Last year, they all came crawlin' back to Steam, and this year was another strong one for Valve.
  • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
    10·
    10 months ago10 months ago

    DRM free can become DRM laden with a patch

    Only if you download the update for that game.

    The patch to the Steam DLL could impact every game, and it still requires the user to patch the binary. Steam updating the binary to patch out the fix has a much bigger impact than a game adding DRM later.

    You are legally allowed to crack your own copy

    I’m pretty sure you’re not, though there’s potential for some gray area. Here’s 17 U.S. Code § 1201, (a) (1) (A):

    No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

    And yes, the average person does “back up” their games by having a copy of the installer in a Downloads directory or maybe a separate drive. They’re probably not going to use a NAS or cloud service, but that’s probably still more likely than applying a patch to a binary.