This letter was sent to Atari today, in protest of the Securom copy protection scheme they use in their games.
Dear sirs,
I’m writing to complain to you about your use of Securom copy protection in your games.
I just downloaded the 1.61 patch to Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. When I attempted to play the game, I was met with an error having to do with CD Emulation software.
It is true that I have Daemon Tools installed and running on my hard drive. I use it for the game Battlefield 1942. I own the original CDs to the game; however, to minimize disc swapping, I have created images of these CDs, and have them mounted in virtual CD drives. This provides me the opportunity to play all the games I play on a regular basis, with a minimum of CD swapping.
I understand the need for Atari to protect it’s software from piracy. I can respect that. I am a firm supporter of the software industry. I have purchased all three Neverwinter Nights titles, on their release dates no less, and have had countless hours of fun playing the game. I own other Atari/Infogrames games as well, notably Unreal II, and Unreal Tournament 2003.
I find it unacceptable that I have to shut down and/or uninstall software just to be able to play a game that I purchased. It’s even worse when, in your attempt to protect your property, I have to shut down a program that is not even remotely associated with said game. If you want to prevent Neverwinter Nights from running if I have a Neverwinter Nights CD emulated, that’s one thing. However, if I have the actual physical CD in my CD-ROM drive, I should not have to disable software that is not affecting the game, or altering how the game is accessed.
I have been looking forward to some of Atari’s upcoming products, like Unreal Tournament 2004; however, I’ve been forced to rethink my position on this. I simply cannot in good conscience support a company that mandates use of a copy protection scheme that behaves in this manner.
I urge you to reconsider your use of Securom copy protection. There are several other methods of protection out there that do not do things like Securom is doing, and several methods of copy protection that do not have a history of hardware incompatibility like Securom has. I humbly offer the possibility of using SafeDisc, or possibly even an “Activation Scheme” a la Microsoft Windows XP. Both would accomplish the same thing Securom does in stopping the casual pirates, because face it - no copy protection stops a determined pirate/cracking group. However, they’ll do it without the added inconvenience your paying customers have to endure in disabling other software just so they can enjoy your product.
Until this situation changes, I will not purchase another Atari-published game, on any platform (not only for PC; I also own a PS2, a Gamecube, and a Gameboy Advance), nor will I encourage anyone else I know to do so.
Thank you for the time you’ve taken to read this.
Respectfully yours,
Ben Yarbrough
20 Comments
I borrow (yes, actually borrow, not copy — borrowing stuff was still legal the last time I looked) PC games from friends before I purchase them, to make sure that they work how I want. I won’t show up in their stats as an irate customer that got screwed over by a dark-ages technique, I just won’t show up. It’s not like there aren’t a million other products competing for my leisure time. I walked away from PC games for about five years starting around 1996, nothing to stop me doing it again.
shut up you gaming baby.
get a girlfriend.
ben -
Thanks for sending a letter, more of us should. I haven’t played much for a while (though I did play the NWN for a while, had to wait for the damn linux client though). Ignore the trolls.
Why yes I AM avoiding my finals.. how nice of you to ask
Rock the fuck on brother. I’m a software engineer and I whole heartedly agree. I too own all the games you mentioned and I paid for them with my hard earned money from none other than software so I’m appalled. The problem with thest things is the decision is based on the best BS presentation but not real life usage. I blame the suits. I am by trade a suit too so I know what the deal is. I hope they fix this. I love Unreal and Neverwinter Nights but shall join the picket line.
Interestingly enough I heard some people had problems with both Enter the Matrix and Temple of Elemental Evil as well.
Another company that SHOULD be getting the same type of letter is Activision - my copy of Call of Duty refused to start unless I unistalled my CDR mastering software. Activision uses SecuRom also, yet got no flak over this upon its release. I supposed everyone was blinded by the stellar reviews?
And when I say “copy” I mean pre-ordered, boxed, and handed to me by that annoying guy at EB edition.
Copy protection is a bad business decision from both ends of the spectrum. Honest people such as yourself are inconvenienced and the copyright infringers will be trading cracked versions anyway. Atari should feel lucky that you even bothered to let them know what was wrong with their product, most people would just silently move on. Good job.
You know what Myth and Myth 2 from Bungie used for copy protection? Bad sectors on the disk. Unreal Tournament for the mac also did that. Disk dups dont copy bad sectors, why would they, so when people made duplications, the disks would not work since the program checks for the bad sector. This is the low tech version of copy protection about oh six years ago.
Eh, shut your complaining. Watch percentage of people that bought the game do you think actually know what DTools is? Less than 1%? .1%? I think it’s probably more like .01%. You’re an exception.
First off, I’m quite certain that Daemon Tools will have a new version to get around this issue soon– they have in the past when games like the original NWN boxset blocked it. This isn’t the first time this has happened.
Secondly, sure.. Daemon Tools _is_ a poweruser application. However, power users make up a good percentage of those who BUY these games.
Lastly, bad sectors have been done to death. Most modern CD burners can dupe these discs with a modern CD copy tool like CloneCD or BlindRead/BlindWrite.
Atari won’t be changing their ways, but that’s fine– as long as DT keeps releasing new versions, the cycle will never end.
Speak of the devil, a new version was released today. There’s your anti-blacklist right there.
I am one of the 99.99% who doesn’t have Dtools. Still, it concerns me when Companies do things like that. Consider what further requirements they will impose before they will let us use a product for what it was purchased for. Compare that to what they are doing to music CDs when they make them unplayable on computers. It wouldn’t bother me so much if they were forced by law to properly disclose how they crippled the software or music, and label the product with 14pt lettering on the front of the package. Also if they insist on doing things like that, they need to be more liberal with their return policies when a customer discovers that they cannot use the product the way they intended.
I can’t stand having to look for a game disk everytime I want to play a game THAT I OWN AND PAID FOR. I use a CD emulation program as well. To You the Game publishers I make this statement: “I’m your customer. I pay your sallaries. Stop pissing me off. In the end, there will always be someone who hacks/cracks a game–accept this and concentrate on enhancing the value of products for people who actually pay for your games.”
Blizzard have done the same, and lost me as a customer for good now. The latest version of Warcraft 3 won’t work for me without a no-cd crack due to Securom. (I own the game BTW.) BUT, the big problem is I can’t play online anymore as the game checks to make sure the exe isn’t modified. So basically, by doing this, Blizzard have fucked me over for playing their title online.
The irony of all this? A friend of mine downloaded Call of Duty off the net and it works just fine, whereas legit users are being screwed.
gatmog: Actually, I’ve never played Call of Duty, so I couldn’t comment on it.
anon: I may be in the minority; however, “power users” are beginning to grow in number. Or, you can look at it like this: The “power users” are at least trying to fight for your fair use rights. The DMCA is giving the “suits” a little too much authority insofar as determining YOUR fair use rights. If ti doesn’t affect you, fine; however, you will see my point once it does.
John, I will be checking out the new DaemonTools today, thanks for that heads up.
Nick — I’d not get a girlfriend if I had to. My wife would disapprove heartily. Now, get off of AOL and come back and talk smack, K? thanks.
To all who are supporting this — thanks. There’s more information in an upcoming post.
Great letter. It recognizes Atari’s interest but also requests that Atari do users the same courtesy. Unfortunately, in today’s climate, I can’t be confident that Atari or any other intellectual property holder will recognize that anyone else has legitimate interests. However, reasoned complaints like yours make sure that Atari and its ilk can’t say that they never get intelligent comments protesting their policies. Good job.
Carlos Andrade, the Myth series (I, II, III) and UT did not employ copy protection - making archival copies was easy to do with OEM burner software. In fact, all three would run off a disk image made with Apple-supplied utilities.
John, yes - the cycle will never end. But why bother playing footsie with software publishers hell bent on infringing on the rights granted me by Section 117 of US Copyright Law?
These things seem to go in cycles. Remember dongles? Remember when floppies were copy protected? Rest assured that the lost sales and an inordinate number of returns will make publishers change their ways, eventually.
Excellent letter, Ben.
no cd patch for nwn hotu
find it
use it
Nicely present letter.
I have both the pleasure and inconvenience of having 5 young sons. Dtools provides me with a way to avoid constant disk swaps and gives my games a long and enduring lease on life. I have watched several hundred dollars in software and music end up being scratched, cracked and just plain destroyed as my kids try to “play dad” on the pc. Being able to put an image of the cd on my pc and then storing the game itself away in a nice safe (read as “high up”) place is saving me a lot of headaches and my kids are happier and able to sit down more often.
I agree that it will likely take awhile to change companies’ minds, but you’ve taken a good first step.
First off, thank you for your letter and this forum.
I use Gamedrive software to create virtual drives on my PC tablet since it only has an external DVD/CD ROM which, if left attached at all times, would kill the point of me buying a tablet. I paid for Gamedrive and I paid for all of the thousands of dollars of software I own. Sony thinks that they have the right to blacklist legal software on someone’s computer by way of Securom. Imagine the public outcry if Microsoft IE blacklisted Google because you can use it to find hacker websites that give you a key for XP. Same thing here, except the users of the Securom blacklisted software are a small group without voice.
The question is, how do we get attention on this subject? I think it’s time to write CNN or Fox. I plan on speaking with a lawyer, God help me, before the month is out. Let’s show Sony that the consumer is intelligent, strong, and won’t stand up for this kind of abuse.
By the way, I broke down and unistalled Gamedrive but it left something somewhere in my registry so Neverwinter Nights still won’t work!!
Lastly, Securom just released a version 5X that kills the few solutions that seemed to be out there such as using Alcohol 120% with Daemon tools.
Thanks for reading this!
PING:
TITLE: Dear Atari: I hate your DRM
BLOG NAME: Obnoxious
Dear Atari: I hate your DRM system. Fight the good fight, brother….
PING:
TITLE: An Open Letter to Atari, “Hey stop being so overbearing with Copy Protection”
BLOG NAME: Al Hoang’s Weblog
I found this Open Letter to Atari an interesting protest to copy protection going too far? Excerpt: I just downloaded the 1.61 patch to Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark.