Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
PC Games (Games)

Blizzard Boss Says Restrictive DRM Is a Waste of Time 563

Stoobalou writes "Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce reckons that fighting piracy with DRM is a losing battle. His company — which is responsible for one of the biggest video games of all time, the addictive online fantasy role player World of Warcraft — is to release StarCraft 2 on July 27, and Pearce has told Videogamer that the title won't be hobbled with the kind of crazy copy protection schemes that have made Ubisoft very unpopular in gaming circles of late. StarCraft 2 will require a single online activation using the company's Battle.net servers, after which players will be allowed to play the single-player game to their hearts' content, without being forced to have a persistent Internet connection."

Comment Re:The article is misleading (Score 1) 658

I agree that this is aimed at astroturfing, but I don't think it'll work that way.

I think that it's intended to stop corporations and political organizations/parties from faking a grass roots movement by making it explicit who is supporting their views (i.e. is it their own view or their client's view?).

If I have a blog and corporation X pays me to 1) complain about legislation that X is unhappy with, 2) exhort my readers to contact his congressman, and 3) not mention that X paid me to do any of the forgoing, then I'm engaged what I think the bill is looking to curb.

But I think there'll be too much grey area for all that to work unless the bill/law turns out to be as orwellian as has been suggested by some in here.

For example, what if I receive funding from X, complain about the legislation, but never ask anyone to contact congress about it?

What if I had previously never been paid, but had been complaining about the legislation anyway when X makes a donation, but X never actually instructs me to goad the public?

What if I am a founding member of an organization of people and companies that X belongs to and which share X's views? Does this change whether or not X pays dues?

What if X instead of paying directly for the message instead pays indirectly by buying advertising?

I really dislike astroturfing, operations, but I cannot see how this law will get around it without infringing on First Amendment rights in its most important application: political speech.

Slashdot Top Deals

"In the face of entropy and nothingness, you kind of have to pretend it's not there if you want to keep writing good code." -- Karl Lehenbauer

Working...