While I completely agree with you on people having limited connections should still be able to play games, I think taking the stance that you are a thief is a bit more common than you may realize. Actually, it's not so much considering you a thief as it is considering you a potential threat. You will note that stores have scanners at their doors to determine when a product has been taken without being paid for. Do stores consider everyone who shops in them a thief? No, but they do consider everyone a potential threat. They need to protect themselves to produce a profit, remain competitive, and keep prices low for you as the consumer. By the same token, banks do not leave huge stacks of money sitting on the counter till you need to withdraw some. Instead, for every customer's protection, they lock the money in a vault and have security guards.
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Here's a funny story regarding those things. A true on at that, which happened to me. I don't know how many of you have been to WalMart the past few years, but in those few years, it's become common for them to stop and paw through your belongings when you're leaving the store.
This is a degradation which I refuse to participate in.
About to two months ago, I went to the plase of lost souls... more commonly known as WalMart, I had my purchase and was walking out the door. The Walmartion working the door that evening asked me to stop.
I turned, looked at him and asked why.
His response was that he needed to look through my bags.
I asked why.
His response was 'it's store policy."
to which, I replied, that doesn't concern me at all. I'm not an employee.
He insisted.
I asked, "Do you think I stole something?"
To which he replied "Well, maybe you are."
At which time, I told him to call the cops then. After all, I'd enjoy suing walmart for false arrest--though I didn't tell him that.
And I wasn't exactly quiet about it. In fact, I repeated it even more bluntly for the benefit of a large group of customers just walking in the door-- and I did it much the same way I point out the logical fallacy in this theft accusing DRM.
The door greeter backed down, and let me on my way. I went to the truck, and called the manager and chewed him out for the the false accusations. Then called the District manager and did the same. Then wrote a letter to a couple Regional managers I knew from my days when I worked at walmart.
Low and behold, these past few months, I've not seen the door accusers out trying to paw through my belongings.
Remember, those bag checks at doors are legal only as long as you voluntarily submit to the smearing of your character. You always have the right to just walk on past. That said, when you sign up for the private stores (i.e. Costco & Sam's Club) you sign an agreement that you will submit to those searches. You don't sign any such agreement when you go to walmart or any other store.
Additionally, I have a pronounced tendency to ignore requests for me to stop if those RFID scanners go off while I'm leaving a store. Again, because those searches have to be voluntarily consented to.
Frankly, by having employees accost me as I'm leaving the store--and I'm not talking loss prevention employees, but just the standard run-of-the-mill employee--I take it that they believe I'm a thief. They think there are threats, because they have multiple Loss Prevention employees and video cameras watching everywhere. By constantly stopping and demanding I consent to a search, that's when they take it to the next step and actively believe I'm a thief.
Banks are a different matter. They're designed to protect your valuables, if they weren't protecting your property, you would take it to another bank that was. Additionally, they don't demand to search your bag as you're leaving to ensure you didn't hold up the bank while you were cashing a check.
bowser said:
Kidan - great point, and I considered those. Except for you carrying a Strongs concordance and all those others - that's just weird, but whatevs.
Also, it's not about the company accusing you or any other honest player of being a thief; they're merely trying to protect your playing experience from hackers and those that would manipulate the markets and items. Blizzard admitted years ago that DRM doesn't work.
Btw, I'm not totally on board with the always-connected play. I don't really care either way, I just think that the reaction here is way stronger than it needs to be.
See, that's the thing, I own a Kindle, and I have the Kindle app on my phone. As such, I constantly carry a library with me at all times. And yes, I do routinely break the DRM on my kindle so that I have a valid, off-line copy that I can format-shift to epub or whatever format I want.
Now, as for the playing experience and in-game hackers, DRM does not deal with that at all. Consider VALVE, they have VAC to protect users in-game from cheaters/hackers and then they have the STEAM DRM to protect their games. DRM has absolutely zero to do with anti-cheating measures.
As for my reaction being stronger than needed (which is fundamentally I won't buy games that use this DRM), I have a few quotes, the first from Thomas Paine:
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes.
the second from Thomas Carlyle
Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct
and finally, Justice Louis D. Brandeis
The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.
I don't stand for these acts which accuse me of thievery and demean my character, and question my honor. I don't take it from stores. I don't take it from software companies. I may be a lone voice against such acts, but, as Andrew Jackson said, "One man with courage makes a majority."
