The BlackBerry PlayBook is one of the most hyped up tablets of 2011 due in part to the brand new QNX operating system. But that and all the power in the world can’t save it from the worst crutch — DRM. RIM has employed 7Digital as the PlayBook’s sole online music store. Mind you, 7Digital is chock full of DRM-laden music limited to a certain number (5) of devices with further restrictions such as the inability to use said “purchased” content as ringtones and/or notification alerts. Adding insult to injury, you are only allowed to download your “purchased” content a set number of times and 7 Digital can even change the terms of the contract (and further limit the number devices/downloads you can make use of) as they see fit.
With two of the market leaders — Amazon and Apple — already years ahead of RIM when it comes to catalog size as well as pro-consumer policies in regards to music content, it’s highly disappointing to see RIM start the PlayBook off on such a bad footing out of the gate and not make use of their competitors previous follies. Hopefully RIM can work their magic and re-write the offending licenses and deals neutering their PlayBook music store or flat out find a new partner to deliver the goods. As it stands now, 7Digital is a shackle to an otherwise seemingly great tablet.
At first, the title “100% legal to circumnavigate DRM for legal purposes” may seem a bit cryptic. As we’ve seen countless times throughout various governments, “legal uses” is a highly ambiguous and misleading term. But in the case of Brazil and their digital rights laws, it’s a far prettier picture as far as consumer protections are concerned.
Here in the United States, it’s technically illegal to circumnavigate DRM (the digital cancer that pollutes more and more of our digital goods each and every day). Usually, consumers will witness the utter useless of this “technology” when copying a DVD or CD of theirs to their computer or digital device. But, the simple act of doing so technically makes them a criminal — a provision in the law that big media giants just love. Sadly, big media runs this country, not the citizens.
But Brazil is at a shining beacon of light, showing that not every government has bent over for the media industry, and actually stood their ground for consumers’ rights. Under Brazilian law, it is completely legal to break through DRM so long as you aren’t doing so to upload to file sharing sites, pirate, etc., etc. But the best part about Brazil’s digital media laws is this: Any copyright holder who laces their content with DRM and goes against current federal laws for consumers’ rights and “fair use/fair dealings” actually faces a fine for hindering consumers’ rights! +1 Brazel!
§1º. The same sanction applies, without prejudice to other sanctions set forth by law, to whom, through whatever means:
a) hinders or prevents the uses allowed by arts. 46, 47 and 48 of this Act [which addresses limitations to copyright including fair dealing]; or
b) hinders or prevents the free use of works, broadcast transmissions and phonograms which have fallen into the public domain.
How’s Brazil this time of year…anyone feel like a permanent vacation?
So true…so very true. Larger than life version right inside…
It’s always nice to here someone from the gaming industry speak out over the current course of DRM proliferation. We all have clearly seen the direction Ubisoft wants to go (read: fucking legitimate customers over time and time again). But that doesn’t mean all game developers are bad, stupid, or all of the above. No sir. There still is some hope left. Just Cause 2 developer and Avalanche Studio co-founder, Christofer Sundberg, has come out against the several new forms of “ridiculous DRM”, with obvious hints at Ubi being a company not to follow.
But he doesn’t stop with Ubi…
We rag on Ubisoft pretty hard here. But it isn’t without merit. Ubi’s blind love for customer slaying DRM is disgusting and shameful. All the while Ubi goes on proclaiming how great it is for consumers and how much we love it….right. Blizzard on the other hand understands customers (and Ubi’s customers no less) as the company has come forward stating that they will be taking a different approach…
It never ceases to amaze me how uterly retarded, stupid, and incompetent the movie studios and “the old Hollywood” in general really are.
Todays fluster cluck of DRM spotlight features Avatar and the unplayable disc. I’m seeing reports all over the web (Consumerist in particular) of new Avatar customers unwrapping their new gift only to find it unplayable in their Blu-ray players. Effective DRM, huh?
Ya, there’s a lot of gaming related news today. Sorry if it’s not your thing. But it happens to be something I feel is important — Ubisoft needlessly destroying their future with their senseless and apparently “vital” always-on DRM.
It started a month or so back when Ubisoft debuted two new games — Settlers VII and Assassins Creed 2 — with a new type of DRM that required a constant connection to the internet. The company pushed the pros of such a requirement. Pros such as cloud-based backups, game saves, and stats all free from the horrors of local hard drive crashes. But the cons are vastly superior unfortunately…
DRM. Ya, we all hate it as it serves absolutely no purpose at all other than to piss of end users. We all know the claim by now. Somehow this digital cancer helps fight piracy. What the companies who employ it don’t really know however is that it actually pushed more people to piracy. It’s not rocket science people.
A couple of weeks ago when Ubisoft’s genius (sarcasm) idea to require all future games to require “always on” internet connections for every aspect of the game came to light, no one was happy. The first two games in particular to get graced with the poison were Settlers 7 and Assassins Creed II. From the start, Settlers 7 early adopters were having problems with pretty much every aspect of game play from lost game saves to the inability to even get the game to load.
So where do we stand two weeks later? Not much better off. According to Ubisoft:
Settlers 7 players have encountered difficulties playing the game over the [Easter] holiday weekend due to issues with servers that do matchmaking in multiplayer mode and that keep track of profiles, campaign progression and stats in both solo and multi modes
The whole thing didn’t need to happen at all. Requiring an internet connection for single player mode is the dumbest and most unnecessary requirement I’ve ever seen. I really can’t see how these morons that run Ubisoft think this (and the truckload of bad PR) is helping their company and helping fighting piracy.
As for those who pirated the game from the start, I hear they’re having a grand ‘ol time with their uncrippled game. If you want to do it ethically and play this game without the bullshit DRM, go buy the game (and feel good about yourself) then pirate it and enjoy the game the way it should have been.
Bit-Tech
That old saying “what kool aid are you drinking” couldn’t be any more perfect in the situation involving Ubisoft and their new “always on” DRM. We’ve already ranted about it several times before for it’s awful implementaion and methodology. Yesterday we found out just how much it sucks when a game that requires a live connection to a remote server has said server go down…for hours on end. Common sense would have the company admitting they screwed up and at the very least apologizing for shoddy maintenance and upkeep on their servers. Silly human.
Ubisoft instead has come out blindly swinging, stating that beacause of “extreme demand and popularity” their frail little servers just couldn’t dish out the 1′s and 0′s fast enough. *puke* I for one hope those of you out there who actually care about this stuff aren’t fooled by their blatent lies. The real reason for the Ubisoft outage — DOS attack from some not so happy gamers.
Is it the best solution to protesting DRM? No. But anything that hurts Ubisoft at this point is fine by me. Will they listen or are we going to have to boycott any and every piece of junk they lace with digital cancer?
CrunchGear > Destructoid
