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Comment by DiabloD3 | Hacker News Reader

Nothing will EVER stop it. DRM is a scam, nothing more, nothing less. As long as human beings have access to the data that they are (legally) allowed to have access to, unencrypted data will exist and will be pirated.

Steam solved the DRM issue eons ago: become the best place to get something, and people will flock to you to get it.

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Arguably GOG solved it by not having it at all. Seems to be doing fine; outside of AAA studios, game devs don't seem to be going for it any more, giving GOG a healthy libary. And the AAA's have kinda lost enthusiasm for it outside of Ubisoft.

Have they? I don't keep up with the latest AAA games. Are there any stats showing how many of them are using DRM still vs say, 10 years ago?

> Nothing will EVER stop it. DRM is a scam, nothing more, nothing less.

I'm very anti-DRM. My point to GP was that there's no point wishing for a free software DRM implementation -- because there's no way the people orchestrating the DRM conspiracy would allow for someone to remove their precious cashcow^Wdigital restrictions.

> As long as human beings have access to the data that they are (legally) allowed to have access to, unencrypted data will exist and will be pirated.

Yes, this is true. But I really wish we would solve the actual problem: corporations thinking that DRM is actually a benefit to anyone.

> Steam solved the DRM issue eons ago: become the best place to get something, and people will flock to you to get it.

Steam has DRM (the games are tied to Steam IIRC so if your account ever gets deleted you're fucked), so I don't know what you mean by "solved the DRM issue".

Steam has DRM (the games are tied to Steam IIRC so if your account ever gets deleted you're fucked), so I don't know what you mean by "solved the DRM issue".

I pointed out the same thing elsewhere in this thread. Steam didn't solve the DRM issue (it still has it) and it didn't solve the "piracy" issue (you can still pirate Steam games by ripping their DRM).

It solved the "lost sales" issue, by making it so extremely convenient to buy games legally that anyone who can afford to just isn't going to bother pirating stuff.

DRM is optional on steam. The publisher has to decide to use it. The DRM is also trivially breakable.

Do you have any stats on how many publishers use the DRM? I get the feeling that the numbers are quite high for AAA games. Also, the DRM being "trivially breakable" doesn't actually help anyone -- if you buy a game then break the DRM you're implicitly signalling that DRM is good to publishers.

.. of course, Steam is a closed source product serving a closed app store on two and a half platforms. It's not really the same thing as a video player implemented in multiple open source browsers.

(Steam also gains a lot of goodwill from discounts, which media companies are strangely unwilling to do)

Their open source (kinda) competition, Desura, didn't fare too well. Competition will determine the victors open source or not.

Desura, I seem to remember, was buggy as hell and didn't support half the games that steam did. However, even with those problems, I think the problem of coming in late to a space that's already dominated did most of the damage to them though.

There's still significant pirating of games despite the existence of Steam.

You could add to the first claim "offer a good product and pirating will stop", with "lower economic inequality", so despite Steam being nice and all - pirating exist where its still too expensive to access their games.

It would be nice if the pricing of Steam was adapted to the economic conditions of the country - but that then has problems of rich country users would probably find proxies in poor countries.

Its just not fair for someone making/having enough cash to buy Steam games with pocket change, while another large group of people have to plan and save for months to get same access, of course they will find other methods.

>It would be nice if the pricing of Steam was adapted to the economic conditions of the country - but that then has problems of rich country users would probably find proxies in poor countries.

This is a thing. Steam games have different prices in different countries, and there is some amount of region locking going on. On websites selling steam keys you will often find Russian keys that can only be used through a proxy.

I think the bigger thing causing piracy is inequality in the same country. Steam sales are a good measure by giving patient people significant discounts, but apparently that's not enough to completely eradicate piracy.

but that then has problems of rich country users would probably find proxies in poor countries.

It's my understanding Steam has been cracking down on this, probably exactly for the reasons you describe.

I'd say much less than it used to be. Those emails saying "An item from your wishlist is now on sale for $9" is highly effective.

Oh, not arguing Steam is an awesome tool in generating more revenue for the publishers. But it didn't "solve" the DRM problem. It mostly showed that it's a red herring.

(Steam itself is also DRM, but AFAIK easily broken so more perfunctory).

I guess it depends on what the DRM problem really is. If the problem is that companies don't make enough money because of pirating, then Steam did solve the problem, because they make enough money despite pirating.

Now only if I'd get an email for Doom 4, and the price is $15 or less, I'd totally be all over that.

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