Self-destruct act from proprietary softwares

[stubbe]

I understand that the software writers are just protecting their softwares from piracy. And yeah prolly you guys experienced couple of similar cases. I just had this silly case. Not exactly softwares either

A friend of mine bought a full series of DVD training videos. I thought it was a plain DVD video. Turn out it's not. It's only windows-compatible, with its own player. The player checks for the hardware identity on the computer and requested a serial. The silly thing is he ordered those DVDs from his office and test it there.

Then he went home, wanting to watch the DVD at his own PC, the player requested a new serial. He contacted the CS and they said it's not allowed. So, like it or not he must watch them from his office.

Then couple of months later he got alot collections of tutorials, same publisher, but in plain video format. Don't ask where he got it, I guess you can tell. "It's a good tutorial but I feel cheated not being able to watch it in the way I want it to be. I've learn my lesson" he said.

I can't blame either side. He could've bought the DVD then download the "other version", but 150$ for a shiny, colorful printed coffee cup coaster, would be too much wouldn't it?

Also I got this experience, reinstalling all PCs at my office with Windows (yes we're still using it) and it's HP computers. No network yet and I'm having difficulty finding the drivers. The installation CDs that came with them were kept somewhere too by my boss, I can't find it, and he went abroad for months. I'm not sure the effect of non activated windows after 1 month. So I left it behind just yet since I got another priority.

1 month passed, and I found the driver then all i found is that the windows are now locked, screaming for activation. I can't access anything anymore. I can't even install the network driver. How can I activate those copies of windows? So I try manual activation by phone. But the number I call for local representation said not available anymore. Heh. Neat protection. So I redo everything again, took about a week plus. Took some headache pills and some yell from my boss not progressing.

Don't forget about Starforce cases aswell. There's this one article from a game developer that angry of how game publishers act. Making their games unbelievably uncomfortable right after the purchase. He even said piracy isn't the real issue, but the publishers themselves are. I forgot where I read this.

Yet I do think it's funny how games require the CD to be available in the drive, while major softwares don't. So gamers who want to play their favorite games must search through their CD collections in order to enjoy it, while this kind of protection can be easily bypassed by crackers everywhere. Starforce being said not included in more recent games, but some publishers still insist on this CD protection scheme.

I don't know just my babbles I guess. Need to get them out from my system :P

so what do you think guys? how to make both side satisfied? Opensource, yes, it's an alternative, but it isn't for everyone.

[techieMoe]

A friend of mine bought a full series of DVD training videos. I thought it was a plain DVD video. Turn out it's not. It's only windows-compatible, with its own player. The player checks for the hardware identity on the computer and requested a serial. The silly thing is he ordered those DVDs from his office and test it there.

Then he went home, wanting to watch the DVD at his own PC, the player requested a new serial. He contacted the CS and they said it's not allowed. So, like it or not he must watch them from his office.

My father had a similar experience with some drill writing software he bought for his high school marching band. The program is multi-platform (written in Java) for MS Windows and Mac OS X, which was good considering my father is a Mac user and his school is an all Windows shop.

He was told when he bought it (and it wasn't cheap) that he had 3 licenses. No problem. He put one on his work PC, one on his Powerbook and one on his desktop iMac. Each time he installed the software he had to call a 1-800 number to "approve" it with the company. This reminded me sadly of Microsoft's product activation for XP.

This also meant that if he had to install it on a new system he'd better do it during business hours or he was screwed. If he wanted to install it a fourth time (even if he had previously UNinstalled it on the previous machines) he still had to call them up and deactivate the previous installations.

It was a nightmare, and an unnecessary one at that. Honestly, aren't there better ways for these people to ensure people pay for their stuff? Is there that much of a black market for high school marching band drill software? ::

[Redman]

The catch is that others can determine how you use something you legally bought!

It is the same story when dvd encryption was broken in order to watch (legally bought) dvd's on a Linux system...

[stubbe]

yes, true. Other people can judge that.

I myself chooses legal stuffs first. My windows installation is original, and most softwares installed are either freewares or opensource at my home pc.

But the main question is what true benefits and privelege does legal customer have? Customer support? A friend of mine bought a legal zbrush license, turn out it's more frustrating to deal with rather than using a keygen. So he's using the keygen and kept the original copy in the shelf.

It's not matter of how they protect they softwares, crackers everywhere will eventually bypass the protection anyway. I do think when dealing with softwares, there're some people who's born a thief and some chooses legit way no matter what.

And what does proprietary softwares do for those honest people? I don't support illegal distribution of softwares either. But making their softwares very uncomfortable to use definitely not a good way to embrace more customers.

CD keys are okay I guess. By limiting the non legit CDKeys to access further facilities, like those in Quake or Counter-Strike. Some people would choose to buy original cd-keys to play multiplayer sessions. But when goes further nowadays, like activation step, it's becoming hell.

[Redman]

CD keys are okay I guess. By limiting the non legit CDKeys to access further facilities, like those in Quake or Counter-Strike. Some people would choose to buy original cd-keys to play multiplayer sessions. But when goes further nowadays, like activation step, it's becoming hell.

Cd keys are good: without it (having an illegal version), you can (mostly) play the single version, but for multiplayer, you need one.

[fingal]

Wow, I've yet to find a DVD which I can't play one way or another. I did have some problems early on, but mostly Xine (plus codecs) can handle all of them. Perhaps that will change one day: hope not.

[Redman]

hope not.

Don't worry. Xine or Mplayer came and are here to stay
And others are coming too ... long life Linux!

[Vergil83]

But the main question is what true benefits and privelege does legal customer have? .

I would say they have no legal benefits. It is in the Eula.

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

i don't support piracy but the way i see it is this: if a company's copyright/trademark is being affected there are only two ways to combat it: legally (through the courts) and in the market (as if it were a competitor). consider this: Nike is a desirable sports brand. they suffer from forged clothes being made and (obviously) lose profits through this. i've even heard of Nike-approved factories selling off excess stock into the counterfeit market to increase their profits. this means that some of the counterfeits being sold are EXACTLY the same as the ones Nike are selling. so, what do Nike do? they use the two options. they sue the factories (and anyone else who infringes) and they use marketing to pass off the counterfeits as lower-quality. they compete against the counterfeiters. the customer (at least in their own minds) gets better value by buying "genuine" Nike products that by buying the counterfeits. now, counterfeitting will never be eliminated, but these methods minimise the losses.
what do software/media companies do? well, they're in the same situation. the "fakes" are of the same comparable quality (exactly the same). they could do the same thing. to an extent they market (i know people who'd rather pay than get it for free). they also sue people doing illegal acts. the difference is that these people are average joes who have no idea that what they're doing is wrong (and yes, i know people who honestly believe it's perfectly legal and ignore my legal expertise on the subject). also, their marketing doesn't create the added value over pirated goods. consider this: you download a song legally, what do you get? limited quality (usually only what they sell you); inability to back it up (i have two computers and 2 MP3 players in my house, never mind wanting to play it at my dad's house. to top it off, i'm considering saving up and having a go at creating a "Hi-Fi"-style computer solely for playing music. will DRMed music work on ALL these machines? doubtful); among other pedantic license restrictions. now, if i were to pirate music, it would be as easy as firing up kazaa and downloading it for nothing. i don't get the restrictions either. hmm...
so, as you can see. taking legal action against normal people is PR suicide and buying downloaded songs is less "Value for Money" than downloading it illegally. the clincher is that they can't put DRM on CDs since older hi-fis will refuse to play them. where are these pirated songs coming from? those "unprotected" CDs. as you can see, DRMing MP3s is totally pointless because if people really want to pirate they'll just buy a CD and pass it round. also, there's no chance of DRM taking off on CDs (for the above reason and it would have happened already) and we're not going to be playing music on DVD/HD-Media for years to come (CD-Quality is more than good enough) so this problem will not go away. locking your back door is totally pointless if your front door is wide open.
what could the media industry do instead? well, for a start they can ditch DRM and the stupid licensing restrictions. secondly, they should be looking at CLEARLY telling people that piracy is wrong without the moronic comparisons to theft (it isn't). finally, they need to prove to customers that it is worth their money to pay for the music legally instead of downloading it illegally.

CONCLUSION: i realised about a minute ago that i went off-topic, but i like it so much that i can't bare to delete it. just replace DRM with "Activation" or whatever is appropriate and it still holds. getting a hold of dodgy CD-Keys is far too easy for activation to work, and the number of people that don't know that PC World are pirating windows will be in for a nasty shock