DRM, Spore, and the Piracy Conundrum

Ah hell. I hate DRM. I hate all forms of DRM. DRM = Digital Rights Management. Apparently, EA's new video game Spore is well truly DRM"d to death in its PC release. DRM has been around for many, many years now and some of it is unintrusive and some of it hoses your system. Sony used to utilize a root kit for some of their DRM needs; however, someone caught onto what they were doing... then all of the anti-DRM grognards summoned thier unholy powers and smited the evil taint of Sony's DRM root kits (that we're actually installed when you tried to play a regular CD from an artist on Sony's label)... That made Sony angry and they defended themselves under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act... they said circumventing their DRM would not stand... SUMMON THE LAWYERS!!!

Unfortunately for Sony... their DRM root kit damaged some people's computers... it was ok until some very rich dude's computer got hosed and he summoned a 35th Winged Horror (aka... a High Priced.. Experienced Law Firm that specialized Corporate Sabotage) and filed a class action lawsuit against Sony on behalf of everyone who'd been hosed by their crappy software. Sony suddenly realized how truly screwed they were because anyone who'd bought a Sony label CD could be included, and even if they fought it in court it was gonna cost a small fortune for experts to testify that Sony's CD's did no harm... so they backed off thier stance, reigned in the lawyers, and started appologizing profusely... eventually I think they may have settled the class action suit if it wasn't dismissed or hamstrung in the court systems...

Sony wasn't screwed because of the DRM but really because it installed without the user's consent. There was no terms of service agreement or license agreement that appeared when you put a Sony CD into the computer... instead the software installed suripitiously without the user having any control over it. That makes it malware and that makes it a no-no.

Ok, so what does that have to do with Spore? Well... its like this. You see when I buy a videogame for my PC I expect there to be some draconic form of DRM installed with it. I realize it is the price I pay for being a PC gamer (Console gamers are just as screwed with DRM but are oblivious to it as most of the DRM controls are built right into the consoles firmware).

My take on all these DRM schemes is that PC game publishing is a risky business. At one point PC game publishing and programming was cheap... now its a multi-million dollar (perhaps billion) dollar affair. The days of three guys in their dorm room programming a multi-player Quake clone that becomes a huge commerical success is gone. PC game designers have to hire writers, programmers, artists... the expense is astronomical... and I think PC developers and especially their publishers fear a phenomenon that I call the MP3 effect. You see the MP3 effect is what happened when people realized they were getting ass screwed sideways by major music labels charging twenty some odd dollars for CD's (which cost pennies) and turned away from legitimate music purchases and started pirating music from Napster (only noobs pirated music from Napster... the real black hatters went underground to the newsgroups and chat channels...)

Digital distribution completely fucked big music's business model. Imagine if you will a triple A title... lets say... Elder Scrolls Oblivion... now imagine that you work for a major game publisher and your well being, financial security, and life style maintenance depends on selling as many copies at retail that you possibly can. My biggest fear would be that those damn evil hackers manage to crack the games DRM before the game can hit critical mass in sales. The result in these doomsday catastrophe's is always that the game is cracked so no one buys it at retail because they can get it online from the torrents or KaZaa or Limewire... thus your company enters a cash flow black hole... spiraling slowly into the toilet of certain death.

Here is the crux of it... in my very humble opinion... people who are going to steal content are going to steal it no matter what kind of DRM is wrapped around it... for some people defeating the DRM scheme is not just a matter of principle.. its a personal challenge... in my mind game publishers punish honest customers by forcing draconic DRM down thier throats... and the pirates still pirate. Just like people who pirate music... they are going to do it no matter how many lawsuits the RIAA files... sooo...

That's what I think... don't like what I think... who fucking cares... get the fuck off my god damn blog and make your own ya fucktard... k... l8r.