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Keeping Children's Software on a Networked Server?
mache asks: "I have a seven year old son with his own Windows 98 machine and he has many, many educational and game CDs that his stupid parents have purchased for him. These CDs often get lost and scratched. Many of these applications will not operate without the CD being in the CD drive. At an average of $20 or more, I want to be able to load a CD on to a Linux server once and then access the application through Samba. I understand that there are some applications out there that provide a 'virutal' CD player interface to a remote server and may defeat the copy protection mechanisms (deliberately placed bad tracks) in place on kid/game/educational CDs. I bought the CDs legitimately and just want to use them legitimately rather than having my son destroy them, forcing me to buy him new ones. Does anyone have a recommendation for a Windows-based application that would produce a 'virutal' CD player on a Windows 98 machine and also defeat currently used CD copy protection allowing some sort of CD image to reside on my in-home networked server."
Ahhh crap.
:)
By the time i posted this comment, about 5 other people have posted about daemon-tools. I should just go back to my programming assignment and quit wasting time on slashdot.
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
> Well, that's particularly nasty.
m ]
It especially annoys me since I collect games, and eventually hope to be able to afford to build a home arcade machine containing a PC running all the games I've collected. Now, in that case I can't be inserting discs all the time; I'd want to run everything with no hassles from a nice custom interface for selecting games.
[Incidentally, anyone interested in building home arcade PCs should check this site out, if they haven't already: http://www.arcadecontrols.speedhost.com/arcade.ht
That means, of course, that I have to either make images for Daemon Tools of each CD and have them on the hard drive along with the installed game, effectively doubling the amount of hard drive space needed per game; or, find "cracks" for the game which let them run without the CD, from sites like GameCopyWorld, and crack each game the same way a pirate would.
Which, of course, highlights a big flaw in the game copy protection scheme: it just doesn't work. People who want to pirate a game can simply upload a CD image, and then anyone can download and play it with Daemon Tools. Or, people who want to pirate a game can "crack" the game executable to not check for the CD, or just download a pre-made crack from one of the big sites, and then upload the installed game along with the crack and a registry file to transfer the needed registry settings, or make a simple custom installer for it before uploading.
So, the game protection is effectively useless. People often say that the goal of copy protection is to prevent "casual" copying, like copying for a friend. In the case of a game, though, that's not going to be a big problem; the only thing it solves is people installing on multiple computers, but of course kids smart enough to be installing and sharing computer games are probably smart enough to find the cracks anyway.
And of course, having to go out and find cracks for games I actually own has introduced me to all the best ways of getting games I don't own. So copy protection may actually *promote piracy* in the long run. I'll admit I've downloaded games I don't own. However, I never would have done so if I hadn't been introduced to piracy by the need to crack games I already owned.
In the long run, the best thing is just to leave content unprotected--because anyone who wants to pirate it, will. Trying to prevent copying is a waste of resources, and in fact just pisses buyers off.
Just my opinion...
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Whilst I appreciate your willingness to comment on others' child rearing techniques, no doubt from your own vast experience as an educator and parent, I don't think you've addressed the question.
My own children are 3 (as of two weeks ago) and 5 (soon to be six). Both are fond of computer games; the 3-year old plays "Elmo's Playhouse" (which is a superb educational tool - kudos to Children's Workshop!) and the 5-year old has been playing the Richard Scarry "Best Math" and "Best Reading" games for nearly two years now.
I'm getting tired of replacing the Elmo CD, and I've had to replace the CD drive itself once already (and it's broken again now, but maybe I can glue it back together). I will try the Daemon tools and see how it goes.
You do realize a children don't have fully developed fine motor control, right?