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Boing Boing Threatened By Software Creator
mfh writes "StarForce has issued threats to Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow in retaliation to Cory's post about the anti-copy malware that installs itself along with many popular (and unpopular) video games." From the BoingBoing post: "Yesterday, I posted about StarForce, a harmful technology used by game companies to restrict their customers' freedom. StarForce attempts to stop game customers from copying their property, but it has the side-effects of destabilizing and crashing the computers on which it is installed. Someone identifying himself as 'Dennis Zhidkov, PR-manager, StarForce Inc.' contacted me this morning and threatened to sue me, and told me that he had contacted the FBI to complain about my 'harassment.'"
Smile, you're on Slashdot: http://icoc.freehomepage.com/contact.html
Sun and Fun
List of games they fucked up:o unt=205
http://fileforums.com/showpost.php?p=299834&postc
courtesy of http://www.fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=70333
NT
Check out http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=261&i d=707 for a claim that star force makes. They say if you can prove that their software causes the noted problems with dvd drives they will give you $10,000. Not that I believe they would actually pay you, or would expect anybody to travel to Moscow to do it, but it's pretty funny.
nothing
Ever since I heard about some of the random issues caused by Starforce a few years back, I've always avoided any game title under it's protection. You can find a pretty good up-to-date list of known Starforce protected titles over here - http://www.glop.org/starforce/
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Dennis Zhidkov
PR Manager
StarForce Technologies
Altufevskoe shosse, 5/2
127106 Moscow, Russia
Tel +7 (095) 9671451
Fax +7 (095) 9671452
ICQ: 75-371-896
E-mail: denis.zhidkov@star-force.com
Http: http://www.star-force.com/
Since we want to keep everything legal...
Buy the game, then go download an ISO & use a NoCD patched/cracked exe
gamecopyworld.com is one of the many places you can find such things. GCW has been around for a long time and you don't have to worry about trojans/virii/etc.
On the other hand, if you want to make a statement, write those companies a letter telling them exactly why you're not going to buy their games.
Just laying out your options for ya.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Umm First4Internet has nothing to do with dvd and car cd players it was use by sony for copy protection on windows machines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First4Internet
You understand that one of the 'rules' of this competition was that it had to do permanent damage. Someone (multiple people, actually) showed them that when they installed a game with StarForce, their DVD(cd?) drive began to malfunction. However, they would not let this individual claim the prize because after completely wiping the HDD and reinstalling windows it began to work properly. They claimed this did not harm the system because it did not do permanent damage.
(I don't have a source to back this up right now, I'll find the article later.)
If I install a game on my system I don't want to have to reinstall my OS everytime I want to burn a DVD.
Er, why? Because he said he hadn't experienced those problems, and pointed out that there are two sides to every story?
OK, so I have some karma to burn. Here is the other side from somebody you may trust more, an UbiSoft developer posting in the forums in response to people who claimed StarForce was riddled with problems and would cause huge issues when they started using it.
Some relevant quotes may help:
Perhaps your view is because you are not aware of the very extensive evidence that has previously been posted in highly respective technical forums in the past about this subject.
Read this from Tom's Hardware's Aaron McKenna:_ pirates/index.html
http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/01/the_war_on_game
Read the follow up letter by Starforce:h tml?c=256&id=658
http://www.star-force.com/protection/protection.p
Read Aaron's response letter to Dennis Zhidkov at:
http://www.glop.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=93
Ubi has received numerous emails from registered users of their games who have experienced this problem and are investigating them. Check their forums for more details on that.
Starforce regularly LOCKS and even deletes threads on their own forums whenever someone posts requesting for help with problems related to those discussed here, so they can keep up the pretense of not having any legitimate reports of problems.
I completely agree with Aaron's letter. When copy protection seeks to do modification to a person's system, regardless of what kind of "permission" they confuse the end user into giving them, then copy protection is going too far.
And making non-specific overstated threats to silence public critics is one of the must surefire signs that a company is trying to hide something.That last sentence means that you must make the software actually physically fubar you drive to the point it will not work in ANY SYSTEM without starforce protection. Everyone knows starforce isn't physically smashing drives with hammers; they are breaking drivers to the point one needs to reinstall Windows.
This contest will never be won.
As a side note, if you decide you want to try to win this contest anyway, you must foot the bill to fly to Moscow (the one on the other side of the planet) and show the folks in the office.
Actually I don't believe that Starforce makes peoples PC's unstable. Starforce has for the last couple years had a large bounty out for anyone that can show a reproducible system error caused by their software, sofar there have been no takers. I dislike Starforce as much as anyone as I am notorious for losing physical cd's, but let's bash them for what they actually do, not for what someone whispered about them in the dark.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Considering his name extremely odd.
Any Russian speaker will start laughing hysterically the moment he sees the name...
Frankly, this sounds like a far fetched antisemitic joke someone tried to pull out. Making a silly complain to someone who is likely to make this widely known and signing it the word antisemites in Russia use as a derogatory name for jews.
The person who did it is most likely laughing hysterically know seeing that it has made Slashdot.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
What we need is a way for judges to penalize plaintiffs if they are clearly attempting to infringe on the rights of others for their own gain, as the case would appear here.
In jurisdictions where barratry is an criminal offense, there is just that.
So First4Internet was the reason why I can't play DVD's in my CD player? I'll get them! I had fallen for the urban myth that it was lack of codec's, no video screen, and laser wavelength differences.
Umm First4Internet has nothing to do with dvd and car cd players it was use by sony for copy protection on windows machines.
On behalf of the parent post, let me point out that it sucks having to deal with stupid people.
First4Internet == rootkit
"whichever of those big companies it was whose DVDs couldn't play in car CD players or something" == dualdisc.
Actually legal bullying without cause is called Barretry. Now Starforce probably has a case because his statements about system instability are libelous so it probably is NOT Barretry, but that is the term =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
First, the contest was, until very recently only $1000, not really a large bounty.
if you read their rules you have to travel at YOUR expense to moscow to demonstrate the problem. You then have to demonstrate in ONE DAY a problem with the DVD/CD drive which "Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening."
The contest is a PR move with rules constructed to make winning impossible. The bashing has been on target and valid.
To actually get this money, you have to fly to Moscow on your own expenses, found this in their terms:
They certanly seem very sure about their work.
I disagree. My grandmother was telling my mom she heard about Sony's DRM rootkit on the news. Then next time I visited, my mom asked if she had to worry about any CDs ruining her computer. I told her that she should watch for any label that says 'copy protected disc', or whatever they put on them these days, but that in general.
They problems are starting to travel through non-geek circles. Maybe you'll get a blank stare if you say Sony DRM or rootkit, but if you say 'audio CD that jacks up your computer', there might be a glimmer or recognition.
...as not informative. As the above AC noted, his name is a none-too-bizarre Russian last name.
$META_SIG_JOKE