ByteShield, the San Francisco-based software and game DRM company, submitted comments in advance of the FTC's hearing on DRM and the consumer. Submitted by CEO Jan Samzelius, the document provides a terrific list of DRM features, functions, and capabilities that would probably delight game and software publishers and provide a user-friendly experience for gamers and software users.
Samzelius provides a list of what I would call "best practices" at each stage of the relationship between a gamer, the publisher, and the underly DRM system. Here are a couple of excerpts:
5.At Subsequent Installations
a. The game should be installable on an unlimited number of PCs. The right to play should follow the user from one machine to the next. Thus, the license should be tied to the user, not the PC, the CD/DVD or the dongle. Michael Santo, Editor of Real Tech News, explains in his post Spore's DRM Panned on Amazon.com: “They don’t want to have to call to ask for permission to do additional installs (either because they rebuilt their systems, or because they have more than three computers they use).” ‘Killerbee’ comment on a guardian.co.uk blog: “I should be free to uninstall and reinstall something I bought as many times as I like.”
b.The way some DRM solutions work, cheating on the license is encouraged. If the DRM allows 5 active installs, a group of 5 friends can jointly buy one copy of the game and each play. Yes, they may not be able to access online content, but for mostly single player games, who cares?
6.At Subsequent Runsb.The way some DRM solutions work, cheating on the license is encouraged. If the DRM allows 5 active installs, a group of 5 friends can jointly buy one copy of the game and each play. Yes, they may not be able to access online content, but for mostly single player games, who cares?
a.If validation is occurring, it should be invisible to the user, thus, not increasing startup time or otherwise inconvenience the end user. ‘Sheep2’ comment in a guardian.co.uk blog: “Any copy protection measures should be invisible to the player as far as possible.”
b.Any connection between the game and a server should not open up the possibility for hackers to get access to the end user’s PC.
c.The DRM should only run if the game is running.
d.The DRM should not affect the performance of the game
e.Offline runs should be allowed – but need to be limited, since they make cracking easier. This is the other important point to educate users about.
f.The CD/DVD should not be needed to run the game
g.The local portion of the DRM should not try to determine that the copy on the local PC is illegal.
b.Any connection between the game and a server should not open up the possibility for hackers to get access to the end user’s PC.
c.The DRM should only run if the game is running.
d.The DRM should not affect the performance of the game
e.Offline runs should be allowed – but need to be limited, since they make cracking easier. This is the other important point to educate users about.
f.The CD/DVD should not be needed to run the game
g.The local portion of the DRM should not try to determine that the copy on the local PC is illegal.
In response to my email query, Samzelius says that all the capabilities outlined in their FTC submission either are presently implemented or are in their development plan.
