Remember the Gamer's Bill of Rights? Evidently it wasn't useless (as the pessimist in me would have been led to believe), and upon confronting publishers with it, Stardock (who created it) were given the opportunity to develop security for video games which they felt would be a better option for gamers and publishers alike. It's a work in progress, but the future looks bright.

Definitely check out the source article for some great insight into DRM and the video game world.

The initiative came in the wake of The Gamer's Bill of Rights, which implores game makers to ditch obnoxious copy protection methods. Stardock has been an advocate of non-intrusive copy protection for years, selling commercially successful games such as Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire that have no copy protection.

But as Stardock approached major publishers to agree to the terms of the Bill, they were still unwilling to go DRM-free.

Wardell said, "While Stardock doesn't put copy protection on its retail games, the fact is that most publishers are never going to agree to do that.

"So the publishers are telling us, 'Put your money where your mouth is. Why don't you guys develop something that you think is suitable that would protect our IP, but would be more acceptable to users?'

"We're investigating what would make users happy to protect their needs, but also provide some security for the publishers. ... We're actually developing a technology that would do that."

chautemoc via edge-online.com »