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Atari Founder Proclaims the End of Gaming Piracy
OMGZombies writes "Speaking on a conference held yesterday in New York, the Atari founder Nolan Bushnell said that a new stealth encryption chip called TPM will 'absolutely stop piracy of gameplay'. The chip is apparently being embedded on most of the new computer motherboards and is said to be 'uncrackable by people on the internet and by giving away passwords' though it won't stop movie or music piracy, since 'if you can watch it and you can hear it, you can copy it.'"
I dunno, those "people on the internet" are pretty resourceful lol. I hear they're good at removing and replacing chips on motherboards, or at least on gaming consoles. I think he forgot about those people in their homes that don't want some stupid overlord chip overruling basic tasks on their computer. But at least he knows enough that music and videos can't be controlled no matter how hard the MPAA and RIAA try just because of the basic nature of them. Quite the smart/dumb mix.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Exactly! People don't seem to want to learn nowadays.
:D
Defeating copying schemes has always been an educational past-time of mine. I learned to write my 8's almost perfectly when I copied out, number by number, the Quarantine chart mass/velocity chart because I couldn't photocopy the black text on dark brown glossy paper.
I even improved my memory when I memorized both the X-Wing and Tie Fighter manual keywords... that was a lot of manuals for a 12 y/o - I actually think it helped. I wouldn't be where I am today if I wasn't capable of picking up a software manual
So, TPM is a way for me to spice up on my logic probing eh?
Matt
The PS3's babysitting OS also doesn't let Linux on the PS3 use 3D acceleration
Ya, that is the one thing I would like to see. With the rate of development for Linux on the PS3, I think we won't have to wait long.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
From the article: "The TPM will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay." I assume this TPM is a Trusted Platform Module. For example, Windows Vista Ultimate's BitLocker feature uses the TPM. But don't you need at least Windows Vista to run games for Windows that require the TPM?
Besides, is it even possible to pirate "gameplay" as such? The Tetris Company likes to assert a copyright on Tetris, but game rules can't be copyrighted. One leading case is Lotus v. Borland.
He had the right idea. Not compainies that don't embed, but companies that let you turn it off in the BIOS. Those are the ones that will be flocked to.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Umm its not new, its been in Thinkpads for years at the least.
If it does stop piracy 100% ( which i doubt ) then it will cripple the industry as he's got no clue how much piracy HELPS the market, just like it does the music market and regular software market.
+ my system wont ever have a TPM, so does that mean they are selling defective products ?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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One particularly annoying part is that the paying customers must foot the bill for the copy protection. This applies to both motherboard components and licensing the protection scheme itself. Software developers/publishers won't just eat these costs out of the kindness of their hearts. It's usually a triple-hit for the consumer, who not only have to cover hardware and licensing costs, but generally have to endure the burden of intrusive copy-protection schemes. Whether it's entering a long and complex serial key, fumbling for a game disk that's not needed for anything more than verifying authenticity, or some other method -- it all tends to put an undue burden on a customer who has already paid for a product.
In my opinion, this actually encourages some people (who would otherwise pay for a product) to violate the terms of the EULA in one way or another. No matter the copy protection scheme, most cracks allow a user with average technical knowledge are able to easily circumvent a scheme.
Perhaps I'm missing something - but it sure would be nice to abandon these copy protection schemes. I seriously doubt that the practice prevents anything but the most cavalier copying/sharing - and I doubt that this copying is what developers/publishers are targeting.
-Turkey
you don't get it.
tpm works the same way SSL works.
namely there's a PKI.
i.e. each chip has its own key which the user cant get to, which is verified by a certificate chain (ala SSL).
if the software can't verify the chain, it will refuse.
so attacking the TPM chip isn't how you attack it.
you attack is by simply getting the software to verify with a trojaned certificate. We can do that today w/ web browsers by inserting our own "top level" certificate. You think it be difficult w/ games?
Uh, there is another option:
(4) Decrypt and then remove the TPM checking code from the game.
In other words, run it legally on a TPM-equipped machine and then crack the hell out of it and create a new unencrypted executable minus the DRM shit.
Or give it a legit TPM chip and just capture the output of whatever it is verifying. I'm guessing its the equiv of a cdkey check that returns some kind of hash needed to play.
Theres no way any large number of actual operations go through this chip as it would kill performance, which is the bread and butter of selling new pc games. All you need to do is replace, skip, or duplicate the pieces of code that depend on this chip.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
And where does the stealing come in? You have to pay for the PS3 in order to install Linux on it, and Linux doesn't run PS3 games. At what point does this become and issue of piracy?
It's really this kind of ignorant, the corporate masters must be right bull, which allows them to get away with it. The reason why the PS3 has that sort of restriction is so that you don't run OSS or Linux compatible games on it instead of the games that Sony wants you to buy.
I think that neatly addresses your other point: They are under no obligation to provide cheaper games if they're maximizing their profits by selling them at a higher price. I don't think they're maximizing their profits. By selling them at a higher price, and including DRM, the most common scenario is one where it's not only cheaper and more convenient to pirate -- just type "Game I want" into The Pirate Bay and click Download -- but you actually get a better product, because the draconian DRM measures are already removed.
There are certain DRM schemes I will tolerate, but most of them, even if I buy the game legitimately, I will go straight to the Internet for a crack.
So, piss off the more technically savvy customers, and still lose at least as many customers to piracy as before. Sounds like a no-brainer lose situation for the developers.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I'm not 100% sure what you're talking about, but I would assume that the "The stupid code built into DELL motherboards" you are referring to is the string in the BIOS that identifies it as a Dell motherboard so that Windows OEMBIOS activation works. Ironically, it is that specific technology that makes it unnecessary to activate Windows on a Dell machine as long as you keep a copy of the OEMBIOS activation files, since regardless of how you change the hardware, it will always activate without even having to contact microsoft because it detects that BIOS string. Not only that, but since it just id's itself as Dell, you can use ANY dell OEM disk on ANY dell computer and it'll activate - meaning that an XP Pro disk will work on a Vista Home-licensed machine with no trouble.
Sometimes you don't even need to find something as complicated as a buffer overflow. Look at the recent Wii homebrew explosion: the backdoor was exactly as you describe, a flaw in the implementation of RSA. However, the flaw was as trivial as using strcmp instead of memcmp, rendering it equivalent to about 8 bits of security. Homebrew devlopers used this knowledge to trivially break the encryption, allowing them to run code that wasn't signed by Nintendo.
People make mistakes. Programmers are people. And furthermore, this isn't just some theoretical thing. It happened recently to Nintendo, a game company that likely has more money to throw at such problems than most.
Swapping motherboard requires a reactivation without fail on windows xp, with the one exception where it has an absolutely identical chipset. The automated activation then of course fails for OEM licenced PCs. Having repaired hundreds of windows PCs, I've encounted reactivation constantly from pretty trivial hardware changes.
I therefore assume the rest of that microsoft article is a similar load of bullshit. That said, no, changing RAM alone will not usually trigger a reactivation.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
That's exactly what people did when removing the StarForce DRM from games.
TPM only does validation of certain code. Ultimately an unencrypted copy of the game will end up in memory. Even if the OS is locked down, you can hit the reset button, load Linux and dump the contents of RAM.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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