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The Dark Side of Digital Distribution

Posted by Soulskill on from the careful-not-to-lose-your-right-hand dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Game journalist Stuart Campbell has written an incisive piece on how the digital distribution model users have grown to know and love over the past several years still has some major problems that go beyond even the DRM dilemma. He provides an example of an app developer using very shady update techniques to screw over people who have legitimately purchased their app. Touch Racing Nitro, a retro racing game, launched to moderate success. After tinkering with price points to get the game to show up on the top download charts, the developers finally made it free for a period of four months. 'Then the sting came along. About a week ago (at time of writing), the game received an "update," which came with just four words of description – "Now Touch Racing Free!" As the game was already free, users could have been forgiven for thinking this wasn't much of a change. But in fact, the app thousands of them had paid up to £5 for had effectively just been stolen. Two of the game's three racing modes were now locked away behind IAP paywalls, and the entire game was disfigured with ruinous in-game advertising, which required yet another payment to remove.'"

9 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Beyond the DRM dilemma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So what s the DRM dilemma? Whether to just not buy DRM products or whether to burn down the houses of those who make them?

    1. Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma by petermgreen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In the old days if an upgrade removed functionality it was annoying but you could always reinstall from your original media and not install the updates (or install an older update since in the old days most devs made standalone update installers available) but with online activation and/or digital distribution systems that may no longer be an option.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    2. Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Here is how it is different.

      I sell you a book, car, TV, shirt, power drill. You pay a fair price for it.

      Then with an update, I remove your book from your reader, limit your car to driving 30mph, your TV to only working with bluray content so you can't use your DVD's any more, remove the pocket from your shirt, and limit your power drill to using phillips head bits so you have to buy a nother drill for star, hex, and flat head bits.

      You can't do those things. But with digitial updates, not only can you do it, it is happening already.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    3. Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Aaaannnnd welcome to the licensing model, which allows for legal theft.

      Everything you mentioned above is an actual product, not a license to use the product....which nobody in their right mind would buy if they had a real alternative.

      The problem is all of our new devices are being treated as if they are still ideas that need licensing, as if they never made it though a production line(ereaders, cell phones, etc), and somehow are different from any other tool you can buy. I realize they are more complicated tools, but tools nonetheless.

      This isn't a problem with digital distribution, this is a problem with a lack of integrity, and a willingness to force others to suffer your bad ideas for your own profit. In any REAL free market, this shit would never fly. But we live in America, where an actual free market is as elusive as the Dodo.

      It's a sad day for justice and equality when a guy who steals a small ticket item will see jail time, meanwhile these asshats who steal en masse will go without so much as a visit to the local police station.

  2. Users respond with poor ratings by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In response to the underhanded update, users take to the ratings system with a vengeance and downmod the developer into oblivion. Thus, the app ecosystem sees shady behavior as 'damage' and 'routes' around it.

    --
    "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
  3. Similar things have happened before... by Cinder6 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A couple years back (or maybe just a year), an "update" came out for WipEout HD on the PS3. The game cost $15 to buy, but the update added video advertisements to the loading screens of each race. Aside from being annoying, they drastically increased load times in order to force you to actually watch the ad. While not as bad as actually crippling the game as in this case, that event really soured me to the concept of digital distribution.

    Really, the only company I trust with digital distribution these days is GOG, who don't use DRM in any of their games. Yeah, they pulled that weird "shutdown" stunt a while back, but to my mind it only proved their value--nobody was unable to play their games during the outage (except for those few people who hadn't gotten around to downloading them yet).

    --
    If you can't convince them, convict them.
  4. Re:sony all over again.. by poena.dare · · Score: 5, Informative

    On December 8, 2011, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed the last remaining count of the class action lawsuit, stating: "As a legal matter, [..] plaintiffs have failed to allege facts or articulate a theory on which Sony may be held liable." He then removed massive amounts of wax from his ears after the trial.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS

    Once again, I am in the wrong damn business.

  5. No Refund Terms of Sale by dietdew7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's in the terms of sale from the article that Itunes has a no refund policy. It's also true for Barnes and Noble. I've been reluctant to purchase any apps and now that seems wise whereas before I was just being cheap.

  6. This isn't a technical issue by davidwr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is not a technical issue. This is an issue of unfair trade practices.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.