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Siguza

If you're an EU citizen and you hate DRM and planned obsolescence, here's an easy petition for you to sign:

stopkillinggames.com/eci

TL;DR: If online-only DRM servers shut down, publishers would be required to keep your game working regardless.

Only targets video games because that is where this practice is by far the most prevalent today, but it would set a precedent that we might soon need for things like phones, cars, and all the other things that are increasingly getting CPUs shoved inside them.

1 year to reach 1 million signatures.

31 July at 18:53 | Open on infosec.space
26 comments
Siguza

Video with more explanation, if you have an 11-minute attention span:

youtu.be/mkMe9MxxZiI

31 July at 18:57 | Open on infosec.space
LisPi
@siguza Would the "Games as a Service is Fraud" video also be relevant?
31 July at 21:44 | Open on udongein.xyz
Blanxd.H

@siguza reminds me of you trying to come up with a good name for that sort of software (not only for games). Do you know if anything has taken hold? I really did like the serfdom analogy myself (a descendant of a serf nation here) but yeah that word won't work in english.

31 July at 20:17 | Open on mastodon.social
Siguza

@blanxd I did settle on the term "hostageware" and got a domain for it. Then before I got round to doing anything, Ross launched his whole campaign. I reached out to him, offering to build an easily accessible database of all affected games and potentially other products (I also have the domain deadgames.net lying around), but never heard back. Wouldn't be surprised if Gmail had sent me to spam, or if I'm simply in the backlog. So for now I'm just following his campaign as closely as I can to wait and see what happens.

@blanxd I did settle on the term "hostageware" and got a domain for it. Then before I got round to doing anything, Ross launched his whole campaign. I reached out to him, offering to build an easily accessible database of all affected games and potentially other products (I also have the domain deadgames.net lying around), but never heard back. Wouldn't be surprised if Gmail had sent me to spam, or if I'm simply in the backlog. So for now I'm just following his campaign as closely as I can to wait...

31 July at 21:18 | Open on infosec.space
Sos Sosowski

@siguza Alright, but this is very broad. Will I have to port my MS-DOS games forever to new operating systems when this goes through to "leave them in a functioning state"?

Should be more specific, I'll pass.

31 July at 21:21 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place
Siguza

@sos "Specifically, the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers". This is online-only DRM. Nobody's talking about "porting to a new operating system", you just made that up.

31 July at 21:36 | Open on infosec.space
q3k :blobcatcoffee:

@sos @siguza Thanksfully this isn't a legal text ready to be ratified, it's the outline of a petition that, if it gathers enough votes, enables the proposers to engage in a bilateral dialog with the EU commission.

There's no sense in nitpicking wording at this stage, as the intent is quite clear, especially if you've been following the campaign all along.

(see citizens-initiative.europa.eu/ )

31 July at 21:48 | Open on social.hackerspace.pl
Sos Sosowski

@q3k @siguza I truly understand the intent behind this but it has not been worder clear enough.

If this wording is what is to be presented behind the EC, then I'm absolutely not signing this.

It goes on to be very specific on the codes and laws but leaves out a lot of questions about the actual demands. What about free games? What about online-only games? What about dead platforms?

For now this only says I will have to do extra work on my old forgotten games.
1 August at 6:47 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place
LisPi
@sos @siguza You could just release the source-code and assets so other people can maintain the functionality themselves.
31 July at 21:59 | Open on udongein.xyz
Philippa Cowderoy

@sos @siguza It's not like you're also the platform vendor pulling stuff and threatening emulator developers - DOSbox exists and I'm guessing runs your stuff fine.

31 July at 22:08 | Open on types.pl
The Turtle

@siguza wait till DRM starts shutting down cars and farm equipment and locomotives.

"Sorry, we don't support that software release any longer. Please recycle the product in an approved manner."

31 July at 22:14 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
Siguza

@the_turtle

Farm equipment? John Deere been doing that for years.
Locomotives? @q3k can sing you a song about that.
Cars? Only a matter of time now...

1 August at 1:42 | Open on infosec.space
Juni

@siguza I just signed it.
I really hope it gets enough votes over the next year.
This needs to become more popular within the wider gaming community and not just among a small group of activists.
I wonder how the EU parlament will vote on it. Especially now, without @echo_pbreyer
, who was supporting this (or something similar I think).

31 July at 22:28 | Open on tech.lgbt
Siguza

@Juni @echo_pbreyer well, Ross thinks that if the initiative goes through, it has a high chance of becoming law because "politicians like easy wins", and anyone coming out of the woodwork to argue against this would be really, *really* bad PR.

1 August at 1:45 | Open on infosec.space
noah !! :blobcat:

@siguza need to be legal age to sign, sorry :(

31 July at 22:49 | Open on wetdry.world
rugk

@siguza Also note depending on your country (and whether you own #TheCrew from #Ubisoft) there is more you can do. See stopkillinggames.com/countries for details.

31 July at 22:49 | Open on chaos.social
elly
@siguza Really happy to see that. I own 3 games (on Steam!) that I cannot play anymore as they used Origin back when they were released (2008 - 2012). Because of that I have to download games from steam and... apply cracks. Ironic.
1 August at 0:16 | Open on donotsta.re
Firecat

@siguza it’s way worse, the very important software of today can ruin everything if the company suffered from unexpected failures. There’s nothing to replace the DRM systems when it always blocks your software because it doesn’t connect to the network anymore. John Deer is perfect example of DRM gone wrong and abuse of monopoly.

1 August at 1:14 | Open on mstdn.social
Chris Nicola :golang: :neovim:
Henna Paasio

@siguza but what if the company falls into bankruptcy?

1 August at 7:59 | Open on tech.lgbt
Siguza

@HennaPaasio well, you can always request that such a feature be developed ahead of time and ready to release at the press of a button, or that a budget be allocated for this. I mean, in most cases it would literally take one person half an hour to create a tarball of whatever's running on the server and make that available to download somewhere.

1 August at 8:53 | Open on infosec.space
Mike Taylor 🦕

@siguza I really want to sign this petition, but for some stupid reason I am not an EU citizen. (Yes, I'm British. *sigh*)

1 August at 8:37 | Open on sauropods.win
Siguza
Mike Taylor 🦕

@siguza Well, at least you didn't co-create the Single Market, negotiate a bunch of a special-case benefits from both it and the EU, then sulk your way out of both with no plan beyond waving flags and singing Rule Britannia.

😠

1 August at 11:06 | Open on sauropods.win
Bonne
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