Comment Number 539814-00570

Comment Number:	539814-00570
Received:	1/12/2009 8:50:39 PM
Organization:	Relicnews.com ( a fan run site for products made by Relic Entertainment, a US Owned Company)
Commenter:	Tyler Higgs
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:

Comments:

I have helped run online software troubleshooting forums for years (since 1999). I have seen hundreds of legitimate software purchasers have issue with DRM software built into their purchased products. Search http://forums.relicnews.com for the string SecureRom for a few hundred examples. The vast majority of users have no problems with copy protection, but those that do are all legitimate purchasers of the software. Those that pirate or otherwise illegally obtain their software have no such problems. As such, legitimate purchasers are the only ones being punished as software companies attempting to secure their product from use by those who haven't purchased their product. I would suggest DRM stay in place at a most-minimal level (CD check or online account verification tied to a CD key only). Any DRM errors should be freely supported by the company providing the product. DRM should be as unobtrusive as possible and should never punish legitimate purchasers (as a goal). Fines and/or punishment for those CREATING the methods that bypass DRM be ramped up to an extreme level. Examples need to be made of the next person or group that provides the method to bypass copy-protection in the most public way possible to act as a deterrent. If you can't pay for the product/service/software/media, you shouldn't be using it. ps. While you're at it, can you do something about Virus writers and email spammers as well.