Another day, another example of a DRM scheme punishing legitimate users instead of actually stopping people from pirating software. The newest case comes from Game Maker Studio, a popular game prototyping and development tool that is reportedly adding an unremovable skull and crossbones symbol to some users' created images.

The Game Maker Blog recently reported widespread complaints from Game Maker Studio users who saw the international pirate symbol unexpectedly and irreversibly added to the assets they created for their projects. The move, meant to discourage piracy, was instead ruining the hard work of people who had paid anywhere from $50 to $500 for a legitimate version of the software.

Some users suspected a recent downloadable update for Game Maker Studio might be responsible for the problem. Mike Dailly, an employee of Game Maker creator Yoyo Games, instead suggested virus scanners or other programs may be modifying the Game Maker EXE file, causing the DRM scheme to misidentify it as a pirated copy.

In any case, Dailly says Yoyo Games will be issuing an update to fix the issue while it transitions to more passive protection methods in the future (hopefully removing the possibility that legitimate users will see their work ruined). Despite the issue, Dailly doesn't forsee the company removing DRM from its products altogether.

"Game Maker has traditionally been one of the most pirated programs around, and it’s simply not right that some pay good money for it, while others simply pirate it," he wrote. "We’d LOVE to be able to remove the protection completely, but we know that vast numbers would simply copy it if it was that easy."