Aux

DRM is a fail

Monday, March 8, 2010 11:45:52 AM

Once upon a time DRM (digital rights management) was called copy protection. But DRM "word" is a much fancier, right? But let's move to the topic (:

Ubisoft added a new type of DRM to its games recently. They thought that if players would require constant Internet access then their protection will be unbreakable. Cracking scene loled a lot and cracked both Ubisoft's games with new DRM in one day. The problem? Well... Currently authentication servers are down and legal users are screwed. Yet pirates are enjoying playing games without ANY problems. Oh, irony!

This fact just proves my point of view that DRM is only limiting legal users. It does NOT protect from piracy. It has NEGATIVE impact on LEGAL users. And it forces users to pirate. And of course DRM protected content costs additional money - protection is not cheap. Why not lower prices and strip off any protection? Pros are obvious and clearly visible:

More people will be able to buy your content for lesser price and your revenue from one copy will be exactly the same.
Software will be much more stable because one layer of issues is stripped off.
Your users will be happy without all the glitches caused by DRM.
You will save money on paying to DRM developers.

Fun: truth about piracy1024-bit RSA encryption cracked in a very unusual way

Comments

Lorenzo CelsiLorenzoCelsi # Tuesday, March 9, 2010 10:01:30 AM

It is always the same old story. All the big corporations are NOT lead by technical people but people with legal or economical background. The result is "products" aren't designed with "technical goals" but with "political goals", that aim two directions, one is inside the same corporation because the said people invest a big part of their time in selling themselves to the corporation, the other is about the "market", that is basically thought to be a mass of dumb people that can be easily directed, see the picture you posted.

Everything comes from the way the said leadership/management sees the world. It is not about DRM only, it is the same for almost everything else. Here a big issue for example is the business of the Tele-Communications (mobile, internet, etc). Or the TV (digital TV, Satellite, Cable, etc). You find disfunctional products, frauds, confused contrats/subscritpions, wrong choices about technologies, etc. The "user" is always in the lower level and so he gets all the crap that falls from above...

On a side note, another big issue is the "patents" about software. You easily see the big corporation make a large use of "legalities" about patents, I bet they spend more in lawyers than in developers.

Aux # Tuesday, March 9, 2010 12:13:01 PM

Well, at least here in EU no software patents exist. That makes software development much easier.

Lorenzo CelsiLorenzoCelsi # Tuesday, March 9, 2010 4:33:09 PM

I don't think it is that easy. The patents are a legal minefield regardless. Consider that in US the lawyers usually get 30% of what you get from a legal suit.