Forum Overview :: Rants

Xbox, Xbox Live and Digital Rights Management. by Trapped in Qutar 03/17/2008, 10:23am PDT **BEGIN RAGE**** The way Xbox and Xbox Live handle digital rights management is broken, and needs to be fixed. What follows is my adventure into the world of Xbox support. It highlights how Microsoft and Xbox are abusing digital rights management, thus treating all of their customers like criminals, instead of the loyal and supportive video game fans and consumers that they are. My Xbox 360 broke. Hours before a party I was about to have, the DVD drive stopped reading disks. The terrible noise coming from the drive told me that I was lucky to get my Rock Band disk back. Since the party I was about to have was based around Rock Band, I decided that I would run to the store, grab an Xbox Arcade box, which lucky for me they had, slap my hard drive in to it and be ready to rock. Imagine my surprise when I fire up the Xbox and none of my downloaded content is available. My set up isn't the best, because my DSL modem is in another room, so my Xbox is offline most of the time. As a result of this I don't connect to Live much. When I do I have to drag a super long piece of Ethernet cable across the house. (My wife hates this.) I figured that the problem might be simply that I needed to recover my Xbox Live account to the new machine. I had assumed that this would restore my rights to the content. So I drug my Ethernet cable over to the DSL connection in the other room, logged into Live and recovered my profile. No luck. I still did not have access to my content. I tried re-downloading the Rock Band Tracks. This also did not work. I had access to my content when I was connected to Live, but once I disconnected, my downloaded games became crippled demo versions, and I had no access to any of my gamer pics, Rock Band songs, or anything else. I figured that this had something to do with DRM. So I called Xbox Live support. I figured that, like with most software, it would be a simple task to get the products that I paid for re-licensed to use on the new Xbox. This is not the case. I'm going to spare you the details of the two hours I spent on the phone with Live Support. I was given a case number (1061625022) by someone who would only identify himself as “Harry R.” who said he was the “highest person in Xbox Live Support.”. I was told that Microsoft would not allow me to transfer my content to my new Xbox, and that if I wanted to have access to it I would have to create another Live account and pay for the content again. I was told that they “may” transfer my content over to a new Xbox, as long as I sent the old Xbox in for Warrantee replacement. Once they fixed it and sent it back, It would be the same Xbox so I “may” be granted credit for my content. I have a huge problem with this. The first, is that I already paid for the content. So I'm not about to buy it again. The second is that I still have 6 months left on my Gold Membership, so If I wanted to play on line, the new account I created would have to have a gold membership as well. My old account wouldn't have access to my new account's downloads. I'm not concerned about my gamer-score, or changing my gamer-tag. Also, what if the damage to my Xbox were not covered by Warrantee? That would mean that sending my Xbox in for replacement would be useless. Not only would I have to suck it up and buy a new Xbox, but I would have to buy my collection of Live games all over again. I can not think of another company that manages digital rights in this manner. If I buy a piece of software from Nero and my computer dies. It is a relatively trivial task in getting that software's license updated for the new computer. In most cases I do not even have to make phone call. Xbox Live's policy does protect the software company's products from theft but, in doing this it also dose something else. It alienates their loyal customers by treating them like thieves. A policy like this tell the consumer that there right to enjoy a product for which they have paid is less important then the possibility that Microsoft might loose some money to digital theft. This is the wrong way to treat a customer. DRM can, has been, and is being managed by other companies in a way that protects the publisher and at the same time treats the consumer with respect. My right to use a piece of software that I bought should not be infringed upon because a company is afraid of theft. I'm curious to know how Sony or Nintendo handle this. My feeling is that there DRM policies are much better. Microsoft is pretty full of itself if it things that people are going to stand for this for very long if there are other options available. I like my Xbox and the Live service, but not enough to be treated like a criminal. At the end of the day, it is a product. A product that I could get from another vendor. Hopefully, one that treats me like a customer and not a criminal. ***END RAGE*** Also, I know .. I know... Serves me right for PAYING microsoft for anything.... This is why people just steal.

Xbox, Xbox Live and Digital Rights Management. by Trapped in Qutar 03/17/2008, 10:23am PDT