The Problems With Game Copy Protection

Next Generation has a piece looking at the sometimes overly enthusiastic copy protection schemes used in PC games. From the article: "In the late '80s and early '90s, the games industry could do little more than ask nicely that you not pirate their wares. These days, however, copy-protection software is ubiquitous, and any PC game bought at retail is going to have it embedded on the game disc(s) in one form or another. I'm okay with that in theory, but some of these anti-piracy software programs are so potent that they cause issues for legitimate game buyers. One of the leading brands, StarForce, is notorious for not only making it difficult for a small percentage of legitimate users to load up StarForce-protected games, but also for leaving potentially problem-causing StarForce software behind on your PC, even after you've deleted the game it was protecting."

Comments

Screw You All

[gadlaw]

A big fat screw you to the game companies for thinking I'm going to spend a single penny to let you screw over my computer with your root kits and Starforce and whatever else bit of crap you have to make me more miserable. You've taught me that I don't need a game that much. I won't be treated like a criminal, I won't be a slave to the install disk or a intrusive copy protection scheme that only annoys me, makes it hard to play and installs spyware, bloatware and anything else I don't want on my computer. No sale ass monkeys.