Starforce DRM Causes Instant Reboots

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13212

Despite all the problems DRM has been causing lately, it seems like companies involved in copy protection just keep trying to create more dangerous copy protections. Originally, they were more of a nuisance causing compatibility issues, installing wanted software, etc. Next came Sony Rootkits which used cloaking to hide its DRM processes and files, but with the side affect of being able to cloak spyware & viruses, thus causing a serious security risk. More recently, the Settec Alpha-DVD protection has been reported to cause DVD writers to malfunction.

Now, Futuremark has uncovered a very dangerous anti-piracy system Starforce is now using. This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system, which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes. This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs; keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc. If something suspicious is detected, it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot, regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.

Fucktards! Keep this up and no one will like even the _idea_ of copy protection or DRM. Assholes.

[Batman]

I was not aware that anybody does like the idea of copy protection given the trouble it's caused so far (without achieving much of anything I might add, and possibly infringing people's rights in some places).

[InnocentBystander]

That sounds like it should be illegal or something.

[Duckie]

* Adds another check to the "Silent Hunter III" list's NO side, despite there already being 4 other marks labeled "Starforce" *

[Stark]

SH3 doesn't have any of the crazy SF problems on my machine, and I run it off an image. I hate SF too, but SH3 is a really cool game - buy it, image it, mount it on DaemonTools, and be glad its the older version of SF.

[MKSheppard]

Yep. No more Starforce after SH3 for me.

[Arrow]

Starforce has never given problems. However, after Galactic Civ II mess, I nuked X3 off my machine, buried my copies of X2 and Silent Storm, and have scratched Spellforce 2 and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare off want list. Any copy that encourages piracy to generate demand for its product deserves nothing less than to be buried in a sea of civil, criminal and federal (FTC) lawsuits. Fuckers.

[DarkSilver]

ok...so let me get this crooked.

You install a game with this new starforce...it installs this unwanted, potentially damaging driver which has immediate access to every peiceof hardware on your computer,which is always running no doubt, consuming precious computing resources, and if you try to make a copy of your media, of which is protected in some form, despite it being a legal archivalcopy of said disc, it will cause animmediate reboot of the computer.


And people thought this was a good idea....why?

[bilateralrope]

So where can I find a list of all products using this companies DRM, so that I know which ones to never buy ?

[18-Till-I-Die]

What is all this DRM/Starforce stuff?

Is this some of that stuff about anti-piracy or something?

Sorry if this is like an obvious question, but i've never heard of it.

[Laudon]

So where can I find a list of all products using this companies DRM, so that I know which ones to never buy ?

Here. http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php

[bilateralrope]

So where can I find a list of all products using this companies DRM, so that I know which ones to never buy ?

Here. http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php

Thanks for that.

[Bounty]

What is all this DRM/Starforce stuff?

Is this some of that stuff about anti-piracy or something?

Sorry if this is like an obvious question, but i've never heard of it.

DRM = Digital Rights Management, or enforcing the copyright on digital media through software (like WMP's media licenses)

Starforce = software "company" that combines the worst of AOL and Real yet manages to exist on it's own level of utter assholishness. They sell copyright protection software that is not only poorly designed but also highly invasive. Install a Starforce-protected game and you will probably see any or all of the following : system errors, hardware failures, sudden driver death, random reboots, or worse.

Recently, they actively encouraged people to pirate Galactic Civilizations II, simply because the game doesn't use traditional copy protection. They even linked to working torrents of the game on their own board.

[Sir Sirius]

Does anyone know of a list of companies that have used/use Starforce?

[Netko]

UbiSoft is the largest user. They use it on all their titles and make it mandatory on their developers (there have been quite a few posts by developers from which it is obvious that SF is not their choice).

Other then that, it's pretty random. A lot of the smaller houses (except those that get it, and as such go the other way like Stardock with GC2) use it because it is the most effective copy protection available and the smaller titles cannot simply tolerate the piracy like the big ones. Not that that logic works in the real world, mind you.

[Faram]

Nice list added it to the sticky.

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 629#846629

[Bounty]

Small problem with the url in the linked post:

++http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php[/url

The bolded part breaks the link.

[Faram]

Small problem with the url in the linked post:

++http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php[/url

The bolded part breaks the link.

Fixed.

Thank you