• Nate Cox@programming.devEnglish
    16 minutes

    This is only half the argument we need to be making though, because if the disk is just a DRM unlocker then we still don’t have real ownership and all these problems still exist.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2 hours

    Honestly if you don’t see the inherent problem with:

    I can pay money for a thing ->

    Thing can suddenly vanish from existence ->

    This is not theft, You are due no recompence ->

    This is totally fine, actually.

    … Just straight up, you have a mental disability if you think this is fine. You are cognitively impaired, you should not be trusted with any kind of decision making.

    You’re just telling everyone you are a-ok with being robbed, in some certain set of conditions… any exploitative person or entity that has any experience exploiting people knows that you just have to construct a narrative/experience where the conditions of being robbed that you will accept, slowly expand and grow over time.

    You are telling the world you are easy to scam and trick. And in a world where you need money to continue existing, in the vast majority of cases… this is functionally suicidality or at least self-harm/self-destructive behavior.

    This is a subsection of the Great Filter. If you can’t pass this test, sorry, you’re fucked, you are too stupid to persist much longer in your environment.

    This is such a logically dubious position to attempt to maintain and argue for that I very truly cannot see another explanation for it other than… the person that holds that position genuienly is cognitively diminished.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
    5 hours

    Like most people who aren’t up in arms about this TechnicallyTee hasn’t actually given it a seconds worth of thought. “Well I don’t play games on disc” it’s such a surface level retort. If you’re not going to spend 10 seconds actually thinking about it, why have you bothered to make a comment?

  • atopi@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3 hours

    there are so many amazing free pc games with no microtransactions, how are physical releases someones only way to play games?

  • Guy Ingonito@reddthat.comEnglish
    3 hours

    Ownership is a lie we tell ourselves to cope with a world that is perpetually impermanent.

  • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    11 hours

    Somebody needs to invent a way to rip your entire library on steam to portable installation cartridges so you just plun-n-play them

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      5 hours

      I’ve never actually tried this but presumably I can just download the games on Steam and then uninstall Steam and the game should still work right as long as they’re not even the steam folder. After all you can put games on Steam so presumably you can take them off.

    • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11 hours

      It shouldn’t be that hard. I may look into this.

      Really it’s just install the game, copy the local files and apply the steam crack (for most games), maybe repack it into a nice packed executable with some lightweight compression of the files for easier storage.

      I suppose the worst thing would be to manage the exceptions to the rule, games that use other drm, or that maybe need some tweaking for the steam crack to work,nor maybe need to create some extra folders to work. But for most simple games it should me enough.

      • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        10 hours

        Imagine having an entire library of modern games on cartridge. Look up what game to play, grab it from the shelf, No DRM, put it into a cartridge bay and hit a switch, and the computer copies part of it to RAM and runs it. Just like N64, but 10,000x bigger.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
          5 hours

          People do keep trying to make modern “retro style” consoles. But the problem is they always have limited processing capacity so they’re always quite niche. Also the price of having to put everything on a cartridge of some kind would probably mean you wouldn’t get indie games on the platform.

          • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4 hours

            I’d imagine indies could release “special editions” with physical SD cards sent out for collectors and fans about a year after release. There’s some indie games where I’d definitely buy that.

            And even if the cartridges didn’t have DRM, so what? They already made a lot of their money

        • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          10 hours

          I think, most if not all games would need to be installed on the computer, as they are made like that. Running them from an external cartridge would be slow/problematic.

          But at least I think it would be easy enough to have a way to mass generate rips for our steam libraries to burn on cd/dvd/blueray or to store in external drives. Then just have them installed like they were gog installers.

  • Green Wizard@lemmy.zipEnglish
    16 hours

    I remember handing a younger sibling my copy of Dragon Quest 9 when I was about 12-14, it was maybe the earliest memory of me truly understanding the joy of giving someone something I felt was special. I wanted them to get a bit of the magic I got from the adventures that game took me on. I would be so overjoyed when they would update me on their play through, remembering parts that stuck out to me, hearing parts they loved that I had forgotten about. Sure you can absolutely still experience that joy of giving a gift, my friend group buys steam games for each other all the time. But that was my 1 copy of the game (at the time), I remember them hesitating cause they knew how much I loved it. And I think that made the game mean more to them.

  • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    22 hours

    The crazy thing is, there’s no actual reason we can’t own digital copies of the media. We could easily own the rights to a digital copy, the game and movie industry has just unanimously decided that they won’t allow that.

      • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        45 minutes

        Yep, but it’s also like insanely easy to pirate (good or bad, you decide). I guess op means a system where you have your (digital) copy and can sell, give or lend it, but still it would be “protected”, and big business doesn’t allow that.

    • Signtist@bookwyr.meEnglish
      19 hours

      We could easily get a lot of things, but we don’t fight to receive them. We think that the laws are supposed to be made to benefit us, but that stopped being the case as soon as we allowed corporations to influence things in their own favor instead. Everything in capitalism is a battle - you’re either fighting to win, or letting someone else win by default.

      At this point things are so bad that we’d have to band together and fight like hell even for a minor win, and few people want to do that. Stop Killing Games is the closest thing we have to what we should have organized as soon as digital media started becoming common.

    • lyralycan@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      22 hours

      Well, I’m just happy that they can’t remotely delete the game from my PC’s drive if they do choose to unsell it. Unless they can with EULA clauses like “We reserve the right to remotely access and update the Product at any time” in which case, Fuck

      • Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        21 hours

        They can make them unplayable with online checks. Hence why piracy is the only way to truly own digital media

      • richmondez@lemdro.idEnglish
        21 hours

        Fairly sure steam has sufficient access to your system to do just that to the games it installed.

        • Ghoelian@piefed.socialEnglish
          6 hours

          Even if they can’t, the publisher can always just push an update that makes it unplayable.

          I’m pretty sure they can require an update before launching, and you have to be online every once in a while to play games on steam at all.

    • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.caEnglish
      21 hours

      The industry makes billions renting instead of selling their stuff, and they spend it all trying to stop piracy.

    • reksas@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      8 hours

      the “i do what i want with my money” people are so annoying. i wish they would be on the suffering side for change, maybe it would teach a little solidarity for others.

      • baines@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        49 minutes

        i’m fine with them having no forethought or self control but the whining about the result of their own actions later annoys me

        fucking horse armor all over again

        • reksas@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          33 minutes

          them having no control or forethought makes thing worse for all of us. In my opinion, its in essence same type of behavior as throwing trash on the street.

          • baines@lemmy.cafeEnglish
            32 minutes

            i agree actually, i’m just so used to the stupidity

  • 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.itEnglish
    13 hours

    You should be able to get video games from your local library.

    Billionaires were literally put against the wall and shot, so “using your library card to play video games” should be feasible.

    • Gorillazrule@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3 hours

      At least where I live, they actually do! They have video games that you can check out just like books/movies/cds. It was one of the ways I got to try out a ton of games growing up.

      • 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.itEnglish
        7 hours

        Nicholas II of Russia?

        Maybe “millionaires” would have been a better choice of words, my bad

  • SatyrSack@quokk.auEnglish
    23 hours

    Digital goods are not the problem. DRM is. Direct your outrage appropriately.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      22 hours

      Honestly, in this case I think its time based licensing that is the issue. This would be very limited as an issue as a whole if publishers/creators couldn’t say “yea so you have the ability to sell this, but after X years you lose the ability to host it period”

      Currently big companies like sony can just offload the blame to the license holder saying “yea we cant host it anymore” when in reality it shouldn’t matter.

      Licensing that expire over time shouldn’t be legal. If you bought a license to use a product, you should be allowed to keep that product. Don’t provide updates if don’t want to, but if you paid for the ability to have and use a product (in this case media) it shouldn’t be legal to retroactively pull it without compensation.

      Said compensation should also at minimum be a percentage of the product based off how much it was used, with the overall refund not allowed to go under half the price of the product paid. The fact they can be like “yea we don’t wanna host this anymore but we aren’t going to provide refunds” is ridiculous.

      Being said, I agree with your sentiment. I firmly believe bypassing DRM for a product you bought and have the right to use should be legal. I don’t agree that Ripping a movie that you purchased that has a DRM component should be illegal, just like I don’t agree that removing a DRM component from a game I own should be illegal. If you own the product, you should be allowed to use it how you want. I can understand the exception of distribution(this doesn’t mean I agree with it), because I get it $$$ but the fact I can potentially be charged criminally for ripping a 4k disk, and then putting it on my private media server that only I have access to, is insane to me.

    • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      22 hours

      Correct. Digital goods with DRM cannot be owned by definition. Its a remote killswitch whenever they like. They should be banned from using the word purchase or buy on those products. They should be forced to use the words “acquire revokable licence”

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      20 hours

      If someone else is storing the digital copy for you, on a system you don’t control, it’s not “ownership”.

    • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
      23 hours

      Eh, digital goods are still a problem. For exactly the reasons stated above.

      • Resale/gifting of used copies becomes more difficult and often impossible.

      • Your digital library can be taken away from you at any time, with no recourse.

      • Ilandar@lemmy.todayEnglish
        17 hours

        Your digital library can be taken away from you at any time, with no recourse.

        No it can’t. Steam is not all digital game libraries. You are talking about a DRM problem, not a problem with digital games.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        22 hours

        People have forgotten because he turned out to be a sex pest…

        But once upon a time Louis CK would get annoyed with piracy and sell copies of his new standup show at $5 with a no DRM copy of the file, just politely asking people to not pirate.

        He made $5 million almost overnight which helped fund his foray into television with Louie which was on TV for five years.

        This literally was the thing that took his career to the next level. Where he went from a comic with a pretty okay career to one with a massive career.

        He used to do the same for other comedians, too. I bought a couple Todd Barry specials from his website the same way: $5, DRM-free media files.

        I still have all those files backed up.

  • heartSagan5@lemmy.zipEnglish
    16 hours

    There’s another reason. Sometimes, the copy gets held by an individual and the company destroys it so archival would need to be brought forward by the undestroyed copy.

    Also, if they’re not copyrighting it through the Library of Congress, how is pirating illegal? Doesn’t the FBI need a copy to inform “their original?”

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2 hours

      At this point it is extremely obvious that the corporate and government powers of the world are just big fans of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’.

      The rules are made up, and the points don’t matter.

    • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
      16 hours

      No. Copyright doesn’t need to be registered to be valid. In the US specifically, registration only allows the copyright holder to pursue the case through the federal courts, which can award punitive damages as well as costs.