Comment Number:	539814-00539
Received:	1/12/2009 7:20:33 AM
Organization:
Commenter:	Rolfe
State:	Outside the United States
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:

I have no problem with people wanting to secure there IP but if i buy a piece of software i expect to be able to use it instantly without question or restrictions. Unless I specifically purchase a limited time license I expect it to work as long as i have the hardware to support it. I have had a few occasions where DRM has prevented me from playing a game for 2-3 days because it detected something the DRM designers hadn't thought of. I even rebuilt the PC to be sure there was nothing conflicting with the game but still i was expected to wait several days while securom sent me a fix. When a game is bought to be played on a weekend you don't expect to have to wait until Tuesday to play it. The other problem is so what if it does detect emulation software or hardware it doesn't recognize, they are perfectly legal. I work in the IT industry and the sort of things the DRM conflicts with are used for creating virtual machines and accessing MSDN images among many other uses. Its worth pointing out that there are cases where DRM systems have worked very well, a good example is the Steam client from Valve.