[dundee] Half Life 2

Fri Feb 29 21:35:57 GMT 2008

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux

On 26/02/2008, Lee Hughes <toxicnaan at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> thanks for the advice...
>
> certainly an interesting point, if all software leads itself to digital
> distribution,
> then suppliers get their cake and eat it. If there is not resale market
> for
> software and you  can't if loan it to a friend to check out,  if 10
> million
> people play it, then that 10 million actually bought it  at what ever
> price
> they dictated? Brilliant...
>
> With  no distribution chain,  no manufacturing costs, no shipping costs,
> then you get 100% of the monies.
>
> I thought steam was a good idea, until looking into it's just another
> cartel,
> with heavy drm..let this be a warning to you.
>
> Checking the price of games in steam, mosts game cost more than they
> do in the shop, for that you get no box, no cd, no manuals etc.
>
> I'd understand if digital distribution was cheaper, but in this case it's
> the
> same or more......cake and eat it...
>
> What ever happens if Steam take a dive for the worst, say in 5 years time
> the service does not exist, all software relying on the drm becomes
> useless.
>
> I'd not really thought of drm in  this way, and the whole prospect of code
> that you don't really own. I'd really like a legal eagle to have a look at
> this
> and see if they can get away with it. There is no reason why CD's keys
> cannot be transferable?  the servers know when two are in use, so can
> boot two players off it a violation occurs. Steam seems like a marketing
> mans
> dream, draconian , and by all account bug ridden. Seems steam can't get
> their security in order either. A shoddy piece of drm to top all that!
> ask Maddox, are you reading this...! ;-)
>
> to my interest I found this.
>
> http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/08/playstation-3-wont-play-used-games/
>
> that however was just a rumour, ps3 software can be used in any ps3..
>
> but imagine if they could apply this drm to everything that has a digital
> format..
> films...no second hand or rentals.
> music...no second hand cd shop.
> even books, sorry you can kiss libraries goodbye!
>
> It's amazing, to wipe out the second hand market over night , you get
> every
> consumer paying full price!! Brilliant. I wish I'd thought of that.
>
> DRM IS BAD..BAD DRM..BAD DRM.
>
> http://www.mcvuk.com/news/28694/Pressure-piles-on-pre-owned
>
> It's look like dundee's own free radical design also want's to
> get rid the second hand market... Yeah...  their games retailing
> at over £40 pounds or more. Who are they kidding? Braben has
> a cheek talking about any kind of 'property' if you read how
> he treated the brains behind Elite. An interesting strry of geek
> vs predatory businessman.
>
> http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/faq.htm#A13
>
> Please , somebody buzz in and tell me why this is a good idea?
>
> I think I'll be returning my 'software' and asking for a full refund. They
> can't
> argue with that, I'll just say I never really own the software in the
> first place.
>
> This argument has taught me that,
>
> software physically does not exist, it's just a sequence of 1 and 0's
> either
> as electrical signals, or stored on some sort of medium? Take the
> internet,
> software does not have to have any form, it can be stored , transmitted,
> and
> used just in it's electrical or optical state. In never has to take no
> physical form.
>
> Sounds like good business!!!
>
> interesting stuff....
>
> Say if half life 2 did run on Linux (and it can through wine) then the
> thick drm
> will prevent me from doing so because , I am not on windows. DRM - lock
> in.!
>
> Laters,
> Lee 'I am in DRM hell'
>
>
> *Arron M Finnon <afinnon at googlemail.com>* wrote:
>
> not sure you would have much shout under the trade description act,
> however they maybe some weight under the formation of contract. Now i
> couldn't and wouldn't give you legal advice, but if you think back to
> our time in the law stint.
>
> A contract, which is what happened when you purchased the software,
> there has to be a meeting of the minds, namely you purchased the goods
> under a certain condition that you understood. So if i said to you i
> will sell you a vehicle, and you thought i meant a car, and i sell you a
> van then the contract is null in void, due to the fact that when you
> made the mental decision to purchase, you and i had no common
> understanding of what the product will be. However in the same vein
> it's going to be quite hard to argue, that firstly the product is not
> what you thought you where buying, because in essence it is. The issue
> is with terms that have been attached, to what legally speaking is their
> intellectual property, they may also be able to argue that you don't
> physically own their software, but you are licensed to use their
> software. In the same way that apple OS's is licensed to a single apple
> labelled machine (which is why if you use a virtual machine, or squeeze
> it on to AMD, or Intel machines your in breach of license, and why apple
> machines all have an apple logo on it, well that and marketing, brand
> awareness, blar blar blar, first rate marketing second rate products,
> opps that just slipped out).
>
> I don't think you would have much joy in pursuing a case, but like i say
> this isn't sherrif finux's court and i don't offer legal advice. All
> this to me is the point of campaigning why A) they should be selling
> SAAS, which would mean you could complain about the level of service you
> have received, and it not meeting your expectation at the time of
> purchase, B) intellectually property should only be extended to artistic
> works, not computing processes. In a fair world, you want to be able to
> buy software, and use it for a purpose you feel it is fit for, hang on
> isn't that the whole FSF point.
>
> Anyway, i imagine this has been as useful as a having driving cloves for
> your feet.
>
> f1Nux not driving with his feet, since monday night
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list
> dundee at lists.lug.org.uk http://dundee.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee
> Chat on IRC, #tlug on dundee.lug.org.uk
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Sent from Yahoo! Mail <http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html>.
> A Smarter Inbox.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list
> dundee at lists.lug.org.uk  http://dundee.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee
> Chat on IRC, #tlug on dundee.lug.org.uk
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/dundee/attachments/20080229/886623eb/attachment-0001.html