Red Alert 3 Deauthorize

[Veggie]

Patch 1.05

The DRM deauthorization does not literally remove all DRM from the game, It just means if you've maxxed your five-machine installation limit and start it up on a sixth, you can deauthorize one of the others on the fly and still get your game on. Sounds handy, and also like an answer to the 2 percent (by EA estimates) of players who want to install a game on more than three machines. In other words, it looks (to me, anyway) like it makes anti-DRM complaints seem a little more absolutist and unreasonable.

Very similar to what Take2 games did with Bioshock. Just thought I'd post this bit of info.

[phatman76]

whenever they put that bullshit copyright spyware on their games i make a point to get a crack version for free.

[Astrum]

In other words, it looks (to me, anyway) like it makes anti-DRM complaints seem a little more absolutist and unreasonable.

How about this. I'll sell you a brand new car at MSRP, but in the contract I'll include a clause that says you can only drive the car 20,000 miles before it stops working. Two months later after continual bitching I'll tell you to bring the car in for service where I'll modify the odometer so that the mileage decreases when you go in reverse. I'll then say if you don't want to hit that 20k mile limit you'll merely have to drive in reverse for a while. See, all better, no need to complain anymore!

Look, DRM doesn't do anything. Games are released on warez sites before or the day of the commercial release without any DRM. Yes, some DRM I can stand. If it's not obtrusive and basically just stops the average joe from making copies for his friends then sure, I can accept that. I know people aren't all honest, in fact Starsiege: Tribes was ridiculously pirated and contained no DRM at all (not even a CD-key). After a point though it's just wrong. You treat your paying customers like criminals while the people who are actually downloading your game (which are doing so legally fyi) get a version without DRM.

For instance Steam is DRM laden. If their activation servers go down, so do ALL of your games. Of course they say they'll unlock everything if they ever go out of business, whether that happens or not remains to be seen though. Another thing with Steam is you know you're buying a license and not a game merely because you can't resell your purchases. On the other hand they let you install the game on as many computers as you want, install it as much as you want, but only allow one computer to use the account at once. That seems fair.

Sure it's not perfect, but compare it to the likes of SecuRom. It limits your installs right off the bat and has to be patched out later by the developer. The reason given is usually to prevent piracy during the initial sale period (even though it hits 0day warez sites). It conflicts with other software, it freaks out when you have multiple CD/DVD-RW drives installed*, it's hard as hell to remove SecuRom from your system since it buries itself in like a damn rootkit.

If you like being treated like a criminal for spending your hard earned money then be my guest. Personally I don't. It's just as bad as that retarded "You wouldn't steal a car?" shit the MPAA puts at the front of every God damn movie which you fucking paid for. I won't even go into the fact that downloading is not illegal, nor can it even be confused with theft in the legal sense of the word. And guess what, the pirated version has that crap cut out!

Don't just think DRM is for video games only. Hell, my copy of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has DRM on it. Now I have a rather old TV which doesn't have RCA connectors, so I always connected my VCR to my TV and used the RCA connectors on the VCR for everything. Well I plugged in a DVD player to my VCR and you know what I found out? There's DRM on several DVDs which modulates the brightness of the picture when you connect through the VCR. Because we all know people who illegally distribute movies do so by recording a DVD onto a fucking VHS tape rather than just ripping it with a computer.

So don't listen to the game companies, music industry, and movie industry complain about how much those evil pirates are hurting their bottom line. You know what else they complain about? Second hand sales. DRM is contemptible and almost always screws over the paying customer.

*This one doesn't even make sense. Pressed games use DRM which measures the angular separation between certain blocks. When you straight out copy a game to a blank disc (which is prevented by yet more DRM) the angular separation is wrong.

[LegalSmash]

How about this. I'll sell you a brand new car at MSRP, but in the contract I'll include a clause that says you can only drive the car 20,000 miles before it stops working. Two months later after continual bitching I'll tell you to bring the car in for service where I'll modify the odometer so that the mileage decreases when you go in reverse. I'll then say if you don't want to hit that 20k mile limit you'll merely have to drive in reverse for a while. See, all better, no need to complain anymore!

Look, DRM doesn't do anything. Games are released on warez sites before or the day of the commercial release without any DRM. Yes, some DRM I can stand. If it's not obtrusive and basically just stops the average joe from making copies for his friends then sure, I can accept that. I know people aren't all honest, in fact Starsiege: Tribes was ridiculously pirated and contained no DRM at all (not even a CD-key). After a point though it's just wrong. You treat your paying customers like criminals while the people who are actually downloading your game (which are doing so legally fyi) get a version without DRM.

For instance Steam is DRM laden. If their activation servers go down, so do ALL of your games. Of course they say they'll unlock everything if they ever go out of business, whether that happens or not remains to be seen though. Another thing with Steam is you know you're buying a license and not a game merely because you can't resell your purchases. On the other hand they let you install the game on as many computers as you want, install it as much as you want, but only allow one computer to use the account at once. That seems fair.

Sure it's not perfect, but compare it to the likes of SecuRom. It limits your installs right off the bat and has to be patched out later by the developer. The reason given is usually to prevent piracy during the initial sale period (even though it hits 0day warez sites). It conflicts with other software, it freaks out when you have multiple CD/DVD-RW drives installed*, it's hard as hell to remove SecuRom from your system since it buries itself in like a damn rootkit.

If you like being treated like a criminal for spending your hard earned money then be my guest. Personally I don't. It's just as bad as that retarded "You wouldn't steal a car?" shit the MPAA puts at the front of every God damn movie which you fucking paid for. I won't even go into the fact that downloading is not illegal, nor can it even be confused with theft in the legal sense of the word. And guess what, the pirated version has that crap cut out!

Don't just think DRM is for video games only. Hell, my copy of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has DRM on it. Now I have a rather old TV which doesn't have RCA connectors, so I always connected my VCR to my TV and used the RCA connectors on the VCR for everything. Well I plugged in a DVD player to my VCR and you know what I found out? There's DRM on several DVDs which modulates the brightness of the picture when you connect through the VCR. Because we all know people who illegally distribute movies do so by recording a DVD onto a fucking VHS tape rather than just ripping it with a computer.

So don't listen to the game companies, music industry, and movie industry complain about how much those evil pirates are hurting their bottom line. You know what else they complain about? Second hand sales. DRM is contemptible and almost always screws over the paying customer.

*This one doesn't even make sense. Pressed games use DRM which measures the angular separation between certain blocks. When you straight out copy a game to a blank disc (which is prevented by yet more DRM) the angular separation is wrong.


Im going to say it softly: GO TO LAW SCHOOL!!!!!!