In a move that's both hilarious and also quite important, GOG have launched a new website named 'FCK DRM' to help people understand what DRM is and how it can be harmful.
I'm sure most of you know by know how much of a nuisance DRM can be, it's in games, movies and more and the purpose is supposed to be to deter piracy. However, a fair amount of the time it does end up hurting people purchasing games from legitimate sources.
DRM-free approach in games has been at the heart of GOG.COM from day one. We strongly believe that if you buy a game, it should be yours, and you can play it the way it’s convenient for you, and not how others want you to use it.
The landscape has changed since 2008, and today many people don’t realize what DRM even means. And still the DRM issue in games remains – you’re never sure when and why you can be blocked from accessing them. And it’s not only games that are affected, but your favourite books, music, movies and apps as well.
To use the perfect example: When EA released SimCity in 2013, even for the single-player part of the game you were forced to be online. I remember the outrage, why did people have to sit in a queue to play a game they've paid for in single-player or even offline? It's completely idiotic and so I do applaud any decent effort to ensure people know about DRM and why it can be a real crappy thing.
It's an important issue, you don't want to suddenly lose access to games you've paid for before servers go offline or the developer decides to vanish. There's so many examples of why sticking DRM into games is a bad thing, it also never really stops piracy as people always end up finding away around it.
Visit the FCKDRM site for more.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I check smashwords first since they are 100% DRM free. My favourite author publishes there, so it is easy to support them.windows python script (uses a windows only library, but works in wine) can extract the key, and a calibre plugin from dedrm_tools can use the key to remove drm from downloaded books, and then add it to your calibre library.
Yes, i tried it (in VirtualBox) but thing is that to use DeDRM you need to use OLD ADE with OLD encryption scheme. And not all sellers allows of use of that old scheme, Google seems to forbid it, so Old ADE just refused to download anything.
Fortunately i didnt purchased a lot in bulk on first purchase, so it was easier to say "Fck it" and purchase 100% non-drm version elsewhere. Yes, its little lazy, but i needed those books anyway.
Interesting thing is that it seem seller i used to get DRM-fee version is same which provided content for these titles on Google Play in first place, but in their store they have DRM on very few titles, which means its not their choice.
Still i had enough headache with it, to be waaay more careful now.
If Smashwords don't have a book I want, I check kobo as I have a kobo branded e-reader. Kobo has a lot of drm-free books in the fictional categories. The coursebooks on kobo tend to have adobe DRM though.
The last store I check is kindle store. I really hate that Amazon use proprietary formats on their books, and I rather support the stores using pdf/epub if I can. Price is important though, if Kindle is a lot cheaper, then I will consider it.
Unfortunately both kobo and smashwords are quite horrible for finding good books if you don't know the title or the author. E.g. if you want to find something new to read and don't know what you want.
So ironically for Cyberpunk 2077 to count as a linux sale I will have to get it on steam. I'm ok with that.
Oh, yeah... That's a shame.
I am in a hurry to see what gog will announce about this whole news and I hope they will do something.
So ironically for Cyberpunk 2077 to count as a linux sale I will have to get it on steam. I'm ok with that.
Oh, yeah... That's a shame.
I am in a hurry to see what gog will announce about this whole news and I hope they will do something.
I would be kind of surprised if they did anything, I like GoG a lot but they seem to be fairly dismissive of Linux in general.
Doc Angelo Aug 23, 2018
Too bad they also seem to have a "FCK LINUX" initiative. When is the Linux version of GoG Galaxy supposed to be released again?
You don't need GOG galaxy to install or play games from GOG.
That's not really a good answer for this question.
Doc Angelo Aug 24, 2018
Humble once was the multiplatform and DRM-free motor. I don't see them actively pushing in either of that directions anymore :(
That's true. They drastically changed after being bought up by IGN.
The latest bundle is about weird non-game software that has the appeal of pre-installed crap. I canceled my news subscription right then and there. They are really getting obnoxious.
Last edited by Doc Angelo on 24 August 2018 at 1:03 pm UTC
Last edited by Hamish on 8 September 2018 at 12:12 am UTC
Bandcamp is great. That's where I check for music first, and they sell FLAC!Yeah, it is even allows to listen to music! Much of my "ogg" music is from there.
What sorrows me is that GOG was trying to capitalize on others' deeds.
Well, that and the fact that we don't have "Bandcamp for Movies". Netflix and Co. along with "Widevine CDM" can go to hell, as for me. :><:
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