I am a newbie gamer, gaming from like a month now. Kinda new to the gaming scene.
I bought Trine from Humble Bundle store and it says DRM free. So I wanted to know that what is the meaning and conditions of a DRM free game.
Does it mean that I can share the game with my friend. Is that legal?
Nope. DRM-free means that there are no mechanisms included in the software that allows enforcement of the license rights through a "phone home" system. It does not mean that the software is not licensed. It just means that the respect of the license is left to the responsibility of the user.
To temporarily share a game with a close friend, could be considered fair use, for instance if you want to show that friend how good the game is, so that he can go out and buy it himself.
In practice, DRM-free is a convenience feature. As you can only personally play on one machine at the same time, the fact that it's DRM-free, allows you to install the game on multiple machines that are owned by you and that you use to personally play on. This can also be solved with a DRM-system, like for instance the one Steam uses, which allows installation on many machines, but you can only play them one at a time and you have to identify yourself through your account. This is more involving and less convenient than DRM-less ditribution, but it doesn't mean that the software license is any different.
Thanks, that answers the question perfectly. Anyways, does this mean that I would not be able to play my steam games without Internet connection. Kind of like Desura's offline mode.
I believe that Steam also has an "Offline Mode" which can be used... Though i am unsure how competent it is, it has been many years since i have used it myself....
It is best to avoid all forms of online DRM for a paid product. When a game or any other product requires a functionally unneeded connection to a 3rd party sever in order to allow you to play it.
For games which used offline DRM, e.g., a basic CD check, you could play the game 20 years from now and it would still work. With an online based DRM, the game you paid money for can stop working at any time if the company decides that it is not worth the money to keep the DRM servers running, or if they go out of business.
The same applies with services like steam and uplay and many others. what will happen to your games if they go out of business? what will happen to the people who spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on their account?
Some companies will state that they may try remove it, but there is no guarantee that they will.
The same with many products that have an unnecessary cloud requirement. for example, the dropcam, vuezone cameras and many others. If the companies that own them, go out f business, or kill the servers, or further cripple the free service, customers have no recourse, and are left with paperweights. (in most cases, those companies go out of their way to prevent local access, thus forcing you to be dependent on their servers.
These DRM and cloud services also add additional points of failure as now failure of anything handling the data located between your ethernet or wifi adapter adapter, and the server, will cause your single player game to stop working. (that is potentially hundreds or thousands of additional points of failure). all for something that iis not functionally needed.
For example, would you buy a pacemaker that required that there be a pair of sneakers hanging from the telephone lines in the bad part of town in order to function?
With DRM and many cloud services, you generally end up with additional unnecessary points of failure. The vast majority of products that use it, do not need it. for example look at the nest thermostat. the majority of its functions are hidden behind an unnecessary cloud service. or look at the skydog router. When you shift control to a 3rd party, that is motivated by profits, you give them the opportunity to forcibly implement planned obsolescence, or turn free services into paid ones by holding your product for ransom.
For the DRM side of things, after the release of a new game, cracked copies become available at about the same amount of time as for games with little to no DRM, or simple CD checks. (wiith probably 98% of them being available the same day of release)
DRM for the end user getting a cracked copy, has not made the process and slower or difficult.
For cloud services, companies have turned to moving local functions, to remote servers in order to better control the product life cycle and gain new revenue streams, either through selling customer info, or having the ability to drop support and leave users with paperweights.
If you buy into this, then only spend as much money as you are comfortable with being stolen
The steam offline mode only supports a small number of games, and only works for a limited amount of time (mainly to prevent people from logging in from many computers to download a library, then all go into offline mode in order to have full access to the games)
if steam servers die, then many games will instantly stop working, and the rest will fail to work within an arbitrary amount of time (how ever long the steam and the publishers agreed to set things before it assumes you are a thief).
I did a bit more research on this whole DRM thing and I have found that Steam seems to have implemented it right. Though it will never be as good as DRM free, but it is still acceptable for me. At least is it not as bad as origin's.
I'm sorry, but most of your post is just wrong.
Steam has not said that they will "try" to remove drm. Steam has stated that they will release the DRM if steam/valve goes under.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/18mzcn/i_asked_steam_support_what_happens_to_my_games_if/
But there is nothing legally binding and that is what I mean.
They can say things like that, but it is ultimately optional for them if they choose to back out.
When it comes to buisness, if measures like this are not detailed in the agreement, then it is just meaningless words by a worker from the company.
In the business world, the person you are doing business with, is constantly trying to avoid a contractual agreement, then it likely means that there are things that they may want to make good on but if it turns out to be too much work, or they just don't feel like doing it anymore, then they can easily back out.
A CSR's word is not legally binding. For example when my constract ended with verizon fios, and my account moved to the month to month pricing, I contacted them to renew under a new plan. I asked the worker if I can keep the valued customer discount and she said yes, and for the first month (trial period) I had it but as soon as it ended, they pulled the discount. the workers all acknowledged that that happened and their response was basically that they are not legally required to offer the discount. Promises and features not stipulated in a user agreement, are not legally binding and thus the companies have a lot of freedom in what they do with those promises.
Many new games require online activation, and in some cases, constant internet connection even for single player. the vast majority have nothing in place to allow access to the games if the company goes under.
As for my statement for steam, it is only wrong if they do go out of business and actually make food on that statement, otherwise, it is not wrong, and furthermore it does not come even close to making my entire statement about everything wrong.
Online based DRM is a serious issue as it adds additional and unnecessary points of failure to the products you purchase.