More DRM Discussions *spinoff*

[Shifty Geezer]

The difference is who pays. There's no benefit for the content providers to provide this service as DSoup says - if a company goes under, woohoo you have to buy all your content again. It's the consumers who want this insurance, so it befalls the insurance industry to provide it.

Or, third possibility and IMO the best one if it works out economically for all parties, there are no content sales, only rentals/subscriptions. If Netflix goes under, I lose nothing other than access to the service. If every game, movie, TV programme and piece of music was on tap to play, like Spotify, and paid for as used, you'd lose nothing if one provider fails and could swap to another to view the same material. Of course that requires DRM and licensing policies.

I think realistically both options should be provided. Those who don't want the DRM concerns and value the (psychological sense of) permenance of physical have the choice of a platform that might die and they lose everything, while those who want less risk can put up with the occasional network license check as part of a subscription service that can be provided by any of a number of suppliers. MS, Sony, Amazon and Google all having subscription services for games on your device. And Nintendo. And then when Nintendo goes bust, you can still access every ever Nintendo game from Amazon Games Archive and play them on your Wii U emulator on your XBox Thingy or Samsung Lifebox in 2024. And in the future you can show your grandkids Halo 1 rented from The Googlazon Empire playing on your Huawei PlayStation (after the buyout) on their AR headsets.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The difference is who pays. There's no benefit for the content providers to provide this service as DSoup says - if a company goes under, woohoo you have to buy all your content again. It's the consumers who want this insurance, so it befalls the insurance industry to provide it.

Yup. Legally, in some jurisdictions, customers may be able to be treated as creditors but administration law was never written with the commercial model of digital libraries in mind.

And even when consumers can be dealt with as a creditor, they always seem to be at the end of a very long list of later creditors.

Your insurance idea seems like the best approach but it would still be difficult for insurance companies to very client A should be compensated for the loss of products A they Z. Not an unsolvable problem but something that could take a while.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I suppose even simpler, add it to one's home content insurance. Simply insure for the value of the virtual goods bought and pay a fee that means should the company go under, you get reimbursed the cost of your content so you can buy it elsewhere. Don't need any digital library systems operated in that case as we can use money and the free market to accommodate the collapse.Seems something a specialist provider like Protect My Bubble would like.

Anyone want to ring their insurance provider and ask for a quote on their digital library?

 

[Nesh]

i'd love to hear a study on this if you wouldn't mind

Look no farther than try to find access to pirate software yourself.
You can still find cracked PC games.
PS1 and PS2 where easy to chip or even use special disks that enabled all regions and pirated games to be played on. You could have this mods made by small stores under the counter who would get bigger profits by selling copied disks.
PS3 could be hacked to run pirated games if you had an old Firmware which could be updated to run a special Custom Firmwear. You cannot run pirated Blu Ray disks but you could download pirate games. Since this involves some risk of bricking your console and small stores have no gain by doing this, its hard for the average joe to get this done. Online gaming is almost out of the question and the fact that firmware updates added security, newer models came with new firmwares already installed and games required new firmware updates to run, ment piracy was hugely reduced. You can barely if any find anyone with piracy enabled consoles.
The 360 can also be hacked with hardware modifications but again you have to be carefull with online access (or you get banned) and deal with firmware updates.
PS4 and XBOX One appear unhackable so far or at least if piracy exists it is so small and limited its not even worth mentioning.

 

[orangpelupa]

And if Sony go down, PSN goes down. They'll be nothing left to proxy around.

hmm, i wonder how did sony do the license check and contents for PS4. If i remember correctly, PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS content downloads and licenses are separate. You still can download without connected to PSN. Hence, the workaround for PS Vita that need a PS3 or flight mode switcheroo or something (i cant remember for sure, been ages).

 

[mrcorbo]

The devil is in the details, which this is rather light on. If Sony goes down and PSN goes down how do I get PS4 games? Will PS4 seamlessly access the replacement service, will the repository mail me disc versions of games I've bought?

Sony updates the PS4 firmware to check with the backup service if there is no connectivity to the PSN servers. If this is just a temporary loss of connectivity, the backup service doesn't respond. If PSN is offline permanently, the backup service responds and uploads a new firmware to the PS4 enabling the local content backup and updated authentication process.

I *did* think my way through this before I put it forward as an idea.

 

[iroboto]

You can see a profit/los decline and predict financial collapse in advance based on nothing materially changing. But if you see financial doom a year off and make a move that effectively signals your impending doom, your doom is suddenly in your face because very few people will be willing to buy from you and your weekly revenues drop like a stone. Companies don't tend to do this, they begin to make drastic internal changes that do not alert customers, creditors or the market that they are that much in trouble.

Typically this is liquidation. You've made the decision to liquidate assets while they are still worth something because you are no longer generating more revenue than expenses. If you've spent significant resources in attempt to right the ship and you're still sinking, you will likely call it early to maximize your liquidation revenue to cover off any outstanding debts you may have.

Anyway, it's OT. I just don't think Sony, Nintendo, Valve and MS will run for broke and wait last minute before declaring bankruptcy and shut down all their servers. MS didn't do it for Xbox Fitness, and I don't see them doing it for Xbox in general.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

But they may terminate their gaming services as they have done other things like music services. I lost all my Sony Connect music when Sony dropped it, all one track! If PlayStation comes to an end in 2022, all that digital content will be gone, no? Although that's not any different to many online games like MAG.

 

[Davros]

Microsoft terminated "plays for sure" and everyone lost access to the music they purchased
was the xbox the first console that allowed multiplayer games (not split screen)
are they still running the servers ?

 

[iroboto]

Microsoft terminated "plays for sure" and everyone lost access to the music they purchased
was the xbox the first console that allowed multiplayer games (not split screen)
are they still running the servers ?

fair enough (to the both of you). Was it a cut and absolutely no chance at keeping your files?
OG Xbox servers are now officially off if I understand. They are no longer supported.

 

[Davros]

you had a window to burn your music to cd
regarding xbox I assume xbox was sold under the guise (probably the wrong word) of "you can play your games online" not "you can play your games online for a limited period"
If I sell you a program that only works if it connects to my server I should have to run that server, if I'm not prepared to run the server I shouldn't make it a requirement

 

[eastmen]

Microsoft terminated "plays for sure" and everyone lost access to the music they purchased
was the xbox the first console that allowed multiplayer games (not split screen)
are they still running the servers ?

MS announced plays for sure was going to shut down in 2008 and allowed you to get new license keys through 2011 and they allowed u to burn the music to cd which disabled the drm and then you could import it to any music service. I know cause I had a few songs that I burned to cd and migrated to my zune player.

Meanwhile steam is at 13 years with no signs of closing. Even consoles will eventually stop working

 

[MrFox]

I wonder what you guys think would be a good Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download?

 

[mrcorbo]

I wonder what you guys think would be a good Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download?

I don't know, but if we dig deeply into hard drive areal density maybe we can find out!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I wonder what you guys think would be a good Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download?

There's a whole other thread on that!!

 

[mrcorbo]

I wonder what you guys think would be a good Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download?

There's a whole other thread on that!!

Wait. You're telling me there's a thread about Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download?

What's it called? Was hard drive areal density addressed?

 

[BRiT]

This is not the alternative thread you're looking for.

Move along.

 

[orangpelupa]

Sony updates the PS4 firmware to check with the backup service if there is no connectivity to the PSN servers. If this is just a temporary loss of connectivity, the backup service doesn't respond. If PSN is offline permanently, the backup service responds and uploads a new firmware to the PS4 enabling the local content backup and updated authentication process.

I *did* think my way through this before I put it forward as an idea.

Btw currently on PS4, updates / downloads and license and psn are in separate "links"

You can download even when psn is down as long as you already started it beforehand.

You can play with digital games when psn down as long as the license link is up (the light beside your profile avatar will glow red or orange, I forgot). Although if you set console ad primary, connection to license server is not needed.

When playing online games, ff14 will works fine while psn is down as long as you already in. Destiny will kick you out after awhile.

So I think Sony can gradually sunset psn, or run it very minimally (license server only)

 

[eastmen]

sony could just release patches to stop server checks. Let you download your games to an ew drive and remove server checks and other things and as long as the console and hardrive lasts your games last. Its not any different than past consoles

 

[iroboto]

This is not the alternative thread you're looking for.

Move along.

I know there is an alternatives fact joke in here somewhere.. I just can't seem to find it