Mon, Jul 12th 2004 2:37pm —This certainly isn't a new or unique story, but Broadband Reports has yet another story about. The copy protection scheme, called Starforce, appears to be mainly used for protecting certain PC games from being copied. Of course, like so many copy protection schemes it does this by assuming all legitimate customers are criminals. Not only that, but it installs itself without letting you know (not even in the EULA), hides itself on your PC, slows down the PC, causes all sorts of other problems and errors, and is nearly impossible to remove - even after the protected application has been removed. In other words, it's just as bad as some adware/spyware out there - except that it's screwing things up for legitimate customers who actually went out and bought the games in question.
Forums Microsoft Windows Windows Vista How to fix starforce protection issue in windows vista Discussion in ' Windows Vista ' started by cyberrider, Jul 22, 2009. StarForce copy protection solution provides protection against copying and unauthorized distribution for the books published by the M-Logos Law Institute. The protection includes access control, binding to the user's device to prevent copying and neutralization of screen capturing.
As the article points out, every one of those games is available in a cracked version online, so this 'copy protection' scheme doesn't actually prevent copies. It only serves to anger legitimate customers. Why is anyone using this product on their software? From their forum, a list of games that are a catalyst for the infection'List of gamesAceSaga N/A? N/A StarForceAmerican Conquest N/A CDV Software Russia StarForce 3Anito: Defend A Land Enraged N/A Anino Entertainment Asia StarForce 1Anstoss 4 N/A?
Uninstall Starforce Protection Driver
I'm not saying I agree with this level of copy protection, but I will point out that it is not intended to prevent people from cracking software and posting it online. Cracked software has always been, and probably will always be, a fact of life. It constitutes only a very small portion of piracy, however.
By far, the huge majority of piracy is what is known as 'casual piracy' which is people around the office passing a CD around and installing software without even thinking about licensing, or friends sharing a new game with a few other friends. That's what copy protection and registration help to prevent.Software companies lose huge amounts of money because of casual piracy, and I don't blame them from trying to stop people from stealing their software. That doesn't mean they have chosen the best way to do it, however, but I think their intentions are legitimate. quoteThis is the same excuse that is used when they claim that software piracy is costing tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue without accepting the fact that most of the casual users who borrow a game wouldn't have bought it otherwise. If I buy Monopoly or Risk at Toys R Us, I can loan it to my friends and neighbors for the weekend. So why can't I do that with a computer game I probably paid fifty bucks for?/quotethats a stupid statementyour describing casual piracywhile attacking the existance of casual piracy.you lend it to a friend they install it many gAmes evene when you give them the cd you can still play itand now your friends can cAn tooa board game is physical so only one of you can have it at a time.a cd 100,000,000,000 people can use it at once.
That may be true now, but if they continue with this sort of practice they may force more people to download the whole ISO to get the working game. After all, until 'copy protection' got to the point where it interfered with running a legally purchased game, most people (myself included) never bothered with nocd cracks. Now, I download the crack before I even run a game for the first time.I've had a similar experience with 'protected' music CDs. I bought a CD which wouldn't play on my computer. In order to listen to the music I had legally purchased, I was forced to download the mp3s.
And then the question arises, what have I actually paid for? If you have to download the full ISO of a game in order to play it, what will be the incentive to pay?. Thing is, in a lot of cases it's money they never would have gotten in the first place. I know that as far as I, and most of my friends go, when we do download games, movies etc, for free, it's not instead of buying them, or going to the movies, (never seen the point of buying a movie, seen it once, that's enough!) Usually we just wait to watch it on telly, or if a friend rents the video/dvd.While games, although I try a lot of different ones, it's out of boredom on a rainy day, again I would never buy one, I would just find something else to do.(& as far as going to the movies, haven't been since I was a teenager, and then it wasn't to watch the film!!!
Nowadays I just fall asleep 1/2 way through, so I don't bother going!)So the way I see it I'm not taking anything from anyone, as I would not have bought a copy in the first place!;Having said that, it does piss me off when I can't make copies of my cds, for the car, as they get ruined very quickly if played in the car cd changer (I live up a bumpy dirt road!!) hate to pay $30 and have it f. out in a couple of weeks!!!. I have just brought a new game and looking forward to playing it waited 20mins to install the game and reboot the PC, not I can't get past the loading screen because it can't verify my CD.Game makers should at least make sure the software works, I think copy protection just skinks and hurts people who actually pay money for a game.Time to look on the net for a cracked version, as it maybe the only way to get this game to play.Either that or send it back to the game developer and 'demand' a refund. My PC's Multiformat CD/DVD burner, a very early generation, use to be fast for its time.Over time i noticed a noticeable decrease in speed. Burning times would increase and i had no idea why. But the problem always corrected itself on a NEW OS install.I played Ubisofts Silent HUnter 3 Which had that aweful starforce on it and i am sure that is the reason why.I came here looking for pacific fighters and it it had SF on it. Actually i am not going to bother with it even though it looks good and i bought it at a charity shop for 1 pound 50.I have not bought any UBISOFT game since then, 2 years ago now, and i use to buy them all since apart from SF Ubisoft is a very good game publishing company.Ubi use to get a few hundred pounds out of me per year.
They dont get jack crap now cos of what they did to my system. They, SF Add Your Comment.