Explain DRM to me please

[Fooz]

i don't know what it is exactly, and i want to fully understand what it is

also i have Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY but it will not work, looked at some forums and thay are blaming the DRM or Securom (which is some type of DRM isnt it?)

yeah im confused, Please Explain what DRM is and what it does

Thanks in Advance

 

[Snork Maiden]

DRM - digital rights management. Basically its a way for companies to decide how and where you can use digital media you purchase - for instance if I get music off of iTunes then the DRM prevents me from listening to it on PCs that aren't authorised by me. Steam is a form of DRM in that you can only play games from your Steam library on a new PC if you have signed into Steam at some point. It basically stops you (for better or worse) buying a game/music/whatever and lending it to everyone you know and letting them install it.

Absolutely no idea if your problem with Batman has anything to do with it, though.

 

[Weaver]

In relation to games, DRM is usually a piece of software that comes with the game and is designed to prevent piracy of the game. I should also note there is no DRM to date which has prevented piracy of a prodcut, but merely delayed it.

Since you play games on the PC, these companies see you as a filthy, drity criminal instead of a paying customer. As such,you must prove to these pieces of software that you actually and legitimately bought this game. Often times this can be requiring entering a games CD key and have it authenticate online. Other times, and more extreme examples like Ubisoft uses, require you to constantly be connected to the internet as the game constnatly checks a remote server to see if you're still a paying customer.

 

[darth.pixie]

Why aren't you googling this?

It's a form of protection with certain locks that prevents you from doing stuff they don't want you to do with it, mainly copying. It stands for Digital Rights Management. It can be for movies, music, video games. Sometimes it tracks user activity, other times it limits the installs to only three possible ones...etc. It sometimes can even create a rootkit.

Securom is another form of protection against hacking that is very prone to errors. It's what Arkham Asylum has.

 

[Lenin211]

It's the way game companies protect themselves from customers and pirates.

 

[Braedan]

It is basically a blanket term for restrictions put onto (for our example) games to prevent copying of content. Game wants you to put the disk in to play? DRM. Entering serial keys? DRM. Activating your game over the internet before you can play? DRM. requiring a constant connection to the internet or else it will stop you from playing? DRM. Installing a program that disables parts of your PC so things such as Daemon tools can't run? DRM

Of course the people that these measures are supposed to stop don't have to deal with any of this stuff because the stolen copies are stripped of the DRM before they hit the net (days before the real release).

 

[WannaBlessedBe]

It's the way game companies protect themselves from customers.

Fixed that for you.

 

[DEAD34345]

It's annoying limitations they put on legally purchased versions of media, supposedly to stop piracy.

Unfortunately this never works, and since only the the legal purchasers have to deal with the limitations, it makes no sense whatsoever.

Edit: Ouch, just noticed you mentioned Securom specifically. Basically Securom is malware that will mess around with your computer, and yet again comes with certain legally purchased games supposedly to stop piracy.

I recommend you immediately search for a program to remove it, because it is incredibly difficult to do so normally, and uninstalling the game doesn't remove the Securom that came with it.

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

 

[Willwillwritehiswill]

It's the equivalent of the anti-piracy adverts you can't skip past on DVDs; you're being told off for something you haven't done and the people the damn thing is aiming for never even see it.