"CD Projekt Will Never Use DRM, Says CEO"

[made]

:p
And anyway, Obsidian, PB and CDP are the only relevant ones that are listed. No Bethesda, Bioware, Blizzard or alliteration-breaking Larian as far as I can see.
Seems like the more the codex likes you, the more of a dick you are. Makes a strange kind of sense.

Larian, being a developer, is not on the list. Divinity 2 however, published by dtp, is. You will notice mostly German/Yarpeen publishers on the list. My lawyer advised me that it's safer to pirate Amerikan software, but seeing as DS3 for example was published by Koch Media in Germany, you never know.

 

[Shannow]

K, so I missed Larian. Since the codex likes Larian it actually reinforces my point and the alliteration wasn't broken. Yay.
Sure it's mostly publishers who are responsible, but I'm in the "If you sell weapons, you are partly responsible if people get injured or killed with those weapons, even if you didn't pull the trigger."-camp. So if you make dealings with asshole publishers I blame you too for RLH.
Given the codex' clearly stated rule of "thou shalt not advocate or enable infringement upon copy-right!" I'll refrain from commenting on the consequence of German-published games and piracy. But it should be obvious to anybody with half a brain.
For myself, I'll boycott Koch media and dtp (the others don't release stuff I'm interested in anyway). I hope Larian manages to publish future games without them since their announced projects sound interesting, and self-funded might also mean self-published...

 

[Kjujik]

But doesn't that prove that you can't trust them? I mean, what's going to happen with TW3? "Oh sorry, we had to put DRM on. Erm.. it's the publisher's fault. Again." If they're so against DRM, why aren't they negotiating contracts that keep their games DRM free? Especially if this is so important to them.

Standing by your word isn't about what you do when you're in control and everything is perfect. It's about what you do when you're not. It's about what you're willing to sacrifice when you're in a tight spot. Putting yourselves up as a paragon of DRM-free virtue and then turning around and slapping DRM on the minute you need a bit of cash is selling out to the highest bidder.

"DRM free? Oh sure. But not unless we're desperate for cash. At that point we'll do anything. Slap on the most intrusive DRM known to man for $5? You betcha! Would you like us to bend over for you as well?".

Well, duh. They’re a business. If it makes them a few bucks more, they will rape the customers just to keep their shareholders happy. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, so trustno1 agent Mulder. It might not be very moral or honest, but that’s the sad reality we live in.

Then again they were under no obligation to remove the DRM and did so nevertheless. I agree that it’s not as good as not including DRM at all. But would you rather, they hadn’t released the game at all outside PL?

Same applies to hiring German lawyers and sending out Abmahnung. It’s the law, they were entitled to do it and they even announced it from the beginning that they will do it.

The real issue here is, what is overlooked even in the legal community, is the fact that the damages for copyright infringement became an abomination that has no place in the legal system in its present shape. Instead compensating actual damages they were turned into a private fine. And German law was based on the Roman principle “casum senit dominus” (i.e. shit happens, deal with it). Unfortunately due to lobbying by oh so grate Kwa companies, it’s not likely to change soon.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Witcher 2 ... a hardcore RPG

 

[Shannow]

Same applies to hiring German lawyers and sending out Abmahnung. It’s the law, they were entitled to do it and they even announced it from the beginning that they will do it.

The real issue here is, what is overlooked even in the legal community, is the fact that the damages for copyright infringement became an abomination that has no place in the legal system in its present shape. Instead compensating actual damages they were turned into a private fine. And German law was based on the Roman principle “casum senit dominus” (i.e. shit happens, deal with it). Unfortunately due to lobbying by oh so grate Kwa companies, it’s not likely to change soon.

It hasn't been overllooked. The disparity between the punishment of actually stealing eg. a game in a store and infringing upon copy-right, as well as the nonsensicallity of the "loss" of potential fantastillions has been criticized from the very beginning. Of course lobby-money plugged the political law-makers' ears very nicely. Now the Pirates are on the way of sending their own people into parlament, so laws may change in time (at least in Germany).
Just because something is legal (eg. because fucking lobbyist can buy their own laws) doesn't mean it's the right thing to do and can't be criticized. FFS.

 

[made]

Sure it's mostly publishers who are responsible, but I'm in the "If you sell weapons, you are partly responsible if people get injured or killed with those weapons, even if you didn't pull the trigger."-camp. So if you make dealings with asshole publishers I blame you too for RLH.

Totally, man. Hopefully VoD's gonna call them out on it in one of his future interviews. He's the man to ask the uncomfortable questions no one else dares to ask, after all.

 

[Kjujik]

It hasn't been overllooked. The disparity between the punishment of actually stealing eg. a game in a store and infringing upon copy-right, as well as the nonsensicallity of the "loss" of potential fantastillions has been criticized from the very beginning. Of course lobby-money plugged the political law-makers' ears very nicely. Now the Pirates are on the way of sending their own people into parlament, so laws may change in time (at least in Germany).
Just because something is legal (eg. because fucking lobbyist can buy their own laws) doesn't mean it's the right thing to do and can't be criticized. FFS.

Well, there was some debate but the mainstream sadly just dismissed it as “thieves gonna thieve”. And its not theft FFS. Apart from maybe 5 articles tops there were no critique in GRUR, MMR, NJW and similar legal journals. And the reason – most chairs on intellectual property law are funded by the publishers. The disparity is appalling and hopefully some changes will be made.

The courts are also not without fault. Mainly because rather limited comprehension of those “evul computaz”. I recall a case couple years ago, where the guy who bought some games online had a hard time convincing the court he actually bought it. The judge argued that since he bought it in a store, even if it is an online store, he must have a box. It took him some time to embrace the concept of digital distribution. The idea that IP logs don't prove anything, especially not with dynamic IP, and few other notions, will probably also take years before they are accepted.

So all I’m saying is instead of just hating the company for using the system it is better and more productive to bitch about the system which encourages such abominations.