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New SecuROM Ties Protection to Physical Structure
bernardos70 writes "I read a brief article describing how the new version of secuROM, which is already present in newer games, employs a new encryption method which 'tie[s] itself specifically to the physical structure and characteristics of each disk'. Apparently companies are even ordering specially designed media to implement this method. I think that all this will do is frustrate the average joe trying to make legit copies, as the various groups online distributing ISO's are sure to find a way to bypass yet this new technology."
Given that you can get 100 blank CD's for $4, I back up everything IN SIGHT.
Why? My linuxPPC disk set came with 4 disks (yes- I paid for it instead of DL'ing- its a show of support) and then my wife somehow broke the "additional stuff" CD (I think she put the cat on it... let's not talk about how big the cat is) Too bad I didn't make a back up.
Cd's get scratched, eaten, and used for coasters and frisbees. It makes total sense to make backups. As part of said LinuxPPC distro I got a super functional FWB harddisk toolkit cd- such a handy thing (works with all types of harddrive partitions as opposed to apple's stuff, and has some other features) I'd hate to lose that- So I made 2 backup copies. I don't plan on giving 'em away. Its just something I don't want to see destroyed.
If I'm paying money for something and I can get protection for less than $.25, then I'll back up JUST BECAUSE.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Backing up the CD for games you buy is generally not necessary if you have access to high speed internet. Just go online and download it ... legally!
This is the "second copy misconception". In the United States, the backup law (17 USC 117) permits the owner of a legitimate copy of a computer program to make a backup of such a legit copy, and the backup becomes a legit copy. The Betamax decision (interpretation in Sony v. Universal of 17 USC 107) permits time- and format-shifting of such backups. But apparently, you have to make a backup from a legit copy; a copy made from an Internet piracy method is not a legit copy because the copyright owner has the exclusive right to the first redistribution of a copy.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Many games are produced by a one party (a'la Bioware) and are then distributed by another (a'la Interplay).
It is usually the distributor who decides what encryption to put on a disk.
Much like with music, if I don't purchase a CD because I don't like the distributor, I do more damage to the creator (artist/author) since the distributor has many games for sale and the creator usually only has one or two active titles.
There have been movements in the past to get around some of this, both in games and in music, but none have been extremely successful.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
I feel exactly the same way. A couple of years ago, while trying to play Diablo 2 with my little brother at home during Spring Break, I stumbled across a very nifty program: Daemon Tools. After you make a 1:1 copy of the original CD (I use ddump to accomplish this), Daemon Tools can load the ISO into a virtual CD-ROM drive. At the moment I have three virtual images loaded: Icewind Dale 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Warcraft 3. (Note that NWN worked perfectly even before they removed Securom support in a recent patch.)
The only game I have found that doesn't work with this program is Unreal Tournament 2003. I believe it uses the new Securom standard. I think you can recognize the games that use the new Securom because they cause the cursor to turn into a spinning green CD while the game is loading.
However, the Daemon Tools website indicates that, since August, their program supports CD images which describe the physical structure of the CD -- the problem is not with Daemon Tools, it's that there's no program available that can create a CD image which includes information about that structure. But such a program will most certainly not be long in coming, and when it does, the new Securerom standard will be just as useless as the old ones.
Returning to my Diablo 2 story, I had a legitimate copy of the game and a valid CD-key. I had stupidly left my game CD in my computer at school, however, so despite having access to my cd-key I could not play a game I had paid for. No-cd cracks for the executable are always available, but we wanted to play on Battle.net, so the solution couldn't touch the program files (or Battle.net would refuse to authenticate me.) I found Daemon Tools after an hour or so of searching, and have been a user ever since. It eliminates the CD juggling issue altogether.
Ironically enough, Daemon Tools' virtual CD-ROM drives almost invariably work with CD-based copy protection, while physical CD-ROM drives from some manufacturers often do not. If an end-user has this type of CD-ROM drive, they are simply unable to play the game they paid for -- and often unable to return it (thanks to draconian software return policies).
This, above all, is why I despise CD-based copy protection -- because it locks out legitimate users and does little to hinder more knowledgeable ones. This is almost certainly why Bioware eliminated the Securerom functionality from Neverwinter Nights during a patch -- legitimate users were unable to use a game they had paid for.
Hitman 2 employed this new securom protection and was released on the same day it was released. Granted it wasn't discovered that there was a new protection until later that day. Within a few more hours another group had re-released a working copy with the new securom protection defeated.
Theres a perfectly working no-CD crack for UT2k3 already. Guess this new system ain't all that.
I'm not sure who you are talking to but I personally hate using original discs. There are several reasons:
1) My CDROM drive has been known to scratch discs and even if it wasn't I would be worried about it
2) I hate the sound of the disk spinning up and down
3) Games run much faster from the hard drive
4) Switching disks and keeping them in the right cases is a chore
That's why I use ISO images even though I own the games.
Yep, I do the same thing too. It is a great way to archive all your cds if your hard drive have tons and tons of space. No more running around and searching through the closet for cds ;) . I have about 40 cds so far. You can also rip dvds too and watch it from your hard drive at full dvd quality without searching it every time.
The tools I use are available here:
CloneCD
http://www.elby.de/
Daemon Tools
http://www.daemon-tools.com/
DVD Decryptor
http://www.dvddecrypter.com/
First off, this is not the first time someone's tried it -- the scheme I describe is also used in 'StarForce' and 'TIES' protections, which also have not been broken (other than via no-CD cracks, of course).
Basically, the system works by measuring the angle between certain sectors. How does it do it? By timing the seek time between these sectors. First, the disc will do several seeks of various sectors with known angles to 'calibrate' it, and then, it does seeks of various random sectors (to compensate for various drive speeds). If the timing of the sectors is not within a certain tolerance, that indicates that the physical geometry of the sectors is not the expected angle, and it knows it's not a real copy.
Because CD burners do NOT preserve angle geometry when copying a disc, and even successive burns on the same burner/media may result in different angles, this is so far a fool-proof way. On the other hand, since production CDs are made by pressing with a stamper, not burning, it's not an issue for them.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Actually, Bioware removed the Copy Protection from NWN mainly because it was causing a lot of problems for some people with certain CD-Rom drives.
Then again, they did wait until far after the release date to release the patch that removed the checking (I believe that it was patch 1.22 where they removed the check).
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Here's a portion of my (currently unhosted) website dedicated to users who have experienced similar problems with copy prevention schemes designed to rob us of fair use. (thanks to Slashdot for this intermediate hosting arrangement! three cheers and all that..)
BACKGROUND INFO - diatribe from which one could conceivably deduce a mission statement It is truly unfortunate that many software companies refuse to sell their programs in M300-compatible form. I commonly install programs from a network, as I have no CD-ROM drive built into my machine. Unfortunately, this means that in order to use some programs, I must be networked with the original CD (copy prevention included) in another machine's CD drive. I find this situation to be less than acceptable, since I like to use my M300 notebook computer even when I'm NOT at home or in sight of a free CD drive! I believe that M300 owners (OK, the rest of you ultra-portable owners too) should not be the victims of this heinous discrimination. When one pays for a program, one expects to get fair use of that program; fair use should not exclude those lacking the means to afford persistent access to an external CDROM drive - or those with no desire for one, should it be affordable in any case..
It truly is a pity that some manufacturers do not inform the user PRIOR TO PURCHASE that they will not be able to play their favorite games or other software on an M300 (or ANY machine without a CD-ROM drive) unless they have CONSTANT ACCESS to a CD-ROM drive. Instead, a CD drive is nominally listed under System Requirements - for the obvious purpose of installing the program, one would deduce. Hey! Guess what! I've found that a full install makes games run much more smoothly than an install that constantly reads from the CD. So - it would appear logically - that means I should be able to play my game from the hard drive. That sounds fair, eh?
I have also found that NOT A SINGLE PROGRAM I OWN really requires a CD drive beyond the initial install (or subsequent re-installs.. c'est la vie, nest-ce pas?). If a CD is constantly needed, then it would be fair to say that one is REQUIRED. However, if the CD is needed only at install time, then this REQUIREMENT is in fact NOT an actual requirement per se. I would like to see a warning on products that constantly demand CD access, and for which no crack is easily obtainable
From the purely functional standpoint, CD-check routines embedded in popular Safedisc and SecuROM copy prevention doodads make zero sense because they decrease performance, effectively cripple my favorite computer, and render my CD drive (if I even have one.. not bloody likely) useless while a CD-checking prog is run. What if I want to listen to my choice of music while playing a game? Most game music is offensive (sorry WarCraft 2) or drives me nuts... should I be denied the use of my own music collection when I'm running a dog-in-the-manger program?! No.
If you've read this far you probably deserve a break. Thank you for your patience. I get quite wound up sometimes when pondering the gaping a**holes who have ripped me off with their archaic "anti-piracy" routines. I have a few other thoughts on that, but I'll stow it for now... except for three brief spews:
Message for the perpetrators of the CD-CHECK and COPY-PREVENTION CRAP (AKA CCCC): IF YOU LIKE AND WANT TO USE A PROGRAM, BUY IT!!!* * Just make sure you don't get screwed by the jerks who force a cd-check on you. They can be awfully hard to spot, so be careful and have a site like mine handy! [editor's note - I had links to my favourite "M300 accessibility options" sites like Megagames.com and Gamecopyworld.com but in the interest of brevity I won't attempt to mirror the whole site here.... thanks for your understanding]
and one final MESSAGE for all you losers that think that SecuROM (or your copy prevention of choice) or any kind of CD-check IS a legitimate copy-protection scheme: This applies mainly to rented games and all that... For the bought games, the smart pirates know that it's better to crack a game and burn the cracked copy than an original with CD-crippleware intact. I won't get into online games that constantly demand updates because this was supposed to be a short rant and I've overstepped my griping boundaries already. Peace to all.
So raid it (1,3,5,6,10,53,0+1)
For definitions of the less raid levels(3,6,10,53)
.noitacidem deen uoy siht daer nac uoy fI
I also failed to copy diablo.
However i managed to copy it to my HD with 2 tools:
- clone cd
- daemon tools
just make an image with clone cd and mount that image with deamon tools in a virual cd-rom. If you have a big HD you can have a lot of cd's ready to play.
Don't enable "securom" emulation in daemon tools. deamon tools already delivers sub-data correctly and make it a good copy.
I made a couple of coasters trying to burn this image to cd.