Digital Distribution is a form of software publishing that sells games digitally as opposed to using physical mediums like discs or flash memory. It has many advantages to standard distribution, including cheaper production, better stock control, and easier more widespread distrubtion. However, because a product that is completely digital is harder to verify ownership to, it neccesitates some way to control profit loss.

One way is to allow free distribution and make revenue of aspects of the software such as advertising and in software purchases both of which neccesitate an intermitten online connection, but is generally more lucrative.

The other way is via Digital Rights Managment aka DRM. Contrary to popular belief, physical media has a form of RM or rights management in that ownership of disc grants ownership of the license to use that copy. This is why when you buy, sell, rent, destroy, etc with physical media you are doing that to its license as well. FYI, if you bought a copy of the White Album, you own the rights to that copy and can play it whenever you wish, but you do not own the songs on the White Album nor do you own the Beatles.

Because there is no physical medium, these licenses must be maintained and their are two ways to do it. Offline and Online DRM. Offline DRM is difficult to design and easier to break then its counterpart. It requires a validation everytime the software is on the machine, but it itself is vunerable to hacking. However, good offline DRM can stop 60-90% of most pirates, and I know I'm pulling this stat out of my ass, but only a minority of dedicated pirates are really that bad, publishers try to make it look worse than it is.

The only difference in Online DRM is that the software verification is online, being less vunerable to hacking because its server side. However, there are multiple ways around this including modifying the cracked software to run offline. In comparison, it would block 98-99% of pirates.

On a side note: It's a fallacy to assert that physical media ensures ownership of the software license indefinetly, depending on the TOS, software or hardware that utilize that software can indirectly revoke that license. The only thing it guarantees is that the license on the disc cannot be modified. So if a patch is applied to someones account or hardware, it can disable the license from working on that machine or with that account.

It's worth mentioning that the video is incorrect. Drinking 8 glasses of water a day helps you prevent the formation of kidney stones. Which is pretty important if you have a genetic disposition to form them.

And let me tell you... those kidney stones hurt a lot!

OT: Agreed.

The stats you are pulling out of your ass are wrong. Also it depends on which people you are defining as pirates. The ones that make the effort to crack the game or the people who use it. I'll go with the first, since once a game is cracked there is nothing deterring the users.

Offline DRM is pretty much non existent anymore regarding games. It is still in place on physical video and music. But nowadays they're not inventing new offline DRM anymore and use old mechanisms that are pretty much circumvented with a single click. It does not deter a single pirate. Hell it's so easy it even makes the normal user to an active pirate.

It will be tougher on a console as a closed system. But even though it's tougher, it has a single point of failure - the console - which makes hacking it worthwhile and as such pretty much inevitable.

Then you have to differentiate between two forms of online DRM. The weak one time activation and then the always on connection.
The one time activation comes in two flavors. One time registration via a code and doing the same check every time you log in. On PC this is a non issue. Once a game is activated and verified, the verified copy can be distributed freely. A crack my simulate the online check offline whenever you start the game. Pirate deterrent? 1%.

Then there is the strongest form of DRM. Always online connection to a server which actively provides random content. This is an absolute pain in the ass for every cracker. You will have to monitor what kind of content is delivered by the server and then have to build a simulator around it. In case of Diablo 3 for example, the server generates the loot. It could take months to see all the content the server offers to make a relistic simulator out of it. That's why you won't find a singkle proper cracked Diablo 3 game in the scene to this day.
This method of course relies heavily on the game code and what kind of content is generated. If there is a pattern or only minor content is delivered then it's almost as easy as the one time activation. If it's executed properly it will deter 99% of pirates.

How I know all these things? I once read an article in Playboy.

Yeah, I was drinking 1-2 glass of water back when I was dieting few months ago, I couldnt drink more water because it tasted really bad, water tastes awful when you're in the ketosis metabolic state. After more than a week I got immense pain from my right kidney, there was even blood in my urine, it was one of the worst 18 hours of my life. You  should definetely drink close to 2 liters water everyday.

As to the OP, who cares, every digital purchase has a DRM, be it itunes or steam you dont own those purchases.

Don't try too hard to explain the difference, some people will never get it. Agreed mind you. I wonder what caused you to create this, I mean I can guess but this post should be treated as fact and not open to debate.

Something was obviously said for him to start it. No one owns the game or whatever it is you have a digital version of, you own a licence to play the game. Always has been this and I'm sure many aren't in any illusion otherwise.

I stopped paying attention as soon as you admitted to pulling statistics from nowhere. Research a topic thoroughly before discussing it, otherwise don't bother discussing it at all.

not entirely accurate, Gog.com offers over 800 drm free games and many of the humble bundle games are drm free aswell

retail disk drm? region lock? but every digital buy has some kind of drm by itself. im fine with that
i like my digital, zero region lock and no further drm future*



*only on xbox one

The only difference in Online DRM is that the software verification is online

On a side note: It's a fallacy to assert that physical media ensures ownership of the software license indefinetly, depending on the TOS, software or hardware that utilize that software can indirectly revoke that license.

That doesn't work with an off-line console or simply refusing the update. Plus you can still sell, lend or trade your physical license with someone else. Plus a physical license is backed up by the first sale doctrine, digital distribution licenses are not. Quite a few big differences.

I got reminded of the greatness of online drm the other day. I wanted to start Minecraft ps4 but it refused me. It said, cannot start this application, your license is being verified. It cleared after 5 minutes, but I guess if my internet refused to start to work (not uncommon) I would have been out of luck.