This is not a high minded speech about when piracy is or isn’t ethical. I’m not talking about a possible future either, this is a reality of today. Maybe you’ve heard, but Windows 7, 8 and 10 no longer support Safedisk or SecuRom because they’re not updated by the creators and pose a security risk, and while users can force it to run on window 7 and 8, 10 simply doesn’t run it. Good right? Well, reality is more complicated than that.
By removing support for the DRM they’ve also broken hundreds, or even thousands, of old PC games that relied on it to function, including digital versions on modern stores. While it is legal to circumvent DRM for games that haven’t had support for more than 6 months, companies aren’t required to remove it (and don’t necessarily operate anymore which means even if they were required to remove it there’s nobody there to do so) and actually downlaoding the game without said DRM is still illegal in most cases. As most people don’t have the time to learn how to code in a bunch of different game engines to remove the DRM themselves, Retro gaming on Windows 10 is a wasteland of unplayable games that consumers must pirate (drm free versions of) if they wish to play.
Just imagine if, 10 years from now, the only way to watch Star Wars VII or read Harry Potter was to steal it. If I’m being more dramatic, what if it’s impossible to watch The Godfather or Citizen Kane, impossible to read The Art of War or Othello? That’s basically the situation for gaming right now. Yes current hardware can still run older versions of windows in order to play said games, but not only should it not be necessary but it won’t necessarily stay possible forever. Not to mention that Microsoft doesn’t sell them anymore and so if you don’t already have them you’re still forced to pirate something to play it.
As DRM gets ever more complicated it takes longer and longer to crack. It is a simple matter to get almost any game with SafeDisk or SecuRom, even on release they weren’t very good at stopping anyone who knew what they were doing. That’s not the case anymore, as teams of dedicated hackers throw themselves at modern DRM for months at a time to get through it. We are potentially looking at a future where the level of skill/knowledge/computing power to break such DRM in a reasonable amount of time (as in less than several hundred years) simply isn’t there. What when Windows stops supporting the DRM in those games? If it’s online only DRM, what happens when the publisher stops supporting it? What happens if it’s simply not sold anywhere so you couldn’t buy it legally even if you wanted too?
This situation, with Windows 10 making old games unplayable, is a warning. It’s the tropical storm before a hurricane wipes out a city. Before you herald the piracy free future brought on by super complex DRM, consider what that actually means. A game that cannot ever be pirated is a game doomed to be completely lost to history when the DRM is no longer supported, condemning works in what is unquestionably the biggest new art form since Motion Pictures, to obscurity.
All things come to an end, one way or another support for such DRM will also end. Modern gaming and a large chunk of our cultural history shouldn’t die with it when that happens. Whatever you think or Piracy, DRM is not the answer, and we cannot afford to support it if we want our passion to get the respect and preservation it deserves. If you think otherwise, I hope you enjoy the Library of Alexandria before your blindness and corporate greed burn it down, and then the torch bearers attempt to sell you another one.
