You did realise i said i'm in aus right ? Its the second america atm so laws are pretty similar, What i was trying to say (unsuccesfully) was that the these companies don't use common sense when dealing with consumers throughout the world. They are enforcing americas laws in other countries which is unethical, which leads me to blieve that they only care about the bottom line and not the product they are pushing.

Glad to see they have changed their decision.

What is happening is that finally gamers are taking the initiative and saying "No, I will NOT buy this product if it has THAT copy-protection".

I personally have not bought any game with Starforce on it for over 2 years now, even though I wanted the games that had it on (Freedom Force Vs. 3rd Reich, Silent Hunter 2).

This is the most powerful form of protest there is, and can change the policies of companies. After all, if you are not going to buy their product because it has X copy protection on it, there is little they can do except change it or lose sales.

The irony of this is that people who badly want the game and would have legally paid for it, but didn't want the copy-protection will probably get the pirate CP-free version.


In ending:


This is designed to reduce piracy. Insane and hilarious.
I've never heard a more deluded and ludicrous statement.

Such a bad system and policy would wave a FLAG in front of crackers to break this CP.

The most complex and invasive CP systems, along with strict and user-unfriendly company policy on CP is exactly what attracts the best crackers around to break the CP.

This system would be cracked within weeks or even days.



No, that award goes to Pace Interlock (read whole article):

http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid/109/EntryID/134/Default.aspx

Responsible copy protection is:

1. Unintrusive. Copy protection schemes that employ invasive procedures are irresponsible.

2. Interoperable. Copy protection schemes that are not compatible with standard operating systems or other common applications should be avoided.

3. Stable. Copy protection must not jeopardize the stability of the operating platform or application software.

4. Cost-effective. If a company spends all of its time supporting the copy protection, then it is quite conceivable that the cost to support the copy protection will quickly exceed the cost of piracy.

5. Available. Copy-protection that requires the user to have their software "turned on" by the vendor leaves them exposed to prolonged periods of downtime.

6. Effective! At the end of the day, if people are still stealing the software, then what was the point?


Pace Interlock fails miserably on all six counts.

That occurred to me too, but judging from the first days of Derek French's responses in the Mass Effect forums, I don't think it's likely.

7. Not existent. Because not a single CP has been able to fulfill requirement 6. Ever.

Agreed.
Which is exactly why GC2 copy protection works-It has none and it still sells. Amazingly sells:

Link to topic

Well, the retail version of GC2 has no protection. But the updated version of GC2 (since 1.1) requires a one time activation per windows install.

this is such a load of crap every time i move i may not have internet for a couple months. Im extremely close to just swearing off all EA P.C. products. Because of the piracy software they use i cant run either of the B.F.M.E. which i legally bought. This is going to kill EA.

Good thoughts, you may well be right.

Its just the sort of dirty politics that goes on in many Corporates, and why I will never work for one again. Some people dont mind that kind of Culture, for me its a big Turn Off.

Regards
Zy

It'll last a week tops before the pirates find a way around it. Not that it matters because securom is not coming anywhere near my pc.

I'm betting that it'll be cracked within 24 hours actually..... hmmm... wasn't Supreme Commander's SecuROM (before GPG/THQ removed it) cracked before they even released it?

The Ray Muzyka PCG interview was so full of bullcrap and spin I thought I was in the sphincter of a bovine in a centrifuge.

I really... REALLY want to support Will Wright in his endeavour to make the world a better place through his innovative game, but I cannot, will not support Sony DADC in their insane attempts to infiltrate my system in the pursuit of Digital Rights Management.

Incidentally, I did some research and found out that DRM systems like SecuROM might actually be violating Canadian privacy laws, specifically PIPEDA, (Privacy Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act).

The article I found is here. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137404-c,mp3players/article.html

This part makes me laugh though...

"The focus of the DRM system is to encrypt a piece of media, manage the licence key, profile to that licence, and deliver it -- that's it," Levy said. "It's unfortunate that consumers have been misled by a lot of vocal critics because the truth is DRM is no more evil than the lock and key that's on your door, the alarm on your car, or the authentication system in your cell phone."

Partially wrong analogy. DRM is no more evil than the lock and key on your door, except the control of that key does not belong to you, but to the door manufacturer, and they decide when and where tolet you in.

Ok, I agree with you for the most part, but putting absurd copy protection allegations souly on American companies is inaccurate at best. Take Earth 2160 by the European company Reality Pump. Alot of people had issues activating their copy because they were forced to "phone in" with their serial code upon install and many times the activation system itself didnt work. It was an unnecessary system because the hackers cracked the game (it was a European port released several months before the American version came out so there were many versions to pirate) and the legitimate customers got the shaft. And this is one of several Euro produced games that have attrocious protections that really do nothing more then ruin the products for the legitimate customers.

But my point is simply that American companies arent the only ones with shady business practices. Just look at Nintendos history of business. Look at how Sony deals with their customers (SOE anyone?). Granted these companies have branches in the US, but they are both based in Japan. Any they all alienate (or alienated) their customers so that they can fulfill this misguided preconception that "its not that THEIR product is bad, its the pirates!" that are infringing on their profits.

Anyway, towards pirates. If you cant or wont purchase a product, then dont use it. Simple as that. Get these corporate monkeys off our backs. That will send a clearer message toward the heart of the big businesses that you inadvertently want to cripple. Then all they are doing is hurting themselves.

I should add that SecuROM IS in fact a Sony product. And Sony pushes their products aggressively upon many customers whether they know it or not.

From Bioware forums (sorry if it's already been posted, I didn't have time to read all 11 pages and stopped half way through):

There has been a lot of discussion in the past week on how the security requirements for Mass Effect for PC will work. BioWare, a division of EA, wants to let fans know that Mass Effect will not require 10- day periodic re-authentication

(this is a revision to their original statement of the copy protection which had a 10-day constant re-authentication system built in)

I just hope the same is true with Spore. The 3 times limit on installation/activation sure is a pain, but at least it's not as crazy as before - with the old system it seemed like they were trying to force customers to run pirate copies of the game by making the legal one such a nightmare to use!

Yes it's been posted here, and yes the 10-day phone home has also been removed from Spore.

-HM

Just got off the BioWagon.

I did some digging around and found about 7 threads on Bioware's forum (the longest being 123 pages) regarding DRM and SecuROM concerns, all of which were rediverted to new threads, and locked down. The new threads even now are being locked down due to a "10 page limit" on threads.

It seems the dogs of war at Bioware are trying to censor some of it's fans in order to Bring Down The Hype, of MEPC going "gold" (see what I did there?).