Encryption Chip Will End Piracy!

The chip wont stop piracy, but it will make people jump through more complicated hoops than just downloading a cracked EXE or .torrent.

In that way it prevents casual pirates (the vast majority) from going out and pirating. If it works like a PS3 or XBOX360 antipiracy system, in which a chip must be removed/soldiered on, only the hardcore pirates will be willing to do the work. Then PCs will be more like consoles. Good in some ways, especially if the DRM doesn't cause software problems (hopefully not, considering this DRM is a hardware chip).

 

Until someone goes and makes it accessible to the casual pirates, and then the process starts over again.

 

Ahem, just going to have to interject here. I pirate games to try before I buy. If I'm going to blow $90+ on a game, you can be damn sure I want to know exactly what it's like. I pirate the game for a couple of weeks, see what the singleplayer is like, see how it runs on my machine, etc. It's what I've done for all my recent purchases. World in Conflict, Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, Silent Hunter 4, are all games I downloaded before I purchased.

 

What makes you say that? As far as I know, console DRM (which you appear to be thinking of) works via hardware-hardware interaction while this chip will work via software-hardware. If the software is altered so that it no longer requires checking in with the chip, it should work just fine.

 

Uh oh... I don't think publicaly saying that you pirate game is a good idea... Just my 2 cents.

 

Actually it's not discussing the illegal activity it's discussing the efficacy of their countermeasures.

And really, just like those countermeasures, this thread is destined to go nowhere because few people really understand the issue even those that try to make 'the rules'.

The issue in this thread reminds me of the backlash to intel's processor ID, and M$' idea of using that information to stop and prosecute Windows piracy.

 

Depends on the laws of your country/state doesn't it?

If the US doesn't abide by the WTO ruling about online gambling in Antigua you may see it legal to pirate material there, and then also legal for people to buy that material from Antiguan companies, very novel approach trading off intellectual property rights to save Americans from their own gambling habits.

http://www.antiguawto.com/wto/BridgesTradeNewsDigest_AntiguaConsidersCrossRetal_23Jan08.pdf

 

I'm not talking about a legal point of view, I'm just saying that because the conversation is rapidly shifting toward "why do people pirate in the first place" and that usually leads to a locked thread.

 

I`m saying that where there are piracy preventing topics ,there are piracy topics included.
Otherwise,the typical thread would be :
-Another piracy preventing measure topic-

User1 :awesome idea
User2 :great idea
User3 :amazing
User4 iracy will not die
User5 :quote user4
User6 :this way has been hacked already
Mod1: thread closed.

 

I'm sure companies have bigger targets than I guy who actually has receipts for his games.

 

In places like Australia and Europe, I actually feel that some people are probably justified in pirating. Heck, you guys pay 2-10 times as much money for a SINGLE FREAKING GAME! Seriously, start a petition and dump those silly media laws! Plus, especially in Australia, the horrid METERED BANDWIDTH, which is by far the most excessive in said Australia. Worse, publishers seem to have little respect for countries that aren't the US, Japan, Canada, or Western Europe.

 

Seriously, im no angel, but if it were not for piracy i wouldnt buy half the stuff i did

And also, piracy is indeed hurting PC game sales, its nothing like what they say though

 

UT3 for me costs 65$.Roughly.
Other games can go upto 100$ easily.
Average income = 300 $.
You make the calculations...

 

Yeah, I wouldn't mind it if all PC games were released on Steam, if two conditions were met.

1) Steam charges different amounts for different regions. It's a download, it's not like they have to ship you a package.
2) I had more than 25GB of downloads a month. I hate Telstra.

 

I find it funny for me... NO ONE pirates in japan. If they find out you do your an outkast ... not me . In canada though no one cares since its completely legal to download it

 

So what about old motherboards? Ether they wont have the encryption and cant play the game and I am sure that will raise all of high hell and possibly law suites. Or they can play the game just fine because they do not have it so a simple hardware or software bypass should make the new mobos behave exactly the same.

 

I live in Thailand and here they sell pirated games in the shop. In matter of fact the biggest thai hardware/software mall has maybe 1000 computer stores, 995 of them sells copied stuff and 5 of them sell the real stuff. The police etc dont even care and these r not street shops its all real shops lol.

Even if u go into an apple store and buy a new laptop u get fake windows u cant even get the real deal here. So there wont be a stop for it at least not here in asia.

 

I'm not going to go into more detail but I believe I'm more qualified to speak about the motivations of it's users than you are.

Second, I never said people buy games to try them out first. Some do. I said people pirate games they would never buy anyway, there's a difference. Someone who downloads it to see if they like it has some intent of purchasing it, it's like a trial run before buying it. The second, the one I say people do, is people who would never buy a game, even if they couldn't pirate it. That means they're not losing a sale because it's a sale that was never going to be made in the first place.

 

A lot of the issues with so-called piracy would be circumvented by offering improved return policies. I can afford a $40 or $50 game regularly, but I'm fortunate to have a decent job, but that doesn't mean I like to get burned by a bad game either and be out $50.

A lot of people do justify pirating a game because they want to "try before they buy". If game publishers, developers, and resale outlets could improve return policies you'd probably see a significant drop in pirating.

Not having a reasonable return policy just allows publishers to release crap with little recourse of the end user. Make a solid game and the game will sell itself.

 

mmmm if they completly get rid of piracy , that would mean that prices would likely rise in my opinion. The games now are keep almost relatively low in price so that they will buy the game instead of the effort of download and applying patches etc.

Once piracy is gone they can charge what they like because they know people will still buy the game as supply is perfectly inelastic, which means because there is no alternative , they can charge what they like.. well thats my 2 cents for the day =)

 

I'm wondering when people will realize Nolan Bushnell is giving FUD.

TPM is software/hardware encripytion, I use it myself. In order to encript software they'd would need an encipted cd with a usb disk to unebncript it when you connect to pc.

No chance in hell they'd waste so much money on that,.

 

I thought Steam (HL, CS etc) fixed this by creating serial keys that are needed to play games online?

 

I haven't been around the P2P networks in a few years, but I'm sure Steam games get pirated just like every other PC game. If that wasn't the case, wouldn't we see publishers flocking to Digital Distribution with a bit more tenacity?

The only online games that can really put a dent in piracy are MMOs, because their nature is predicated more so on continued monthly payments than initial investment (buying the box). You can't fake blizzard out by getting a "cracked WoW" because you'll still have to pay 15 bucks a month. That is, unless they've gotten those illegal/private servers up like they used to have for Everquest.

 

you can get around steam, trust me

 

So what the hell does this chip do? Does it just say "HALT you are downloading a sweet game that you are going to need to pay for" or does it make a silent phone call to the authorities who then come in and bust your door down throw you on the ground and haul you to jail?

 

Neither. It runs your hardware/software configuration through a hash function to produce values which the operating system can then use to authenticate stuff. Here, read these: Tom's Hardware review, Wikipedia entry.