Does copy protection create software pirates?

In Australia, copyright law prohibits the 'personal use' burning of back-up CDs of even an Audio CD, let alone Games and/or program/data CDs. The issue is apparently 'waived' if the backup is considered 'mission-critical' to a business' survivability....such as a 'System' CD or perhaps Photoshop in the case of a Graphics Company, where the loss/damage of the original could adversely impact on the Company's performance/survival/running....

I agree with you frogboy..for the ones who bought the cd..games or other forms of entertainment..and some software out there is madd expensive..one lil scratch..and thats like a couple of hundreds or thousands gone down the drain..i think that if you buy something for that much amount of money..you should be able to do what you want with it..its yours..i had a question about this screenshot..everytime i send it..it says that the image didnt go through..and i dont know why..i did it the same method as the other ones...any input admin frogboy and/or Admin Jafo? thanks

I have to agree here, it's more a pain to the legit user than a non legit user. For every protection created there is always someone smart enough to figure out how they did it! And as mentioned once you screw up a CD then that's it! As an example I use Macromedia's Director a lot for client work and after paying I think it was around $1200 for one CD you can imagine I treat it like it's made of gold. I don't mind paying for it, but I'd hate to have to do it again.

Personally I'm really warming to the idea that stardock is an example off and now to a certain extent Macromedia and that is subscription based software. That way the company can keep track of who's using what serial (or what ever) and at the same time it is no hassle to me other than when a server is down which is rare, and at the same time it tells me when updates are out.

My thought is this, bring the price down on software and people will buy it more. I am only too aware of how much development can cost and reproduction and all that side of things as I do it myself for a living; but some of the prices for software are getting ridiculous and let's be honest everytime you buy an application these days you cannot help but say to yourself.......I spend say $100-1000's now and I know they will release a new version in 12 months time and I'll have to do it all over again. A classic example (without getting to high on a soap box) is that I have brought and own Macromedia Director 8.5, now I had to have the MX upgrade to get Flash MX support, and now they tell me I'll have to buy Director MX 2004 to get Flash MX 2004 support. I and other independent developers like me don't have the money to keep buying these things just for one little new feature or even worse 100 bug fixes

I agree with Frogboy, give customers enough of a reason to buy it and they will. And if they don't then you have to ask yourself......what did we do wrong to make them not buy it, don't punish those that did by trying to get a the ones that don't.

Regards to all,

About not wanting to cart CDs everywhere...Have you ever heard of CloneCD? Well, you can make copies of "copy-protectes" for legitimate uses. Included in the program is an add-on called VirtualCloneDrive. It lets you mount an ISO and use it as a virtual CD drive. There are other progs that do this, but this one works with the copy-protection. What I've done is made ISOs of all my games, stored them locally on my hard drive (you will need gobs of space to do this) and simply mount what I want when I want. It also reduces wear and tear on the actual discs. Give it a shot.

Good article, Brad.

I have to admit to feeling much the same.

Most game publishers (not to mention the music and movie industries) seem to have convinced themselves that everyone is a latent (or extant) thief, with no other goal in mind but to steal everything they can.

Not that there aren't those who behave this way, but I still believe that they aren't the majority. I think most people are willing to pony up for something they want, but many of even the honest are starting to become fed up with the idea that they are presumed guilty, even when they purchase the product.

Copy protection provides *no* real benefit as regards its stated purpose. All it does is say to the consumer that the company they're doing business with thinks that they are a thief. And it does *nothing* at all to actually prevent the theft that they are so concerned about.

Sooner or later, such an attitude will backfire, and badly. A company or business simply cannot continue to insult and alienate the customers that actually keep them in business and expect to stay there in the long term.

I don't think that companies ever wills top piracy of any form which concerns software, music or other stuff what ever they do. Maybe they can limit it, so that it is more less spread on the net, but those who really want it will get it anyway.

Agreed. The ridiculous forms that copy protection takes these days, makes it only more attractive to use cracks and the like to circumvent those restrictions.

I'm a little torn on this issue.

On one side, yes, with some games/programs you really don't need to worry about pirates, as they are essentially based on the internet, and as such you can verify everything server-side. MMORPGs come to mind there.

However, if its on a local machine, there simply IS NO WAY to implement any effective copyprotection. It does not matter if the program requires a download, server-side verification and whatnot.

And as you rightly pointed out, it just inconveniences customers. Personally, I buy everything I use. However, there have been a few cases where I lost the original registration info or CD, and guess what? Sure as heck I see that I get around that, one way or another.

I'm much happier with Stardocks business model, as I can easily recover lost keys, get the software back rather quickly... and am back in business in no time.

The software out there like Macromedia and Adobe products that cost an arm and a leg cost as much as they do partly because of piracy. They have to make the money back to keep the company going and pay for new product development. For me, I'm not bothered by paying for upgrades because the money you can make using these programs professionaly pays for the software dozens several times over.
Now, I honestly think we're not too far away from a point where none of your music, movies, or software is distributed on discs. You want a watch a movie, you stream it, listen to music... stream it... wireless networking will change the world.
There will always be piracy, but subscription based life is not too far away...

Not sure about other forms of software, but as far as games go this is one of the best and so true piracy article's i've ever read.

I hate having to find my game cd and stick it in the drive just so as i can play >

To paraphrase my father, "Copy protection doesn't keep pirates from hacking the data. Copy protection keeps honest people honest." And I would add that it also annoys legitimate users to the point that they seek out illegal alternatives.

I have never purchased an audio CD that was copy protected, but the day I do will be the day I return it to the store and buy no more. If I can't rip it to MP3's for my MP3 player and NOT have my ability to copy it to the MP3 player hindered or limited (switching "albums" so to speak), then I'm going to seek alternatives. I'll either seek out a way to bypass the limitation or...

...I'll do without. Now how is THAT going to help the audio CD manufacturers? hmm?

Software's never been a big issue for me. I buy what I use and I protect the CDs. The ability to use an ISO image of a CD I own rather than haul the disc around is helpful, but I haven't done that...yet.

maybe someone can explain this to me, but why is putting a no cd crack onto a game YOU OWN wrong? I understand why they come about (piracy), but some people are like me and hate swapping CDs so often. If I own the game, and I put a no cd crack on to avoid frequent swapping, should I feel quilty in some way?

spoon_T_Rex

My best guess is that technically if you read the agreement on things like games and applications, they probably say something about agreeing to not changing, reverse engineering or editing the files in any way. So technically you are breaking your agreement with the software company by doing anything that changes the way it works from the way it was when they released it. That's my guess anyway.

the ONLY people that cd copy protection stops is the casual person who feels like sharing a cd with a friend of theirs... or someone trying to copy a cd from work

it will NEVER stop real pirates
nothing has yet
flexlm
copycop

you name it
it'll be cracked in HOURS

even subscription systems don't stop piracy
you can crack their protection/holding also

MMORPG's?
There are two home made servers floating around that people came up with, while I'm not sure if people are even still working on them, they WORKED and well at that. So no, nothing is actually safe.

And please don't keep up with the guise that Macromedia or any of them price their software the way they do because of piracy, its because they CAN, because they OWN the market.

Goos article I just wanted to say that I have been a Stardock customer for several years now, and I love how you have set up the Object desktop subscription service. I definately would be more than willing to use a similar setup for its convenience, ease of locating serial numbers (if you redo your harddrive for example) and frequent updates from other companies. I hope other companies take a lesson from you. You have also kept the cost reasonable, I feel like I get alot of value for my dollar with Stardock.

I agree, I used to pirate your software, but what I noticed was that it simply wasn't worth pirating. Your company was updating it so often, and with so many new features, that my pirated version would be almost instantly out of date. I'd always be wanting that new feature in WindowsBlinds ver x.xx or wanting to test out that new cursorXP program.

So I got a membership, and I love it. Its my belief that if a software company can offer me solid software that is consistantly being honed and updated while also offering me a few perks along the way, then I'll buy right in to the subscription model. Otherwise, ill fight vehemently against it.

As for games, I'll pirate them. If they're good, i'll buy. If they include multiplayer thats really solid (Battlefield) I'll buy. Otherwise, they get uninstalled. Its as simple as that, I can't afford to spend money on $70 games only to find them to be stale and uninteresting. So I pirate, and only once I've gotten a taste of the full game do I buy.

Your comments bring up a very good point heavyindustry. People don't like shelling out $50 for a game to find out they hate it. I don't know how many times I've done that and it really puts me off into buying games. I think demos or other ways of presenting how the games play is something that can help deter piracy also. Yet hardly any are readily available.
If I get sick of getting burned on bad games, and there is no way to try before you buy, then I could look towards piracy where there is no real way to get burned.

I have bought a LOT more audio cd's than I used to in the past, simply because now I am able to preview songs at brick and mortor or online stores. Those places that don't allow that, don't get my business. So I've greatly minimized the chance of buying a CD I don't like and therefore am actually buying more of them because of that confidence.

I think that is more or less what Brad is getting at, give the Customers reasons to be customers, and you'll in effect have less piracy.

Hallelujah! Someone finally gets it. It's the simple economics of it. If there is enough value to being a customer, most people will chose that option. I can't even tell you how many times I rebuild my desktop and laptop(I'm a software developer), and I love the fact that re-loading everything from my ObjectDesktop Suite is so darn simple. Low cost + ease of use + frequent updates = many loyal customers I'm glad to see Stardock not capitulating into the growing trend of treating customers like criminals, and showing their success with healthy profits.

I've lost the CD's to games I love to play and had to go to the net to get the cracks. I've bought $60 games that really sucked and made me wish I hadn't spent the money on it. Just last month I wanted to load up some old games that I hadn't played in a while, but when I tried to download the most recent updates, it complained that my CD Serials were no longer valid. Argh! >

Make it cheaper and easier and you will make great profit on the volume of customers....

Now if the music industry would only figure this out. Their customers are telling them in droves that they are not willing to shell out $16 for a CD that they can't copy to their computer or portable player and has 50% crappy songs on it...

Thanks Brad.

Okay, I do not play games on my computer at all..Only ones on my system are solitare and minesweep..So what I understand is that all you gamers generally have to have the disk in hand to play your game(just like gameboy and a cartridge.)..I could see how lugging a cd and risking damage to said cd could be really aggrivating..and I see your point and reasoning on this..Now that someones explained it I can see how inteligent Stardock is on the issue..(not like I ever questioned their inteligence anyways..) but I love the convience of this subscription software..Thanks guys...!

I would have to agree with FrogBoy. I have been deeply involved in the computer industry for about 20 years now. In that time I have seen copy protection devices of one form or another, come and go. The results have always been the same. Ultimately, lost revenue to the manufacturer. Wasted time, effort and money to devise the copy protection, lost sales due to customer inconvenience. For me, the bottom line is simple.

Make the product worth the money and you don't need to protect it!

This is where Microsoft has such a problem. Their products aren't worth what they charge, and as such, they have created one of the worst piracy problems of all time. In most cases, we are FORCED to use their products and thus, they can charge what they will, pushing those of us that can't afford their products, into pirating them.

I have been running a small web-hosting business for many years, and the cost is enormous. Once in a while though, I do find a product that is worth paying the thousands of $ for and I will actually buy it, even though I could easily pirate it. In the past I have pirated products, used them for a while, then find the one that actually works well and I buy it. It upsets me to see so many companies (software, games, etc.) that feel they can doop the consumer into spending so much money for a poor product with lousy customer service. NO VALUE...

In the long run, the consumer controls the piracy protection. If the product shows no value, steal it! If it's a good value, support the producer and buy it!

Wonderful topic!! One that I have thought a great deal about over the years. Thanks... great comments!

HL2 will be out here (europe Holland - Germant) for € 55 that is very expencive. I play a lot of games.

The thing that makes me mad is EA (generals) and there protections. I play with my girlfrend over network. Because of the copy protection I need to buy the game twice this sucks. And things like that make me use a crack for the for the game so that I don't need to buy it twice. Also software company's offer you less for more.

Looking @ the MOD communtiy the offer mutch more game play than add ons from the companies often with the same quality or even better. (Zero hour) is a small pack with some new features If I look at the MOD SecondeWave I'll get way more new untis and stuff for free.

Still I think that Valve did a good job on HL1 with the support and mods I think games like that must be bought. But If you look at a recent game like Matrix I had a copy of the game installed it and played it, only one side was playable because of the bugs, game play and grapics are bad as could be. I played It 30 min. and unistalled it, if I had bought the game nothing would be difrent except I would have been pi**ed off because of the bugs, as a frend of me how did buy it.

Inprove the support, offer good quality and game play and the hardcore gammer will buy the game, even if he has got a copy of the game.

I allways look for copies first! If I play the game longer than 4 hour's its allways worth buying it. Buy games that are crap will be deleted and will never be bought.

Without the piracy the games would be bought less, because most people don't buy games the don't know.

ps swaping cd's is'nt that good for the cd you'll get scratches and things, someday the cd doesn't work and you can't play.. This is crap

Shadow

It's the same story all over again We had this debate when audio-tape was introduced and we had it when video-tape was...in both those cases the problem was solved by adding to the price of the blank media , a very elegant solution in my opinion.I think making a copy for personal use should be perfectly legal and in no way should be prevented by the producer of the software ( be it a game or application ). Case in point : I bought perfectly legal copies of the tomb-raider series games ( all 5 of them , haven't bought the new one yet ) and made copies of the original cd's straight away . In hindsight this was a very wise decision as the quality of the originals left lots to be desired : the original cd's are now completely unusable At about the sam time I also bought a copy of fifa 98 and tried to make a copy of that one also , just in case .This software was equipped with a very good copy-prevention system though which made it impossible to make a copy ( even for personal use ). This original cd , after a while , was also useless and wouldn't load .But this time : no copy I tried to get a replacement-cd , but was told the malfunction of the cd was caused by me trying to make a copy of it and so got no replacement and no refund !! I think this is an outrageous policy and will do the industry far more harm in the end then whatever piracy is around .My opinion is clear on this issue :
- if you want to prevent piracy , make sure your service and client-support is second to none . The surplus you get from very good support is reason enough to opt to purchase the software..rather then risk to have faulty software and nowhere to turn.
- the only way to compensate for the loss of revenue piracy is causing is to add something to the price of the blank media ( you can't combat sharing-communities or copying because people will always find a way : simply because the blank media is freely available and rightfully so )

The way things are going now is an exact repeat of what we saw with audio- and video - tape : trying to prevent something from happening after it is already happening ....I admit : I download mp3's now and again ( even the occasional piece of software , but when I hear 2 or three songs that are really good I'm more inclined to buy the cd , not lessand when I like some piece of software I sre want to support the producers thereof ... but let's face it : there is no wy to get rid of piracy and to attempt to do that is a waste of energy better spent on good consumer-support ( prime example is Trillian , I can't believe people who want to rip of such a small company for 25 lousy dollars !! )

It is refreshing to hear from a software company who actually understands that the only people copy protection inconveniences are valid consumers. Fortunately for people like you and I, when I last took my laptop on holiday, there are a couple of popular websites that offer downloads of cracked versions of games so you don't need the CD to play, and don't need to cart your delicate property half way around the world.

Another prime example of this is the latest copy protection on music cds. It prevents people ripping it to mp3 format by being made incompatible with computer CD-ROM drives. Of course, it was a matter of days before someone worked out the marker trick to beat this ingenious new protection, and there's now ripping software that goes right around it, but at the time it inconvenienced legitimate consumers. My computers are my media centers, and the first thing I do after buying a CD is rip it to mp3 and put the CD in storage. My entire music collection is on my computer, and as such, I don't own any other "stereo" system, especially nothing with as high end sound as my PC speakers. Of course, after purchasing my first copy protected CD, I found that I could not put it into my collection. Of course, I returned the disc on principal, and then got it onto my computer the only way I could - by downloading a copy, which had incidentally been available for some time before the CD as well.

In the end, copy protection will just be an inconvenience for legitimate consumers, which in turn will develop hostility towards the publisher, and retaliation by piracy. I know it's stealing, but it's like taking home a pen from the huge corporate office, not like beating an an old lady to steal her purse.

The mainframes and microframes had copy protection for years. One method is a SSD chip that gives each PC a unique hash total. When you install software, you need to register with the manufacture. That way they can verify if you are loading a copy that was paid for.

I see no problem if PCs begin using a secure system similar to the SSD chip.

Remember these thoughts:
No one is forcing you to buy or pirate software. It's your choice, good or bad.

It's stealing no matter the amount, level or justification. If some amount/level/justification is OK then what's the cutoff, and what slippery slope will this cause later down the road?

The way i see games now is you pay the money for the CDKEY - NOT the game.
I bought C&C generals and after a while cd1 got a massive crack in it! so was i gonna pay an extra £7 for a new cd? Nope, downloaded cd1 with no cd crack and now i have a working copy.

As The_Wanderer said its stealing but so is recording a tv program. we have to justify it to ourselfs, no one else!