Software Deletes Files to Defend Against Piracy

teamhasnoi writes "Back in 2004, we discussed a program that deleted your home directory on entry of a pirated serial number. Now, a new developer is using the same method to protect his software, aptly named Display Eater. In the developers's own words, 'There exist several illegal cd-keys that you can use to unlock the demo program. If Display Eater detects that you are using these, it will erase something. I don't know if this is going to become Display Eater policy. If this level of piracy continues, development will stop.'"

Comments

Hope he likes prison

[0123456]

At least here in the UK, I believe this would be a criminal offense. Of course the pirates might not want to report his crime, but he's still breaking the law.

Re:Do you suppose it really does delete things?

[paitre]

It's not.
Reading the linked discussion thread, this 'feature' was discovered when someone tried to pirate the software so they could review it against the product they were writing.

So... no, it's not an idle threat, and the author is a freaking asshole who deserves to have his reputation destroyed over this.

Re:Aren't there laws against this?

[tomhudson]

It IS against the law: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act - and the penalties were increased under the PATRIOT Act.

Knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information, code, or command that causes damage or intentionally accessing a computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, causes damage that results in:

1. Loss to one or more persons during any one-year period aggregating at least $5,000 in value.
2. ...

So, why not complain and get this guy marked as a "terr'rist"? After all, what's your pr0nn^Wdata worth?

Actually... it doesn't delete your home directory

[remahl]

The article and submission build on a misunderstanding. I conducted some research of my own and I've found that it does not attempt to delete the full home directory. It only deletes the ~/Library/Application Support/display_eater/ directory, i.e. files created by the trial version of the program. In fact, the developer says that the program will delete something from the home directory, but doesn't say what.

While I didn't acquire one of the pirated serial numbers that trigger the behavior, I have disassembled the program and these are my conclusions: The deletion is done by a function destroy() at offset 0xd148 that takes a single argument specifying the path to delete. destroy is called from a single location in the program:

+276 0000d3e4 3863a020 addi r3,r3,0xa020 ~/Library/Application Support/display_eater/ +280 0000d3e8 4bfffd39 bl _destroy

destroy() loops over each thing contained by this directory and deletes it. I've invoked the function in this way, and it does not delete anything since that directory does not exist on my system.

So, while this anti-piracy tactic sure won't convince any potential pirates to actually pay for the software, it is not as egregious as the summary suggests.

It would be nice if someone would verify these conclusions, perhaps using a real pirated key.

Re:Aren't there laws against this?

[Zordak]

There are issues as to whether he made the program's behaviour clear in the EULA, and even if he had whether this would make his actions acceptable.

Destroying a user's data is an intentional tort. You cannot waive intentional torts by contract in any jurisdiction of which I am aware. So the author is pretty much toast here.

Re:Aren't there laws against this?

[flosofl]

I followed the developer link from Apple. Has anyone actually gone there? It looks like this is a hoax created to "scare" people into not pirating his program. He admits that it has backfired and actually driven away legit users. Here is the statement from his site Reversecode.com

Public Letter: I hope the public will read this entire letter. There has been alot of confusion regarding the copy protection of the program called Display Eater. It is described here in:

There exists two illegal cd-keys that can be used to register the program without paying for it. When Display Eater detects these keys, it would delete your home directory.

However, this is not the case in reality. The whole purpose was to create a scare campaign. You can download, the file linked from the main page, which is now down(the link is still intact here), and check it for yourself. It has been this way since 2/7/07.

It was my hope that by creating a scare campaign, I could stop wasting time writing copy protection routines to be broken over and over. But, I was wrong, it backfired. People started buying multiple keys, which I never intended, and in the beginning when the protection was in place, people who did not even know they had committed piracy or what piracy was were left in the dark. Legitimate users started fearing the program, which I never imagined.

A reporter called me today, and suggested that I make it free, and then have users pay for support. Or open source the program. I will consider all of these. -Reza