Editor's note: While I generally welcome our new digital distribution overlords, I'd rather not have my rights as a consumer trampled in the process -- Rob outlines some real causes for concern. -Demian

The October issue of Game Informer has a rather amazing feature article by Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA). If you’re unfamiliar with the organization, the ECA is an advocacy group which focuses on preserving consumer rights and fighting anti-game legislation.

Earlier this year, the organization recommended the Federal Trade Commission force game publishers and developers to fully disclose included copy protection and digital rights management (DRM) software, and to adopt a standardized end-user licensing agreement (EULA).

Halpin’s GI article touches briefly on a number of issues surrounding DRM, ownership, and consumer rights. I want to add some specifics to Halpin’s commentary that focus on the ways in which we are able to use content we have purchased....

Halpin discusses ownership rights of digitally-distributed products, and rightly points out that consumers may be giving up their ability to resell purchased games when buying digitally. In addition, Halpin sheds some light on whether consumers will actually own games in the future, considering the software industry’s move towards licensing (which is a topic of much debate).

But Halpin only touches on your first-sale doctrine rights -- the ability to resell or give away a product which you have legally purchased. He doesn't mention your other rights under 17 U.S.C. § 117, which include your right to create archival copies for personal use or adaptations of purchased content.

Moreover, restrictive DRM schemes like those employed by Spore and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 aim to control how consumers use the products they purchase. Install limits and persistent online activation are two ways developers and publishers control how the consumers access the end product post-purchase.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Halpin’s discussion of the DMCA is a little light, given all of the implications this piece of legislation has for consumer rights and digital mediums like video games. The DMCA is something that all gamers, particularly PC gamers, should be intimately familiar with.

The legislation makes circumventing any “digital lock,” for any reason, illegal, which has the potential effect of locking owners out of their own content.

Take arbitrary region codes, for example, which prevent players from geo-shifting their purchases. There’s nothing in copyright law which gives content owners the explicit authority to prevent you from playing a Japanese game disc in a North American system, but content owners can create such authority though the use of digital locks.

Furthermore, in the case of PC games hindered by intrusive DRM, the copy-protection software may not recognize some hardware configurations, thus refusing to run the program.

This xkcd comic is illustrative of the conundrum facing consumers.

The PC version of BioShock was bundled with SecuROM DRM software, which would not recognize some DVD-ROM drives (I know from personal experience). Players were left with few options: purchase a newer DVD drive, update the firmware in the existing drive (not a simple endeavor in the slightest), or circumvent the DRM software. The last option is likely the easiest and cheapest, yet players shouldn’t have to break the law in order to enjoy content that they have legally purchased.

Don’t Take it Lying Down

My additions to Halpin’s commentary are meant to flesh out some of the less savory issues surrounding the use of copy protection and DRM, all made possible thought the enacting of the DMCA.

Be aware that consumer rights you take for granted now may be undermined through technological means, specifically, the use of digital locks and server checks to monitor content. The more connected digital mediums become, the easier it is for developers and publishers to control the use of content post-purchase.

The ECA is an active organization fighting on your behalf to protect long-held consumer rights. The least we can do is stay informed on the issues and vote with our wallets by not giving our business to developers and publishers who insist on limiting access to our legally purchased content.

[Image credit: Anti-DRM logo by drmaster]