Kingdoms SecuRom discussion - forum rules only

[Didz]

It dosnt really matter to me if CA and SEGA want to protect their games, even with all these other conspiracy theories about spyware and the like.

Sorry CK but I just want to correct you on the above point which seems to imply that the spyware functionality of SecuRom is somehow unproven.

In fact, there is no doubt that Securom has the potential to gather marketing information on behalf of its owner. If you visit www.securom.com and read through the optional features being sold to securom customers you will see that the ability to gather marketing data on the usage of the PC it has installed itself on is a key value added option which is being used to sell the product by Sony.

The actual wording of the sales pitch is as follows:

n-CD Solutions

The n-CD concept is the next step towards 1 : 1 marketing. It connects existing, offline digital media directly with specific websites on the internet. By pairing a "Secure Web Link" together with an unique identification number (PID™), only "original CDs" are granted access to specific websites and to specific premium content designed for your disc customers. This unique concept makes your optical media more interesting by creating additional value for your customers.

Your Benefits

For the first time ever the n-CD concept makes it possible to add value to conventional optical media. Only this technology developed by Sony DADC guarantees the user the advantage of accessing specific content which is directly linked to a specific original CD or DVD. Postscribed-ID (PID) allows identification of a specific disc by checking the disc's unique identification number. Organizations using the new n-CD can now implement new marketing tools:

• Link a CD directly to a specific webpage and to specific premium content - secure and unique!
• Collection of bonus points (e.g. per CD)
• Lottery games (e.g. 10 out of 100 CDs win a prize "online" or get privileged web access)
• Automatic online registration (e.g. for software publishers)
• Collect valuable customer data for 1 : 1 marketing activities

Product Features

The overall n-CD offering from Sony DADC includes

• CD production / replication
• Unique identification number (PID)
• Secure weblink (CD - Internet)
• Online authentication process
• Online marketing promotion concept (bonus points, voucher concept, lottery games)
• User statistics & CRM data
• Customer specific portal site (optional)
• Online shop (optional)

For more information visit http://www.n-cd.com

As you can see the n-CD option uses SecuRom to gather marketing information on behalf of its owner, but not only that it has the potential to do a lot more. for example it could detect everytime you insert a specific CD into you CD Drive and automatically link you to the owners website to inform your of their latest special offers, it could in theory monitor everytime you use the CD and charge you on a per play basis. It can allocate bonus points per play and then inform you of rewards you have earned through consistent customer loyalty. It could be used to promote new products by linking the user directly to a promotional website when they next insert the game CD into their PC, and offer them the chance to pre-order or buy.

These features are not based on a conspiracy theory they are based upon the product specification as explained to prospective SecuRom customers.

For those with enough interest its also worth following the crumb trial provided by the www.n-cd.com link as this leads eventually to this site http://www.sonydadc.com/anzeige_ncd/ which gives you some actual examples of online marketing campaigns undertaken using this technology. Note: that in most of these examples the functionality has been secreted on a dedicated CD distributed by a company specifically for marketing purposes but essentially the technology is the same as is the trigger mechanism.