Have to agree here. You can argue about archaic stuff like manual lookups or whatever, but doing an internet check is definitely DRM and unacceptable.

Ah yep.

Well unless the dev has shown a willingness to properly fix this, I think GOG should remove it from sale. The developer hasn't provided a DRM-free version of the game and should therefore not be holding up their end of the contract with GOG. Unless GOG's lawyers are terrible or something?

So it looks like the only real way to make DEFCON DRM-free is to block it with a firewall?

Uh, guys? If it calls home to check the validity of the key, it has never been DRM-free in the first place. At best it is pre-activated but still very much DRM-ed.

Doesn't sound DRM-free to me.

So much this. It seems some people at GOG 'forgot' what DRM-free means.

I'm confused, you state that "it has been banned by the developer once again" which implies that you knew there was DRM beforehand, and I'm guessing got the keys unbanned instead of removing the DRM, and on top of that not informing your customers that the game has DRM. So are you going to remove the DRM this time, or keep the universal CD Key phone home method which i believe is DRM. Or am i reading that wrong.

Doesn't Multiwinia work the same? They are not the only games with serials of course but I think these are the only games that call home.

I wouldn't know as I don't own that one. Not sure why GOG considered this acceptable though.

Your statement indicates you knew beforehand about this and yet still allowed it in your catalog. A game that calls home whenever it finds an open internet connection is DRM'ed flat on. Blocking the game with a firewall is a workaround but doesn't remove the fact that the game has an active DRM in it.

What about those who don't use a firewall? Back when I used Windows I never used a firewall, never needed one myself and unplugging my connection for a game that's supposed to be DRM-Free in the first place is wrong.

With that said I understand some games don't work without a present serial key installed, I'm aware that such keys are installed by the installer in many other games here on GoG but unlike this one they don't call home which makes them worth of the DRM-Free title.

Thanks for working with the devs with such an issue and please, be careful what you sell, news run like wildfire these days on the internet and I'd hate to see GoG's good name put in bad light.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/defcons_drm_is_still_active_support_doesnt_give_a_crap/post29

You could always loop the IP of the dev to local loopback in the hosts file and problem solved.

But that is something, which can not be done by GOG

This way, you don´t need to block it or whatsoever.

Like:

127.0.0.1 www.defcon.com (whatever they use to check, a sniffer program could collect this info easily and no I don´t have the game, wireshark will do)

127.0.0.1 tells Windows to send this request to the local loopback, so it will never be able to phone home ;)

And how does that remove the DRM? If you JUST install the game on another computer, does it work without doing anything else?

You could also download a crack, or crack a game manually to remove DRM on your computer. The fact that user can jump through hoops to bypass DRM doesn't remove the fact that the version GOG is selling has live DRM.

That would need 'undoing' if the player wanted to play multiplayer so it's not a great solution. The best solution would be the dev updating the game so that it only connects to a server when you click "multiplayer".

EDIT: Ninja'ed so many times, so removed the original question.

I hope the DEFCON publisher dies soon so that their authentication servers go offline, LOL. :) Then one doesn't have to care whether it can check online, in order to play it DRM-free.

The more I think about it, the odder this case is, in a funny way. You are fine as long as it can't reach the servers... but if it can, meh, just give it the multiplayer key then.