tandleheart

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

Unless a paradigm shift were to magically happen in the world, then like it or not DRM will never succeed. Never. That's because any DRM system requires giving away the keys to the goods whenever the DRM system thinks the user is "authorized". But the pirates will always find a way to make the computer think the system is "authorized", for example by emulating an authorized system or bypassing the authorization check entirely. So a DRM system might be hard to crac

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

[quote who="Draginol" comment="110"]But there are people, in this very thread, who have said that when they buy a piece of software that they OWN that software which is nonsense. Unless they want to write a check for cost plus on producing that software, they are simply licensing the right to USE the software under the terms and conditions provided by the maker. It has nothing to do with copyright IMO.[/quote] Actually, it has everything to do with copyright. Copyright atte

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

[quote who="WIllythemailboy" comment="68"]There are fundamental differences between analysing a story and cracking a game. One is intended to be done (by good writers, anyway) and the other is not. Much of the value of a book lies in analysing the different levels on which the story works, and how different themes are portrayed. On the other hand, cracking the security features of a program is not necessary for it to be used as intended. It is generally only necessary when one is attempting s

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

[quote who="WIllythemailboy" comment="59"]Software is already treated differently by copyright law. No other class of material allows making copies for backup purposes (archival purposes, yes, but not individual consumers copying for personal use) or a damn-near unlimited right of reverse engineering. If software were sold instead of licensed, it would be permissable for owners to reverse engineer their software and remove all copy protection in the guise of reworking the software for "compat

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

I'll throw in my two cents... First, I believe that software really should be "owned" and not "licensed". Licensing is a concept that software companies have created to exploit the intellectual property laws (mostly copyright) that benefit them, but try to avoid other parts of copyright (such as fair use, first sale, etc) that do not benefit them. Its easy to throw together a legalese document and bundle it in a box or setup program, but that doesn't mean that the courts wi