DarrkPhoenix: From what I've read of Goo it seems that resales have to go through Impulse, thus restricting buyers from reselling it on their own and on their own terms. So there's a restriction on how ownership may be transferred, in addition to the activation requirement you already mentioned (which I unfortunately couldn't find much technical information on, so any additional information you could provide here would be appreciated). Note that both of these are specifically restrictions on how legitimate customers can use the software they bought. I'd also be curious to know how, after the initial activation, Goo manages to distinguish between the original buyer re-installing the game on a new machine, and the buyer's friend Bobby installing the game on his machine (or is that "one time activation" actually an "every time you install it" activation?).
Additionally, I'd like to know what games, if any, Goo has been implemented in (information seems pretty scarce on all aspects of it), as the implementation is where things really matter for any DRM system. I'm also going to go out on a limb and guess that any game released with Goo has a cracked version available via torrent, and this goes to the heart of my argument about just who DRM actually affects. With the ubiquity of broadband and decentralized file transfer systems all that's required is a single cracked copy, and DRM schemes being cracked is inevitable. This is because since the customer has to be able to access the content they have everything that's needed to crack the DRM; all that can be done is slow down this process by adding layers of obfuscation through more complicated and sensitive verification methods, but this also increase the chance of false positives and provides extra hurdles for customers to jump through. The end result is that once the initial cracked copy is out there DRM has absolutely no effect on those looking to pirate the game, and thus the only people it can affect are legitimate customers.
This is not some challenge that DRM manufacturers simply having yet been able to find a way around, it is an intrinsic and insurmountable issue with what DRM
is. This is because DRM is an encryption system in which the attacker and the authorized user
are the same person. Thus it's no surprise when time after time the system fails miserably.
I think you need to take some time to understand how Goo works before you dismiss it as "bad" DRM:
1. Purchase game. For the purposes of this we will assume it is a direct download game.
2. Download game. The file downloaded (or a portion of it) is encrypted and useless without activation, so...
3. Activate/decrypt game. Activation attaches the game's serial number to your e-mail address, thereby allowing only you to install it on any machine you want (unless you decide to give away your e-mail address and serial number to every stranger on the internet). Entering that info upon install decrypts the game files and allows you to run the game. Once installed, no internet connection is required.
Other than the initial activation requirement, which as I mentioned is barely a nuisance like a disk check or serial key, none of that restricts any user's legitimate use of their legally licensed product in any way. How is this really a bad thing? The publishers/devs feel protected and the consumer gets their game virtually hassle-free, or at least no more hassle than we are already willing to accept. Yes, there will still be cracked versions of Goo protected games on torrent sites and the like, but so what? As Stardock has already fully admitted, those that pirate games are going to do that no matter what DRM is on a game. All DRM like Goo serves to do is prevent casual piracy amongst people who would normally buy a game rather than pirate it, i.e. don't make so easy that a computer illiterate could do it in their sleep.
Reselling Goo games does rely on Impulse at the moment and is really little more than selling the game back to Impulse, kind of like going into a GameStop and selling back a used console game. Yes this is a restriction, but what did you expect? No one has ever come up with a way to re-sell digitally distributed games before, so Stardock had to come up with something that would work while still preventing people from selling multiple copies of the digital game. Once they have been able to show that it will work, then the re-selling of digitally distributed games can expand beyond Impulse.
Look at it like this, before Steam, the idea of digitally distributing games was almost ludicrous. After Steam showed that it could be done and be extremely profitable, digital distribution started to become a near standard and has cropped up on multiple websites, consoles, cell phones, etc. If Stardock can show that Goo will work at least as well, if not better than existing DRM schemes (for both the distributor and consumer), then just like Steam did for DD, Stardock can make Goo a standard to either use or copy, which will allow us the freedom to use and re-sell our games as we want with minimal interference from the publishers. This is a good thing for everyone in the end and because of that, Stardock deserves to be given a chance to make Goo work before it dismissed out of hand simply because it is
a form of DRM.
