Closed source isn't necessarily evil, neither is DRM. It's all in how you implement it.
Valve's launcher/drm are so much less intrusive than their competitors. They've demonstrated more openness to user customization and modding over the years than just about anyone else. If we didn't have Valve, we would have more EA and Epic Games, do you really want that?
DRM isn't evil, it's just it's current implementations and the fact that when the software is abandoned companies don't remove it. There's no end of life plan for their software
Also some forms in the past have been straight up evil.
I'll never forget sending a letter to a dev because I lost their code wheel for a game I owned and they sent a letter back telling me to buy the game again ‡
I'd say that was my first step towards piracy
‡ Before anyone asks: No I don't remember what game it was for or what company I sent it to, that was decades ago.
I'd say in your case piracy was 1000% justified. You bought it, you should be able to play it.
I think piracy is acceptable if one of these two conditions are met:
You already own a copy of the game
The game is no longer sold as new, such that any legitimate copy would have to be secondhand.
The main problem is the "No end of life plan" issue
If the software/game/whatever has to call a server to verify itself then when the company goes under or stops supporting it then the software/game/whatever becomes useless without a crack of some kind that may or may not be possible for the layman to implement
Companies need an end of life plan for their products with DRM
Thank you for contacting Steam Support. In the unlikely event of the discontinuation of the Steam network, measures are in place to ensure that all users will continue to have access to their Steam games.
It seems like Valve wants us to think they have an EoL plan. With the goodwill they've built over the years, I want to believe them.
So?
Closed source isn't necessarily evil, neither is DRM. It's all in how you implement it.
Valve's launcher/drm are so much less intrusive than their competitors. They've demonstrated more openness to user customization and modding over the years than just about anyone else. If we didn't have Valve, we would have more EA and Epic Games, do you really want that?
DRM isn't evil, it's just it's current implementations and the fact that when the software is abandoned companies don't remove it. There's no end of life plan for their software
Also some forms in the past have been straight up evil.
I'll never forget sending a letter to a dev because I lost their code wheel for a game I owned and they sent a letter back telling me to buy the game again ‡
I'd say that was my first step towards piracy
‡ Before anyone asks: No I don't remember what game it was for or what company I sent it to, that was decades ago.
I'd say in your case piracy was 1000% justified. You bought it, you should be able to play it.
I think piracy is acceptable if one of these two conditions are met:
The main problem is the "No end of life plan" issue
If the software/game/whatever has to call a server to verify itself then when the company goes under or stops supporting it then the software/game/whatever becomes useless without a crack of some kind that may or may not be possible for the layman to implement
Companies need an end of life plan for their products with DRM
Someone actually emailed Valve about this back in 2013. Here's their response: https://i.imgur.com/4sa1Ln6.jpg
It seems like Valve wants us to think they have an EoL plan. With the goodwill they've built over the years, I want to believe them.