The fact that the games are DRM free means there's no way to distinguish a pirated copy from a legitimate one, and that weirds me out.

Suppose GOG ends someday and I keep my DRM-free games. While that's all well and good, there's no way to tell whether they're pirated! In fact, someone could pirate fifty games and then say they got it from GOG before it ended. Or accuse my legitimate games of being pirated! Though that's a particular case, it's pretty freaky.

Of course, I don't want DRM. I just feel games should come with a text file that says something like "Licensed to GOG user thiagovscoelho" so there's a sign of legitimacy.

What do you think?

Well, this is a weird thought. The whole point of DRM-free is that yow *own* your games, now and forever. Whether GOG is alive or dead.

I got one better... Why not just modify every executable so when the game is playing that it has a watermark that has your name and says 'licensed to: xxx' on it like Pazio do with with all their PDF's (even the free ones)?

(this was sarcasm by the way)

That's not really how DRM works or what it's meant to do. DRM is not proof of purchase! That would be your invoice, your credit-card bill, your bank statement. These show purchase and ownership of licence.

DRM merely restricts the things you can do with your purchased product. This is why, in many cases, users have a better experience with a pirated game than with a legitimately purchased one: the absence of DRM makes installing and running the application much easier and hassle-free. In contrast, by selling only DRM-free products, GOG aims to level the playing field and add the extra incentives of quality support and service.

I suppose you mean the point of not having DRM, to which I'd reply that I'm just weirded that the game doesn't say it's mine.

+1

If you bought a game on CD, walmart or the store you buy it from doesn't burn a custom text file on the disc to say it belongs to you, or get a password and encrypt the file first, or do anything like that. If it was a floppy disk like Stacker software, using the software it would register it to you but it doesn't change it from being used...

You COULD scratch your initials onto the CD cover along with the CD key if you want....

RinkWorks: Computer Stupidities - CD roms...

Presumably you have a receipt?

Oh yeah, GOG sent me a receipt by e-mail! And e-mail will always be around.

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Well, I had a confusion going on, but it's probably not the confusion you're thinking of. Either way, I'll drop the subject. I don't think you can close a thread on here but whoever reads this must consider it closed!

lol yeah I meant DRM-free

Proving that a DRM-free game on your computer is not pirated is like proving that a household item in your home isn't stolen: it's impossible. Of course if you have the receipt still around it seems simple, but who can guarantee that that particular receipt belongs to that item, and not another one (like you had the item already, stole a second one and then sold the first one).

Fortunately it doesn't matter in the case of software as the number of copies is by any reasonable count "infinite". You have a license to use the software from GOG, the installer is from GOG, and every copy from GOG is identical (given the same version, and everyone who bought the software on GOG has access to the latest version).

It doesn't matter if you bought the game but then copied the installer from a friend (perhaps because you have a shitty connection and can't reasonably download 20GB - or because your friend already had an external drive with him at your house and making a copy is just much quicker even if your connection is good), you'd have the exact same data.

As long as you have the receipt or gift email you're good, you paid for your license. And if you lose the receipt mail for whatever reason and are worried this may happen, I'd bet you can ask GOG to send them again before such time.