An outstanding post today over at Penny Arcade dealing with Ubisoft’s most recent measure to combat piracy. Essentially, the game requires you to have constant access to the internet–any break in connectivity, and “poof” you lose all your progress. I spend quite a bit of coin on a top of the line Verizon connection, and I can say that my connectivity is in constant flux. I can’t imagine a real world scenario where this kind of DRM isn’t going to drive someone batshit crazy. As PA’s Tycho comments, it will fail fast and hard.
But I really recommend Tycho’s post today precisely because it points to the need for cooperation, and not competition, between the two sides (publishers and pirates). Publishers have to recognize, as mxrk indicated a long time ago, that most people are willing to pay for a product so long as it is convenient and the price is reasonable. And pirates have to realize that continually justifying the outright theft of property will undermine any validity to their initial objections (accessibility, owner’s rights to transfer and duplicate, time displacement, fair pricing). If things continue to escalate, then, as Tycho writes, “nobody wins.”
