The Scorn and Resourcefulness of Young Men
Awesome strip from Penny Arcade, accompanied by an editorial from Jerry Holkins/Tycho, on digital rights managment. Jerry writes:
Visit any thread regarding the topic, and I mean any thread, and it won’t be three posts until someone raises the Goddamned Jolly Roger and says they’ll pirate the game as a gesture consistent with some comprehensive ur-morality they’ve ginned up, one where stealing things is alright provided they were very angry when they did it. It’s entirely possible that you don’t like being spoken to in this way, but somebody has to get this done. What Ubisoft is doing here is Draconian – I don’t mean those lizard dudes, I’m talking about laws which are characterized by their severity. Before they eventually dismantle it, and it will be dismantled, it will have achieved exactly the opposite of their intention. But what I won’t tolerate from rational beings is the idea that you don’t understand why they’re doing it.
Amen.
I’m a rational being, and I don’t understand why they’re doing it. I understand perfectly well why they desire to do something that will prevent people from pirating the game, and I’d go so far as to say I believe that they have every right to do so. In fact, I’d even say that it’s immoral to pirate the game and not pay for it, no matter what, no not even if you would never have played it in the first place so they’re not losing a sale.
But what I don’t understand is why they don’t get that this won’t hurt anybody but the paying customers. It would be one thing if it were actually a service like an MMO, where it was the server doing the work and if you couldn’t connect to the server, well, you can’t play, but if I understand what they’ve done, the game runs perfectly well locally but refuses to if it can’t communicate with the DRM server constantly. The pirates will crack the game, play it locally, and never even notice the DRM. Ubisoft’s plan makes about as much sense as putting a tiny plutonium pellet in every physical box to kill the customer before they can pirate it.