Link Harvest: Does DRM Encourage Crime? The case of Spore.
This is not a moral question so much as a practical one: is the quest for enhanced DRM (digital rights management) ultimately self-defeating? Every market trend has pointed in the direction of abandoning DRM as an expensive, customer-alienating, self-defeating strategy.
Now comes this bit of evidence that the enhanced DRM on the video game Spore has contributed to its being the most widely-pirated and illegally distributed game ever. As a believer in economic rationality, I am hopeful that content companies gradually come to see the light. But as an equally strong believer in what Lois McMaster Bujold referred to as the "will to be stupid," I expect it will continue to take time to penetrate.
Now comes this bit of evidence that the enhanced DRM on the video game Spore has contributed to its being the most widely-pirated and illegally distributed game ever. As a believer in economic rationality, I am hopeful that content companies gradually come to see the light. But as an equally strong believer in what Lois McMaster Bujold referred to as the "will to be stupid," I expect it will continue to take time to penetrate.