Feds note gaming DRM woes: FTC to hold town hall meeting
By Ben Kuchera | Published: January 06, 2009 - 07:10PM CT

2008 may become known as the year of digital rights management, thanks in no small part to EA's bringing the issue front and center with Spore and the ensuing backlash. These days gamers want to know what kind of DRM a game employs before they make a purchase, and for many people the inclusion of SecuROM means a lost sale. All of the sound and fury surrounding the issue has gotten the attention of the Federal Trade Commission, and the government agency is planning on holding a town hall meeting devoted to the subject of DRM on March 25. 

The official page describes the meeting and its aim. "Digital rights management (DRM) refers to technologies typically used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, and copyright holders to attempt to control how consumers access and use media and entertainment content," the FTC explains. "Among other issues, the workshop will address the need to improve disclosures to consumers about DRM limitations."

The agenda includes demonstrations of DRM-related technology, panel discussions about how these technologies affect consumers, legal issues surrounding DRM, and discussions on the potential need for government involvement to protect consumers. 

You can get involved, as well. "The Commission invites interested parties to submit requests to be panelists and to recommend other topics for discussion. The requests should be submitted electronically to drmtownhall@ftc.gov by January 30, 2009....The Commission will select panelists based on their expertise and on the need to represent a range of views." If you would simply like to have your voice heard you can submit comments or original research as well. This is an excellent opportunity to make your voice heard on this matter, and to explain your feelings on the state of DRM in the gaming industry.

Is this a matter that deserves government attention? Absolutely. Having standards for disclosure of what exactly you're installing with your software, along with easily available tools to remove those programs, would go a long way toward keeping publishers honest about what is shipping with our games.

A recent class-action lawsuit filed against EA is indicative of the problem: "Consumers are given no notices whatsoever that the FREE trial version of [Spore] includes Digital Rights Management technology... Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM," the suit alleges. "The program cannot be completely uninstalled." The suit lists some of the potential side-effects of having the program installed on a system, including disruption of fire walls and "complete operating system failure."

Too often, customers have no clear picture of what else they may be installing onto their computer when they buy a game, or how those programs could affect the day-to-day use of that computer. There is no disclosure, no accountability, and very little education going on around the issue of DRM and its related technologies. 

It's likely the discussion will be lively, with both publishers and consumer rights associations weighing in. The core issue is a simple one, however: consumers deserve to know what they're installing, and exactly what it does. It's looking increasingly likely that consumers may need the FTC's help to make sure what happens during software installations becomes as transparent and open as possible. 

The town hall meeting will take place at the University of Washington School of Law, and will be free and open to the public, no registration required.

Gone, baby, gone: 1up sold, EGM killed, staff promptly fired
By Michael Thompson | Published: January 07, 2009 - 12:42PM CT

It's been no secret that Ziff Davis has been looking to sell 1up.com and its associated video game publications for quite some time. Rumors that the magazine publisher was shopping its video game publications around have been circulating for approximately two years; at one time it was even reported that Dell would be acquiring 1up.com. While that turned out to be false, Ziff Davis finally succeeded in unloading 1up to Hearst-owned UGO Network, whereupon things took a definite turn for worse.

The sale, it was announced, would bring 1UP.com, Mycheats.com, Gametab.com, and GameVideos.com under UGO's control. In the official announcement, UGO CEO J Moses made it sound like his company wouldn't actually be changing too much about 1up: "The acquisition of 1UP, with its authentic voice, tenured editorial personalities and bustling user community, allows us to expand our base of quality content and represents a major step forward in UGO's mission to become the leader in the games space." The announcement also stated that 1up would, "stand beside UGO as a flagship brand." A few hours later, though, it was revealed that this was far from the truth, as Ziff Davis seemed intent on thoroughly gutting its online publications before it changed hands.

Even though Ziff Davis CEO Jason Young claimed—via an internal e-mail sent to his employees shortly after the sale was announced—that, "many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team," it seems that this was not to be. Gamasutra received some inside information that, at roughly the same time, a large percentage of Ziff Davis' Game Group suddenly found itself unemployed. According to various reports, 30 members of the editorial, podcast, and video production staff was promptly told that it was fired. The detailed list of those who are now jobless is rather staggering: this is well beyond a corporate bloodbath, it's a scorched-earth policy with only a few survivors.

Adding another nail to the coffin was the simultaneous announcement that Ziff Davis would be shutting down production on its popular Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, which has been in production for nearly twenty years: this month's issue will be its last. "With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers," Young said in his email, "and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer."

When asked about the massive layoffs, 1up site director Sam Kennedy told MTV Multiplayer the answers lay with his former bosses. "Honestly, questions like that have to go to Ziff Davis at this point," said Kennedy. "All I can say to that is UGO held onto as many people as they could to run the business going forward and [kept] a lot of all-star key players."

To say this news is staggering is to put it lightly. 1up has been one of the major players in the industry of video game journalism since it was launched in 2003, and it managed to survive for quite some time in spite of the deaths of several excellent sibling magazines like GMR, Official U.S. Playstation Magazine, and Computer Gaming World. Meanwhile, the fact that Ziff Davis is resorting to cost-cutting measures like these implies that things may be far worse at the magazine publisher than has been let known: while no one expected things to be pretty after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it seems safe to say that no one saw this coming, either.