Posted July 13, 2021
What they basically have is "cloud"-based and it is a service which uses a system that compiles images to be the "media" seen through a viewer or app that otherwise isn't designed nor consolidated to a single download. By way of cracking, or rather - using the vulnerabilities to your advantage by exploiting it - you're reverse-engineering to retrieve the bits of the content, and at that not even the whole content (a PDF or Kindle file) because that doesn't exist. There's a whole extra step to be taken in order to get the equvialent, like Fox Children, that was on the other giveaway directly from GOG.
To add to that, the very reason DH uses such a system is that the main rule is you don't actually own any of it through their site. You only have a way to access it. That is it. To do it any other way is basically a circumvention of the media rights you were granted. Which, as you conveniently recognized, and one could argue the semantics, that it is obviously a "rights management" issue. Essentially this means it is a DRM'd system even as crude as it is, but it's also in the rules. To say otherwise is not really following the logic they're going for here.
Plus, it's just nice to be able to directly download the PDFs. It does give a sense of ownership to the product (which is why I DO understand some of the arguments made by people like nightcraw1er, even though I disagree with most of their perspectives on this matter because many critics are trying to bring an end to Gwent, Galaxy and even customer rewards like the rewards in Cyberpunk which reward customers who are big fans of CD Projekt. I only take issue with the misuse of the term "DRM" as well as the notion that they somehow have a bigger right to GOG's time and attention than those of us who enjoy using Galaxy and those of us who enjoy Gwent.
That said, what I'm referring to when I criticize the common perception of DRM is when people slap that label onto virtually anything/everything that they don't like. Do you need to create a third-party account to access multiplayer servers on a game not made by the CD Projekt Group? "DRM." Completely cosmetic, optional loyalty rewards in a game that doesn't give a Galaxy user any real advantage over someone who uses the offline installerrs? "Yep, that's DRM." The list goes on. DRM has nothing to do with the necessity of a client or certain sort of infrastructure to play multiplayer in games distributed by GOG; if anyone should be blamed for that, it's Valve for starting the DRM digital distribution trend that led developers to design their multiplayer around game clients. Furthermore, the ability to obtain virtually useless loyalty rewards in a game -- especially when you only have to link your game to the client even if you don't use it -- is also not DRM. It may not be something people like but it's definitely not DRM. That's my issue with it all: DRM is Digital Rights Management. It's not WWDL, "Whatever We Don't Like". It wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that it cheapens the DRM-free mission by making it an umbrella term to describe every action taken by a company that grinds our gears somehow. That's all I'm saying.
I agree, though, that these comics are definitely DRM because you don't own the product, as you stated. You're essentially leasing the rights (though "lease" is hardly accurate, since we got them for free), just as you do with games on Steam and other DRM platforms. So yeah, I apologize if that was confusing, I didn't mean for it to be.
