SecuROM (DRM) in PC Games

Alistair

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    So, what are your thoughts on the SecuROM DRM that some companies choose to implement in PC games?

    Personally, I say do away with it. SecuROM is nothing but a rootkit, and opens up a bunch of security holes. It sends information from your computer without consent, and it also uses your bandwidth without your consent. SecuROM is nothing more than a SecuHOLE. What is worse, though, is that this program usually installs itself without any knowledge from the user (unless the user knows beforehand, of course), and the version that was used in Spore had a bug in it that would corrupt installs, resulting in lost activations. Ugghh... Game making companies just ned to do away with SecuROM.
     
    SecuROM and other measures of the like have been fudging up our bandwidth and corrupting our data ever since it started. It's convenient for the cash-farming company and inconvenient to the consumer. Everybody's paranoid about profits and piracy. Realistically, piracy has never really placed much of a dent in any media industry. Developers are still profiting because most people still buy the game. I hope companies that use SecuROM realize that the inconveniences placed upon the public will be the cause of their loss in profit, not piracy.

    And at least companies like Microsoft and Google ask before you send them your data. We're denied a simple courtesy with SecuROM...
     
    its also the one reason why I'll never buy certain games.
     
    I stopped buying PC version of games that employ the use of SecuROM.
    If you're gonna restrict the amount of times I can install something I purchased and force me to call your horrid customer service if I run out of activations, well then, don't expect me to come back.
     
    Originally Posted by Adam Hornsby, the Electonic Arts UK Community
    [PokeCommunity.com] SecuROM (DRM) in PC Games

    EA and Sony should own up to this, and destroy secuROM as it is as usefull as a chocolate teapot and totally shouldnt exist.
    Click to expand...

    I thought that was funny.

    Anyway, he also brings up a valid point earlier in his post, one that I failed to mention in my first post. EA, a main adoptor of SecuROM, previously used SafeDisc as piracy prevention. Below is a quote from Wikipedia on who it works.

    Originally Posted on Wikipedia
    [PokeCommunity.com] SecuROM (DRM) in PC Games

    SafeDisc adds a unique digital signature to the optical media at the time of replication. Each time a SafeDisc-protected program runs, the SafeDisc authenticator performs various security checks and verifies the SafeDisc signature on the optical media. The authentication process takes about 10 to 20 seconds. Once verification has been established, the sequence is complete and the program will start normally. The SafeDisc signature is designed to be difficult to copy or transfer from the original media. Certain multimedia programs are designed to run from the PC hard drive without accessing files from the program disc after the initial installation. SafeDisc will permit this as long as the consumer retains the original CD or DVD disc, which is required for authentication each time the program is launched. Failure to place the original disc in the drive when loading the program will prevent validation of the SafeDisc signature.
    Click to expand...

    Of course, this still prevents you from making legal backups of your game, but this copy protection is non-invasive, uses nothing more than a simple 20-second process, and does not have the ability to destroy your system.
     
    Alistair said:
    I thought that was funny.

    Anyway, he also brings up a valid point earlier in his post, one that I failed to mention in my first post. EA, a main adoptor of SecuROM, previously used SafeDisc as piracy prevention. Below is a quote from Wikipedia on who it works.



    Of course, this still prevents you from making legal backups of your game, but this copy protection is non-invasive, uses nothing more than a simple 20-second process, and does not have the ability to destroy your system.
    Click to expand...
    And of course, no-cd executable patches circumvent this, so it's really not that big of a nuisance in a larger respect. You can also rip the entire disc and crack the setup executable to remove the SafeDisc check and still make a valid backup copy. That being said, stuff like that is probably the reason why companies started getting a little tougher with anti-piracy measures.

    In the end though, you can't beat piracy. There will always be a hole to exploit, and once it's found, it's out and you can't stop it. As hard as companies try, pirates keep up pretty well. But like I said before, piracy really doesn't dent their profits. Most people wouldn't care to find out how to pirate software to begin with.
     
    Well, of course they are not going to stop piracy. And of course you can always use a No-CD crack or an emulation program, but the point being is that there are better ways than using that crap program SecuROM.

    If companies want to punish their consumers for buying their products, well, they will be burned by their customers. No one likes a company that sells you something and then tries to control what you do with it. They are like the cops in GTA: sure, they try to stop you, but there are always ways to cheat the system.
     
    I'm glad Relic doesn't put this on any of their games; one more reason for them to be my favourite developer.
    If it ends up on Dawn of War 2 I will DoS their forums. Hurr.

    For as long as the filetype .torrent exists, cracked games will also exist.
     
    I can understand the company's wanting to protect their IP, but doing it like this is a bad idea.
     
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