Ubisoft's New DRM Cracked In Under 25-Hours

[FoxEye]

yeah we'd need the whole concept of "fair use" to be codified in law too before you do that. but at the end of the day, I think most of us would agree if you haven't paid for it/ don't think it's worth the cost, you don't have the right to just pirate it.

and no, I'm no saint. In my student days...

 

[Dolph]

The trouble is no-one cares about the punishment.

Every now and again you hear about some poor 39 year old being fined $130,000 for copying 18 CDs. All everyone says is 'well, it's so unlikely to be me I'll carry on pirating'.

The difference is it is much easier to manage as a criminal matter, because then the state monopoly of force can be utilised, which in turn makes for a much easier means to gather evidence of guilt than the current setup.

 

[Dolph]

yeah we'd need the whole concept of "fair use" to be codified in law too before you do that. but at the end of the day, I think most of us would agree if you haven't paid for it/ don't think it's worth the cost, you don't have the right to just pirate it.

and no, I'm no saint. In my student days...

I'm absolutely happy to have fair use rights (including format shifting) codified into law as well. It should be absolutely clear exactly what rights automatically apply to the purchaser and what rights they do not have.

 

[FoxEye]

cloud computing

what exactly makes cloud computing the answer? couldn't you use cloud services to run illegal/unlicensed software?

perhaps I just don't understand this whole "cloud" marlarkey (likely)

 

[shauncr91]

The simplest solution to piracy and the impact it has on consumers remains to be banning DRM (for the consumers) and making copyright infringement a criminal, rather than a civil matter (for the content owner).

Any objections?

Only if the punishments were sorted out. As it stands the punishments are nowhere near proportionate to the crime.

People being fined hundreds of thousands of pounds because they downloaded a few dozen albums is in my mind a worse punishment than people get for murder. That kind of punishment screws you financially for the rest of your llife where as a murder charge is nothing like it.

 

[britboy4321]

Cloud computing as I understand it is ultra-thin client.

So you'll tell the game developer exactly which IP to send the 50 'screenshot' frames per second, and send your keyboard strokes/mouse movements back to them realtime. Nothing really is stored on your computer apart from 'show the screens you've just got off the net and send back the keyboartd/mouse stuff' software.

So I'm not sure even how you'd start to think about pirating stuff. As the server only doles the screenshots out to exactly the individual people (by IP address) who have given them the wonga!! The source code for the game never even leaves the companys building and your computer renders nothing - its' all done on their internal big whopping computers and just screenshots chucked out to you very quickly ..

 

[Deadbeat]

Naah - my mother-in-law literally buys Nintendo DS games only and purely because she doesn't know how to copy them.

Exactly the same for my 7 year old nephew. He does not know how to copy them. He is scared of hiring a bloke to pull the console apart to replace one of the chips as he spend '2 birthdays, 2 christmasses' on the present and thinks it might get ruined. Exactly the same for my sister-in-law, she has never heard of TORRENT and has NO IDEA what a crack is. She can barely program the microwave and you would suggest she could copy whatever she wanted if she chose?

Saying copy protection does not make a difference is just simply not true. It stop lots of lots of technically feable people - who then go out and buy the games! This is just fact.

That's a wonderful set of choices you've made to represent the cross-section of the gaming community, there. I bet you hardly dribbled at all for 10 minutes after that. Are you saying that your nan, your 7-year old nephew and your sister-in-law being unable to copy games easily is a victory for DRM? By the sounds of it, your choice of representatives would have a hard time copying a word document, so I don't think DRM has made much of an impact there.

Regardless, you're completely ignoring any point that you can't countermand. Gamers, for the most part, buy the games that are worrth their money. Some will pirate a game that they would have bought, had they not been able to get it for free. Some never buy games, and get everything for free - whether they like it or not. If anyone can show me one single example of DRM or other copy protection making an impact on the proportion of these figures, just one unbiased report that even hints toward DRM being effective in any way, I will apologise for my outspoken opinions, admit fault and retire from the discussion in shame. All you need to do, Britboy, is show me one tiny little bit of proof. I bet you can't.

 

[saguy]

She doesn't. But if it's any consolation she knows how to eat enough food to make her 21 stone heavy. And she smells slightly of wee.

Ooooh too much info

 

[chaparral]

The person who stole my bike when I was 14 said it was my fault because I didn't lock it up properly He actually believed it was my fault.

It strange how i would most likely blame myself and i would feel it was my fault if i left the keys in my motorbike/car and they got stolen...

 

[Alex74]

It strange how i would most likely blame myself and i would feel it was my fault if i left the keys in my motorbike/car and they got stolen...

Hardly comparable though..If I leave the keys in the car, I (rightly) feel like an idiot, because it can be so easily avoided, and the mistake can be easily recognised and taken advantage of by a potential thief.

This, on the other hand, is a case where developers are trying to make the best of locks that are available, all of which can be picked with relatively simple ease (no keys required)..

 

[Tefal]

If anyhing they encourage people to download with this DRM nonsense, look at Oblivion (and maybe Fallout 3), that sold millions and had no copy protection at all

exactlky make a good game, make it moddible and people will buy it.

Make a crappy game charge 60 quid and say you need to be online at all times and if your connection drops you crasha nd lose your save and people wont.

(well the pc "gamers" wont the average casual gamer will be cause they will not here about the drm or the bad things because they only see the ads not the gaming news.)

 

[Sho]

Thanks you SKIDROW!!!!!!!

 

[Evilsod]

I think its safe to say the companies really can't be that stupid anymore. It can't possibly be true that they wanted to combat piracy with this system, in all likelyhood they were just trying to restrict the customisation of a game. I mean could you imagine Oblivion without the capability to mod it? Most companies couldn't cope. Actually having to release GOOD DLCs so people want to buy them over user made content? I know people laughed at the cheap DLCs for it but you can't argue that Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles were worthy of the price.

 

[Dolph]

Only if the punishments were sorted out. As it stands the punishments are nowhere near proportionate to the crime.

People being fined hundreds of thousands of pounds because they downloaded a few dozen albums is in my mind a worse punishment than people get for murder. That kind of punishment screws you financially for the rest of your llife where as a murder charge is nothing like it.

Do remember that most of the damages awarded are not for downloading, but for distributing (by making the file available to others to download) which is slightly different, and that most of the high damages have been in the US, not the UK.

However, I would be quite happy to see punishments equivalent to theft for simple personal infringement (ranges from community service to a maximum penalty of 7 years imprisonment), and handling stolen goods for distribution or enabling others to infringe (maximum penalty 14 years in prison). I would expect (as is the case with theft) that most offences would get nowhere near those sentences.

 

[Amnesia]

The simplest solution to piracy and the impact it has on consumers remains to be banning DRM (for the consumers) and making copyright infringement a criminal, rather than a civil matter (for the content owner).

Any objections?

but then you have kids uploading videos to youtube with their favourite track playing in the background.....or that fat kid singing numa numa swinging his arms in the air.........ok it wasn't to everyones taste but should he be sent to prison for it ?

ok maybe a bad example ....it would be hilarious if he were locked up for it

 

[Evilsod]

Do remember that most of the damages awarded are not for downloading, but for distributing (by making the file available to others to download) which is slightly different, and that most of the high damages have been in the US, not the UK.

However, I would be quite happy to see punishments equivalent to theft for simple personal infringement (ranges from community service to a maximum penalty of 7 years imprisonment), and handling stolen goods for distribution or enabling others to infringe (maximum penalty 14 years in prison). I would expect (as is the case with theft) that most offences would get nowhere near those sentences.

Would your average tax payer be happy with that though? If a government stated it was going to combat internet piracy by prosecuting 95% of times, where the hell is all the money going to come from? The price of investigating, gathering evidence, setting up the trial and after the trial, ensuring the punishments are fulfilled be it prison or a fine.

Would you be happy that your money was been wasted in such a way? There simply isn't a legitimate reason to investigate single people for piracy because it would just cost too much for next to no benefit.

 

[Dolph]

but then you have kids uploading videos to youtube with their favourite track playing in the background.....or that fat kid singing numa numa swinging his arms in the air.........ok it wasn't to everyones taste but should he be sent to prison for it ?

ok maybe a bad example ....it would be hilarious if he were locked up for it

See my comment about fair use.

 

[Dolph]

Would your average tax payer be happy with that though? If a government stated it was going to combat internet piracy by prosecuting 95% of times, where the hell is all the money going to come from? The price of investigating, gathering evidence, setting up the trial and after the trial, ensuring the punishments are fulfilled be it prison or a fine.

Would you be happy that your money was been wasted in such a way? There simply isn't a legitimate reason to investigate single people for piracy because it would just cost too much for next to no benefit.

Surely the same logic applies to theft then, or indeed most crimes in the UK.

I do not consider defence of rights to be a waste of the government's time, indeed it is one of the few things I do strongly support the state should be doing. No-one questions that the state must do this for physical property, I fail to see why updating this to include non-physical property is so opposed.

 

[Evilsod]

Surely the same logic applies to theft then, or indeed most crimes in the UK.

I do not consider defence of rights to be a waste of the government's time, indeed it is one of the few things I do strongly support the state should be doing. No-one questions that the state must do this for physical property, I fail to see why updating this to include non-physical property is so opposed.

You could but piracy is a lot more... frequent than theft. And besides, there are so many different levels of it. Technically downloading an episode of House when its shown in the USA is piracy though i'll be damned if i think of it like that. Downloading a game before you buy it because the developer didn't bother giving a demo? And so many other reasons. As said the main thing is the distribution, and what are you gonna do? You can set upload speed to 0 or you can be a good seeder. Either way, what are the people you send it to using it for? There really is no black or white, its just 1 big grey area.

In the end, ignorance is bliss. If you nicked someones Ferarri to try it out before you bought 1 yourself they might be a bit ****ed. If you returned it without them ever finding out nothing would happen. Same goes for piracy, unless you go looking for it it'll never trouble you.

 

[Deadbeat]

Surely the same logic applies to theft then, or indeed most crimes in the UK.

I do not consider defence of rights to be a waste of the government's time, indeed it is one of the few things I do strongly support the state should be doing. No-one questions that the state must do this for physical property, I fail to see why updating this to include non-physical property is so opposed.

The problem that's likely to result is that people won't see it the same way. One of the reasons piracy is so rampant is that on the surface at least, it's a faceless crime - there are no discernable victims, and there's no visible surveillance for it, as there is with other forms of theft. As far as Average Joe is concerned, piracy doesn't cause the same damage as physical theft - certainly not to Average Joe himself, who can't understand ownership of digital media. I'm not saying it's right, but the implementation of such laws are inevitably going to conform to public opinion, and if they don't it'll be laid at the doors of publishers, levering pressure on the courts.