DRM sucks, GOG is best - July 13, 2025

Alright, so back in the early 2000s when piracy  was starting to become a major problem, software companies decided to fight back by making their software only usable, if the user activated the product online. This was right after the Windows 9x/2000 era where people just copied all the files from someone else's legitimate copy. Even though there already were serial key activation systems, it all worked with an algorithm that made sure if the entered key followed the guidelines of that algorithm. Sooner or later people started reverse engineering these algorithms and made programs that could just generate a valid key, also you could use some key that was given to you by someone, which 200 people before you have probably already used before. Now, the problem with activating software online was that, if the server for validating your key ever went offline, you could never use that software again, if it checked for a legit copy on startup or if you wanted to install that old piece of software because it just worked, then you can't even activate it anymore. This type of dumbass invention is what we call, DRM. (Digital Rights Management) DRM is everywhere, games, movies, shitty Adobe software and more.
The worst case of DRM is with games like The Crew, which is now unplayable due to Ubisoft shutting the servers down, I'm sure you've heard about this so I won't go into detail. Another example of crappy DRM is GFWL (Games for Windows Live), there were games like GTA IV which required GFWL to work or else it straight up won't run. Fortunately the hero in this story is GOG. I freakin' love these dudes, they grab old games and remove the DRM, resell them and make profit off of good deeds. It's a win/win for both parties.

GOG - https://gog.com (won't work on older browsers)