Posts Tagged DRM
XBox 360 DRM Policies – Love it or Leave it
Posted by eric in Gaming, Hardware, Microsoft XNA on January 23, 2008
As I’m sure anyone with an XBox 360 knows, Microsoft had some stability issues with XBox LIVE over the Christmas Holidays and continued to have issues well into January. Even Major Nelson posted a message from Marc Whitten, General Manager of XBox LIVE discussing and apologizing for the issue.
During this period, users were unable to log into their XBox LIVE accounts. This combined with the DRM method which Microsoft uses on the XBox 360, users were unable to access Movies, TV Shows or In-Game Content they have downloaded to their console. This caused quite the uproar or people spouting off the usual consumer rights bullcrap. “I should be able to have full access to anything I buy!“, yelled the masses.
At first I joined the mob because I was frustrated that I wasn’t even able to continue my XNA development as even my own XNA created games for the 360 required me to be logged in before I could play them. It was both frustrating and laughable at the same time.
But as the debate and flames continued I started to think about what this really all means to me. Sure, I’m spending my own money for Microsoft Points on a virtual product tendered and stored by Microsoft. With this, you have to either accept that Microsoft is within its rights to protect this information in any way it sees fit, or seek out an alternative that has a license model that you agree with.
It all comes down to people complaining about the licensing model and how Microsoft chooses to enforce it. Older technologies had similar licensing models that were enforced differently. Even a standard DVD movie has it’s own licensing model:
- You’re only allowed to create X number of backups (DMCA)
- You can’t play it through another device (Macrovision)
- You can only play it in a the specified region (DVD Region Codes)
So limitations of use on purchased materials is nothing new to consumers, it’s just now that the product is completely virtual companies have to go to extra lengths to make sure that their property is protected and people can’t just go about stealing their product.
My point here is that Microsoft has made perfectly clear how they are handling the DRM and copy protection policies on the XBox 360. What every person in this position needs to weigh is What is this data worth to me?
If you feel that the XBox 360 content is worth the money and worth dealing with their DRM restrictions, then accept it and feel free to use the content as permitted by Microsoft. If you’re morraly against the restrictions or feel that they’re unfair, then thanks to a free market economy there are plenty of other options. Sony, Nintendo, PC Games, Mac Games, Arcade Games… outdoor sports?
“But Eric, I REALLY want to play Halo 3 and watch my movies no matter if I have internet access or not!“
Then perhaps an XBox 360 isn’t the device to be doing this on. I hear laptops have come a long way in the past few years 
Apple TV: Another Internet Asshole’s Opinion
Posted by eric in Apple, Hardware, Multimedia on January 21, 2008
I recall walking through my local Apple retail store a while back while purchasing my wife’s Black MacBook. One of the products that caught my eye was a little white box plugged into an LCD TV. It was my first exposure to Apple TV.
I was looking through the features and was somewhat interested. It seemed like a media extender for iTunes, which was fine if that was what you were in the market for. Built in WiFi was a big plus as was the built in hard drive. It had HDMI output and was setup on an HD LCD TV, so I decided to poke around the UI looking for some video content. The Apple store had pre-loaded it with a couple TV shows, movie clips and trailers. The content looked very pixelated and low quality. I assumed it was due to the Apple store not loading any HD content onto the Apple TV but after asking the ‘Genius’ at the Apple store what was up, I was informed that there was no HD content available for Apple TV or iTunes.
Say what? Apple built a media extender with HDMI and video playback capability rated at 720p and then decided not to release any HD content for it? Are they retarded?
I then let Apple TV slip into the back of my head as another hardware endeavor destined to fail, along with WebTV and the Apple Interactive Television Box.
This brings us to last week while watching Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at MacWorld 2008. Apple has completely revamped the UI and transformed the Apple TV into a media playing, HD streaming, video renting machine! Is this a good thing? I think it depends on how you handle your media.
Over the last couple years I was a big purchaser of DVD movies. Not only as a fan of cinema but also as a collector. I don’t want to think about how much money I’ve spent on movies as I’m sure it’d be both depressing and staggering. But as I sit here and look at the monolith that is my DVD collection, I look through the titles and think how often I actually watch them. The most I’ve ever watched a title is about once or twice a year, if it’s a movie I really enjoy. Some movies, I’m ashamed to say, are still in their original shrink wrap packaging.
So while watching Mr. Jobs’ speech, I began to wonder, is electronic delivery and rental the next step in my movie watching? At first I rebuffed the idea of buying an Apple TV for $229 because it seemed silly. I mean, $229 for a device that lets me rent movies? That’s like buying a golf cart you only drive to your local Blockbuster Video. But then I started crunching the numbers in my head comparing the upgrade of my home theater to a new HD format, say, Blu-Ray vs. getting an Apple TV.
Let’s assume I’m purchasing a player and movies that I’ll watch once a year. The numbers add up like this for an average of 20 new movies per year for the first year:
Blu-Ray:
- Player: $399
- New Releases (such as Superbad, or Simpsons Movie): $28.99
- Library Release (such as Blazing Saddles): $14.99
Apple TV:
- Player: $229
- New Releases: $4.99
- Library Releases: $3.99
Now if we assume that of those twenty HD movies I’m going to watch are only 75% new releases, our numbers add up to (for the first year):
- Blu-Ray: $908.80
- Apple TV: $332.80
The cost of Apple TV for the first year of ownership is almost ONE THIRD OF THE PRICE of Blu-Ray and most likely HDDVD, which probably won’t be around much longer with the departure of Warner Brothers to the Blu-Ray camp.
The reason I’m comparing PURCHASING Blu-Ray titles vs. RENTING iTunes titles is because there isn’t a Blockbuster or other video rental store within 15 minutes of my home (as they seem to be disappearing), so in order for Blu-Ray to have the same accessibility, it’ll need to be on hand. Unfair? Perhaps, but as I said before, this is MY interpretation of the matter at hand and how it’ll hit MY pocket book 
“BUT ERIC,” you say, “BLU-RAY IS 1080P AND APPLE TV ONLY SUPPORTS 720P! YOU n00b!” – Probably You
Alas, I can’t deny the truth. But then, what does science have to say about the relevance of that argument? I point you over to this very good article at Audioholics.com titled “1080p and the Acuity of Human Vision“. If you have some time I do suggest you go read the entire article, but for those not in the mood for some math and reading I’ll quote directly from the article:
“Put bluntly, from 8 feet away while watching a 50 inch plasma TV, the human eye is generally incapable of reliably distinguishing any detail finer than that shown on a true 720p display!”
I’m not an Apple fan boy, far from it. I have just as many PC’s in my house as I do Apple computers. But personally, for MY own reasons and number crunching, it seems that Apple TV is a pretty sweet deal and is in a position to give Sony a run in the upcoming format DELIVERY wars, which will be streaming vs. physical media
The Death of PC Gaming and Why I returned BioShock to BestBuy.
Posted by eric in Gaming, General Software on August 27, 2007
One of the most hyped games to come out recently is BioShock. It’s being treated as the Doom3 of 2007 as it brings with it the Unreal Engine 3.0 and was touted as having amazing water effects. I, like many other gamers, was very excited and saw this as the first next generation game we could finally play which would utilize our DirectX 10 hardware (I don’t count Lost Planet as it has shown almost no visible difference, if not worse graphics, when using DX10).
Like many other gamers, I also own a couple game consoles. One of these being the Xbox 360, which Bioshock was also being released on. I figured since I’ve spent good money upgrading my PC with a GeForce 8800GTX, 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of DDR2-800, I might as well FINALLY get my moneys worth out of all this hardware and purchase the PC Version of BioShock.
After purchasing the PC-DVD version I headed home and thought I’d do a little reading up before I tried to install it as I had heard beforehand that a few stores had surfaced that people have had issues while trying to Install or Play BioShock. Well, I didn’t have to look far as my own friend Nick wrote in his blog about issues he ran into about his on-board sound not working in 5.1. Further reading pointed me to articles about SecuROM and how it installs its copy protection software into your PC, which is not optional not can it be uninstalled.
Now, I’m by no means a paranoid computer user and I understand that some programs have required components that are needed from them to operate properly, but, to install anti-piracy software on a computer without the option for uninstallation is unconscionable. I’m not sure who over at 2K games thought that this was the best way to go with BioShock, but shame on them for their lapse in judgment.
The unfortunate part is that this is the trend now for games which do not require online play. Titles such as Warcraft 3 or Command & Conquer 3, which do feature a single player campaign, still use online key validation before a user is able to sign onto the multi-player service. Where this leaves games such as BioShock which are solely a “single player campaign” type of game, is that they have to decentralize their copy protection schemes and rely on client software to prevent piracy, treating every user as if they were a common software pirate.
I was so put off by what I was reading that I returned my unopened copy of BioShock to Best Buy and got my money back.
Where does this put me? Well, I could pay an extra $10 and purchase a copy for the Xbox 360 (which I will probably end up doing anyway), but as a consumer, what really are my options? Basically 2K games is saying my options are:
- Play BioShock on the PC, BUT, you will install OUR software on YOUR computer to ensure that you will not pirate the copy of BioShock that you purchased. Because Windows does not have any copy protection built into it, it’s on OUR head to keep the software safe and because it’s not an online game, we can centralize our copy protection.
- Play BioShock on the Xbox 360, BUT, you’ll have to pay $10 more and are OK with the fact that the Xbox 360 has adequate copy protection methods in place so we need not concern ourself with it.
Do you see the flaw in this logic yet?
It’s bull flop! If you have a modded Xbox 360 (which isn’t too hard to do), copying the game is as simple as firing up your preferred DVD cloning software and hitting go. So why the big emphasis on copy protection on the PC? Because the fine folks at 2K games don’t want the piracy of the PC version to be on THEIR heads. The XBox 360 version susceptible to piracy? Well, that’s a failure in MICROSOFT’S copy protection scheme.
All this copy protection on PC games is really the game industry trying to cover their asses because they lack control over the platform. So it begs the question that was asked over at PC Perspective, Is PC Gaming dead?
In my opinion, I think so.
The fact of the matter is, because the operating system will never lock a user out from accessing their systems (as Game Developers wished they would), the only platform Game Development companies can develop on without a care in the world as far as piracy is concerned would be consoles.
Who would have thought that a PC’s flexibility and openness would be it’s downfall as a gaming platform?
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