Comment Number:	539814-00325
Received:	1/9/2009 11:28:54 AM
Organization:
Commenter:	Pilkington
State:	Outside the United States
Agency:	Federal Trade Commission
Rule:	FTC Town Hall to Address Digital Rights Management Technologies - Event Takes Place Wednesday, March 25, 2009, in Seattle
Attachments:

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Comments:

I personally feel DRM is a punishment for legitimately buying a product. Many pirated copies of games will incorporate a "crack" to bypass any DRM measures, yet users who have purchased the game will be inconvenienced by the DRM and if they themselves apply any "cracks" or modifications to bypass the DRM, they will be in-breach of the license agreement. Take for instance the recently released game "Grand Theft Auto IV" which I purchased for PC. To play this game, I had to register 3 accounts with different websites and download 3 pieces of software, including "securom", which took over an hour, for what should have been a 2 minute installation process. To save progress on this game I must be connected to the internet and be logged into "Games for Windows LIVE". Users who pirated the software would not have had to deal with any of this. In short, DRM is useless and counter productive; it disadvantages the legitimate user and does nothing to stop piracy, or the second hand market (as a user who has acquired the game second hand can also easily apply a crack).