Comment Number:	539814-00035
Received:	1/7/2009 2:50:52 PM
Organization:
Commenter:	Michael Morgan
State:	IL
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:

Forms of DRM, most notably SecuRom, are detrimental to the gaming community. While I have personally not pirated any titles, many people I know were driven to illegally download titles, such as Electronic Art's "Spore," to simply avoid having the intrusive program SecuRom placed on their computer. They are not alone, as some statistics show Spore is the most pirated product of 2008, due mainly to the fact that it was released DRM-free on many torrent sites before the release date of the game. SecuRom has been documented to cause a variety of problems on various PC set-ups, ranging from CD-R -RWs being read as empty when data is in fact on them to usb devices such as flash drives and iPods not being recognized the problem. Personally, I find that DRM techniques such as Spore's three activation limit to be draconian. I purchase a game so that I will be able to play it how, where, and when I want. Yet when I have to call up customer service in order to be allowed more installs on more computers of a game I purchased legally to be outrageous. I payed $50+ dollars for a game that I have to go special to the company and beg to be allowed the chance to actually play, while people who illegally pirated the copy can play to their hearts content without having to get more activations allowed and without the risk of harmful effects on their PC, is detrimental to the customer-corporation relationship. I purchased the game, I did not rent it, and that should allow me the opportunity to play the game without jumping through hoops to do so.