Will Steam increase copyright theft?

Sorry If I have missed the point but from my basic understanding I don't see how Steam or registering your copy will lower copyright theft. Ok people downloading illegally from the net, fingers crossed will be brought to an end but people borrowing the game from a friend will have no incentive to buy the game. With each copy being allowed to be installed on 5 different computers I could lend my copy to 5 friends and they have to pay nothing. This can't be right ? At least we had to have a hard copy before.

Also as a Mac user I could effectively lend my copy out then have it returned as I don't need to register. I won't be doing this but just highlighting that copyright issue's have not been tackled with much thought tbh.

Why not create it so you have to register your copy and then have to use the hard copy too.

Again, if I have this wrong then sorry.

It would be interesting to see some official data after a couple of months. On one hand piracy could be reduced (we'll see about that) and on the other hand 2-3 friends could buy one copy and share it.

I don't see why people would do that - let your mates install your copy and you (a) risk getting caught, and (b) risk ending up with no game at all should something terrible happen to your PC.

so you can just get the game for free off mates????

You cant share steam games, because each game is linked to your account, if your friend loaded up your account at the same time you did then the account would be banned.

And you cant just loan the game to your friends because you would need to authenticate it each time you installed it, and every time you do you would use up one of your 5 installs.

So you would just be shooting yourself in the foot.

Theres nothing about FM09 that means its any easier to pirate than previous versions, quite the opposite.

You don't get banned for trying to login to a steam account that is already logged in, that would be ridiculous. All it does it log you out of the one you were logged into.

It does reduce piracy because it requires the game to be registered with them at least to use on multiplayer servers it becomes very difficult to have a pirated version that is not detected and banned. In return you have the ability to go anywhere and play your game on any computer so long as you can login.

Well, I'm sure that majority of users will use up 1-2 installs (those who play it on one computer) so 2-3 people sharing the game might work... We still don't know if the game will be "pirate-proof". As I've mentioned in other threads so far this DRM protection suits me, because now I'll be able to play FM (indluding the old CM) on release date for the first time, because our shops usually get it 2-3 weeks after release. I really wish for SI that this method will work.

Well, I'm sure that majority of users will use up 1-2 installs (those who play it on one computer) so 2-3 people sharing the game might work... We still don't know if the game will be "pirate-proof".

I doubt in reality many people will share the game, much the same as it likely won't reduce the number of pirated copies. Sales will probably be around what they normally are etc. The real problem is in educating people to not share/download pirated copies. Not trying to stop them. I suspect nowadays Itunes is bigger and more widely used than any illegal music download site, whereas a few years ago it was Napster. The reasoning behind that change is what really needs to happen in the software industry as well (and no personally I don't know how it changed!)

You don't get banned for trying to login to a steam account that is already logged in, that would be ridiculous. All it does it log you out of the one you were logged into.

You are partly correct:

"You can't be banned for logging in at the same time, but you also can't log in at the same time. If one of you is playing a game, you will be immediately kicked out of the game when the other person joins and get the error message "Steam account in use in another location."

You'll need two separate accounts if you want to play together or at the same time."

So does anybody feel like phoning their mates and aranging whos going to play every time they fancy a game?

It wont stop piracy because the people that release these games onto torrents will remove the authentication system first.

You are partly correct:

"You can't be banned for logging in at the same time, but you also can't log in at the same time. If one of you is playing a game, you will be immediately kicked out of the game when the other person joins and get the error message "Steam account in use in another location."

You'll need two separate accounts if you want to play together or at the same time."

So does anybody feel like phoning their mates and aranging whos going to play every time they fancy a game?

From what I've read on these forums, the activation will be only once and then you won't have to be running steam to play or even be online. So two players sould be able to play at the same time. If I activate it on my computer and on laptop I will also log in with same account on two computers and SI and SEGA said that this is possible. So some activating server can't distinguish if two separate computers belong to me or if one belongs to someone else.

Thats kind of what I meant dougymarshall, you don't get banned it just doesn't work. Of course there will be pirated versions available especially for mostly single player games like this but removing the authentication system from a game and then trying to play it online is where steam is very likely to stop you.

Thats kind of what I meant dougymarshall, you don't get banned it just doesn't work. Of course there will be pirated versions available especially for mostly single player games like this but removing the authentication system from a game and then trying to play it online is where steam is very likely to stop you.

You don't have to play the game online via Steam. If I didn't read something wrong here, you'll need Steam only to activate the game once (or later if you upgrade or format your PC)

That is only if you use steam as a method of authentication.

The point is you don't have to be online to play FM. So you can play with all 5 of your installs at the same, on different computers.

A lot of the people who pirate games do so because it's either

A) Easier and quicker for them to find a torrent for the game than it is to go to a shop or wait for a delivery, or

B) Delayed in their country for 2-3 weeks for a reason probably related to distribution, bur never explicitly stated.

Steam solves some of these problems and probably reduces piracy as a result. Since no company has ever produced stats on piracy they can back up, it's hard to tell, though.

Stardock is probably a better system in terms of preventing piracy - patches and enhancements downloaded through a client and you need to own the game to get them - but it's still fairly niche.

I would be surprised if SI/SEGA don't have a think about what to do for the next version. (Hint, Stardock, Hint.)

A lot of the people who pirate games do so because it's either

A) Easier and quicker for them to find a torrent for the game than it is to go to a shop or wait for a delivery, or

B) Delayed in their country for 2-3 weeks for a reason probably related to distribution, bur never explicitly stated.

Steam solves some of these problems and probably reduces piracy as a result. Since no company has ever produced stats on piracy they can back up, it's hard to tell, though.

Stardock is probably a better system in terms of preventing piracy - patches and enhancements downloaded through a client and you need to own the game to get them - but it's still fairly niche.

I would be surprised if SI/SEGA don't have a think about what to do for the next version. (Hint, Stardock, Hint.)

Or they'll pirate it because it's free...

Steam installs games in a .cfg format... which only works with steam.

Theres a few hacks available for steam but only the Valve games.... so to answer your question Steam will not be increasing piracy any time soon.

If the scene manages to remove the activation process from FM 2009... (probably after they have a dump of the game after a legit activation) then that is how this game will leak from the actual ISO on the disk.