paladin181: I actually AM ok with DRM to an extent and really hope they find the magic one that won't impact paying customers while still protecting their property.
This is very unlikely, if not impossible, to achieve. It's definitely not possible for GOG to make one (and you'll know this if you remember the GraveTone incident).
Here is why it is impossible:
A DRM that does not verify against anything outside of the users control, can be made to verify all the time (as the user can control it completely), making the DRM breakable.
A DRM that does verify against something outside of the users control, will
always eventually impede them by that component failing.
For example, the first category are things like CD checks (can be made to think the CD is in == changing its reality), serial keys (generators or simple sharing), stuff like that.
The second category is things like authenticating with remote servers (impeded without connection to servers, for whatever reason), authentication dongles etc.
What you describe is a utopian DRM that has not only never existed,
it can't exist. At least the GOG utopia existed for a while (and we could go back to it).
Exactly, even given the worst way of working around it, you can do so in under 5 minutes. My point was how ineffective this will be as a defense against this sort of attack. It's like holding up a wet piece of paper in front of your face to block the incoming fist.
That's the problem, you can't stop it.. you may be able to slow it down.. briefly. It is an arms race and GOG will lose it because increasing the disruption to the bad actors will increase the disruption to the good actors. And seeing as there are far more good actors than bad, you will always be doing more harm than good.
People who buy GOG games cheap from resellers are looking to minimise their costs. They aren't going to make a jump
up to buying it from GOG, they are going to go
down and pirate it.
