DRM, Censorship, you brought it on yourselves.

[Lord Krunk]

Traversing on the forums, I?ve noticed many threads about how ?terrible? it is that some pirate sites have been banned and how game devs, music publishers and movie producers are using new methods of security to defend piracy of their games, songs and movies.

Now, I resent this. Once upon a time, people were banned from this forum for supporting Piracy and rightfully so. Piracy harms the gaming industry, and in turn harms anything related to the gaming industry, such as The Escapist. So why is it so accepted on these forums nowadays?

And yet, while Piracy causes such harm, I know for a fact that there are many people on the Escapist in support (and partake in) it, and heartily condone it. Whether this is open or not depends on the user, but the fact is that it shouldn?t be.

Now, reading from the news section, I noticed that an EA Developer had said that ?only pirates or people who don?t know what they are talking about? bash DRM. Naturally, he was bashed in the Comments section by a variety of users, mostly of the exact same description that he had stated. In the same comment, he noted that while it is a harsh measure, it is also a necessary measure, and I understand why.

These guys make the games you love to make a living. The very least you can do is actually buy the games that they make. The same applies to movies and music as well. However, some idiots, mostly hiding under the false pretenses of ?they have too much money anyway?, ?fight the power?, or some other shit like that, abuse these people by robbing them of their product. These developers have taken note of how many people steal their product, and have retaliated.

Now, if you had your car, computer, console etc. randomly stolen under a similar pretense, you would feel screwed over too. Idiot, I would just call the police, you say. Well, change the thief into a guy who steals your possession when no-one?s around, jumps the border so he won?t get caught, and a subsequent turn of events results in the lack of said item causing you to lose you job so you can?t buy a new one. Let?s say that that item was the game they are trying to sell, and no money means that they can?t create a new one. This is Piracy.

Now, if your item was stolen, and you could get yourself another one, you would want to defend it too, make sure that the only people who use it are the people you allow to. Once bitten, twice shy.
Enter DRM, a last-resort mechanism in a desperate attempt to create a failsafe security measure. Sure, it?s harsh, but it?s also fair. Plenty of people have screwed them over, and now they are showing the people the repercussions of Piracy. It?s hard to trust people, so why do it? Security will get harsher as Pirates continue to thrive, so deal with it.

So, to return to my title statement; DRM and Censorship, you brought it on yourselves. I?m asking, no, pleading that anyone who commits or supports such an act on these forums take heed to my warning, because if it doesn?t stop, the gaming industry will.

EDIT: I am including this post to cover up a loose end in my argument about why I mentioned Censorship in the first place. It's not the censorship of games, more the censorship of sites and programs used to facilitate Piracy (but not the purpose of the site/program), such as LimeWire and Youtube.

So, to return to my title statement; DRM and Censorship, you brought it on yourselves.

How is censorship part of this equation? I understand DRM and am not too bothered by it... but in what way is censorship justified by pirating?

Some threads were around a while back, saying how terrible Censorship was. In any case, the censored sites were pirate sites, and should have been censored. The issue is, they were talking about how many more sites would be censored to combat piracy, such as Youtube.

Ergo, Censorship is caused by piracy.

EDIT AGAIN: For those who don't seem to understand my message (other than the fact that Piracy is wrong), I have narrowed it down somewhat.

Whether you accept it or not, piracy is stealing and cuts off much-deserved revenue from the creators of these games. Naturally, biting the hand that feeds you will have an effect on the industry, and they will implant security measures to stop people from doing it again.
Naturally, the underworld is unrelenting and insidious, and will worm its way through these security measures, rendering them useless against them, but a harsh backstab on the part of the honest gamers.
As piracy continues to thrive, security measures will become tougher and more ludicrous, until the consumers will turn away. This will result in several companies going out of business, and can even cause a repeat of the Video Game Crash of 1983 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983], depriving you, or anyone, of games. Depending on how much these pirates persist, the gaming industry may never return to its former glory.

I have also included quotes and excuses by pirates (or supporters), just to show you how stupid they are:

[li]'Piracy isn't stealing.' - Sorry to bust your bubble, but not only are you cutting them off from their much-deserved revenue, but it also breaches patent and copyright laws. Ergo, you are stealing.[/li]

[li]'I want to test the game out to see if I like it.' - Let's face it. If you're already pirating, you're not as honest as you say you are. If you don't like the game, then you may delete it. If you do, well, you will definitely fall under the next one:[/li]

[li]'Why pay for something I can (or have) gotten off the internet for free?' - This pops up a heck of a lot, and not always on the subject of video games. It's human nature to choose the cheaper option, but you're still a douche for doing it.[/li]

[li]'DRM is evil. I must fight against those money-loving morons.' - Now, I agree. DRM is evil, and does nothing against pirates (it can even strengthen their resolve, and push more people to their cause). But the excuse for bringing it about is piracy, and it will only get worse if you continue. Once again, it's human nature to defend something that's yours.[/li]

[li]'The game sucks, and every game made nowadays sucks. Why should I pay for crappy and half-assed products?' - An interesting question there, but way too biased to be a valid point. There are plenty of excellent games that have been released recently, such as Mirror's Edge, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3 etc. Now, why should you pay for the 'bad' games? Have you tried the demo? Are you a believer in the second point? Or are you just saying it to make it an excuse, without trying it? Anyway, if it's a bad game, why are you downloading it in the first place?[/li]

[li]'The industry is half-assed, and so we should be half-assed about paying for the games they make.' - How do I even describe the effort placed into the industry to make the games you play? I just can't, but I'll at least say that it takes a long time. Once again, there are plenty of great games out there, and services like Steam [www.steampowered.com] use excellent authentication methods. The industry isn't anywhere near as lazy as you think, you're half assed.[/li]

I will bring some more, but that's all of the 'justifications' I can remember. Stay tuned.

 

[sneak_copter]

So, to return to my title statement; DRM and Censorship, you brought it on yourselves. I?m asking, no, pleading that anyone who commits or supports such an act on these forums take heed to my warning, because if it doesn?t stop, the gaming industry will.

I second that

 

[zen5887]

So, to return to my title statement; DRM and Censorship, you brought it on yourselves. I?m asking, no, pleading that anyone who commits or supports such an act on these forums take heed to my warning, because if it doesn?t stop, the gaming industry will.

I second that

I included.

If piracy wasn't as bad as it is then there would be no need for DRM.

 

[jim_doki]

Its such a relief to see that I am not the only anti piracy nut here. I agree whole heartedly. yes, its a sucky measure, but its the best we have

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Ah, piracy. A prominent example of how people will do wrong if they don't have to suffer any consequences for it.

It's kind of sad that piracy is pretty much unavoidable. Your friend drives you somewhere in their car, they play a CD of pirated music. You watch a movie at their house, it's pirated as well.

 

[Fire Daemon]

I'm a console gamer through and through so DRM doesn't really exist for me. I here about how it ruins the game somehow and removes freedoms and eats your kitten blah blah blah but most of these things just seem like the newest to ***** about on the Internet. I'm willing to bet that most of the people who bitched about the Spore DRM never played the game. This anti DRM movement going about recently seems to me like an umbrella for some pirates to hide under and justify their actions. I hate how people try to act like piracy is justified and bring up EA as an example. I'm friends with a few pirates myself and all of these people use Mod Chips and Bittorent because they can't be fucked paying for the game. While I would rather that they did pay for the game at least they are honest as to why they steal games. Bitching about the evil game corporations and using that as an excuse for stealing is fucking stupid. We all know that you pirate games because you don't want to pay for them, get over yourselves.

I hate DRM complainers.

EDIT: GoW on PC though was a blunder. You have a right to ***** about that.

 

[Siegreich]

The problem is that the extreme measures that EA takes on piracy is fucking over just as many legitimate users, who then have to call in get more authentications, or can't play at all because they are not connected to the internet, also lan gaming goes out the window because now everyone who wants to play has to spend 50$ on a game they might play once at a lan party. basically for every pirate the drm try's to stop (you can still get torrents of most drm locked games), several gamers who just want to install their game on multiple computers or play on the go get screwed over, and that's the problem with drm.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Feel good about myself now as i have never ever pirated a single game!
People who make good games actually deserve my money, even though ps3 games are vey expensive..

 

[Radelaide]

So, to return to my title statement; DRM and Censorship, you brought it on yourselves. I?m asking, no, pleading that anyone who commits or supports such an act on these forums take heed to my warning, because if it doesn?t stop, the gaming industry will.

I second that

I included.

If piracy wasn't as bad as it is then there would be no need for DRM.

DRM was always going to happen. That's the sad thing.

 

[Lord Krunk]

The problem is that the extreme measures that EA takes on piracy is fucking over just as many legitimate users, who then have to call in get more authentications, or can't play at all because they are not connected to the internet, also lan gaming goes out the window because now everyone who wants to play has to spend 50$ on a game they might play once at a lan party. basically for every pirate the drm try's to stop (you can still get torrents of most drm locked games), several gamers who just want to install their game on multiple computers or play on the go get screwed over, and that's the problem with drm.

Yes, but the idea of it is just and fair.

Ah, piracy. A prominent example of how people will do wrong if they don't have to suffer any consequences for it.

It's kind of sad that piracy is pretty much unavoidable. Your friend drives you somewhere in their car, they play a CD of pirated music. You watch a movie at their house, it's pirated as well.

Well, there is hope. I mean, the anarchist movement died in the space of a decade, Piracy could do the same with a bit of help from communities.

 

[Zer_]

My god i might actually have to get my free music by listening to...RADIO!

Ding!

The movie industry was very opposed to video tape recorders. The music industry hated the tape recorders, they hate DVD writers, and they hate the open distribution of information on the web.

It's the same cycle over and over again. A new method of copying information is brought to light, people embrace it, the movie, music, and game industry does not. Eventually, the industries learn how to effectively use this new method of copying and distribution, and more people will begin to actually pay for the product again.

The issue of piracy is much like the issue of alcohol in the prohibition days. You can't prevent it. Trying to prevent it simply makes it worse, and it costs money in the wrong places.

There's a deceptively simple solution to the piracy problem, at least it's a partial solution in the sense that it is impossible to stop it altogether. Make purchasing the piece of software more appealing then downloading it illegally. Steam is a huge step in the right direction. You're providing quick and easy access to games, and (especially on pre-orders) you provide great prices. Also having a large community like World of WarCraft on official servers is a great reason to get those who play on private servers to play on official ones. Offering services that could only be made available to legitimate buyers is not hard.

Of course there will ALWAYS be those who find a way around any security measures. So far though, I haven't found a single case where someone is playing on an official World of WarCraft server without paying.

It's ironic that in general (there are exceptions) the companies that have the least restrictive DRM has the least problems with piracy. World of Goo and a few other exceptions are obviously present, though to me it seems the general trend is that more people buy software that doesn't have restrictive DRM.

 

[Dommyboy]

But there are ways to prevent this...

Step 1. Make games a ***** to pirate, put things in a CD that makes it impossible to do without at-least 3 hours of work, pirates are lazy, it should stop some of them.

Step 2. Make games massive, I mean MASSIVE I.E space-wise, you see the more massive the more tie and internet usage it takes to download. If you make a game 10GIGS it won't be pirated, Because...
A: Forces Pirates to go over their inter-net usage limit.
B: Takes forever, many pirates just can't be screwed waiting.
C: Gives more time to lock on and track who is stealing a game.

I'll Think of some later.

Piracy is big 'business' now. There are large groups working to crack games, software and movies. Making a game require a large amount of space will not stop piracy as games can be ripped by anybody with the skill so it requires a lot less space (Like reducing the size of ingame movies).

Also where do you get the idea that pirates are lazy? Like the old style sea sailors, modern day pirates will try for hours to get to the booty or crack a piece of software first just for the biggest e-peen.

I don't promote piracy but a lot of counter measures are just terrible while what must be done, must be done.

If you really want to stop piracy, find a way to get through the many legal loop holes and shut down the piracy sites.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

Feel good about myself now as i have never ever pirated a single game!
People who make good games actually deserve my money, even though ps3 games are vey expensive..

Yup, same. I haven't pirated a single thing in my life. I bought all my music and games /vague ego stroke.

But I agree that people who pirate because they don't want to pay should go f*** themselves, if it gets to a point where it becomes really hard to deal with security in games then maybe they brought it on themselves but only in a way that they should lose sales to people not buying the game, not people stealing their product. It's easy to see people working really hard on these games and people are willing to piss all over that in the name of entertainment, it just makes me angry. Can anyone tell me he jail time for getting caught doing this? (it does count as stealing, or it should)

 

[Ultrajoe]

I am not pro, nor anti, piracy, but the industry set themselves up for this. They set themselves up for piracy more than pirates set themselves up for DRM.

And with that, I go to avoid this thread. I know it will not end well.