🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:19:53 -0400, David Lamb <dal...@cs.queensu.ca>
wrote:

>On 25/03/2013 6:40 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:
>> On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:01:56 GMT, john...@frontier.com (John Lewis)
>> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:06:38 -0400, Rin Stowleigh
>>> <rstow...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Simple authentication and not DRM.
>>> Simple authentication used to mean a CD-Key, locking the game to its
>>> purchased CD or DVD.
>>
>> No, you're just confusing matters.  That is a form of copy protection,
>> not authentication.  Please research these things before discussing,
>> because a mistake like this so early in the post nulllifies pretty
>> much everything that follows it.
>
>When I first read your post, Rin, I thought, yeah, copy protection and 
>authentication are different things, and then I started wondering 
>whether the difference makes any difference and which one CD keys really 
>were. Do you have technical definitions of both terms that would make it 
>clear that the difference matters?
>
>It has been many moons since I used a CD-key game so I have forgotten 
>most details. If I recall correctly you'd install the game, but it 
>wouldn't work until you typed in the CD key; the installed game only 
>enabled itself for use if it decided the long string of characters was a 
>valid key. What was it that prevented someone from using the same key on 
>different machines? Online registration? CD key had to match something 
>in the data burned into the CD itself and CD had to be in the drive? 
>something else? If you required online registration of a CD key, then 
>surely that was authentication. If not -- what was it that prevented 
>somebody from using the same key on different machines?
>

David, 

Unlike Rin,  I am quite happy to accepts Amazon's definition of 
Steam's ... "authentication"  process of locking a game purchase to
an unchangeable on-line account, access to which is REQUIRED to
install (or re-install) the game. Amazon labels it Steam-DRM, putting
it in the same category as Ubisoft's UPlay, Origin and Games for
Windows all intended to inhibit the sale or re-distribution of PC
games. In all these cases, to move the game to a party other than the
original purchaser, the umbilically attached account must be
transferred as well, and all the EULAs for these schemes specifically
prohibit the transfers of the associated account.

There are some interesting cases wending their ways slowly through the
US courts with regard to the disposal of 'virtual assets' belonging to
a decesed person. The argument that such assets die with the owner
will not hold water.. the EFF and others are beginning  to take an
active interest.  The most interesting issues will arise if some of
the assets are to be divided between heirs and they happen to be
authentication-attached to one on-line account. 

John Lewis

John Lewis