what is drm and is it safe

[bigguyinthesky]

im a bit thick when it comes to computers but at work today when we were talking about football manager 2009 a mate said to me you dont want that it comes with drm i asked what it was and he explained it but i dont know whether to believe him or if hes pulling my leg

[Chris Ritchie]

The type of DRM that's being used for FM doesn't install anything nasty on your PC.

[CaptainPlanet]

People whinge about it because it's the cool thing to do.

At the end of the day it doesn't affect the game or your computer, it just means it's a bit more lengthy to install the game.

But then you have a nice friendly community like us to help you through any problems you have.

[Sandpaper]

At the end of the day it doesn't affect the game or your computer, it just means it's a bit more lengthy to install the game.

You can tell that to my old PC, made unusable by a nasty program called SecuROM 7 secretly provided to me when I bought and installed F.E.A.R. on it.

In regard to the OP, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It usually involves largely ineffective software aimed at protecting games from being pirated. In the case of FM09 Uniloc is being used. Uniloc, unlike some other forms of DRM, seems to be safe and more user friendly. You shouldn't and probably won't have any issues with it, so I wouldn't fret about it.

This article should help you get an understanding of what Uniloc is and does. All in all more innovative and safe than other forms of DRM. So you should be fine.

Have fun.

[CaptainPlanet]

Believe me, it's not a reason not to buy a fantastic game.

[bigguyinthesky]

Believe me, it's not a reason not to buy a fantastic game.

got the game and loving it its just that my mate said drm takes a snap shot of your computer which disturbed me a little bit as im sure thats invasion of privacy

[Torres09]

Sadly though, it was a reason some people couldn't pay it!

Don't worry, that's all been sorted now

[CaptainPlanet]

got the game and loving it its just that my mate said drm takes a snap shot of your computer which disturbed me a little bit as im sure thats invasion of privacy

Other versions of DRM are much more intrusive than the one used by SI

[Sandpaper]

got the game and loving it its just that my mate said drm takes a snap shot of your computer which disturbed me a little bit as im sure thats invasion of privacy

The info isn't sent to anyone, it's used by the program itself to check if the computer running the game is the one it was installed on. This is possibly an issue if you upgrade your machine. But, that's nothing a quick call to customer support won't fix up.

[bigguyinthesky]

Other versions of DRM are much more intrusive than the one used by SI

yes but my point is during the install it didnt say anything about taking a snap shot of my computer and was i ok with that so i am a bit angry that they can be allowed to do that without my consent

[A.D]

drm is fantastic, now after activating the game we no longer need to put the dvd into the drive to oad up the game ! It's a great step forward believe me. Tell your work mate next time that he has no idea !

[Sandpaper]

yes but my point is during the install it didnt say anything about taking a snap shot of my computer and was i ok with that so i am a bit angry that they can be allowed to do that without my consent

Understandable. I'm fine with most forms of DRM (bar Starforce and SecuROM) as long as they tell me it's being installed.

[bigguyinthesky]

Understandable. I'm fine with most forms of DRM (bar Starforce and SecuROM) as long as they tell me it's being installed.

i agree with you i bought the game so im ok legal got nothing to worry about but if someones taking a snap shot of my computer i would like to be asked if i was ok with it as its my private information they have taken and im sure thats not right

[Hamselv]

The info isn't sent to anyone, it's used by the program itself to check if the computer running the game is the one it was installed on.

Don't lie to people just to make them buy the game. The DRM uses the Hardware Insight feature that will send information back to SI regarding the hardware inside your computer without asking.

They are talking about perhaps making it optional at some point, but at the moment there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it from happening,
Whether anyone sees this as a problem is a different matter, but it does happen.

[feedthegoat]

Don't lie to people just to make them buy the game. The DRM uses the Hardware Insight feature that will send information back to SI regarding the hardware inside your computer without asking.

They are talking about perhaps making it optional at some point, but at the moment there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it from happening,
Whether anyone sees this as a problem is a different matter, but it does happen.

In fact the only way it can be stopped is if you activate the game over the phone and whenever you play the game you make sure your internet connection is turned off.

[Hamselv]

In fact the only way it can be stopped is if you activate the game over the phone and whenever you play the game you make sure your internet connection is turned off.

That's true. Phone activation would be a way to avoid it. After reading about how complicated the phone activation is, most people will probably not want to use that though.