Official Drm Explanation From Craig At Gp2x.co.uk

[x68000]

posted at http://www.gp2x.co.uk/drmgp2x.html

DRM? It's in the hardware.

Hello everyone, Craig here,

Due to some inaccurate internet reporting, I will clarify what on earth DRM is doing in a Linux console.

Well, the simple reason is that it's in the chipset we are using as standard, but the main reason is the same reason why we had Securamax in the GP32 - commercial support. Without DRM we would not be able to licence certain media formats or give reassurance to commercial developers that their games will not be stolen.

That's it, thats the only reason it's there. Take a look at the GP32 - securamax was only ever used for commercial titles.

Hope this clears things up, you can all look forward to using the GP2X for whatever you like,

-Craig

 

[Prophet]

Boingboing has ignored Craig's email so far. Wonder if they'll ignore that too.

Maybe they LIKE creating controversy to keep blog readers coming back for more? I never even saw that place till yesterday, and don't plan to ever go back.

Oh, and my FAQ was accurate about DRM all along. Heh.

 

[x68000]

the 18 cancelled preorders were surely never seriously going to buy the console in the first place if they let one uneducated trouble maker put them off.

 

[Huxley]

Maybe they LIKE creating controversy to keep blog readers coming back for more?

Bingo.

And they're not the only 'respected' source to sensationalise news such as this for the sake of a few hits and a bit of publicity. Sad thing is, when you're dealing with a product on the scale of the GP2X such ignorant reporting can really have a quite serious effect.

 

[DaveC]

That statement from Craig is still a bit vague for non GP32 users. I bet they don't know what Secumax was and how and to what extent it was used on the GP32.

Will movies work? MP3s? what are the licenced media formats? Will non-licenced media work?

Can it run non-DRM code and games? Will linux apps require digital signing to run?

These things could be made more clear I think. While we know the answers here they don't.

 

[Robster]

I think, DaveC, that your reply would have been more useful if you'd included the answers to your questions

Secumax was used on the GP32 to "lock" a commercial game to either a specific SMC card or a specific GP32. A locked game could be copied from the SMC and distributed, but when copied onto a different SMC and loaded into a different GP32, it wouldn't work.

DRM on GP2X may be considered to work the same way. If you buy a commercial application for GP2X, don't expect to be able to share it with your friends.

Will movies work? Yes. It is possible that someone may release a commercial media player application, and that will be DRM'd, but there will be free media players that you will be able to use.

Will MP3's work? Yes. Nothing to do with DRM.

Already-DRM'd media, like Microsoft's and Apple's, won't be playable unless a media player application is produced that will get past the DRM on the media files. But that is the same with any media player (whether it be portable, desktop PC, whatever) and is not a GP2X issue.

Non-licensed media (such as MP3s you've ripped from your own CDs) will work just fine.

Can it run non-DRM code and games? Yes, of course. And there will be more homebrew/open source software for GP2X than there is for GP32 (this last bit is just my opinion ).

Will Linux apps require digital signing to run? No. Homebrew/open source developers will find they can develop and distribute their work as easily as they can with GP32.

Finally, with the inquisitive nature of the developers around here, I have no doubt that it will be possible to build and run games outside of Linux, to replace the pre-installed Linux with a different version, etc.

 

[DaveC]

Yes you are right I was just asking hypothetical questions that someone reading Craigs reply might ask.

Also I think I know how the DRM works on the GP2X but wasn't entirely sure about everything.

Craig could use your answers though, I think it would help clarify.

 

[Robster]

Oops! Sorry, I forgot to mention the media formats.

Anything that can be played on Linux at the moment with an open-source player, can be played on GP2X if someone ports the player software.

That is, there's no reason why you won't be able to watch your MPEGs, DIVXs, etc. There was until recently a Sorenson format that wasn't playable on Linux, but mplayer or ffmpeg or somebody sorted that out.

The only problem will be with formats where there is no open-source player. The best example of this is Macromedia Flash: currently there are no open-source players that are really usable, although this is changing: see OSFlash. For someone to make a Flash player for GP2X, they'd probably have to get a license for the Flash SDK from Macromedia, so they would have to pay Macromedia some money, so they would charge you for their application, and they would probably put DRM on the application.

Note that the DRM would be on the application, rather than the media, and so if an open-source player becomes available, you could use that to play the same media.

There are a few other tightly-controlled and/or patent-encumbered formats around, but all of the main ones are covered by open-source players and so should be playable on GP2X.

 

[timeslip]

Personally not going to pay any attention to anybodys......estimations until its in our hands.

Hopefully its not the case but as people are saying Craigs is only a small business and 18 lost orders to a small business has to be fairly significent...........

......plus the original gbax GP32 advertisments were depending on your point of view either extremly misleading or total lies.

Heres hoping its not the case this time

 

[Esn]

Personally not going to pay any attention to anybodys......estimations until its in our hands.

Hopefully its not the case but as people are saying Craigs is only a small business and 18 lost orders to a small business has to be fairly significent...........

......plus the original gbax GP32 advertisments were depending on your point of view either extremly misleading or total lies.

Heres hoping its not the case this time

​

They weren't total lies... though they did stretch the truth a bit (ie. GBA was possible but slow, SNES was fullspeed but only on certain games). But no, the GBAX advertising was mostly correct.

 

[timeslip]

Personally not going to pay any attention to anybodys......estimations until its in our hands.

Hopefully its not the case but as people are saying Craigs is only a small business and 18 lost orders to a small business has to be fairly significent...........

......plus the original gbax GP32 advertisments were depending on your point of view either extremly misleading or total lies.

Heres hoping its not the case this time

​

They weren't total lies... though they did stretch the truth a bit (ie. GBA was possible but slow, SNES was fullspeed but only on certain games). But no, the GBAX advertising was mostly correct.

​

Purlllleeessss! it was utter fabrication - there was NO (released) GBA or SNES emulation at that point.

People seem to have real short memories, i certainly seem to remember a lot of hostility at the time - do a forum search if you werent here or cant remember.

It was made up to sell more GP32s and im sure it worked - made me buy one and never regreted it - Just pissed me off i bought it under false pretenses

 

[Vimacs]

i dont think gamepark did ever say anything about emus.

 

[Winterkid]

When I got my BLU+, it was like christmas... Only there was no egg nog and I didn't have to pretend to enjoy myself while I got the least presents than anyone else.

But I'd read the board, searched the board for answers here, asked a question or two, and learned EXACTLY what it could do and couldn't before I ordered it, and therefore I wasn't all ticked off.

 

[x68000]

posted OFFICIALLY on www.gpx2.com


/ NO / TITLE / WRITER / DATE / COUNT


17 Regarding DRM admin 2005-09-23 62

Dear Consumers


There have been many complaints about the DRM function with the Gp2x so let me explain exactly the purpose for the DRM

We will only be using DRM for commercial games that we distribute through our website

DRM will not effect anything else, it will be used the same way as the Gp32

There is nothing to be scared of!

Best regards,

Anna