Comment Number:	539814-00378
Received:	1/9/2009 6:26:16 PM
Organization:	N/A
Commenter:	Thomas Doonan
State:	CA
Agency:	Federal Trade Commission
Rule:	FTC Town Hall to Address Digital Rights Management Technologies - Event Takes Place Wednesday, March 25, 2009, in Seattle
Attachments:

---

Comments:

I understand the need for owners of digital intellectual property to want to protect their investment and to be able to properly profit from their work and efforts. However these owners have no right to use a form of DRM that can potentially open an end user's computer up to harm from the outside or cause damage to a user's hardware. This was the case with E.A's recent release Spore that included SecuROM a form of DRM that is known to have these problems. If a manufacturer chooses to use a specific form of DRM it is their choice (Even though it has been proven time and again that most forms of DRM don't even slow the pirates down) but the public has the right to know this when making the decision to purchase a piece of software, DVD, etc. This information should be made very clear to the purchaser that the program they are buying will install additional software and name the form of DRM so that the purchaser can decide if they are willing to risk the security of their computer in order to play a game.