ECA launches Gamers for Digital Rights

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has formed a new work group called Gamers for Digital Rights. This new group’s online presence is already now live and offering information for consumers who want to learn more about their legal rights and understand more about digital content distribution, license agreements, virtual property, and piracy. Gamers for Digital Rights is free to join and provided the tools and resources that the ECA says will help protect the rights of video game consumers today.

The ECA also announced that it recently hired Robert L. Hunter, IV as its Digital Rights Consultant. In his new role, Mr. Hunter will head up the ECA’s efforts on related outreach and educational programs for the Government Affairs team. Mr. Hunter also currently serves as the President of Global Intellectual Property Securities, a consulting firm dedicated to helping multinational clients develop IP education and enforcement programs. Previously, he was the Director of Strategic Operations and Development for IPSA International, as well as Manager for IP Enforcement with the Entertainment Software Association.

To learn more about digital rights and how to join the Gamers for Digital Rights group, visit www.theeca.com.

The Witcher update 1.5 coming in July

The Witcher version 1.5 update will be released on July 8, reckons CD Projekt RED.

Version 1.5.The patch focuses on dealing with what’s left of the digital rights management software used in the game’s retail release. The update removes it completely and allows play without the game disc. The release will also feature five fan created adventure modules including Deceits, Blight of the Bogs, Wraiths of Quiet Hamlet, Wedding, and Merry Witchmas. The update will also be included in forthcoming The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut. CD Projekt RED says that more info on that product will be released shortly.

Besides adventures, and DRM removal, the update solves problems associated with EAX and blur.

You can read all about it in The Witcher forums..

ByteShield: the friendly DRM solution?

Digital rights management company ByteShield is showing off what it calls friendly software Digital Rights Management (DRM) and today revealed the results from the PRISM/RYG (Players Resisting Invasive Security Measures/ Reclaim Your Game ) testing of ByteShield. PRISM is a gamers advocacy group for sensible DRM solutions. According to the company, the group has thoroughly tested ByteShield and found it to be “safe, transparent and non-invasive.”

ByteShield’s product meets many of PRISM’s criteria including disclosure, transparency, connectivity, easy activation, compatibility, non-invasiveness, privacy/security, and sunsetting of DRM. More info about PRISM can be found at www.the-prism.com, while more information about RYG can be found at www.reclaimyourgame.com.

ByteShield willl be at E3 showing off this DRM solution and talking about it at length. Whether the claims it makes are true or not is another matter. ByteShield will be presenting more details on its products on Wednesday, June 3 at 4:45pm, at the Nordic Game & Film Lounge @ E3, Figueroa Hotel, 939 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles. For more information see www.ByteShield.net.

The Top 21 News Stories of 2008: 7 - 1

(Contributors: Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

Crispy Gamer wraps up its Top 21 News Stories of 2008 with our top 7 news stories. See what stories were the most interesting and had the most impact on the game industry and gamers in 2008. We start with #7 right now.  Also be sure to check out #8 - 14 and #15 - 21, if you haven’t already.

Next: #7 –>

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Good Old Games Beta Open To The Masses

It’s DRM-free, subscription-based and now open to the public. Good Old Games, or GOG.Com, has opened its beta phase to the public, offering a taste of its classic library of games. In addition to opening up the flood gates to the general public, GOG has added new games from two publishers this week: Strategy First and Pluto Games. Strategy First will deliver Sacred Gold, Jagged Alliance, Disciples Gold and more to GOG.com, while the Pluto 13 deal delivers Piranha Bytes’ acclaimed RPG, Gothic.

Strategy First games will begin appearing in the GOG.com games catalogue with the release of Disciples: Sacred Lands Gold Edition on October 28, the same day that will see the launch of Piranha Bytes’ Gothic. More titles, as well as announcements of additional publishers, will follow in the coming weeks.

Sign up for the site at gog.com.

EA CEO: Pirates Loudest Opponents of Spore DRM

In an interview with Gamasutra this morning EA’s Chief Executive Officer, John Riccitiello, said that he personally abhors digital rights management software but feels that it is a necessary evil in the fight against piracy. The hot button issue of DRM continues to outrage many gamers, but that certainly hasn’t hurt sales of Spore.

“I personally hate DRM. I don’t like the whole concept; it can be a little bit cumbersome. But I don’t like locks on my door, and I don’t like to use keys in my car… I’d like to live in a world where there are no passports. Unfortunately, we don’t – and I think the vast majority of people voted with their wallets and went out and bought Spore…”

Or perhaps the mainstream, high profile coverage of the game helped drive sales to a more casual demographic. Who knows? But the most interesting comments - sure to be disputed by zealous anti-DRM voices on the Internet - is that half of those people complaining about Spore’s copy protection were.. pirates.

“Everyone gets that we need some level of protection, or we’re going to be in business for free… [But it was] a minority of [anti-DRM] people that orchestrated a great PR program. They picked the highest-profile game they could find. I respect them for the success of their movement.”

“I’m guessing that half of them were pirates, and the other half were people caught up in something that they didn’t understand. If I’d had a chance to have a conversation with them, they’d have gotten it… There are different ways to do DRM; the most successful is what WoW does. They just charge you by the month.”

Of course that’s just his opinion and - I would imagine - it’s not based on anything more than a gut feeling. Anti-DRM opponents who are not pirates and find the kinds of copyright protection being deployed in modern PC games as nearing draconian levels will no doubt strongly and loudly disagree in a messy and public fashion shortly.

Source: Gamasutra

Positech On Piracy

Cliff ‘cliffski’ Harris, the founder of Positech Games, posed a question to the internet: Why Do People Pirate My Games? That question got a HUGE response that surprised the guy behind such indie hits as Democracy and Kudos. Some of the responses were ridiculous (of course, some people cannot help but be insane), but many raised some interesting points on why people are motivated to play games without paying for them.

But the top reasons for why people pirate games? The lion’s share of responses pointed to pricing, game quality and DRM. People do not like DRM and find it a major hassle. Many companies that digitally distribute games - like Stardock’s Impulse - do not use it. The other obstacle was pricing; lots of youngsters without the money to buy every single game admitted that they pirated games, while others said that the price-point for many games is ridiculously high.

For his part, Harris is going to try harder to make his consumers happy. He has removed DRM from Democracy 2 (the one game that used it) and will no longer use it in future titles; he’ll cut the price of his games in an effort to make them more economical, and he’ll work harder to bring the level of quality to a whole new level.

While Harris’ response is an interesting one, reading all the reasons is absolutely intriguing. No matter what side of the piracy issue you are on, reading the laundry list of complaints and concerns posed by the community gives everyone a better understanding where people are coming from.

You can read his entire post here.