Managing Rights Management

Vanzetta and Rocket Lawyer Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Robert Vanzetta, the first application discloses techniques to facilitate gamified arbitration of smart contracts.  Assigned to Rocket Lawyer, the second application discloses techniques for a cryptographic contract payment and dispute resolution system.

TDB and Mido Play Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of Blockchain (distributed ledger, block chain) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to TDB (CA), the first application discloses techniques for a distributed electronic ledger with metadata. Assigned to Mido Play, Inc, the second application discloses techniques multiple legal game providers with digital ledger.

How To DRM? Byteshield's FTC Submission

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:

Subscriptions - Music Model Applied to Gaming?

Seeking Alpha is a website devoted to investing and financial matters. (It's name is from the alpha coefficient in finance which can be understood as return on invested capital.) In a recent article, Bruce Everiss looks at Apple's iTunes and Nokia's phone-based music subscription model and suggests that subscriptions might be appealing to gamers.

You can see quite clearly here that this is a business model that can be applied to gaming. Payment of a subscription which covers all your gaming requirements. Instead of buying individual games. This is a formula that John Riccitiello has alluded to in the past. Now we don’t need it for consoles but it would be really sweet for the pirate riddled mess that is PC gaming. Maybe as an evolution of Steam, or possibly as a totally new service. And as broadband bandwidths increase it would be perfect for server based gaming.

EA Sued Over DRM - Rootkit Redux

GamePro (among numerous online sources) says that Electronic Arts is being sued over its DRM for the game Spore.

According to the Federal Court filing, Sony's SecuROM DRM program "is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if you uninstall Spore," and it "prevents the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations."

Sony (Sony BMG), of course, was at the root of Rootkit fiasco.

Downloading Games: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

The NYTimes has legitimated downloading games by publishing this article by Joe Hutsko that may be of interest.

Unlike the movie studios, the game makers have generally not tried to limit downloading services. The game service Steam, from Valve Software let gamers buy and download BioShock, one of the most eagerly awaited games last year, in advance of its arrival in stores, so that the game would be ready to play the moment the release date arrived. (Movie studios often limit when a film can be downloaded for viewing so it doesn’t cut into sales of the DVD or the on-demand revenue.) But unlike PC game makers, video console game makers still do not offer popular titles as downloads. Games like Halo 3 and Oblivion haven’t been available in that format yet.

Another View of Piracy in the PC Games Space

Loyd Case writes on the ExtremeTech site about rampant piracy in  the PC games space. This longish article is well worth a read.

Among other data, Case offers selective quotes from an article by Michael Fitch on the shutdown of Iron Lore Entertainment, for reasons that include piracy:

Rampant Piracy In the Causal Games Space

Causal games might be defined as games small enough to be downloaded and/or web based (e.g., one of my favs, Desktop Tower Defense). How does piracy affect the causal game business? Over on Gamasutra, Reflexive's director of marketing Russell Carroll has posted a great article asserting that 92% of one game, the full version of Ricochet Infinity, were found to be playing pirated copies. A staggering percentage.

One way to fight the search-engine facilitated piracy is to work to remove the ever-expanding number of links to illegal copies, but in many cases improving the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system to be more secure can be more effective as it renders a large number of those links obsolete. This is tricky to be sure, because improving the security must be done without making the DRM so onerous that it keeps honest customers from purchasing games.

Exactly so.

Variety: $18 Billion Video Game Biz

Variety reports that the video game business, including both consoles and software, did $18 Billion in 2007.

The video game biz had what can only be described as an epic 2007, as huge sales for the Wii, "Halo 3," the "Guitar Hero" franchise, and a slew of other big sellers drove industry revenue up 43% to nearly $18 billion.

Wow.

Podcast with Jan Samzelius, CEO of ByteShield

I spoke recently with Jan Samzelius, Chairman and CEO of ByteShield, which provides anti-piracy technologies and services to business and game software markets. An earlier blogicle described how the ByteShield solution works.

Here's the Podcast file (7:11 Minutes, MP3):

Download jan_samzelius_ceo_byteshield_podcast_91907.mp3

Index:

0:00 Introductions
0:11 Overview of ByteShield, brief history
0:40 The work factor or effort required to break copy protection
1:19 What's different about the ByteShield technology
2:38 Business model
3:11 Broad range of consumer licensing models supported
3:43 Advantages
4:40 Current customers, partners
5:34 Technology and services provider
6:05 Solving the piracy problem
6:55 Close

The User Exerience: BioShock Anti-Piracy Rules

Games Digest reports that 2Kgames has loosed restrictions on the number of machines on which each user can simultaneously install BioShock. Originally, the user was restricted to 2 machines; the limit is now reportedly 5. The changes came in response to numerous user complaints regarding Sony's SecuROM protection software used by 2K. In addition to the limited number of copies, users also complained that SecuROM triggered some anti-virus software.

It's obviously very difficult, but not impossible, to strike a better balance between the need to protect digital assets and the need to get out of the consumer's way. Copy control, DRM, and other security technologies will not be accepted unless the industries involved do a better job of creating more unobtrusive solutions. Users also need to be told in advance about the security solutions being installed on their machines and how to remove both the application and the security software. Failure to inform fully was a contributing factor to the rootkit fiasco not so long ago.

ByteShield's Antipriacy Solution for Software and Games

San Franciso startup ByteShield has developed software anti-piracy technologies that may be of interest to software and game publishers. Protected software is distributed to consumers minus a small portion that is required to enable execution. A connection with a server is required to pay for use in accordance with the business model established by the publisher. The small missing piece is then downloaded to the computer and effectively integrated with the much larger portion, thereby enabling execution of the game or other software.

Game Consoles, Piracy, and DRM

"Edge" has a decent review article in Next Generation Interactive Entertainment Today of the current state of piracy issues and game consoles. Regarding the PS3/Blu-ray, Edge writes:

Chicago Attorney Seeking Plaintiffs Against Starforce

Chicago attorney Ethan Preston is seeking additional information regarding the Starforce CD copy protection technologies note here earlier today.

In association with other law firms, this law firm previously brought a class action against Sony BMG/Arista Entertainment in relation to similar technologies incorporated into certain music CDs. It may be that StarForce's products cause similar problems with users' computers, to the point that some software publishers now provide patches specifically to remove StarForce software that they previously encoded on their titles. This firm is searching for person with additional information about StarForce's products. If you or someone you know has purchased one of the games in the list at this link or any other game encoded with StarForce software, and resides in the United States, please contact this firm using the form to the right.

 

Starforce Bruhaha

CDFreaks has reported that Starforce CD-R copy protection creates problems for gamers even when no Starforce-protected applications are running:

This latest identified threat by Futuremark [by someone posting on Futuremark's site]* is one that relates to a driver being installed on your computer that gains RING0 access (the highest level of access to your computer). The installation requires Administrator level access to install the driver, which runs all of the time regardless of whether or not you're playing a game with Starforce DRM.

With such a high level of processor access (sharing the same levels the operating system enjoys), the Starforce driver can do anything to your computer at any time. This very ability is demonstrated, since the Starforce driver will force a reboot (not a shutdown) when it thinks it has discovered suspicious activity related to copying. The reboot occurs instantly, and any and all unsaved data could be lost.

Some in the gaming community have urged a boycott of Starforce protected games. Remains to be seen whether this will be an effective tactic.

Sony's PSP To Gain DRM

Joystiq says that the latest upgrade to Sony's PSP game machine will include DRM. Snippets:

Macrovision Buying Trymedia

Multiple sources have run the story that Trymedia is being acquired by Macrovision, including this story in Red Herring. Trymedia is probably the "best of breed" game distribution platform out there. This is a big deal for Macrovision. Snippets:

To DRM Or Not To DRM - Games

GamesBiz (UK) editor Rob Fahey discusses Stardocks' TotalGaming distribution system and Stardock's decision not to include "heavy" rights management capabilities. This decision is driven by business model considerations.