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A History of Copy Protection

GamerGirll1138 writes to tell us Next-gen has an amusing walk down memory lane with their history of copy protection. There have been some crazy schemes over the years to ensure that you paid for your software, everything from super-secret decoder rings to ridiculous document checks. "With bandwidth expanding and more and more games publishers exploring digital distribution, there's little doubt that we're entering a new phase in the history of copy protection and those who would defeat it. What's more, the demand for games as a chosen form of entertainment has never been higher. All this considered, it's impossible to believe that the cat-and-mouse game of piracy and copy protection will not reach new levels of intensity, with new technologies deployed on each side, and that some of them will surely create new hurdles for even those who simply wish to purchase and play the newest games. Ah, for the heady days of the code wheel."

5 of 536 comments (clear)

  1. What's amusing by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Amusing is sending those of us who actually RTFA to the LAST page of a 4 page article. This article is the straight man in a comedy duo, only without the funny man. That's sort of amusing in an ironic way.

    Just think, without copy protection, we wouldn't have been able to distribute our viruses so easily. With all these kids trying to download cracks from any site that offered them, our bits have gone far and wide.

    Thanks copy protection!

  2. DONT - DONT... by Wiseblood1 · · Score: 4, Funny
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    A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking
  3. Re:I have no issues with copy protection if... by DriedClexler · · Score: 5, Funny

    by "so on and so forth", you of course mean a pony, right?

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    Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
  4. Re:The ultimate copy protection: by arotenbe · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd say the ultimate copy protection would be an awful, expensive product. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to be working for the music industry...

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    Tomato wedge sperm darts that are Republican.
  5. Re:I have no issues with copy protection if... by dhavleak · · Score: 4, Funny

    If your development cost was 10 million dollars, and you sold 10 million copies, you would have to charge at least $10 per disk to break even -- simple math. Oh the irony!! I meant to say 1 million copies.. so much for simple math :)