Poll: Don't Play Their Games, Just Break Their DRM

Rick1940

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Jan 11, 2010
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Ladies and Gentlemen of the Games Business:

DRM is not a political football between game sellers and game buyers. DRM is a technical football between DRM coders and reverse engineers.

Most gamers have enough technical skills to apply someone else's method to circumvent DRM. The interesting issue is how to invent original methods to circumvent DRM for the first time.

I am not interested in breaking DRM in order to play a copyright-infringed game. I am interested in breaking DRM because DRM imperils my control over my computing system. I have a hard enough time managing traffic analysis, operating system updates, and user support. I don't need some 3rd party vendor sneaking some black-box onto my system that will cause me problems of any kind - whether those problems are intentional malware or unintentional bugs.

Game vendors complain that I might copyright infringe their games, break the DRM, and then play their games. That is incorrect. I have no interest in their crummy games. I have more open source games than I have free time. I do have interest in being able to take apart any black box that might try to run on my system.

I may have purchased subsidized hardware with the intention of running non-supported software. Once I have purchased that hardware , I will not tolerate vendors who attempt to screw up the firmware. If I make a Linux-based supercomputer out of PS3s, Sony might try to update the firmware to make the hardware incapable of running Linux. I will oppose such attempts.

This implies that if I purchase a circuit board (e.g. in an XBox) and I feel a need to void my warranty by soldering modification chips onto that board, I am going to do it. I am aware that I am running the risk of reducing the hardware to a boat anchor. I have ruined better hardware in worse causes before there was such a thing as an XBox.

I exercise my freedom to tinker. If you sell me anything - hardware or software - be aware that I might reverse-engineer it or break its DRM. As far as I can tell, the games industry wants my skillset to be made illegal.

I would be amused if the games business somehow managed to reduce the entire English-speaking world to such incompetence that no native English speakers would be available to crack game DRM. In that event, I would not bother to crack DRM for my fellow English speakers - I would encourage them to give up games and to study math. However, I suspect that my opposite numbers in Brazil and Russia and China would crack the DRM of English-language releases, and would circulate the results - perhaps with malware, and perhaps without.

DRM is not a political football between game sellers and game buyers. DRM is a technical football between DRM coders and reverse engineers.
 

Berethond

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Nov 8, 2008
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Very true.

Of course, I've been saying the same about everything Apple Corp makes, but do they listen to me? No.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Ive had to crack a couple games to even play them, an update for kings bounty rendered it inoperable for some reason till I cracked it and when fallout 3 was released the drm on the disk didnt like my system, it still doesnt and I couldnt play it without cracking it
 

manythings

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well so long as this isn't one of those "Break the DRM and pirate to fight the power, not make profit through criminal behaviour(honest)" things.

We do have the right to tinker with our property but I really couldn't care less about DRM unless it actively causes me an inconvenience, or if I can expect to cause one, life provides enough problems with PAYING to recieve problems that interrupt my leisure time.
 

AMMO Kid

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I've wondered what a DRM is for a long time now. Can someone enlighten me please?
 

Amalith

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AMMO Kid said:
I've wondered what a DRM is for a long time now. Can someone enlighten me please?
Digital Rights Management. Some form of controls built into software to limit its use to set conditions. Whether this is an install limit, or some other form of limitation like preventing music from being burnt onto a disc. It is becoming popular to put heavily restricting DRM on PC games to attempt to prevent privacy.
 

edthehyena

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I agree with this. You bought the software (or hardware), and it should be yours to do what you will with it, as long as you aren't profiting from it or just giving it out to everyone.

AMMO Kid said:
I've wondered what a DRM is for a long time now. Can someone enlighten me please?
Anti-piracy software. Usually it takes the form of key codes, but game publishers are getting more creative every day (with DRM, not games).
 

Snarky Username

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Apr 4, 2010
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AMMO Kid said:
I've wondered what a DRM is for a long time now. Can someone enlighten me please?
Digital Rights Management. It's what companies do in games to make sure pirates can't play them, basically. But that's my limited knowledge so if anyone wants to correct me feel free to do so.

OP: I find this music makes reading the post much more satisfying.

 

Regiment

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There's never been a problem with breaking DRM (as far as I know); the problem is what you do with it. If you break DRM so you can make a personal backup or something, that is not unethical. Breaking DRM so you can release a game onto torrents or something is unethical. It's like having a gun. Owning a gun is fine; using it to shoot clay pigeons is fine; using it to kill people is not.

(I know DRM and guns are not similar, but it makes the analogy work)
 

manythings

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versoth said:
manythings said:
well so long as this isn't one of those "Break the DRM and pirate to fight the power, not make profit through criminal behaviour(honest)" things.

We do have the right to tinker with our property but I really couldn't care less about DRM unless it actively causes me an inconvenience, or if I can expect to cause one, life provides enough problems with PAYING to recieve problems that interrupt my leisure time.
Tough to make a profit giving things away for free.

And the OP's point was that he cracks it precisely because if he doesn't, it will actively cause him problems.

Sysadmin of some sort, OP?
That was my point. I opened the thread thinking it was going to be a Pirate acting like he could morally justify the fact that he was just stealing for no reason other than he had the technical skills to do it. I amended my attitude when I read his post.
 

Brotherofwill

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Snarky Username said:
OP: I find this music makes reading the post much more satisfying.

Music fits perfectly, nice touch.

I remember seeing my dad trying to solder shit on a piece of hardware once, solidly broke the thing. Was funny to watch, we all got a good laugh out of it.
 

Om Nom Nom

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Feb 13, 2010
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easy evil said:
developers spend 3+ years of their lives making a product for you to enjoy and you just come and slap them in the face.
Nevermind that the title makes them triple, sometimes even quadruple-figure percentage profit in the first month of release alone.

And usually for an incredibly substandard product.
 

iLikeHippos

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Jan 19, 2010
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I don't have much info in it all, but wouldn't it be easier for Ubisoft to use the DRM technique Wacraft III has?

<spoiler= Warcraft III DRM, If you are interested in reading about it>You see, the copy of the game comes with a long digit code inside the cartridge. If you put the code in, you can activate one battle.net account.

However, if your friend also writes in the same code, he can't logg onto battle.net if you are online. But he can do single player.
So it only works from friend to friend, and not through a series of pirate channels.

It's kind of fair, as people would have to pay for their own game in a store or through the internet incase they want to do battle.net.

Ow yeah, you must install the game on your computer, using the very code to activate a profile. No cheating off here.

But I am guessing the DRM doesn't work as fine as the Warcraft III one, and it's being a pain in the ass for everyone.
I'm still confused how it works though...

I know I'm getting off the thread at this point, but I feel as if I can't make an opinion without knowing the effects of the DRM. But whatever it is, it's causing pain for the people and I was wondering why they can't use the Wacraft III DRM technique instead. It seems most logical to me.
 
Jun 11, 2008
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Well as long as when you crack it you don't use it to pirate that is fine. I mean some people do actually lose the key codes for the games. Thankfully I haven't yet but the day I do I am getting a crack for the game there is no way I am paying more money just to play the game again.
 

Pokedude1013

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Oct 27, 2009
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Yes yes justify your unethical habits to a bunch of people who want to use your skills to steal shit. And what's with the stupid poll choices