My thoughts.. My personal reaction to this issue when I found out yesterday was not pretty. There is a ton of information floating around the official Sims 2 BBS, and all over the internet (google it) that contradicts many things that the Maxoids and SimMasterBurpie have said. There are people with IT degrees and experience who have said on the EA BBS that SecuROM causes all sorts of problems on your computer (their opinion of course). There are a lot of unanswered questions about SecuROM. Many threads are being locked or deleted, bans are being given out to people who allegedly 'fan the flames' with regard to EA bashing or angst about how we were not informed about SecuROM before buying the game. That's right - there is no message about SecuROM or any anti-piracy software on the BV box, nor on the manual, nor on the EULA (as far as I can see). EA has the right to choose whichever anti-piracy software it desires, it's their choice, it's their game, it's their product they are trying to protect from piracy. Equally, as a customer, I have the right to choose whether or not to buy a game that has SecuROM. I was not given that choice before buying, my rights were violated. I want my money back for the game and guide that are now useless to me, because I will not put that game back on my PC. I am actually going to reformat my PC because I do not want to mess around with the registry and things I do not understand, to fully remove SecuROM from my system. This also means I am going to buy an external hard drive to transfer all my photos, music and personal data, because I cannot burn DVDs at the moment - whether or not that is the fault of SecuROM, I do not know at this stage. Regardless of the burning DVDs issue, I just do not want SecuROM on my computer. I am boycotting any game now or in the future that has SecuROM. That's my choice, my right. Some may feel this is an over-reaction, but it's my choice entirely. The controversy about the effects of SecuROM, along with the lack of faith I now have with Sony after hearing of their previous lawsuit regarding another version of SecuROM, makes me uneasy about this software. It's hidden on your PC, you can't read it or access it, it's rumoured to cause lag and memory leaks, it is rumoured to cause security vulnerabilities and to cause your settings to change or be disabled on many software such as anti-virus and Windows applications. The accusations that SecuROM acts like a rootkit are based on the fact that some rootkit finder application identifies SecuROM as a rootkit, even though the allegedly 'inactive' folder left on your system (after uninstalling the game) is 'allegedly' not a risk. Make your own mind up about it - google SecuROM, read the BBS at the EA site, dig your way through the hype and the controversy. I read a lot yesterday from many sites and from IT specialists. EA and Sony both admit that uninstalling the game does NOT remove SecuROM entirely from your PC. As a customer, I am choosing not to have it on my computer, For me, that means a reformat as I personally would feel happier doing that than following guides about cleaning up in the registry.
I feel that although the SecuROM issue is little more than a storm in a teacup, I am starting to get tired of having my tea slop over the sides and stain my carpets. I just toddled over to Wikipedia where I found that some one had added words to the effect: don't buy this game [Sims 2] if you don't like broken computers. It's gone now. The two most significant facts concerning SecuROM is that I am now looking more seriously into running the game from ISO CD images. I don't yet know how to do it, but when I do, I will. I will still buy games legally on discs, but in future I will only buy ones for which reliable and safe cracks are available. As Wikipedia so neatly sums up: If (as, of course we all know) it is utterly ineffective in stopping illegal activities then I for one am perfectly happy to take whatever non-criminal steps as I deem approriate in subverting the stupid and pointless attempts by commercial interests that are designed with the sole intention of making my life less easy and less comfortable.
This is so bad. I was so looking forward to getting Bon Voyage. But I burn DVDs with slideshows of my pictures all the time (adding music, too . Wish you could see the DVD I did for our trip to London. Loverly.) I won't risk having that ability corrupted. I won't be buying Bon Voyage, or any other games, until this mess is straightened out.
So far I have not had any burning issues. But, I use HP Photo-something program for burning my photos to disk (did it Wednesday with no problems) and iTunes for burning music. (Done a week ago.) But, what frightens me is that software companies feel justified in putting extra software on my machine without my knowledge, and then saying that I have to keep it installed to play their game, no matter what potential damage! I have read posts in forums where people have taken their comptuers to repairman to undo the damage the Securom has caused. I am not buying the Teen Stuff Pack. I am the classic "Sheeple" that pre-orders every pack going. But, I am drawing the line here and now. When any software manufacturer (EA Games, Eidos, Ubi-Soft, heck, even Microsoft!) buys me a new comptuer, then they have the right to tell me what programs to run on it. One other thing--I was pleasently surprised to see this issue being discussed here on this forum. I feel that the people who post here are some of the most intelligent, level-headed folks in the community, and I'm glad to see that Securom bothers you as much as it bothers me.
Nice to see you drop by, Kristal. We miss you, we really do. I was looking at the SecuROM forum on the BBS the other day and I was struck by the excuses given by the Maxoids. One important excuse was the number of posts containing the word SecuROM. To be brief, the point was that a high proportion of the post were made by a very few vociferous posters and that the rest, who amounted to less than 800, had mentioned it only once. The rest of the diatribe boiled down to a claim that those whining about SecuROM are a miniscule percentage of the fan base. Talk about how to lie with statistics. I don't blame the Maxoids, directly, for passing off numbers as statistical proof. We already know that the geeks employed by Maxis are not exactly mathematical savants ... their games would never have so many avoidable quirks if they actually had some people, who had gotten past 1 + 1 = 2, on the payroll. A team is no different to a computer, feed it garbage and you get rubbish results. For every voice blaring its annoyance on the BBS there are likely to be dozens, if not hundreds, muttering the same sentiments in other places. The fact is that Sony's proprietary product has been the subject of severe criticism on innumerable occasions in the past and it will continue in the future. Digital Rights Management is a massive fraud on the honest public. I lost interest in the "rights" of so-called artists to profit their creativity when it became common knowledge that Michael Jackson owned the entire Beatles back catalog (I believe he's since had to sell it ... probably to McCartney ... but that's beside the point.) In my opinion if the rights in art can be traded like socks on ebay then they aren't worth anything. If McCartney, or Timberlake want to make money, let them work for it. No one is saying they shouldn't charge for people to watch them perform live. But it's not even the artists' fault. Its the blood-sucking corporate leeches who sustain their miserable existence at the expense of us all, hot-housing raw young talent like Winehouse or Spears, until it is burnt out and destroyed ... rich beyond avarice but what use is cash when your dignity is locked in an accountant's pocket book ... along with your knickers. I have been routinely circumventing music DRM measures for years. I download (fully legally) and then reformat: because I have paid and it's mine and no-one is going to tell me how, when or what equipment I use. I only have one pair of ears anyway. And that's not meant to be funny. If Sony, (other media publishers are available ) could find a way to do it, they would attempt to initiate licensing/DRM control on the number of listeners entitled to hear a product. It's been more than half a millennium since mass media first appeared. Printing was seen as so subversive in the fifteenth century that it would never got off the ground at all without a wholesale rebellion against the controls the day (The Papacy). I don't give a tinker's cuss for SecuROM as a specific issue. I am against DRM in principal on the grand scale. I am opposed to blanket copyright laws for the same reason. I don't pretend to have a solution, but the system we do have benefits no-one but the shareholders and fat cats of the publishing industry. And no debate can begin until a revolution starts. Those with the power don't parley until hoi polloi is threatening to undermine their position. I've heard it suggested that the present SecuROM issue might knock 1% of buyers into not buying any more. This, it is suggested, is a paltry amount that EA will laugh at. Well they won't admit it, sure, but 1% of sales transactions is a lot more damaging than 1% of sales gross. R&D, marketing, fixed overhead are all costs sucked out of the big sales pot. If 1% fewer than expect games are sold it makes the overhead look like a larger chunk of the pot and that directly eats big chunks out of profit. Lose 1% of sales and profits might dip by 5% or more. Losing 5% of profits can be regarded as a blip. If we, the poor suckers with the wallets, try our best to keep this storm in a teacup stirring around, we might actually make that blip noticeable. Then we got a sea change happening and after that anything can happen, but mostly we can hope that the digital revolution can really start to kick off. Rant over.
Ouch... What do accountants have to do with it? No one has the corner on avarice. It's pretty evenly spread throughout the population, even to artists and athletes. But it's true that the best way to make companies like EA hear you, is to withhold your money. Don't buy games with add-on software that you don't like. Buying the game, and then 'fixing' it by removing the offending software and/or complaining about it, sends no message at all. They've got your money.
LOL Sorry, Lynet, didn't mean to malign your profession. I don't have problems with bookkeeping, it's an extremely important profession and skilled accountants are invaluable to a successful business. The problems begin when the accountants take over the company. Tails should not wag dogs. At the extreme an accountant takes a company, divides it into four bits, sells off the three most profitable bits for large sums, then uses the money raised to make the lame section look like business dynamite and flog that off quick too. In the process half the employees lose their jobs and pensions, and loyal customers weep as they see cherished products disappear or get rationalised (aka manufacture shifted to Outer Narnia, using child labour and lead-rich paint). So, bookkeeping good, accountant-directors bad.
I'll share this much about SecuROM from what I've understood. SecuROM, as far as I know can't be at fault. The program itself acts as a decoder. The latest versions of SecuROM uses an algorithum to measure data density according to a file on the disc. Basically the program checks to make sure the density of the disc is correct and if it does, it allows execution. If the density is incorrect (as simple as a wrong date and burned in the wrong sector), the execution doesn't happen. pseudocode: Code: if (disc density @ sector 5, sector 10, sector 35 == 100) { Allow Execution of Disc } else { disc doesn't run }
Okay, here's my gripe--I didn't know that the game had this add-on software on it until after I had bought it. I bought H&M in August, and then pre-ordered BV and installed it oh, two days after it was released. Then the community was making a ruckus about the loader and how to bypass it. Okay, done, easy enough. I had no idea about SecuRom until last week. I don't think that the software companies are going to print "Contains the latest Security-Ware" on the packaging of the game because no one would buy them.
I don't dispute your interpretation of what SecuROM currently does, Josh. As far as I am concerned it is harmless. The point is that Sony and SecuROM have a bad reputation for trying to slip one over on poor old Joe Public. The DRM rootkit scandal on CDs and the great Bioshock teacup typhoon are just two examples. We don't need more. If I poke myself in the eye, I don't do it again. I certainly don't try it a third time in case the first two times it hurt were just a fluke. Sony is not to be trusted with DRM software. It is a publisher, not a software house ... well it's a giant multi-national and who the frick knows what part of it is responsible, for what? They should stick to making good TVs and games consoles and leave software to wild-eyed geeks with a serious pizza addiction. There are plenty of large and small software compnaies that would love the work, and the publishers might even end up with a product, which enhances the reputation of their own wares, as well as providing a more effective level of anti-piracy control. I don't understand why they want to, but there's a lot kids out there who want to use the insane amount of gigabyage at their disposal to save the hassle of disc changing. That the games industry sees that as challenge to stamped on is a shameful indictment of the narrow-mindedness of corporate money men. They are not stopping the pirates, just making ordinary honest kids miserable with insanely stupid trip wires and mines. It's not just not fair, it is criminally incompetent.
I am an accountant, not a bookkeeper. There's a difference. Furthermore, there are a lot of reasons that can lead to the failure and breakup of a company, but most of the time it's because of an accumulation of bad management decisions made over many years, and it usually involves the accumulation of too much debt, hence the need to sell off assets. I still insist there is no reason to single out accountants as particularly inept or avaricious when hired to manage a company, especially one in its death throes. IMHO EA is too big and too greedy. It needs to be broken up. I wish one of those dog-wagging accountants would go in and do it. But not, of course, until after Spore is released. Sorry about that Kristalrose. I've lately been delaying buying the EPs until I've seen what the problems might be. It's all very depressing. I suspect that Seasons was the last one I'll get.
LOL I hope we're not arguing. Break ups, like that, don't happen often, do they? More's the pity. I think my argument was meant to deplore asset stripping as a model for rescuing an ailing business. If a business has a good underlying customer/product base then debt (an accountant's problem) should not be the excuse for destroying the business in order to save it. There are other less drastic measures ...admittedly ones that don't produce such attractively profitable and fast results. I admit that the fast circulation of money has made possible our current level of unprecedented wealth. It might even be possible that the speed of circulation has no limit ... although I think that unlikely. But wealth brings responsibility. And those who administer to wealth should be custodians of that responsibility. Hell! I'm not even, remotely, a socialist, but surely profit should not be the primary concern, over all others, in the running of actual, specific businesses. Of course it the principle that drives business as a whole and that is not even in dispute. But at the pointy end where things get specific, there are people involved and the weight pushing the profit motive needs to be applied sensitively, as much so as the driver's foot on the gas pedal ... or crashes are what happen. And don't take my metaphor glibly, a careless driven truck can do a lot of damage to a line of kids on the footpath, without sustaining a scratch.
I'm just objecting to the sweeping generalization about accountants. We get a lot of grief all the time, particularly from clients who want us to bend the rules to save them from their own greedy mismanagement. As for debt...whoa, there. Debt = monies due to suppliers for the inventory, and monies due to employee retirement and health insurance plans, and monies due to manufacturers of the equipment you are using to produce your product. The landlord, the insurance companies, all of them. All of these companies and people need their money in order to keep their own companies running and groceries in the refrigerator. It's a system that works as long as everyone pays what they owe. And it works as long as everyone pays what they owe timely. One slow-to-pay debtor affects everyone down the line. An accountant's problem? Sheesh! It's not the megabank down the road that's going to hurt a little if you don't pay your bills. It's everyone in town.
Really can you tell us what safedisc does? Anyway this securom problem is worlwide? because I have european versions.I don't know much about international distribution.
I just places an SCS version of SecuROM onto my main system. Thus far, I see no evidence of any problems...yet