want to help support artists and creators like myself. That rationale is starting to wear thin for me now.

For instance, I bought Arkham City, an absolutely amazing game. One of the best I've played in years. I got 89% through the whole game "2nd play through, 440 riddler trophies, most of the challenges, all sidequests," Then there was a problem with my internet connection, entire neighborhood went down. After I got my internet back I started Arkham City up again and oh look, my save files disappeared. The reason it disappeared is DRM. Saves are managed by Windows Live and encrypted to be specific to your system. They were trying to keep people from cheating and instead they've ended up punishing people who play their games.

Why do they persist in this? by Control-Z · 2012-02-03 06:00 · Score: 2

I can maybe understand some sort of DRM for the first year or two a game is out. But I've never even heard of half these games. How long are they going to hold these gamers hostage?

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-03 06:05 · Score: 5, Informative

DRM is not for piracy, regardless what they say. Because guess what... piracy can usually find it's way around DRM. DRM is for the used game market, they simply don't want you to sell back the game you bought from them. That's the real goal of DRM.

But yes, they do say it's for piracy, and the side effect is that they treat all normal players as if they were pirates, while the real pirates work around the DRM and play it anyway.

Re:Tempest in a teacup by ledow · 2012-02-03 06:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

So what you're saying is that Ubisoft don't already have a hot-backup to these database that is customer- and business-critical and needs to be up 24/7? They don't have a testing regime with a live copy of the dataset to test against? They couldn't have performed the migration piecemeal? They couldn't have done the migration in the background while the main servers take the brunt of the traffic and then - when and only when it was tested and working - started the background database serving queries instead?

Don't talk shit. This is a large system - millions of customers, always on, etc.etc. It's cost millions of dollars. If you need to take it down for more than a day (especially for PLANNED maintenance), it means you didn't implement it properly, don't test it properly, didn't even spec it properly, don't manage it properly and don't care about your customers. This is why redundant systems exist - for exactly these sorts of systems.

Do maintenance by all means, but taking it OFFLINE to do so with no backup system? That's just shoddy whether you're migrating a handful of MySQL instances or the back end of a large bank.

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by jd2112 · 2012-02-03 07:30 · Score: 5, Informative

Best practices would be to stand up a new server and then transfer the data. If done right downtime would be measured in seconds. But no that would cost more money. Lets instead make the games legitimately purchased by our customers unplayable durrng the move. Once again the legitimate customer is punished while the pirate is unaffected. Chances are some exec thinks that if they can't get the server back online everyone will simply repurchase thier games when they get a new DRM server online.

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Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Re:They need it before you can start playing by ZeroSumHappiness · 2012-02-03 07:50 · Score: 2

The basic Steam DRM (not the games that have additional DRM such as SecuROM) is unintrusive (it doesn't do any crazy driver stuff or rootkitting) and has a very simple go-offline mode. (Yes, that does have to be activated while online but it's easy to do and works for all your games that support it.) Also, in the event of Valve going under only one system, Steam, has to be patched to get rid of the DRM, not every individual game.

Is Steam DRM still DRM? Yes. It is, however, nearly invisible and only rarely causes any issue unlike most other DRM schemes. Also, I find that the value of the Steam ecology is worth more to me than the negative value of the Steam DRM. You may not. The "quality" of Ubisoft games, however, are not worth the negative value of the absurd Ubisoft DRM.

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by MogNuts · 2012-02-03 08:06 · Score: 3, Interesting

You should get back into gaming. I think most people forget that there are SO many games out now that one doesn't have to waste 1 second on a game that is bad, has bad DRM (Ubi), etc. I have so many games picked up on a whim that the next 20 years are set for me. And that's after I go through my library and find a stinker and move on to the next. I haven't played 75% of my collection yet.

Try something different. Always play the same genre? Play something new.

Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by hairyfeet · 2012-02-03 08:11 · Score: 2

And yet again the pirated version is the superior version. Is it any wonder why we get PC gamers posting rants when they get fucked out of their money? Personally all i use anymore is Steam and GOG and if a game says it uses third party anything its buh bye, no thanks. BTW if any Steam guys are reading this? you REALLY need an icon so when I'm looking at a long list of games, like during one of your sales, i can see which are only Steam and which have extra crap. And before anybody says 'ZOMG Steam IS DRM" yeah yeah to serve man is a cookbook. Steam DRM is also the most trivial to bypass there is, the net is full of Steam hacks, so if Valve ever goes under it won't take me 3 minutes to have my games hacked.

But I think we need a new tag for douchebag DRM, probably called "Hey its Ubisoft" as when it comes to treating customers like shit and giving them the finger while they take their money NOBODY innovates like Ubisoft, they are at the absolute bleeding edge when it comes to active douchebaggery, from DRM that burned drives to always on crap that we see gives them a way to give everyone who was stupid enough to buy from them an electronic Goatse, nobody but nobody leads in the area of digital douchebag behavior like Ubisoft, nobody.

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Re:Thanks to DRM, I stole your FIRST POST by jackbird · 2012-02-03 08:38 · Score: 2

I dunno, I'd have to put the incident where Interplay(?) reverse-pirated the scene crack of their game for their official DRM-removal patch above that.

Re:They need it before you can start playing by dissy · 2012-02-03 12:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

I don't get why people who normally hate DRM see Steam as acceptable.

That one is easy!
People who hate DRM do not buy Steam games. At all.

Most people do not hate DRM specifically, what they hate is not being able to play a game they paid money for. If DRM is the thing stopping you from playing it, then DRM is the cause of the problem. If it is another thing stopping you, then the other thing is the cause of the problem.
In this sense, Steam has never been a problem, as this doesn't happen.

Will that remain so for all of eternity? I can't say, and don't know. But they have so far given me no reason to think otherwise.
If they ever do change to more restrictive DRM, I will simply krack what games I do have and never make another purchase from them again.
They are fully aware of this, and don't want to lose me and others like me as a customer, so they have plenty of reason NOT to make such a change, and exactly zero reason to do so.

I'll even give you my latest example. Skyrim, the all new hotness of RPGs. I bought mine off Steam.

I can either run the SkyrimLauncher.exe that the shortcut points to (As does the Steam submenu item) and access the steam community while playing.
OR
I can launch TESV.exe in the same directory, and bypass everything steam related.

In fact I have mods installed, one of which is a scripting extender (SKSE for those curious), which is a wrapper around TESV.exe.
I do not have default-allow rules for any executable in that folder, my firewall asks me each time. It has never done this in three months. In fact a week from tomorrow will be exactly three months to the day. There is no checking in, there is no verification, no Internet needed.

Obviously I needed connectivity to download the thing, and it was activated and registered with them then for updates.
It won't be connecting to Steam again until the next major 1.4 patch is released, and only then because I want the update.

Other than multiplayer only games, which obviously must be online to even use, Steam does not prevent you from running games you buy.
And that is what most of us hate. Most don't hate DRM because it is DRM. We hate DRM when it prevents us from using what we purchased.

Ubisoft is a different ballpark all together, as this article shows.
I don't mind activating or registering a game after downloading it. I'm clearly already online, so it's not a problem. If the company doesn't bug me after the purchase, then there is no problem.

Some people are far extreams. Either they hate all DRM with a passion and avoid all DRM.. Or they could care less and buy whatever has the most pretty graphic on the box.
But I believe most people are more in the middle, and would agree with me on this.

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Thanks to DRM, Some Ubisoft Games Won't Work Next Week

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