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New DRM explained?


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"There you go, more negative waves! Have a little faith, baby! Have a little faith..."

Quotes from that film have been appearing on this site regularly over the past week or two. So much so that I sat and watched the whole movie yesterday, I had forgotten just how good it was. Donald Southerland, of course, steals the show but there were several other great parts, including the General - who made me laugh out loud.

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No I think you are incorrect actually - go read Moons post on the subject. What is the point of saying there is a limit to activations and then say you can have as many as you like - your logic doesnt make any sense - the whole point of the DRM is to stop people licensing a game when they havent bought it.

I did read Moon's post(s) - it's what I based my post on. Perhaps I was unclear in my post as I habitually precis my writing.

The original Bullets:

* you get four activations per licence, these cannot be retreived by unlicensing, you just get four.

* every 365 days you can get another one activation.

are the default position. This is the standard situation that everyone gets, automated, with no humans involved. (excepting the user, naturally)

HOWEVER

If you need more, you merely need to contact BFC's tech support with your reasons. This way anyone attempting to abuse the system will be immediately apparent.

Moon said this:

There is no finite number of licensing events with our new system, either, since you can add activations. The "pace" at which you can do this is restricted, but the number of activations remains infinite.

So if you owned the game for a decade you would have a total of 13 activations (4 original plus one for each additional year after the first). If you broke your system(s) more than once per year, then conceivably you might need more licenses. In that event I believe that BFC would be able to manually adjust the number of activations.

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"In that event I believe that BFC would be able to manually adjust the number of activations."

Not only would be able to but would, for real, do it - providing they were happy you are good genuine about your reasons. In more than a decade of dealing with BF have never known them to be unreasonable and they go far further than any other game company than I have come accross when it comes to looking after their customers.

They have to make money and protect their investment, which is fine by me, but in my experience they do so honourably. As Fetechez La Vache said:

"Have a little faith, baby! Have a little faith"

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I think the two bulleted points are the default situation. The number of additional activations is unlimited so I would presume that if you need more then you just have to contact BFC tech support and ask.

You know I had to ask for more activations because I had a harddrive fail and a reformat but forgot to deactivate in the same year. BFC did reset the activations, but they kinda scolded me afterwards which was really annoying....I let it go, but it is not very good customer service.....here we fixed your problem now take some attitude for your bonehead move. I'm fine with DRMs but I as the consumer need to know if I have problems with the DRM they will be resolved no matter what.

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I think that is why Battlefront is getting away from the Activate/Deactivate model. It is pretty easy to forget one app out of hundreds on your PC that needs to be deactivated prior to wiping the drive and starting over. At least this way you don't need to worry about it.

I must say that from my personal experience of building my own PC since 1993, if you need to do a total reinstall of Windows- any version, more than once a quarter, then you really need to look at your computer habits. I might reload once a year or every other year, and that is with fairly regular hardware changes.

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It's not 4 a year it's 4 period.

No, it's 4 to begin with PLUS an additional one each year to the maximum of 4. So, to run out of licenses you would have to reinstall five or more times in the first year OR four times in the first year and more than once per year every year thereafter OR two times each year for three years straight.

I really, truly cannot believe this is a problem for anyone. It boggles my mind that someone would have to reinstall their computer multiple times per year every single year. If my computer required that much hassle, I'd become Amish. Of course, those sorts of Windows hassles are why I switched to Mac in 2007 (and haven't had to reinstall my OS ever). :D

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It's not really a matter of OS reinstallation, although that will from time to time happen. For me it is more a matter of disk space. I have a large game library and I don't keep them all installed all the time. So, in a year or two I may have installed and uninstalled on my 2 machines more than the allotted amount - as is my right and preference on my machine. Should I really have to ask permission? Another question is, when did uninstalling and reinstalling software to which I hold a valid license become a threat to BFC's intellectual property? Pirates certainly don't do this, they crack DRM schemes and install unlicensed software. Why can't a revoke tool be released with this scheme as is done with many other limited installation schemes?

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It's not really a matter of OS reinstallation, although that will from time to time happen. For me it is more a matter of disk space. I have a large game library and I don't keep them all installed all the time. So, in a year or two I may have installed and uninstalled on my 2 machines more than the allotted amount - as is my right and preference on my machine. Should I really have to ask permission? Another question is, when did uninstalling and reinstalling software to which I hold a valid license become a threat to BFC's intellectual property? Pirates certainly don't do this, they crack DRM schemes and install unlicensed software. Why can't a revoke tool be released with this scheme as is done with many other limited installation schemes?

Ehm, uninstalling/reinstalling doesn't affect the activations. It's things like motherboard changes / hard drive wipes.

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Ehm, uninstalling/reinstalling doesn't affect the activations. It's things like motherboard changes / hard drive wipes.

Nice catch! It was also pointed out in the other thread... but updating systems every year or two is fairly common for enthusiasts, I did cpu's in both last year and will be rebuilding the desktop soon. That coupled with the potential for unforseen events leads me to think a revoke tool would be a welcome addition to the plan. Hopefully rootkits are not involved...

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Nice catch! It was also pointed out in the other thread... but updating systems every year or two is fairly common for enthusiasts, I did cpu's in both last year and will be rebuilding the desktop soon. That coupled with the potential for unforseen events leads me to think a revoke tool would be a welcome addition to the plan. Hopefully rootkits are not involved...

sfhand:

but updating systems every year or two is fairly common for enthusiasts,

EXACTLY why we allow one additional activation per 365 day period! Plenty enough for the typical user, even the "enthusiast" who is updating "once every year or two".

And flamingknives is correct about how the system works. There is no total limit of activations. You can add one per year every year. Your key will never run out of activations. (He's also right about contacting support in emergencies)

And lastly, there is in-depth explanation about the new DRM system, you just have to bother to actually look:

http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=view&parentcategoryid=34&pcid=0&nav=0

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I just read the FAQ: How do I find my License Key?

How do I find my License Key?

For download versions (including "Download&Mail" delivery as well as "Preorders"), this is the same code that you used to download your game. You will find your license key saved in your online account at www.battlefront.com/store. After logging in, click on the “My Account” link from the top menu. If you forgot your login, go to www.battlefront.com/lostpw to retrieve a new random

password as well as your username in the same email. The username is called “user account” in the email (it is limited to 25 characters).

For mail delivery only versions, the license key is printed on the product itself, usually on the back of the case or the game manual, sometimes inside the case or manual cover, depending on the product. Do not lose this label because we may not be able to retrieve your license key for you if you do!

Now I am confused. I have ordered the Steel Box edition and I was given a license key when I ordered. Does the Steel Box edition of this game come with a license key printed on the box? Does that mean I will have two unique license keys?

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Nice catch! It was also pointed out in the other thread... but updating systems every year or two is fairly common for enthusiasts, I did cpu's in both last year and will be rebuilding the desktop soon. That coupled with the potential for unforseen events leads me to think a revoke tool would be a welcome addition to the plan. Hopefully rootkits are not involved...

The thing is, if you get hit with an exceptional situation all you have to do is email BFC's support and they will help you out. Which for the number of activations involved would be a very small portion of customers. Before I was beta testing, my hard drive died on me and it had my last activation on it. Within an hour and two emails I had my activations reset.

They aren't gonna leave you out in the cold if you need some help every couple years. :)

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So let me get this straight, lets say someone buys CMBN, stuff happens and he/she goes through all the activations (including the extra yearly ones) by half way through year 2, does that mean they can't play or can you contact support and have an extra granted if the situation is genuine (eg, upgrade, upgrade, reinstall OS, reinstall OS, lightening strike, alien abduction of PC)?

Or is the 4+1/Year the maximum?

Furthermore, if you buy, you activate, that means you now have 3 activations, after a year can you request another so you then have 4 again or is it only if you "need" it?

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