Comment Number 539814-00469

Comment Number:	539814-00469
Received:	1/11/2009 3:02:42 AM
Organization:	N/a
Commenter:	Ashley Burch
State:	NC
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 support a game developer's right to protect the content of their games. However, I have issue with the manner in which these rights have been implemented recently. For instance, one of my favorite games in the past couple of years is space rangers 2, however it uses the Starforce digital protection software. This software causes a number of problems on my computer ranging from memory leaks to extremely sluggish performance. This happens even when not running the game and even uninstalling the game does not remove this software. Only a format will remove the protection software from my computer. More recently Spore was guilty of similar practices. The game runs slower than it should on my system but not as poorly when the game is not running, my issue with EA is that they did not notify the consumer in any way on their packaging that installs would be limited and protection software was bundled with their product. DRM software should only affect the product that it is bundled with, and it's presence and affect on your system should be required information on the product box, clearly viewable before purchase. When software is purchased digitally you should also be warned. The presence of DRM software in games affects my purchasing decisions and yet I have never known about it's presence in products that I have purchased until it was too late, or as a result of bloggers. The publishers and developers have been able to attach this to their product, free of any regulations or requirements to notify the public and this must change.