Slashdot Mirror
BioShock Installs a Rootkit
An anonymous reader writes "Sony (the owner of SecureROM copy protection) is still up to its old tricks. One would think that they would have learned their lesson after the music CD DRM fiasco, which cost them millions. However, they have now started infesting PC gaming with their invasive DRM. Facts have surfaced that show that the recently released PC game BioShock installs a rootkit, which embeds itself into Explorer, as part of its SecureROM copy-protection scheme. Not only that, but just installing the demo infects your system with the rootkit. This begs the question: Since when did demos need copy protection?"
Here we go again. *sigh*
- Aetheral Research -
I won't be buying. I was looking forward to this one, too.
Demos require protection since the day that someone found out that if they hacked the demo and compared it to the original, they could simply replace some parts of the original from the same parts of the demo and have a free-for-all.
(That doesn't mean that I endorse Sony's approach here -- far from it)
HTH, HAND
The author even admits that he's just trying to get search engine traffic in the comments. It uses SecureROM, which regardless of your feelings on it, is mis-detected by Microsoft's Rootkit detection program. He even says in the main article it's not malware.
If you RTFA, or specifically its comments, you find that it's not technically a rootkit that it installs, it's just a registry directory that contains a * and so a rootkit detector tags it. It's just a very hard to remove registry directory, and not necessarily an actual rootkit qua rootkit.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
The article author seemed to base his conclusion on the fact that the SecureROM software installs a registry key that can't be deleted by normal means. This pops up on the Microsoft Rootkit Revealer (since that's a technique used by rootkits as well.) That's like saying that because rootkits use Windows APIs, any program that uses a Windows API is a rootkit.
As for why it's in the demo, modern copy protection is embedded throughout games. It's too difficult to remove the protection just for a demo that contains so much of the full game engine.
Okay, I was getting myself good and riled up over this piece of news. I was even ready to return the game first thing tomorrow despite it being a lot of fun. Then I did the unthinkable - I RTFA.
Seems this is a big load of nothing. SecureROM installs a service to let those running without admin privileges run the SecureROM stuff. This is kinda bitterweet - yes, SecureROM is bad etc but running as a restricted user is good. This is assuming you trust SecureROM's website which says (from TFA):
SecuROM(TM) will install a Windows(TM) service module called "User Access Service" (UAService) on your system. This is a standard interface commonly used by several other applications as well. It is no spyware or rootkit at all. This module has been developed to enable users without Windows(TM) administrator rights the ability to access all SecuROM(TM) features. Please be assured that this service is installed only for security and convenience purposes. Since it is a standard Windows(TM) service, you can stop and delete this service, like any other Windows(TM) service. If deleted, the access for non-administrator users to SecuROM(TM) protected applications will be affected. As opposed to TFA which makes it sound something sinister. However, I don't trust GamingBOB due to his own admission: Using "rootkit" brings the traffic. It's all about the SEO, and is why this article is on top in Google. I would add my own emphasis, but I don't think it needs it. Someone finds out a service is installed along with a game and demo and calls it a rootkit to gain traffic / links / ad revenue. Slashdot should not link to crap like this. It would be newsworthy if it were true: I think many people here - myself included - would return the game if it had a true rootkit installed along with it. But this...?I don't see the issue here.
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
Pretty sure its a common slang phrase -- the situation is just 'begging' for a question to be asked - in this case "Since when did demos need copy protection?".
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
The author himself has said that he is only calling it a rootkit for SEO reasons.
From the comments:
"Using "rootkit" brings the traffic. It's all about the SEO, and is why this article is on top in Google."
Although I believe this is nastyware.. It surely does not meet the definition or rootkit.
No.
It would probably be an unwise business decision to automatically exclude over half of your potential customers at this juncture.
Peace sells, but who's buying?
Whether it is a rootkit or not, I'll let others more knowledgeable than me decide that but the comments in the article basically has the author admit that he ties the word rootkit and the game together to get better SEO. Not only is the article light on actual technical detail it declares fire where there may be a hint of smoke for the purpose of driving traffic. I know I must be new here..
I just can't be bothered.
In Soviet Russia, Capitalism destroys YOU!
Erm. Wait...
Making laws based on opinions that stem up from false informations leads to witch hunts.
Although this "protection" scheme is horrible, crappy, the spawn of Satan himself, etc -- I don't believe it qualifies as a rootkit since it is not hidden. It IS resistant to removal, which warrants complaint, but accuracy is important in making such a complaint / discussion.
I *really* wish we could force (through consumer pressure rather than legislation if possible) publishers to acknowledge copy protection on the OUTSIDE of boxes (or other appropriate pre-purchase manner).
It's hard to boycott something that you don't hear about until AFTER purchase. (Especially since it's very difficult to return an opened game.)
The reason for the !CAUTION! key is to keep an ignorant user from wiping out his key tokens in the SecuROM subkey. That's why there's an "!" at the beginning; it sorts first in the subkey. So if a user stupidly tries to delete the entire SecuROM key (not realizing that it's his DRM) while his game is installed, or even after he's uninstalled, the first attempted deleted subkey will be the !CAUTION! key and Windows will abort.
Thus it is a poor way to keep stupid users from trashing their DRM, not a rootkit.
The reason it shows up in "Rootkit Revealer" is because true rootkits use the embedded null tactic to keep users from deleting keys registering malware dll's, startup settings, etc. That way, the user has no way to deregister the malware or stop its launch.
However, the Rootkit Revealer does not simply point out rootkits. It's not that simple. RR points out suspicious methods and/or hidden files, and requires the user to analyze whether those methods and files indicate an actual piece of malware.
Clearly, a key that simply warns you not to delete other keys is not malware.
It is annoying, however, and the only way to get rid of a key with embedded nulls is with DelRegNull. I didn't like that one bit.
My key was added with the install of Neverwinter Nights 2, however, which also uses SecuROM. This key has been around for a while, folks. Someone is crying "rootkit," when really all it is is a sloppy hack to keep users from eliminating their SecuROM keys.
What's really annoying about this method is that the malformed key is not removed when you uninstall the software that requires it. SecuROM also drops a few malformed files in the directory %userprofile%\Application Data\SecuROM\UserData. They won't delete either, because they are key files which the folks at Sony have deemed MUST NEVER be deleted. Great. The only way I could manage to clean out those was by mounting the partition with NTFS-3g and issuing an rm *.*. Otherwise, another hack keeps Windows from moving the key files, probably because if you could copy them, you could run a game on any machine with the keys.
This is definitely more arrogance, and completely annoying, but certainly not a rootkit. I would love to hear what the suits at Sony have to say about their crapware. I expect nothing less than a true SecuROM removal kit, since it doesn't get removed on uninstall.
--
Toro
I have a laptop with a 7900gs, the thing burns disks. Thank god securerom doesn't think my machine is evil enough to install the DRM service. I don't mind having the unremovable keys and files on my PC as long as i'm playing the game.
/next 9:02pm c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /interactive" after looking at the clock and seeing it's 9:01am. Wait until 9:02 and you'll get a dos prompt running as the machine account. Go delete your files.
By the way, there's an easier way to delete the files under appdata.
Type "at
Yea because the communists are known for their vibrant game publishing industry.
Vote with your dollar and don't buy this shit!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
This is why, after being a PC gamer for 20 years, I recently bought a console.
I got sick and tired of copy protection fucking up my machine, or refusing to run a valid copy because it didn't like my disk. (Medieval Total War and Diablo II being two games in particular that simply would not run on my hardware without a CD crack.)
Having to upgrade hardware every couple years was annoying, but it's all this crap heaped on me, who is trying to pay real money for games that pushed it over the edge. I'm sure I'm not alone. And yes, I know that Console games are protected too...but for console games, it's transparent to the user.
Note that I also paid for "Galactic Civilizations II", which was not protected, and the expansion will be the only PC game I purchase this year.
The cake is a pie
One word: TETRIS!
Good for certain uses anyway. I've participated in Iowa State University's Cyber Defense competitions as a red team hacker, and I've found they really help to take out the defending teams. Every team is required to run a regular Windows desktop that any user can access (the teams often play the part of universities or other facilities trying to secure a public lab), and it's fun to just walk up like a normal user, put in a "normal" music CD or game (courtesy of Sony), and then BOOM, rootkited. From there on, of course, things get easier... it's hard to remove malicious files when the OS won't let you know they are there :D.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Considering that the meaning of "begs the question" that you say is wrong may very well be the more common understanding, I'd say they understand it perfectly well. Common understanding of words and phrases are what define a language.
Honestly, I think people keep using the phrase "begs the question" in their summaries for the express purpose of annoying people like you.
Posting articles like this, which barely qualify as news and are INTENTIONALLY sensationalized, only serve to damage Slashdot's thin journalistic credibility. The author even admits that he injected the "rootkit" description in order to drive site/SEO traffic. I understand that it's a slow news day, but this is pure FUD. There's too much out there to post crap like this without doing legwork. The editor should have at least clarified the article in the summary so that we were aware of the content.
--- I'm going sane in a crazy world.
In Soviet Russia ... Sony boycotts you!
The word "begs" has a definition of "to make a humble or urgent plea." If one is to make a humble or urgent plea for a question, they are begging a question - no matter what other definition people try to claim "begging the question" has.
If I were to claim "going to the store" had a definition relatively unrelated to that combination of words, it might be acceptable to use that definition, but it's absurd to suggest that people should stop using the phrase "going to the store" in relation to running over to the supermarket.
No, it just installs a tool that's specifically intended to subvert an OS security mechanism (non-Admin user accounts). That's not a root kit, but it has a lot of the same security issues.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Ah, interesting.. An article on Blues News refers to this interview over at Joystiq where this is stated :
Given the internets and what they are -- with their tubes and all -- I want to sort of talk about the concerns people have. We take the concerns people have very seriously. There's been some concern like, "What happens if it's three years from now, or ten years from now, when I want to play this game. And, you know, Irrational Games has been hit by a meteor?" We will unset the online activation at some point in the future -- we're not talking about when. If people have concern about that they shouldn't be worried about that. This activation is for the early period of the game when it's really hot and there are people really trying to find ways to play the game without buying it. Of course, there are a lot of people who are legitimately trying to play it. We're not trying to be Draconian, we're trying to find a balance.
Well, perhaps I will buy the game.. After I see this activation thing being disabled...
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
Turns out, there is no Rootkit after all. Trash the article, update, whatever, but this is FUD and I smell lawsuit.
Devs like to hide things there because they know average users wont be able to easily change or find the information, which is why it's used to store CD keys and in the case of Bioshock, this "rootkit" nonsense. It's all a very windows-centric way of doing things too; having a central repository for virtually EVERY little configuration and customization. After spending some time in the Linux/BSD side the method of using individual config files still seems like the more logical, and technically superior way of handling configurations and settings. When I work with the registry I can't help but feel that things are intentionally obfuscated and muddled to discourage me from messing with anything. There are a few good examples of games that do it right, all the UT games use plaintext config files for the game settings. It still uses the registry for your CD key, but they are much better at keeping everything in the install directory than most other games.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
The article title on the blog has just changed replacing the word Rootkit to SecuROM. I believe Slashdot has done the internet a great justice today. We just made a blogger correct himself and prevent future FUD.
(Remember, we are not your personal army.)
Just me
Do you remember those AOL CD's that came in the mail? I use them as beer coasters. Over the years, I have added companions to those first denizens of table top protection. Most have been advert cd's or the cd's that contain the bloatware from a new computer. Some, such as X3, were wonderful games that were destroyed by their DRM schemes. In that case, starforce, which forced its scheme on you without notification.
Did we not learn the first time? Why can these multi billion dollar corporations not come up with anything better than the broken and bloated software the average consumer must choke down?
I bought Bioshock today. I've played it for a full 3 hours. And that is all the more that it will be played.
Welcome to the beer coaster pile, Bioshock, I forsee many coffee rings and soda drops in your future
I used to buy a fair few more music CDs until the funny games they started playing to stop me playing my entirely-legitimately-purchased CDs on my PC. It was a gradual thing- I just started getting sick of half of my purchased music CDs not working when I got them home to listen to whilst I worked. Over time I just stopped buying them so often.
I used to buy a fair few more PC games. After some of the nastier games the bigger vendors started playing, I stopped buying larger commercial games and moved on to games made by smaller indies (okay, there were some other reasons to, but that's a discussion for another day). They are far less likely to install crap on your system or make you jump through hoops post-purchase.
Until recently. I purchased a game from a larger indie and then found out I had to "activate" it (after they got my money, of course). They "promise" it'll all be okay, they've got money aside in case they go out of business (which they'll never touch, of course, promise promise). But it's okay because "Windows does it too". I'd name-and-shame them but they did make an effort to make it right when I kicked up. And honestly, I don't want this fight. So let's just say it was a good indie game.
So I'll be buying less and less games over time, I guess.
So where are we now? Here I am, along with other paying customers, doing the right thing- and I get shafted as a result. I can get a better copy with less restrictions by going to the local warez-are-us. That copy won't stop working ten years later when the developer shuts down. It won't phone home and refuse to run. It won't refuse to run without a net connection sending God-knows-what to their activation server.
As a software developer I can completely understand the reason to protect your software from being casually distributed, but dammit- CD driver replacements, rootkits, web trojans, privilege elevation servers, surprise "activation". Why are you subjecting your legitimate customers to this nonsense, when the people ripping you off are just going to get it from someone who has already stripped this stuff out? Don't you realise the logical conclusion of making your product considerably worse that the warez version? Of making every software install a risk of hosing the system?
dont worry, you can easily remove it by [secureRom has detected an attempt to remove copy-protection, removing text], and then its all better
stuff
Why is Sony being blamed again? This isn't published by Sony. It's not on a Sony system. In fact, it's a direct competitor with no indication of cross-platform coming in the future. The article doesn't mention Sony until the comments. Does no one on /. play games?
Things aren't a troll just because you disagree with it. If you don't agree, say why.
Read the Moderator Guidelines.
(Remember, we are not your personal army.)
/. wields quite a bit of power in terms of internet outcry. That's why we see so many troll articles; interested parties know that submitting their spin to /. will give their viewpoint a wide audience. That's why its important that we, as a community, take the time to investigate claims and discuss them based on fact (yeah yeah, I know). If we behaved more responsibly as a community, rather than jumping on every rabid bandwagon that comes our way, I think we would see a marked decrease in the amount of crap press releases being posted as "news for nerds". If people with an ax to grind needed to be sure that posting to /. wouldn't expose their lies, instead of just taking for granted the blog will be a group masturbation fest over FUD that affirms our deepest fears, they would think twice (maybe) before posting the more paranoid delusions that we see here.
I think you make an important point that is seldom stressed:
It really is our internet; we have no one to blame for what it is other than ourselves.
...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
There's a song....
Fdisk, Format, Re-Install, Do-Dah
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
Eh, I think a better thing to contemplate would be, what involvement or say would Sony have, at all, in the DRM used on this title?
It's not their title, it's not even coming to their platform. The only way the publisher would end up with Sony DRM on this title (which Sony definitely doesn't have a stake in), is if the PUBLISHER sought it out.
In short, if folks are looking for an angle where Sony somehow masterminded this, I think they're going to be quite disappointed IF they think about it logically. On the other hand, if their thought process goes: "Rootkit=SONY!", then I think they're a bit too dense for logical thought in the first place.
My 229 is all the Sig I need http://thegunwiki.com/
I used to do all those thing, yes. People actually get more annoyed at me when I try and correct them though, so I find I can do my job better if I just smile and nod :)
Most of them are beyond help anyway. I'd also say that those are examples where one would be justified in correcting improper use. I see no problem using begs the question to mean raises the question, it's perfectly acceptable English. Use circular logic or reasoning to refer to the logical fallacy, because these days no one is going to know what you're talking about, or care. And don't bring the law into this, that's another can of worms entirely. Legal jargon is intentionally difficult with numerous minefields to navigate, you'll probably need a lawyer to make sen...oh damn, they're good.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
THIS is a root kit!
Rootkit Revealer merely reports that there's a suspicious registry key, and it marks it suspicious because it's got an embedded null that makes it difficult to delete manually without special tools. The key itself is not hidden or disguised in any way, and the software in question doesn't exhibit other rootkit behaviors (no "backdoor", no attempt to disguise or hide presence, etc.)
This "rootkit" stuff--and I know it's not a true rootkit, just some overzealous DRM, it's still bad--isn't the only thing that might put some people off from buying Bioshock. The game requires a video card that supports PS3.0, so that means there's a lot of gamers out there that simply wont be able to run the game, DRM or not. Over 40% of Steam users from Valve's hardware survey are not capable of running Bioshock. This article from arstechnica explains, it's mostly the ATI x800/850 users who are being kept from playing. There is a project in development to port Bioshock to work on the older cards, so we'll see how that pans out. This whole thing reminds me of a similar situation with BF2 requiring PS2.0 support, plenty of older cards that could run the game fine otherwise were incompatible because EA didn't include an alternate rendering path for cards that didn't include the new PS standard.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
It should be a prosecutable, felony crime for any product to install ANY admin-level software on my computer without my prior permission!
Period!
I was looking forward to buying this game, but then I heard about the DRM.
I looked to see if Steam had a version that wasn't infected, but it was too.
I'll pass on this game. There are others.
Have you watched the documentary(BBC4 I think) or read about Tetris? ...
The problem with communism is if you end up with political types not unlike G.W. Bush running it. Would you want the Ministry of Video Games to be managed by Bush cronies? Wouldn't that be just terrible
If so, Tetris would be outlawed as a Weapon of Mass Distraction.
> It's SUPPOSEDLY, if you listen to the party line, to prevent "hackers" from using the demo executable to figure out how to bypass the protection on the retail.
It's more like if the demo is the same exe, and you don't put the copy protection on it, you've just provided a "no cd fixed exe" patch to anyone who wants it.
(my captcha is "goatees". you probably already know what i thought it was on the first read)
First of all, your link to the forums goes to a thread about achievement points on the Xbox version of the game. This thread is much more relevant; it's about the rootkit.
Second of all, I, like many other people, was looking forward to Bioshock's release. I, like I hope many other people will do, refuse to buy it now.
Whether people thing of this as FUD or not, the simple matter of the fact is that:
2K Games has A FAQ about SecuROM that is, at best, contradictory in several places. They say:
However, Sysinternals' RootkitRevealer software begs to differ. Who am I going to trust, a game company that is practicing Defective by Design tactics, or Mark Russinovich, a software engineer who's proven time and again that he is the guru of this stuff, the guy who discovered the infamous Sony rootkit, the guy who knew Windows better than even the Windows people knew Windows, so well that Microsoft bought his company and hired him? I'll gladly cast my lot with Mark any day, even if he does work for Microsoft now.
2K Games also says in its FAQ:
They then go on to say:
Um... If SecuROM doesn't fingerprint my hardware, what is the "machine ID" that a hash is taken of and sent to their servers? And how the hell is it possible that changing several pieces of hardware might result in a required reactivation? The simple answer is, of course, that SecuROM does fingerprint your hardware, and 2K Games lied to our faces in the hopes that computer users who aren't as savvy as us won't get bogged down with the technical details and just read the part where they say that it doesn't fingerprint the hardware.
This is totally inexcusable, and I won't have anything to do with this company. Will the game be cool? Maybe, but nothing is cool enough to install this crap on my computer for. As far as I'm concerned, 2K Games has destroyed its credibility, and they can go to hell for it.
(from above post...)
A 2K Games forums administrator, "2K Elizabeth," posted this message when a brouhaha started erupting:
This is patently false, as pointed out by several users' follow-up posts. One even took a nice screenshot that shows that this is at best a pretty hideous example of an administrator not knowing what the hell she's talking about, at worst another outright lie that attempts to appease people who don't know better and can't actually check the veracity of what's being said.
How the HELL did this get modded informative!!?
The summary never says that Bioshock is a Sony game. In fact, Bioshock isn't even mentioned until well into the summary, and it's clear that they licensed the software from Sony. The summary makes it crystal clear that Sony is the owner of SecuROM copy protection, the copy protection that Bioshock installs.
Are you on drugs? I mean, seriously, are you on drugs!? That's the only way I can think of to explain how stupid that sentence is. If Sony came up with the technology, and then the other guys decided to license it and use it, does this mean Sony had much to do with it? Hell yes, because they wrote it!!! Plus, there's also the little fact that they've done this exact same thing before that you're totally ignoring. Once is a lapse in judgement. Twice is a pattern. I wasn't what you call and anti-Sony-fanboy before all of this rootkit fiasco, but I sure as hell am now. If not wanting rootkits installed on my computer makes me a anti-Sony-fanboy, then I suppose I'm proud to call myself one, and for the mere sake of computer security, I highly recommend to everyone I know that they immediately become anti-Sony-fanboys too.
If I steal your credit card numbers, and then other guys decided to buy them and use them, does this mean that I had much to do with it?
Damn, there's dense, and then there's dense. You, sir, are the latter kind. By all means, feel free to riddle your computer with rootkits for the sake of playing a stupid game, and be happy that at least you know that you're selling your soul to the devil, unlike most of the non-computer-savvy users who will probably buy and play this game that are none the wiser.
Not exactly, you're buying a LICENSE to play their game. SecuROM is NOT required to play their game, therefore it is NOT a requirement of the license. As such, it has no place in the game.
Worse, SecuROM actually PREVENTS you from using your computer in other commonly used, non-infringing ways. So by buying the game, you're actually buying the crippling of your system along with it.
You need to read again what SecuROM does. Where you have it installed is irrelevant. It actually alters your operating system in a manner that allows non-privileged applications to run as an administrative user. That means that at the very least, it can affect your entire Windows installation. And before you go with your "I've used Linux..." rationale, you should realize that it can also affect your Linux installation.
Here's how it could work. I write a piece of software that uses the elevated privileges that SecuROM grants to normal users without your knowledge or consent that goes in and wipes all non-recognized partitions on your hard drive. Voila, your system has been compromised because playing a stupid game whose publishers willingly opened up a security hole on your system. That's what I mean when I keep saying that even if 2K Games didn't have evil intentions, what they're unleashing on people can most certainly be used for evil purposes.
The thought that you are paying them for the privilege of having a rootkit installed on your computer and that you're okay with it quite disconcerting to me, but by all means, if the service of having your system compromised is worth $50 to you, go ahead. (There are lots of people who would willingly compromise your system for free, incidentally.) Personally, I find it disgusting that anyone can't see the bigger picture and would support a company that engages in these practices, but it's your computer and your money.
"But only for making the software/music, not for the copies. So if an artist/programmer spends 100 hours making a song or programming an application, he/she should get paid for the 100 hours they spent, according to their hourly rate."
Typical slashdot. First most games are produced by teams, not individuals. Second you may want to look up "Mass Production" and "Economics of scale". Apparently those are your weak areas.
"Why do people think it's fair to get paid for work they actually haven't done ?"
It's amazing how many "haven't done"'s one can download over a broadband connection.
"I don't see how music or software is any different."
This is slashdot. Anything "intangible" is hard to understand.
Every video game I have I bought legally. In fact every piece of software I own, I own legally. Does the uninstaller uninstall the DRM cleanly or not? Why wasn't there a DRM rootkit or protected registry warning given?
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Expecting to be paid for your software is reasonable.
Taking tactics which can actually damage your customers' computers is not.
In fact, copy protection is entirely unnecessary to be paid for your work. Just look at record sales -- people do, in fact, still buy CDs, even though most have no copy protection at all. They even buy DVDs, even though the protection there has been so thoroughly cracked that there are one-click programs to rip a DVD and put it on your video iPod. Plenty of people still subscribe to Cable TV, even though most shows are available within a few hours on BitTorrent.
Oh, and by the way, before you mention it -- a pirated copy is not a lost sale. A pirated copy is not a lost sale. A pirated copy is not a lost sale. Repeat this until you understand it, and then take another look at the statistics -- the RIAA/MPAA are still insanely rich, as are the better artists, musicians, directors, and so on. There is simply not significant evidence, anywhere, that they have lost money due to piracy.
I know it's comforting when you can believe the world is black and white, but it isn't.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Let's be blunt here. There is software I do not want on my PC. Rootkits for example. And I have no problem with my conscience to remove rootkits that come tagging along with programs I want to use. I licensed the software, I am allowed to use it, I do not want you to bug my computer, reduce its stability or its security. You don't care about my needs, I don't care about yours. Fair deal.
I just wonder how many people will still take the, for the functionality unnecessary, burden of actually licensing the software, though.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Looks like you're only doing this because you want to join in the groupthink and look cool!
Sorry, couldn't resist
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