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The truth about piracy

May 11th, 2010

Brad McGraw

When talking about piracy you always hear the same excuses trotted out, ‘DRM’, ‘games too expensive’, ‘corporations make billions it doesn’t effect them’, etc… So what would happen if all that was taken away? No DRM, low low price, no ‘evil’ corporation? If you listen to the piracy apologists that would be when they would buy games.

Now I am sure you’ve heard of the Humble Indie Bundle. If you haven’t you haven’t seen it listed in our Game Sales Page which has it listed (Shame on you!). What this Humble Indie Bundle does is allow you to pay what you want, even a penny, for a bundle of games, and you can allocate how much money goes to the developers, or to the EFF or Child’s Play, or you can mix and match and give each one a bit. In 7 days they’ve pulled in over 1 million dollars from a little over 118,000 people. Pretty impressive.

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Posted in Uncategorized

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RIAA still not getting it

May 7th, 2010

Brad McGraw

If you listen to the RIAA, and only the RIAA, one might think that music is dying, that piracy is rampant and that everybody is out to get them. Well…the last may be true, because they are not exactly loved. This might be because they are a heavy handed organization that is aggressive in the pursuit of its profits. Now I don’t think anyone begrudges the RIAA profits, I know I don’t, but I do have issues with an organization that goes around the world bullying people and companies and lobbying governments to do their bidding. It appears as if they’ve watched too much Judge Dredd.

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Posted in Just my Opinion, Music

Tags: Music Ally, RIAA

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Amazon’s DRM free music

May 4th, 2010

Brad McGraw

If you haven’t heard by now Amazon has a large selection of digital music. Over 8 million songs, and 1 million plus albums. Not too shabby. You can get samples of each track to make sure you’re getting the right song, which is a nice feature. In the song descriptions they’ll also tell you what it is compatible with, iPod, MP3 players, WMP.

What is typically not known is that the majority of the music on Amazon is DRM free. Well some of it is. If you look at Amazon’s ‘Getting Started’ section it says:

The MP3 files you purchase from Amazon.com do not contain any software (frequently referred to as “digital rights management” software) that will restrict your use of the file. When you make a purchase from the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads store, you are accepting and bound by the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads Terms of Use.

So this is pretty good news, if you don’t like DRM in your music it seems that Amazon is a great place to grab it from. However the next paragraph is the one you need to be aware of.

Our ability to offer music to you in MP3 format is limited by the rights granted to us by the record companies. Currently, not all record companies grant us a license to sell their music for download in MP3 format free of digital rights management software.

I took a look around and didn’t find any mention of DRM on a song, I was looking for something like how GamersGate mentions DRM on the games it sells. So I sent off a question about this to their Customer Support people, this was the response I received.

Hello from Amazon.com.

Thank you for asking about use restrictions on MP3 files downloaded from Amazon.com. We do not have any MP3 songs that have DRM. Our MP3 files contain no digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, are provided in an industry standard MP3 format, and should be compatible with most systems capable of reading MP3 audio files.

However, when you make a purchase from the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads store, you are also accepting and bound by the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads Terms of Use available at this URL:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200154280

The files you purchase from Amazon MP3 Music Downloads are free of any digital rights management software to allow you more freedom with managing your music library; however, we do ask that you respect the licensing agreements outlined by Amazon.com and our content providers. This includes avoiding any use of the MP3 files that is specifically prohibited in the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads Terms of Use.

I hope you found this information helpful. You can also access additional information about our MP3 Music Downloads in our Help pages here:

www.amazon.com/help/amazonmp3

So what to believe? They’ve added the caveat that some songs may have DRM, yet deny that they have any. So for right now I would say that its still buyer beware, however I’d give Amazon the benefit of the doubt that most of the tracks are DRM free. However, if you know a song or CD has DRM from another vendor, it may still have it on Amazon. At least until they can be more clear answer on their DRM policy without caveats.

Now on the plus side, Amazon has over 1,600 FREE songs. Free as in no cost, just download away. So if you’re looking for new bands to listen to and discover free is the way to start.

Posted in Music

Tags: Amazon, DRM, DRM free

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Canada again? Really USTR?

April 30th, 2010

Brad McGraw

Today the United States Trade Representative released its annual ‘Special 301’ report. This is a report that basically says how bad other countries are and how they are being mean to the United States. What makes the whole ‘Special 301’ report pretty meaningless is that for years the USTR has listened only to the industries who are complaining about how mean other countries are to the wholesome US media conglomerates. The USTR has finally opened the doors to allow more access to them, but then they pretty much ignored everybody but the industry anyway. This includes the CCIA, which sent in its own report to the USTR saying how Canada should not be on the list. The CCIA includes such companies as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, AMD, T-Mobile, ebay.

Canada, again, is on the ‘Priority Watch List’, which means that Canada has been a very bad boy indeed! Rampant piracy, loss of sales, children and dogs running amok! Oh the humanity!

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Posted in Games, Movies and TV, Music

Tags: Canada, ESA, Michael Geist, MPAA, RIAA, Special 301, USTR

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PopCap’s founders on DRM

April 29th, 2010

Brad McGraw

In a recent interview with cnet, CEO David Roberts and co-founder John Vechey of PopCap talked about DRM. PopCap is a developer and publisher of such games as Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies and many other excellent casual games. The article only asks one DRM related question, but its a doozy.

Some other publishers have had to resort to some pretty invasive DRM solutions in their titles. What kind of DRM do you employ in your PC and Mac games, and what are your thoughts on games that require an always-on connection to check in?

Roberts: We do have DRM on our games, but it’s pretty mild. Cracks for our DRM are everywhere. My philosophy is the same as what PopCap had when I got there, which is put it on there enough to protect us, but don’t inconvenience real, paying customers with it. And that’s a fine line.

I’ll date myself here. Back when I first took over Pagemaker [at the Aldus Corporation] a long time ago, we had DRM on the floppy disks, and you had to insert the floppy disks and do all this stuff. It was a horrible customer experience, and our customer service people were having to spend a lot of time on it. And when we took it out, sales went up. So it became pretty clear that the obtrusive DRM can be worse than what you’re protecting it from. And look, we sell $20 games. If people are determined to steal them, they’re going to steal them.

We do have DRM on our games, but it’s pretty mild. Cracks for our DRM are everywhere. My philosophy is the same as what PopCap had when I got there, which is put it on there enough to protect us, but don’t inconvenience real, paying customers with it. And that’s a fine line.

Vechey: It’s the same thing with [Ubisoft's] Assassin’s Creed 2. I mean I’m sorry, but if you want to steal it, you can steal it. You’re going to find a way to do it.

Roberts: Our customers are less likely to go steal it. Your grandma is not really going to go hop and search through BitTorrents to try and find it, whereas the target 15- to 25-year-old target of more of the hardcore games is more likely. I’m certainly not in the right position to make comparisons. I do also believe that if DRM or any of those sorts of protection technologies inconvenience paying customers, then the cost is a lot higher than you can know.

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Posted in Games

Tags: DRM, popcap

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The value of ‘Fair Use’

April 28th, 2010

Brad McGraw

Piracy ruins the economy! You’ve heard it from the RIAA, the MPAA, Senators, Congressmen and the news media. Industry funded studies claiming piracy impact numbers of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars lost every year. However, a report (PDF) released a few weeks ago by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has thrown those wild numbers out the door, basically saying that there is no real way to definitively quantify the impact of piracy. It has always been claimed by these industry reports that piracy has costs thousands of jobs every year, billions of dollars lost, and the economy gets damaged because of it. For example, if someone pirates a $60 video game or $20 CD or DVD, that doesn’t necessarily mean that money isn’t being spent elsewhere in the economy. It also calls out the previous ‘studies’ that the RIAA, MPAA, etc have been using saying that the model used to come up with industry supporting numbers has serious flaws. Something pretty much everybody else has known for awhile, but we don’t have lobbyists.

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Posted in Just my Opinion

Tags: CCIA, Fair Use, GAO, MPAA, piracy, RIAA

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When does copyright protection go too far?

April 21st, 2010

Brad McGraw

Copyright:

The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

Ok, so we know that copyright comes into play so that artists are not ripped off and can be protected. I get that, and have no problems with it. It is important to have, and artists do need a protection. What goes a little too far is when going after copyright violators becomes a business for lawyers to make money.

The other aspect is if you look at ACTA, DMCA, Three Strikes rules, etc… its pretty much a blanket coverage and targets things that are not ‘piracy’ or ‘infringing’ at all. There is something called a ‘derivative work’ which means you can take original work, use it to create new work, and that is perfectly legal.

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Posted in Just my Opinion

Tags: ACTA, DMCA, Downfall, three strikes, Youtube

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A chat with Fredrik Wester

April 13th, 2010

Brad McGraw

Paradox Interactive is best known for its Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis series of games, both deep historical strategy games and this is an area where Paradox shines. When I have described the Hearts of Iron series to people its very easy to do, it’s Axis & Allies on crack. It is as addicting too, ‘just one more turn’ turns into an all night affair. If you are a strategy gamer and you haven’t picked up a Paradox game, you are definitely missing out.

Paradox is a company of gamers who are in the business of making games, not businessmen running a game company. This shows up in the amount of interaction they have with their fans. This is one of the things that sets Paradox apart from other game companies; the time they spend on their own forums.

Recently the Paradox forums passed their 200,000 user mark and to celebrate they offered discounts, had contests to win free games and an ‘Ask Paradox (almost) anything’ thread. In fact even though the 200k celebration is over, they are still answering questions, and it seems they intend to keep this as an active thread. While I never asked for an interview in the thread itself, I did see it as an opportunity to approach them and see if we could grab an interview. Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox, was kind enough to answer our questions.

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Posted in Games, Interviews

Tags: DRM, Eurpoa Universalis, Fredrik Wester, Hearts of Iron, Paradox Interactive, piracy, Victoria 2

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Privacy laws they need a changin’

April 5th, 2010

Brad McGraw

If you’ve never heard of Digital Due Process its not a surprise, however what is a surprise is who is behind it. I am sure you’ve heard of Google, Microsoft, Intel, eBay, AT&T, ACLU, Americans for Tax Reform, and many others. This crosses political boundaries as well, its not a red vs blue, liberal vs conservative, republican vs democrat, communism vs socialism, or fork vs spoon.

Now what is this all about? Online privacy. Basically these companies want the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to be rewritten. The ECPA was written in 1986 and hasn’t changed since, while technology has changed dramatically. Here is a video to explain the idea behind this.

Its pretty basic and easy to understand. Its basically taking our 4th Amendment Rights and making sure they apply to our online world and our private information stored there. With cloud computing, where our information is stored online rather than on our computer’s hard drives, getting a larger and larger presence in today’s technology, this is something that does need to change.

Now this would only stop the government from peeking at your information online, this will not stop your employer from actively searching out your internet activity.

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tags: ACLU, AT&T, Digital due process, ECPA, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Privacy rights

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Ubisoft’s DRM has issues, again.

March 30th, 2010

Brad McGraw

If you’re in Australia, it appears that there are issues with Ubisofts new account based ‘always on’ DRM for Settlers 7. There is a forum post asking people for information as to location, ISP, Account name (as entered in the UGL), and where you bought the game. While it seems people from all over are having issues the majority of the people with issues are coming from Australia. Apparently the issue has been found.

We have tracked down the issue – it’s a problem that occurs when linking your keys to the multiplayer profile.
Ubisoft GNS and TG-OPS are currently working on a solution – I’ll keep you updated.

Since the game was released on Thursday, and its now Tuesday, this is a long time to wait to play the game you bought. And since it seems that its an Ubisoft issue, far too long to wait for a fix. I wonder if Ubisoft is going to give out another round of free games to compensate players for this?

Posted in Games

Tags: DRM, Settlers 7, Ubisoft

1 Comment »