Logo Verification... Um... what?

[RaiderKtulu]

What exactly are we verifying?

I ask because I just tried a little experiment.

I've already downloaded one of my teams to my console. I went on TeamBuilder, and uploaded a new set of logos and changed the roster. I kept the same team name. I downloaded the team again, instead of just updating. I now have 2 teams with the same name downloaded. Guess what - I can play them against each other, and BOTH LOGOS WORK, even though the first logo should no longer exist, as it was replaced by the 2nd one.

This verification crap needs to go. Seriously.

[2krules]

Quote: Originally Posted by RaiderKtulu

What exactly are we verifying? I ask because I just tried a little experiment. I've already downloaded one of my teams to my console. I went on TeamBuilder, and uploaded a new set of logos and changed the roster. I kept the same team name. I downloaded the team again, instead of just updating. I now have 2 teams with the same name downloaded. Guess what - I can play them against each other, and BOTH LOGOS WORK, even though the first logo should no longer exist, as it was replaced by the 2nd one. This verification crap needs to go. Seriously.

Wow, that's a very interesting find, and does indeed show that the logos are indeed saved to the hard drive.

I think most of us had thought that the logo is stored on the server, and in order to have it verified and accessed, we need to be online. But I think your experiment shows that the logos are stored on the console hard drive but only accessible once it's been uploaded to the EA authorization server and verified.

There is some good news in your experiment. If the logo had been stored on the Team Builder server, and the site crash and every team was lost, you would still have the logos, if you had downloaded the team previously. So, after downloading, our teams' logos depend entirely on the Authorization server.

[2krules]

Uh oh, I just had another thought.

Your experiment serves to highlight that the logo authorization is a bit sinister. Not only does MS want you to not share offensive or copyrighted logos that are stored on the internet, they want to make sure that you can't use them if they are stored on your own personal hard drive. MS has decided that they have the right to check what's on your private personal hard drive to ensure that you're being a good boy.

Being able to stop you from using logos on the internet is one thing, since it's a privately owned site and they have policy that people must agree to abide by. But micromanaging your personal use of a logo stored on your private hard drive is quite another thing, altogether.

This may be a little thing, but the erosion of personal privacy rights always starts small.

I joked about it earlier, but it's true - Big Brother is watching you.

[RaiderKtulu]

Don't forget Sony. Both systems are using this garbage.

The only good I can see out of this is that if TeamBuilder does get shut down or makes any major changes for NCAA 11, they could patch our copies of 10 to not require the online part anymore.

But I agree, it's far more sinister than it should be. We're being forced to ask EA for permission to use a file that's sitting on our own local drive.

[OMT]

Quote: Originally Posted by 2krules

Uh oh, I just had another thought. Your experiment serves to highlight that the logo authorization is a bit sinister. Not only does MS want you to not share offensive or copyrighted logos that are stored on the internet, they want to make sure that you can't use them if they are stored on your own personal hard drive. MS has decided that they have the right to check what's on your private personal hard drive to ensure that you're being a good boy. Being able to stop you from using logos on the internet is one thing, since it's a privately owned site and they have policy that people must agree to abide by. But micromanaging your personal use of a logo stored on your private hard drive is quite another thing, altogether. This may be a little thing, but the erosion of personal privacy rights always starts small. I joked about it earlier, but it's true - Big Brother is watching you.

I think sinsiter might be a little harsh, but this is essentially what we are doing. I'm not a fan of it either, trust me. But I guess there are a lot of concerns over copyrights and whatnot.

[2krules]

Quote: Originally Posted by Adam_Thompson_EA

I think sinister might be a little harsh, but this is essentially what we are doing. I'm not a fan of it either, trust me. But I guess there are a lot of concerns over copyrights and whatnot.

I'm not blaming EA, Adam - honest I'm not. I know from what you said before that complying with this MS and Sony demand is the only way you could allow for custom logos. I appreciate your concern over the issue.

However, I don't think sinister is too harsh a term for MS's policy. They are controlling our use of a logo that is stored on our own personal drives. What MS could require is that the logos be authorized when they are created on the TB site and possibly even when people play online, which is what they would do if they cared about protecting privacy one iota.

[RaiderKtulu]

Ok, seriously, what is the authorization server doing?

New experiment.

Downloaded my Pink Panthers team to my PS3. Turned off the game. Went to TeamBuilder site - DELETED the team. Restart NCAA - and I can still use the team.

I think it's quite obvious that forcing us to be online doesn't actually serve any purpose.

No one is going to sue ME for using a real team - they'd go after EA. As long as EA can delete teams off the server, there shouldn't be any legal issues, regardless of what's on my drive.

[2krules]

I imagine that the reason MS has us authorize the logo each time we load it up is because they want to be able "unauthorize" logos that had been previously authorized. Let's say you download a team today and play a game, logo auth. went OK. But let's imagine that a week from now, someone flags that same exact logo and it is deemed offensive. Now, when you load up your team and attempt to authorize the logo that is already sitting on your hard drive, it will call it offensive and it won't authorize it. Call it "retro authorization". This way, they can keep track of everyhing.

Imagine that today, coffee drinking is made illegal. Tomorrow, the cops come in, without warrant, and seize and destroy the coffee you have in your own personal refrigerator. That is what is going on here, in a nutshell.

Gotta hand it to MS; they came up with an ingenious way of snooping on you and controlling your use of logos on your own private console.

This hacks me off the more I think about it.