-or- Consumers are NOT crooks
Piracy is a problem. I understand that, and am sympathetic with software developers whose livelihoods depend on the number of units of their software being sold. I really am. They have a right to protect their intellectual property as best they see fit.
And, as a consumer, I have the right to tell some of them to stick it.
It seems to me that many software companies are stuck back in the 80s and early 90s when it comes to software protection. And game developers and publishers are the worst offenders I have encountered. I won't lie, I remember days of copying a stack of 5.25' or 3.5' floppies to get a game from a friend. And I remember friends borrowing discs, installing the program and giving the discs back. Yes, that kind of hand to hand piracy occurred. But the physical nature of the medium made it pretty inefficient, and it absolutely necessitated the exchange of something palpable.
That is the kind of piracy that disc-in-drive checks and anti-copying technology prevent. You know, decades old piracy.
Yet game developers continue to fight and flail against this type of piracy. And in the end, the only people they screw are the honest consumers. But what frustrates me the most is this: most developers admit to this fact. Yet they still continue to use it. Starforce, Securom and a handful of others are simply schemes to punish those who purchased the software legitimately.
Even a casual gamer, such as I, am well aware of the problems caused by certain copy-protection schemes. Some methods rendered the games incompatible with the consumer's CD ROM drive, preventing them from playing the game they just bought. Others have installed bits of potentially malicious code, while even others have required the user be online to play the game, even if they want to play offline by themselves. And as far as audio discs, well, who can forget the recent Sony root kit disaster.
I have conversed with some game developers who even recognize copy-protection only foils the most casual of pirates, while causing uncountable headaches for those honest consumers who got hosed. But they insist it is a "necessary evil" of the industry. Blind fools is what I call them.
Games are cracked before they are even released. Movies are available on the net while still in theaters (and not just the hand-held camera versions), and audio CDs show up weeks and even months before they become available to those of us who want to actually purchase the album. So what good are these anti-piracy schemes anyway?
None. Period.
The pirates get a version of the game that already has the copy-protection stripped out of it, with no need to have a physical disc in their drive. The pirates can watch the movie whenever they want, on any machine they want without care of the region of the disc or player. The pirates gets the music already ripped on their computer, ready to transfer to an iPod, burned to a disc, used to make a mix CD.
The honest consumer gets a headache.
Fortunately there are a few forward thinking companies. They know piracy happens, but chose to reward those who purchase the game, rather than punish them. That is the answer, in my opinion. Update the game with enough new, exciting, exclusive content that we really want to buy it. Put the CD in a nice package, with lyrics, notes, maybe even some fun extras, and then let us use that music for ourselves without restriction or recrimination. Give us a compelling reason to buy that DVD, with bonus content that isn't crap.
In short, stop punishing us for buying your product.
To those who have caught sight of that vision: Thanks and good job.
To those who haven't: Pull it out.
