Rights, and the Digital Manifestations Thereof

WARNING - wall of text ahead!

So, Spore is coming out soon. I've been waiting somewhat impatiently for this game since I read about it in PC Gamer a couple years ago. It's Will Wright's latest masterpiece, and it looks like it just might eclipse many of his earlier works of genius.

There's just one problem - the game is being published by EA, who have decided to include a ridiculous "protection" software called SecuROM. The original scheme was for the game to re-authenticate every ten days to make sure you haven't turned into a filthy software pirate in the week since you installed the game. The 10-day interval has been dropped, but the game can still only be activated three times.

So, if I were to buy this game and install it, there's one activation gone. What if I reinstall my operating system, or my hard drive dies? That's two activations. What if I upgrade my video card, or processor, or add a wireless network adapter? That's another activation. Or is it? No-one but EA and the publisher of SecuROM know exactly what hardware changes will trigger a re-activation.

Restricting a customer's use of software in the name of preventing piracy is commonly referred to as "Digital Rights Management". One wonders about the origins of this term - specifically, the word "Management", and whose rights are being managed. It may be the rights of the copyright holder - to receive due credit for, and profit from, their creative work. This is a noble goal, and the publishers can hardly be blamed for pursuing it. But, the implementations of this "management" often conjure a very different connotation - that the end users' rights are being dealt with as one would "manage" a noxious weed or an outbreak of genital warts.

The idea is to make software piracy as difficult as possible. Unfortunately, even the most brutal, invasive copy-protection schemes rarely buy more than a few days before pirated works begin appearing on Bittorrent trackers and alleys in developing countries. The end result is that the software is pirated anyways, while paying customers are saddled with software that's a pain in the ass to use.

The worst part is that the pirated wares (or maybe warez?), with the copy-protection fooled, crippled or outright removed, may actually perform better than the commercial version that the customer paid his or her hard-earned money for. How bad is it when the pirate gets a better user experience than the paying customer?

I'm not convinced that piracy is as big of a problem as the software industry is claiming, but it's a problem nonetheless. It is obvious to me that something should be done to deter piracy, but it is also obvious that these ridiculous, customers-be-damned measures are not the way to go.

So, I'm faced with a problem - what to do about Spore? It is a game that I want - that I've wanted for a very long time - but now that release date is less than a month away, I'm not sure if I'll be making the purchase. I suppose I could purchase a copy so that I would have a valid license, put it on a shelf and install a copy that's more...convenient, but it's reasonable to assume that a fully-functional, valid copy would be necessary to access the online functionality and content.

Is Spore's online content and extended functionality worth jumping through a few hoops? From what I've seen and heard, yes. Is it worth the risk of stuffing up my operating system install, then dealing with EA's toll-based tech support just to reinstall the game if I've already used my three installs? I'm just a bit doubtful. What if a large portion of their customer base decides to boycott the game? My money would be on EA blaming piracy for lagging sales, and try to screw their customers even harder the next time they publish a game.

This presents me with quite a dilemma: if I (and large swaths of the PC gaming community) boycott games with DRM to make a statement, publishers will continue to use the piracy-is-killing-us excuse to keep screwing their customers, driving more of us away with each new release. They may eventually stop developing games for PC. I could give a shit if Halo 3 never came to the PC, but I would sorely miss being able to play games like Crysis and GTA 4. Then again, if we keep buying games with DRM, publishers will screw us anyways in the name of the bottom line.

One final note: the Spore Creature Creator (a demo with a small portion of the game's functionality) has the same protection, and pirated copies of it appeared on Bittorrent trackers a couple days after it was released. The significance of this? The protection has already failed. All the energy devoted to employing this "protection", and the coming backlash from legitimate customers, was all for nothing. They know damn well it's pointless, little more than posturing to appease the shareholders.

This is not my first rant on DRM, nor is it likely to be my last.