As most of us are aware, digital rights management (DRM) is a way for vendors and distributors of electronic material to control and restrict the usage of the material. One of the ways software companies have implemented DRM is to use product activation. You may have seen this if you have ever installed Windows XP. You had to "activate" the installation over the Internet or by the phone before you could actually use it. The video game industry has implemented a slightly different type of DRM. James Grimmelmann has an interest article noting two distinctly different types of DRM being used by the companies Microsoft and Valve.
Microsoft recently released the highly anticipated Halo 2. Part of the draw of the original Halo game was being able to play online via Microsoft's Xbox Live service. Microsoft did not want people who hacked their Xboxs with modchips to play on Xbox Live. (Modchips allowed users to install larger hard drives and play backed up/copied games). When a player logged into Xbox Live, the service would check for the presence of a modchip. If a modchip was present, the service would ban the user. Unfortunately for Microsoft, hackers revised the modchips creating new ones which could be disabled, thus allowing Xbox Live play. With the release of Halo 2, people with hacked Xboxs suddenly found themselves getting banned from Xbox Live even though they were previously able to play ok. Microsoft changed how Xbox Live checked for modified Xboxs. Now, in addition to checking for the presence of a modchip, the service also checks to see if the user has upgraded their hard drive (one of the first things people do after installing a modchip). I suppose it will only be a matter of time before hackers figure out a way around this.
Valve, on the other hand, also has a highly anticipated game, Half-Life 2, being released on November 16th. Copies of Half-Life 2 have started hitting the retail shelves. Half-Life 2 requires activation through Valve's service Steam. However Steam won't activate the game until the November 16th release date per instructions from Vivendi, Valve's distributor. Here's a snippet of what Grimmelmann thinks about the issue
The Steam lockout is more frightening, though. First off, note why it is that Valve won't turn the key: a contractual dispute with Vivendi. In fact, Valve and Vivendi are locked in a fierce legal struggle over distribution terms, with Vivendi furious that Steam might undercut its revenues from store-based sales. That's right: your ability to play Half-Life 2 is being held hostage to a licensing fight between two corporations. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Vivendi thought it could get more leverage by getting a court order telling Valve to turn off Steam permanently, it would ask for one. Similarly, Valve could threaten to pull the plug and leave Vivendi holding millions of $54.99 boxes full of useless bits. Whose permission do you want to ask to play Half-Life 2?
Personally I would be pretty upset if I ponied up $54.99 for a game that I couldn't play. Especially if the reason I could not play the game was not because I have a pirated or hacked version, but because the distributor is miffed over a licensing fight with the software company.
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