# V2 DRM Removal Pathway

V2 DRM removal pathway strips protection for post-support-lifecycle and DRM-free
store releases while preserving binary signing, game data integrity, and release
evidence. The pathway disables the boot license gate, removes runtime unpacker
and anti-debugging hooks, and verifies protected features are absent before a
DRM-free artifact can ship. DRM-free store releases are covered explicitly.

## Release Pathways

`V2/ue/Build/DRM/v2-drm-removal-pathway.json` defines two release pathways:
post-support-lifecycle DRM-free release and DRM-free store release. Both
pathways cover Win64, macOS, and Linux AppImage outputs. They use signed source
artifacts, strip protection from the protected build root, and write DRM-free
artifacts under `$(ArchiveRoot)/DRMFree`.

The removal flow must disable boot license gate checks while preserving optional
platform entitlements for online services. It must preserve binary signing and
preserve game data integrity, including signed asset manifests and on-load hash
verification. DRM-free artifacts must still pass the DRM impact benchmarking
comparison so performance and startup behavior do not regress.

## CI Gates

`V2/ue/Tools/plan-v2-drm-removal-pathway.py` emits the deterministic DRM removal
pathway plan. `V2/ue/Tools/check-v2-drm-removal-pathway.py` validates the
manifest, planner output, impact benchmarking dependency, binary signing
dependency, game data integrity dependency, Horde wiring, CI workflow wiring,
and this runbook.

Required release gates:

- `drm-removal-pathway-plan-generated`
- `drm-removal-pathway-coverage`
- `drm-removal-strip-protection-coverage`
- `drm-removal-signing-integrity-preserved`
- `drm-removal-drm-free-validation`
- `drm-removal-approval-guardrails`

The approval gate requires publishing, security, platform, legal, and fair-play
sign-off. The rollback plan remains mandatory so protected artifacts can be
reinstated if a store, certification, or live-service dependency rejects the
DRM-free build.