newtekie, I mean no offense by this, but why are you so protective of DRM? No matter what you say to defend the latest Securom scheme, the fact of the matter is that it's another hoop to jump thru, and has the potential of more things going wrong. Why would you support something that could take your rights to play a game you bought away at any time?
Because I understand the need for it, I was a software developer for ~5 years after I graduated college, and I understand the need for DRM.
I really dislike people bashing something they know little about, and I really hate when they make false claims about it.
I'm not defending the latest SecuROM scheme, in fact I have previous stated that I think it is pretty useless and stupid. I'm defending SecuROM 7, which has been around for years, and actually works as a copy protection scheme. It does what it is designed to do, and it does it pretty damn well actually.
Now, as for taking your right to play the game away from you at any time, that is simply one of those unfounded false claims. SecuROM 7 uses activation during install, and only when the publisher want to, for the most part it is still just used as a copy protection scheme without activation. And when activation is used, the general public usually has no problems. However, obvously this isn't always the case, and yes problems are bound to arise from time to time. However, they are usually very isolated, and rare. Obvously, if the product has been activated too many times, then the legit user suffers. However, placing the blaim on the DRM isn't proper, the blaim goes on the source of the multiple activations. Usually, it is the result of the key being used by pirates, blaim the pirates, not the DRM.
(cont) not only that, why do you say there is no DRM running in the background, when YES there is. Why do you say there is no need for specifal permission, when yes you do.
Try running lockdown security on your OS, have SpyBot running, and McAfee Enterprise 8.x. Then perhaps you'll understand (and see) all the crap that is being forced "under" your game install.
No, in the case of SecuROM 7, it isn't running in the background, it is embedded in the software's EXE. No background here, the EXE you run is the DRM running, the game EXE itself is running the checks.
And trust me, my security on my OS is probably more locked down than yours. SecuROM 7 doesn't trigger any of it, except for the game EXE accessing the internet when I run it on certain games, which usually happens anyway since most of the games are multiplayer. Sometimes, like in the case of Fallout 3 which uses SecuROM 7 also, the activation happens once and only once and it is actually the installer EXE that is doing it, not the game EXE, once the installer EXE activates the game, it never bothers me again.
