1. It will be broken.
2. It will always annoy paying customers.
3. All DRM is unethical and evil.
So no, CDPR should not resort to unethical overreaching preemptive policing and should not annoy their loyal users. DRM is stupid and never necessary. And I wish folks who profit from creating DRM (like this "Denuvo") to go bust in their efforts with it and get busy with something useful and good for society rather than creating unethical policing tools.
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Codemeter is as far as I am aware uncracked (in phsyical form anyway). This is partly because it isn't yet used for AAA+ mega-popular products that tend to attract attention, but it has been offered as a target with significant prize money for hacking competitions.
I use it with SB ProPE (and previously with Pro when I was actively testing for eSimGames), and it is unobtrusive, minimal footprint and totally "local"**, requiring no phone home, only an available license on the physical USB key.
**Local in this respect is actually *extremely* flexible. For many years, the software was routinely demoed for 2+weeks at a time, using secondary licenses shared over IP. The software is totally accessible for installation on as many machines as desired, and a license is only required *at run time*, multiple instances can also be run on a single machine on a single license (useful for some purposes (e.g. seperate map screens etc)).
This is DRM that I can support (it performs the useful function of protecting the Pro version 'site license' from exploitation by unscrupulous countries (SB Gold was pirated on a *huge* scale by the Chinese and Russians, where it was never offered for sale, and has turned up in classroom situations, despite license terms prohibiting this use). I can at any time "serve" my license to any third party I am happy to co-operate with, or simply sell on the license and it's hardware (as I have no other CM software (though it supports *many* vendors and product licenses simultaneously, I don't have anything else that uses this HW solution)).
I have been using it for nearly 8 years, through many update cycles, and have had no issues with the hardware at all.
Not the cheapest software I've ever used, but very inexpensive for "the next best thing" to a professional tool.
I use it with SB ProPE (and previously with Pro when I was actively testing for eSimGames), and it is unobtrusive, minimal footprint and totally "local"**, requiring no phone home, only an available license on the physical USB key.
**Local in this respect is actually *extremely* flexible. For many years, the software was routinely demoed for 2+weeks at a time, using secondary licenses shared over IP. The software is totally accessible for installation on as many machines as desired, and a license is only required *at run time*, multiple instances can also be run on a single machine on a single license (useful for some purposes (e.g. seperate map screens etc)).
This is DRM that I can support (it performs the useful function of protecting the Pro version 'site license' from exploitation by unscrupulous countries (SB Gold was pirated on a *huge* scale by the Chinese and Russians, where it was never offered for sale, and has turned up in classroom situations, despite license terms prohibiting this use). I can at any time "serve" my license to any third party I am happy to co-operate with, or simply sell on the license and it's hardware (as I have no other CM software (though it supports *many* vendors and product licenses simultaneously, I don't have anything else that uses this HW solution)).
I have been using it for nearly 8 years, through many update cycles, and have had no issues with the hardware at all.
Not the cheapest software I've ever used, but very inexpensive for "the next best thing" to a professional tool.
@Lieste : What will happen when license server will go bust or the company which issues keys closes down and you won't be able to find your USB key? Will all the products affected by it become useless garbage?
I find such solutions to be completely pointless for preventing piracy. Keys are OK for authentication, that's their purpose. But for preventing piracy - no. Since those who pirate in Russia and China won't buy it anyway whether it has a key or not. And if it was never offered for sale - then it's complete nonsense to worry about some pirates there, since it's not losing any money anyway - it wasn't sold there to begin with. If anything, the fact that it's not sold is actually boosting piracy in those regions.
I find such solutions to be completely pointless for preventing piracy. Keys are OK for authentication, that's their purpose. But for preventing piracy - no. Since those who pirate in Russia and China won't buy it anyway whether it has a key or not. And if it was never offered for sale - then it's complete nonsense to worry about some pirates there, since it's not losing any money anyway - it wasn't sold there to begin with. If anything, the fact that it's not sold is actually boosting piracy in those regions.
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The license server is only required to add *new* licenses to the CM stick. The license is *purely* held on a local HW element. (Though it is portable enough to share across any imaginable network architecture).
If the license server goes out of business, then the vendor can supply an alternative licensing system with the next generation of upgrades... or at their option terminate development, but all users with the license can continue using their product indefinitely : for as long as USB is available on machines, as long as the OS architecture supports the required HW functions and the HW is functional (It has flash memory in a non-user-writeable element ~ this can be damaged by serious system faults or by physical damage.. as long as the vendor and CM are viable the HW and license will be replaced for a nominal fee). An alternative licensing option is also available for Pro PE *only*, which uses software, time-limited licenses at a significantly lower cost, but with ongoing (albeit potentially intermittent) fees for continuing access.
If the license server goes out of business, then the vendor can supply an alternative licensing system with the next generation of upgrades... or at their option terminate development, but all users with the license can continue using their product indefinitely : for as long as USB is available on machines, as long as the OS architecture supports the required HW functions and the HW is functional (It has flash memory in a non-user-writeable element ~ this can be damaged by serious system faults or by physical damage.. as long as the vendor and CM are viable the HW and license will be replaced for a nominal fee). An alternative licensing option is also available for Pro PE *only*, which uses software, time-limited licenses at a significantly lower cost, but with ongoing (albeit potentially intermittent) fees for continuing access.
Sounds too cumbersome. With OSes progressing, those sticks can become unusable in the future. So it is tied to existence of the vendor, at least loosely. As any DRM it just reduces usability for nothing, since as I said, there is no practical gain for deploying it. I didn't really understand what was the point to prevent some piracy in China and Russia if the product isn't sold there anyway unless you are talking about attempts to enforce export restrictions for software which are handed down from the government.
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It's about companies/governments having an unfair edge over others.
The following situation exists, company A makes X product and sells it to companies C and D in the west. However company B in China/Russia gets the product for free by pirating it and uses it. C and D discover this and are unhappy as they have to spend money, in some cases quite a lot of money, to buy and maintain a license for a program while their competitors don't. Maybe they decided to switch to another program that they do not have to pay for as much if at all.
As such company A implements DRM to try and insure that company B isn't gaining an unfair business edge over C and D. It also does this to show C and D that it's trying to do something. In most cases DRM fails, but in a few it works due to lack of interest by hackers in cracking it.
Anyway Lord of the Fallen DRM will be cracked, it's just hackers don't give a toss about the game I think.
The following situation exists, company A makes X product and sells it to companies C and D in the west. However company B in China/Russia gets the product for free by pirating it and uses it. C and D discover this and are unhappy as they have to spend money, in some cases quite a lot of money, to buy and maintain a license for a program while their competitors don't. Maybe they decided to switch to another program that they do not have to pay for as much if at all.
As such company A implements DRM to try and insure that company B isn't gaining an unfair business edge over C and D. It also does this to show C and D that it's trying to do something. In most cases DRM fails, but in a few it works due to lack of interest by hackers in cracking it.
Anyway Lord of the Fallen DRM will be cracked, it's just hackers don't give a toss about the game I think.
And in that situation, Company A doesn't really care if the DRM is effective or not, they've made the gesture, and that keeps their customers happy.
Because, as you've mentioned yourself in the past, by allowing Company B to pirate the software, especially in a training environment, they're creating a user base for the future, when they DO start selling in the country concerned and start to enforce the licence.
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Of course. It's all about the gesture not the effectiveness. I think this is also partly why companies use better and better DRM because everyone knows the older DRM is not worth shit.
Yep. Saw it in my country with companies. Every company used to pirate the shit out of software until the law was enforced and they ended up being served search warrants for their computers to be scanned and then being forced to clean those PCs of illegal software.
They didn't stop using said software. They bought legitimate licenses.
Yep. Saw it in my country with companies. Every company used to pirate the shit out of software until the law was enforced and they ended up being served search warrants for their computers to be scanned and then being forced to clean those PCs of illegal software.
They didn't stop using said software. They bought legitimate licenses.
Ooh, compliance. Every sales person working for software vendors loves those type of deals.
In this case however, if I understood correctly, the software isn't sold in China and Russia at all, so how C & D would expect their competitors to pay for it, if it's not even sold? So the fact that they pirate the software is caused by the vendor who doesn't care to sell it there. Of course if those competitors are crooks they can pirate it either way (even if it's sold), but this situation didn't even get to it yet.
Because it's moved down to the next level. With commercially-used software, the software vendor is sellling to companies, and it's those companies who lose out.
Imagine two companies making widgets. Both use software for powering the widget-making machine. One company pays for the software, the other doesn't. Or two companies that both provide a service that means they have 100 employees with PC's, one pays for the software licences on every PC, one buys a single licence and clones it.
The company that pirates the software has lower costs, so they get an unfair advantage against their competitors. And those competitors then complain to the software company, who introduces DRM to show his customers that he's "doing something" to solve the problem.
But you're right, it probably won't work. Firstly because the pirates will find a way round it, and secondly because the "competitive advantage" is usually a lot more than just the price of those software licences.
And if the software company was someone like Microsoft or Adobe, you'd also be fully aware that one way the pirates would "find a way round it" would be to switch to legal open-source/free alternatives, so you wouldn't really want the "solution" to work. A generation of computer-literate users trained in YOUR software, even if it was pirated, is a market that can be tapped in the future, when they move in and start to enforce those licences.
Sure, that's not a secret. For MS piracy is one of the main tools to achieve lock-in, especially in more poor countries. It doesn't stop them however from occasional nasty police raids which they instigate on pirate stores there, arresting and harassing people who work there and most often have no clue what they are selling. You'd be surprised how widely pirated Windows are used, when there are so many free legal alternatives. People are just too used to it, because that lock-in starts from school and they haven't learned about anything else.
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Yup, as Gilrond said, it's not a secret. And, as Gilrond says, it starts at the schools.
Just read that AC:unity has a enormous file size of <50GB and now I need to vent.
Why are legitimate customers screwed again? Buy the game online, need to download huge insane file.
And you can bet that pirated copies are going to be smaller once again.
It's a thing that drives me crazy, just a few examples:
Call of duty: advanced warfare legal: <40GB, Pirates: 26GB
Assassins Creed: black flag legal about 17GB, Pirates 5,4GB
Sure the pirates strip out extra languages and extra optional stuff. But honestly is that so bad if the file sizes go down so much?
Why can't game devs / publishers do the same. Offer me a EN only no extra stuff download, compress the hell out of it and boom my Internet can still be used for really important stuff while downloading a game. And if I feel like it I could still download the mega big pack with all extra optional spunk WHILE already playing my game.
Why are legitimate customers screwed again? Buy the game online, need to download huge insane file.
And you can bet that pirated copies are going to be smaller once again.
It's a thing that drives me crazy, just a few examples:
Call of duty: advanced warfare legal: <40GB, Pirates: 26GB
Assassins Creed: black flag legal about 17GB, Pirates 5,4GB
Sure the pirates strip out extra languages and extra optional stuff. But honestly is that so bad if the file sizes go down so much?
Why can't game devs / publishers do the same. Offer me a EN only no extra stuff download, compress the hell out of it and boom my Internet can still be used for really important stuff while downloading a game. And if I feel like it I could still download the mega big pack with all extra optional spunk WHILE already playing my game.
@Sanamia : I've heard some companies are inflating games' sizes with garbage to irritate pirates. Not sure how much of this is really a speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised, since as usual in result those who are irritated are paying customers, while pirates can cut out that extra junk and distribute only what's necessary. On the other hand it simply can be some shortsightedness (using bad compression and so on). Difference can be huge.
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Not just that, but often the modders of games offer way more content or fixes than the goddamn publishers you are giving money to. Just look at the Skyrim mods next to them the DLC's are a joke almost insulting. Or When Dark Souls was released in it's absolutely broken state, it took one guy less than 48 hours to release a fix for all the problems FOR FREE.
Or why is Ubisoft sticking with it's idiotic DRM when it's clearly not working (you can easily get Ubisoft games on pirate sites) is beyond me, they are just pestering their consumer base.
I thought some of you might want to read into the latest DRM policies used by DA:I. CDPR is getting some love over there because of it, and rightfully so... If this has been posted before, sorry... All hail CDPR!!!
http://forum.bioware.com/topic/519257-denuvo-drm-used-by-dai/
http://forum.bioware.com/topic/519257-denuvo-drm-used-by-dai/