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Comment by shmerl | Hacker News Reader

DRM proliferation is conducted in three steps:

1. Publishers decide to treat all potential users as criminals, and insist on using DRM in their products.

2. Distributors accept that, and help these unethical publishers to sell those products.

3. Users accept being treated as criminals, and buy these products from distributors.

It starts from the publisher of course, but anywhere down the line, one can refuse to accept this. Distributor can refuse dealing with DRMed products from publishers. Users can refuse buying DRMed products from distributors. Any participation in that chain proliferates DRM, and one can't excuse this participation with the fact that it was initiated by the publisher.

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2a. Distributors that don't accept that go out of business, because none of the publishers from 1. want anything to do with them.

For example GOG is a successful DRM free distributor - they only accept DRM free games from various publishers. There are others as well (for music, e-books and etc.). It's mostly video industry which lacks DRM-free distribution options (services like this are virtually non existent worldwide: https://www.headweb.com/en/ See their DRM-free terms of purchase: https://www.headweb.com/en/100237/purchase-terms).

Supporting unethical practice can't be excused with fear of going out of business by the way. Also, publishers need distributors and users not any less than distributors and users need publishers, if not even more. Therefore voting with your wallet (on either distributor or user level) is not senseless. Except that distributors have more leverage on publishers, because of their scale, in comparison with an individual who buys only DRM-free products. Therefore distributors can be blamed more for DRM proliferation.

Unless I'm mistaken (I may be) GOG is primarily in the business of selling old games, which is why the publishers are willing to forgo DRM on the titles.

Publishers of new games (especially expensively developed new games) are more likely to fear a loss of revenue, especially in the crucial early period after release, without DRM.

GOG sells new games from those who have common sense. As I said elsewhere in this thread, it's mostly innovative, forward thinking self published studios or crowdfunded projects. GOG isn't focused on old games exclusively anymore. They are focused on DRM free games though.

I'm not really sure why bigger size of the budget should reduce the common sense of the publisher. Legacy publishers are obsessed with DRM, but DRM has nothing to do with revenue whatsoever. It doesn't reduce any piracy, and only cripples the experience for legitimate users. It's stupid from common sense business perspective, and there is an increasing amount of big budget games which come out DRM free. I view it as simply mentality issue. Legacy publishers can't understand that they should start being customer focused. New ones have no issues understanding it, therefore they don't use any DRM.

I wasn't making a statement regarding DRM, I was just refuting that all steam games have DRM ;)

> I was just refuting that all steam games have DRM

Practically all do, I already explained above. Being unable to back up the installer is already DRM, and it's coming from Valve themselves, not from the publishers.

Always on-line DRM and such is another level of nastiness, but the above is DRM too.

You can still backup the game files after installation.

That may or may not work for reinstalling the game another time. And Steam doesn't help to make it easier, and doesn't let you find out these details before buying the game. therefore I don't consider it to be really DRM-free. The proper DRM free game is distributed as installer / archive package. Steam doesn't offer such option.

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