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It doesn't matter who or what took down the servers Sure it does. Just like it matters and should affect our responses whether a building was destroyed by eart

by donaq 17y ago

It doesn't matter who or what took down the servers Sure it does. Just like it matters and should affect our responses whether a building was destroyed by earthquake or some dude who sets off a bomb under the building to prove that it couldn't survive an earthquake. Intention, while not everything, matters a hell of a lot. Illegal and malicious actions like these don't serve to punish the companies who use DRM, they just give them a scapegoat to blame. If, like me, you're against DRM, vote with your dollars and stay the hell away from companies who use DRM in their products.

three14 17y ago
There's a big difference between the earthquake case, where it's really unlikely that there's a dude who will actually set off a bomb, and here, where it's guaranteed that over the whole internet, there's at least one dude who is going to DDoS you. The fact that someone in particular actually sets it off and is therefore morally responsible for disconnecting all those users doesn't remove any blame from Ubisoft, who was releasing into the real world where the DDoS was guaranteed.
cookiecaper 17y ago
It actually doesn't matter how the building was brought down for the people who are in it -- what matters is that the building is down and they can't get to work/get out of the rubble. We have this benchmark of "reasonable expectations" for designers of things. Sure, you could whittle endless years away contemplating and preparing for every conceivable eventuality, but we don't expect that of people because that's crazy. However, we do install security in buildings because we know from experience that every once in a while you'll get a loon trying to blow the building up with a truckbomb or trying to shoot up the lobby. Security isn't perfect, but they perform reasonably in most situations. We ask our architects to consider disaster resistance in building design because we know that it's plausible that the area may one day be affected by earthquake or some other calamity. If either security or architects and engineers are found to be negligent of their duties to provide reasonable protections against violent crazy people and/or natural disaster, they are ostracized as seen fit by society. While they didn't cause the earthquake or the explosion, they knew, or should have known, that an earthquake or a violent assault might occur in the building they had designed and/or were assigned to protect. If they were found to have prepared adequately and still failed, they are generally "let off the hook". Now, in the case of a highly unpopular, highly publicized DRM scheme, do you think it's reasonable to assume that some out there might be interested in negatively affecting its operation such that people don't buy your game? A lot of people want to gob up the debut. I would say that it is reasonable, and that Ubisoft doesn't get any kind of pass for inability to ward off a DDoS in such a case. Ubisoft is a big multinational company, publicly traded, with a lot of money. There's no good excuse to let their servers die from either DDoS, non-malicious overload (effectual DDoS), or other standard calamity.
- donaq 17y ago
  While they didn't cause the earthquake or the explosion, they knew, or should have known, that an earthquake or a violent assault might occur in the building they had designed and/or were assigned to protect. That is irrelevant to the fact that the idiot with the bomb wasn't doing anyone any favors, which was the point I was trying to make in my original comment. I guess I should have omitted the part about "what's harming the consumers" or changed it to "what's directly harming the consumers" to avoid all these knee-jerk responses from the anti-DRM brigade, which incidentally I consider myself to be a part of.

by donaq 17y ago

three14 17y ago

There's a big difference between the earthquake case, where it's really unlikely that there's a dude who will actually set off a bomb, and here, where it's guaranteed that over the whole internet, there's at least one dude who is going to DDoS you. The fact that someone in particular actually sets it off and is therefore morally responsible for disconnecting all those users doesn't remove any blame from Ubisoft, who was releasing into the real world where the DDoS was guaranteed.

cookiecaper 17y ago

It actually doesn't matter how the building was brought down for the people who are in it -- what matters is that the building is down and they can't get to work/get out of the rubble. We have this benchmark of "reasonable expectations" for designers of things. Sure, you could whittle endless years away contemplating and preparing for every conceivable eventuality, but we don't expect that of people because that's crazy. However, we do install security in buildings because we know from experience that every once in a while you'll get a loon trying to blow the building up with a truckbomb or trying to shoot up the lobby. Security isn't perfect, but they perform reasonably in most situations. We ask our architects to consider disaster resistance in building design because we know that it's plausible that the area may one day be affected by earthquake or some other calamity. If either security or architects and engineers are found to be negligent of their duties to provide reasonable protections against violent crazy people and/or natural disaster, they are ostracized as seen fit by society. While they didn't cause the earthquake or the explosion, they knew, or should have known, that an earthquake or a violent assault might occur in the building they had designed and/or were assigned to protect. If they were found to have prepared adequately and still failed, they are generally "let off the hook". Now, in the case of a highly unpopular, highly publicized DRM scheme, do you think it's reasonable to assume that some out there might be interested in negatively affecting its operation such that people don't buy your game? A lot of people want to gob up the debut. I would say that it is reasonable, and that Ubisoft doesn't get any kind of pass for inability to ward off a DDoS in such a case. Ubisoft is a big multinational company, publicly traded, with a lot of money. There's no good excuse to let their servers die from either DDoS, non-malicious overload (effectual DDoS), or other standard calamity.

donaq 17y ago
While they didn't cause the earthquake or the explosion, they knew, or should have known, that an earthquake or a violent assault might occur in the building they had designed and/or were assigned to protect. That is irrelevant to the fact that the idiot with the bomb wasn't doing anyone any favors, which was the point I was trying to make in my original comment. I guess I should have omitted the part about "what's harming the consumers" or changed it to "what's directly harming the consumers" to avoid all these knee-jerk responses from the anti-DRM brigade, which incidentally I consider myself to be a part of.