Independent developer Ron Carmel isn’t a big fan of digital rights management. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, the co-founder of 2D Boy blasted DRM by calling it a “waste of time.” His reasoning was that developers simply end up paying for technology that doesn’t prevent piracy. The argument seemed reasonable, especially after Spore, which had the notorious SecuROM copy protection, was heavily pirated. Carmel’s comments weren’t surprising, but it was nice to see a game designer slam the inadequacies of copy protection.

In a new feature article posted on Gamasutra, Carmel once again shares his thoughts on DRM, including the main reason he believes some publishers continue to rely on the technology.

“Publishers aren’t stupid. They know that DRM doesn’t work against piracy,” he told Gamasutra. “What they’re trying to do is stop people from going to GameStop to buy $50 games for $35, none of which goes into the publishers’ pockets.”

Carmel explained that a game can’t be sold back to a retailer if an individual has exhausted the allowable installs. Certain games can only be played on a finite number of machines due to their copy protection. The PC version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena shipped with DRM that only allowed the game to be installed on three rigs. Of course, using copy protection to combat piracy could backfire on publishers. Gamasutra visitor Alan Rimkeit commented that he wouldn’t purchase a game that he couldn’t resell later. Granted, this is only one reaction. The comment appears after this story.

Carmel’s studio was responsible for last year’s indie hit, World of Goo, a title that had an estimated piracy rate of around 90 percent. However, unlike Spore, 2D Boy’s darling did not feature any form of DRM.

If you want to read more of Carmel’s thoughts on piracy and copy protection, then be sure to check out Paul Hyman’s “PC Game Piracy: Why Bother With DRM?” article on Gamasutra. The feature also includes comments from Stardock CEO Brad Wardell and Ric Hirsch of the Entertainment Software Association. Hirsch argues against Carmel’s point, as he believes that DRM does provide some protection from piracy.

Stardock’s heavily-pirated new release, Demigod, also shipped sans DRM. Despite the 100,000-plus people who obtained the game illegally, Wardell told Gamasutra that the company won’t include DRM in any of its future retail games. The company also recently introduced a new technology called Goo (Game Object Obfuscation), which allows PC games to be resold. Check out this Shacknews piece for the dirty details.

The Gamasutra article is three pages long, so click here if you want the abbreviated version with only Carmel’s comments.

Like many other gamers, I absolutely detest DRM. If I purchase a game, I don’t want to have to jump through hoops to play it. When publishers use copy protection like SecuROM, it seems that legitimate customers are the ones who get screwed. Developers and publishers have every right to protect their titles, but I don’t think DRM is the solution. It just seems to irk a lot of people, while doing very little to combat piracy.

It seems that consumers aren’t the only ones who are concerned about current copy protection policies. In late March, the Federal Trade Commission held a meeting in Seattle to discuss DRM and End User Licensing Agreements.

Fortunately, it seems that some companies are beginning to see the light. Neither Dragon Age: Origins nor The Sims 3 will ship with the hated SecuROM technology. The latter won’t require online authentication at all, while the former won’t need it for offline play. Both titles are being published by Electronic Arts, which produced the aforementioned Spore last September. After complaints from many in the gaming community, as well as a lawsuit, the company released a de-authorization tool to ease the title’s copy protection.

Sources: Gamasutra, Atari forums via Ars Technica, Gamasutra, Impulse Driven via Destructoid, Shacknews via Destructoid,  GamePolitics, The Sims 3 web site via Rock, Paper, Shotgun via Joystiq, GamePolitics,  Dragon Age forums via Destructoid, bit-tech