The copy protection company StarForce has recently come under fire for installing device-driver like system components to prevent unauthorized copying of games, and now they are threatening to sue people that criticize what they are doing.

Dude!  And I say that will all due-respect.  What are you thinking?  Can you really think that threatening to sue people (especially the lunatics at Boing Boing) is going to come to anything but trouble for you?  Do you really think that people will get these letters and quietly comply?  Dude!  This is the age of the internet and the sweeping power of rock-solid citizen journalism.  For good or bad (and there is a lot of bad) nothing is secret anymore unless you're the government doing wire-tapping and that wasn't even secret for long.

Here's the thing about DRM:  If you want to put DRM on your GameMusicMovie: be my guest. That is your right and the commie-hating-free-market will work it all out.  But, when your DRM installs something on my machine that remains installed and running long after I've stopping using your GameMusicMovie, then you've crossed a line.

Here's the real thing about DRM:  I'm not anti-DRM.  I don't think there is anything wrong with DRM.  I liken DRM to my front door.  It has a lock on it.  Anyone coming up to my house will try the front door and see that it's locked.  It's a clear reminder that this is my house and you're not welcome (and believe me, you're not).  But, one clean kick and my door is open, my entire collection of vintage Norwegian screwdrivers is at your disposal.

I look at DRM the same way.  It's a good reminder that this GameMovieMusic thing you bought should not be given to others, but one swift kick should be able to break the DRM so I can use it in any legal way that I see fit.  This includes copying it to my mp3 player, putting my DVD on my computer or playing your game without having to have the goddamn freaking CD in the drive.

Can you name one single game that is not on a warez site right now?  One song that is not available on some p2p service?  One movie or TV show that is not downloadable on the internet?  I'll wait while you go look.

Exactly.

Beefing up the DRM doesn't stop this from happening.   At Humongous, we never copy protected any of our kids games and never saw any difference in our sales from other games that used copy protection.  Granted, we were dealing with parents that didn't have the computer savvy to spell Warez (that is how you spell it?  right?).

When we came out with Total Annihilation (from the makers of Putt-Putt!), GT Interactive forced us to put copy protection on the game.  Two days after it was released it was up on the Warez sites.   I figure that for every hour I spend on implementing copy protection, it keeps it off the Internet for 3 hours.

It's worth a few hours of my time, but not much more.

As someone that earns their living from creating easily copyable IP and counting on people paying for it, but also as someone that has 1000's of legally purchased songs and DVD's stored, any of which are available at the click of a button, I propose the following solution:

1) We make DRM illegal.  It would be against the law to encumber any digital media with any device or software that makes it un-copyable or difficult to copy.
2) We make trading of IP with other people in a way that is against the IP owners wishes punishable by death.

See, everyone wins.  As consumers, we're free to do what we want with our legally purchased content.  As a creator of IP (and only if I don't wish it to happen), I am assured that it won't be copied.   I see no downside.