I completely agree with you and I wish that this is how things could be worked out. The problem is that Battle.net is the way it is, and I doubt Blizzard is going to change things around just for bnetd.
What would be the backwards-compatability implications if Blizzard were to change?
Why is Blizzard trying to shut down servers that emulate Battle.net?
Servers that emulate Battle.net facilitate software piracy of Blizzard products by circumventing Blizzard's authentication code. Blizzard products are intellectual property, and we are well within our legal rights to protect our products from software piracy.
We, at Blizzard couldn't figure out how to keep people from copying our software, so we decided to do authentication in the server, and hope no one figures out how to write their own server.
Unfortunately, this is what the folks at Napster faced. Yes, they may claim that their software is legal, it's just the people that use it for illegal music trading that are the problem. I hope a solution can be found to make this project legit in Blizzard's eyes.
How do CD keys help reduce piracy?
Blizzard uses two main methods to combat piracy: disc-based copy protection and CD keys. As part of the login process, Battle.net authenticates the user's CD key and prevents people from logging in with the same key or an invalid key.
We realize that all attempts to combat piracy are futile. We put these schemes in place more to frustrate legitimate users than to stop determined people from copying our software.
It doesn't matter how stong the copy protection is, someone is going to figure out how to break it. Blizzard's methods are good enough to stop the casual pirates which is, IMHO, most important from a revenue standpoint. Why would a "legitimate" user have a need to be able to use the same key on two different systems at the same time?
Why doesn't Blizzard provide facilities that enable these emulators to authenticate CD keys through Battle.net?
In order for us to keep our proprietary CD-key algorithms secure, we cannot allow outside servers to query for the validity of CD keys.
We believe that keeping our CD-key algorithms secret makes our software look more secure.
See above. Blizzard puts bread on the table by making money through software sales. Why should they be required to open up their scheme to allow others to be able to pirate their software more easily?
What about software that hasn't been released yet? Wouldn't it be better to have as many people testing the beta version of Warcraft III as possible, even if they are playing on non-Battle.net servers?
The primary purposes of the Warcraft III Beta are to get play-balance feedback and to test our Battle.net servers. Our servers aren't tested if people are playing the Beta on rogue servers. Additionally, the Warcraft III Beta is not intended to be a product demo; when testing ends, we need the ability to terminate the Beta's functionality. Rogue servers eliminate our ability to expire beta versions of our products.
This is just the beginning. We need to be able to, on a whim, terminate your access to a game you rightfully bought. We are testing this scheme under the guise of a "time limited beta test". If we let others run servers, they could play the game they paid for whenever they want!
Again, it's their software. And it's a beta. And not intended to be as public of a one at that. If people are able to play the betas indefinitely, then what incentive would they have to buy the final version? I'm guessing a lot of the kiddies could live with a few bugs if they can save $50. Although chances are, they're the ones who are going to pirate the final version anyway.
What about the hobbyists who are not pirating your software but just want to use these servers as an alternative to Battle.net?
Unfortunately, software pirates have spoiled this situation for hobbyists. We are constantly working to improve Battle.net, and we sincerely hope that one day, no one will see any reason to seek alternatives to Battle.net for playing Blizzard games.
We don't understand why someone else would want to use an alternative to Battle.net. Our software is close to perfect, and who cares about those strange Linux-using customers?
Bottom line, if you don't like it, don't use it. Sadly, I'm sure that that's what a lot of people here are going to do and that's too bad. Why should Blizzard be required to do something that, while it may have legitimate interests for hobbyists, also makes their games easy to pirate?
Your games sell millions of copies. Why do you care if a few people pirate your software?
The sales success of a product should not exclude it from laws intended to protect intellectual property. Software piracy needs to be combated at all levels, and at Blizzard we intend to do our part to fight illegal distribution of copyrighted media.
Business as usual... "War on Piracy..." News at eleven...
Piracy is piracy. The argument that XXX makes lots of money so it's okay to pirate their software just doesn't hold up. Blizzard has gotten where they are because they make good software. If they can't be allowed to do what needs to be done to protect themselves, then what incentive do they have to keep making good software?
Talk about your stranglehold on coverage... I was watching SportsCenter this morning on ESPN and all they could show from the Opening Ceremonies last night was stills. Very disappointing if you were not able to watch live.
Of course, if they didn't have all that junk mail to deliver, then perhaps they wouldn't have to keep raising the price of stamps to pay for the infrastructure to keep increasing their capacity.
...is how connected people really want to be. It's one thing for Joe Suit to want access to his email anywhere he goes. It's another thing for Bluecollar Bob. All he may use email for is notes to mom, and may never have a demand for access elsewhere beyond home.
Also, there are internet terminals at our mall and if I'm there with my wife and make any indication that I want to check anything, I get "The Look."
I just got an email the other day from my good friend Mandy who I must know, because she says she remembers me. She says that she wants me to see her and all of her seven college coed roommates naked any time I want!
INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
The Content files are encrypted and the Player contains decryption technology. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and not to transfer any material subject to restrictions under such laws to a national destination or person prohibited under such laws.
So it's illegal to play this CD in any country on the "Bad" list...
What kind of future do you think there is for games development on such platforms like the Visor, the PalmPilot, and the next-generation-Gameboy that may come down the pipe in the next couple of years?
Head on over to PalmGearHQ and see how many games are available. Some good, some bad, many identical. Many are good enough that they have resided on my Palm, almost since day 1.
Palm has done a good job of avoiding creating a handheld PC and instead creating an advanced organizer. They've left it to other developers to do that work instead. Tools like this make that job just that much easier.
This guy has a mount for a Powerbook in the back of his Pathfinder wired up to an LCD touchscreen he installed into his dashboard. It was done mostly to run SoundJam to play MP3's. He hacked his keyboard so that switches on the steering wheel issue commands for skipping, volume, etc. Finally, he has an AirPort card installed so when he is parked, he can upload songs from the Mac in his house.
If you control-click (or right click if you have a two-button mouse) the menu that pops up as a bunch of Flash options. Click on "Rewind" (there's no "Stop" option) and the ad goes away and doesn't come back.
I know the obvious solution would be to disable Flash, but my daughter likes playing online games that require it, so that's not an option...
Well, there's government wastefulness at its finest... How many man-hours did it take to sweep 90000+ "bars"? And how are they planning on enforcing this? It would seem that if these are small one-room shops, that if the government were to shut one down, it would just pop up again elsewhere.
Added a Firewire card to my work PC. One 6-pin to 6-pin cable and a copy of MacDrive 2000 later, and the drive mounts right up with no additional effort on my part. It even charges, too!
Go into View options and show all hidden files and you can see where the MP3's are stored. The annoying thing is that your collection gets spread over dozens of folder with no rhyme or reason for the organization, but they're all there.
Come to think of it, it's too bad the phone company doesn't have the equivilent of a/dev/null phone number in each calling area.
Well, there is, kind of... When filling in forms and such that *require* a phone number, just use 555 as the exchange. No matter what the last four numbers are, all the caller will get is Directory Services.
Slashdot Mirror
Or put your address in a small GIF file that the spambots cannot read.
If I have a PowerBook and a desktop Mac, I need to buy a ten-user license? Apple should sell a two-license pack as well for home users.
I do realize that the intended use of this is for schools or businesses, but home users could get some use out of it as well.I completely agree with you and I wish that this is how things could be worked out. The problem is that Battle.net is the way it is, and I doubt Blizzard is going to change things around just for bnetd.
What would be the backwards-compatability implications if Blizzard were to change?
Why is Blizzard trying to shut down servers that emulate Battle.net?
Servers that emulate Battle.net facilitate software piracy of Blizzard products by circumventing Blizzard's authentication code. Blizzard products are intellectual property, and we are well within our legal rights to protect our products from software piracy.
We, at Blizzard couldn't figure out how to keep people from copying our software, so we decided to do authentication in the server, and hope no one figures out how to write their own server.
Unfortunately, this is what the folks at Napster faced. Yes, they may claim that their software is legal, it's just the people that use it for illegal music trading that are the problem. I hope a solution can be found to make this project legit in Blizzard's eyes.
How do CD keys help reduce piracy?
Blizzard uses two main methods to combat piracy: disc-based copy protection and CD keys. As part of the login process, Battle.net authenticates the user's CD key and prevents people from logging in with the same key or an invalid key.
We realize that all attempts to combat piracy are futile. We put these schemes in place more to frustrate legitimate users than to stop determined people from copying our software.
It doesn't matter how stong the copy protection is, someone is going to figure out how to break it. Blizzard's methods are good enough to stop the casual pirates which is, IMHO, most important from a revenue standpoint. Why would a "legitimate" user have a need to be able to use the same key on two different systems at the same time?
Why doesn't Blizzard provide facilities that enable these emulators to authenticate CD keys through Battle.net?
In order for us to keep our proprietary CD-key algorithms secure, we cannot allow outside servers to query for the validity of CD keys.
We believe that keeping our CD-key algorithms secret makes our software look more secure.
See above. Blizzard puts bread on the table by making money through software sales. Why should they be required to open up their scheme to allow others to be able to pirate their software more easily?
What about software that hasn't been released yet? Wouldn't it be better to have as many people testing the beta version of Warcraft III as possible, even if they are playing on non-Battle.net servers?
The primary purposes of the Warcraft III Beta are to get play-balance feedback and to test our Battle.net servers. Our servers aren't tested if people are playing the Beta on rogue servers. Additionally, the Warcraft III Beta is not intended to be a product demo; when testing ends, we need the ability to terminate the Beta's functionality. Rogue servers eliminate our ability to expire beta versions of our products.
This is just the beginning. We need to be able to, on a whim, terminate your access to a game you rightfully bought. We are testing this scheme under the guise of a "time limited beta test". If we let others run servers, they could play the game they paid for whenever they want!
Again, it's their software. And it's a beta. And not intended to be as public of a one at that. If people are able to play the betas indefinitely, then what incentive would they have to buy the final version? I'm guessing a lot of the kiddies could live with a few bugs if they can save $50. Although chances are, they're the ones who are going to pirate the final version anyway.
What about the hobbyists who are not pirating your software but just want to use these servers as an alternative to Battle.net?
Unfortunately, software pirates have spoiled this situation for hobbyists. We are constantly working to improve Battle.net, and we sincerely hope that one day, no one will see any reason to seek alternatives to Battle.net for playing Blizzard games.
We don't understand why someone else would want to use an alternative to Battle.net. Our software is close to perfect, and who cares about those strange Linux-using customers?
Bottom line, if you don't like it, don't use it. Sadly, I'm sure that that's what a lot of people here are going to do and that's too bad. Why should Blizzard be required to do something that, while it may have legitimate interests for hobbyists, also makes their games easy to pirate?
Your games sell millions of copies. Why do you care if a few people pirate your software?
The sales success of a product should not exclude it from laws intended to protect intellectual property. Software piracy needs to be combated at all levels, and at Blizzard we intend to do our part to fight illegal distribution of copyrighted media.
Business as usual... "War on Piracy..." News at eleven...
Piracy is piracy. The argument that XXX makes lots of money so it's okay to pirate their software just doesn't hold up. Blizzard has gotten where they are because they make good software. If they can't be allowed to do what needs to be done to protect themselves, then what incentive do they have to keep making good software?
Maybe because it's because of this problem...
I believe the article mentions that the potential energy that could be released would not be enough to even "warm up a cup of coffee."
I hope you've got cable... I think most of the hockey is going to be on CNBC.
Talk about your stranglehold on coverage... I was watching SportsCenter this morning on ESPN and all they could show from the Opening Ceremonies last night was stills. Very disappointing if you were not able to watch live.
Of course, if they didn't have all that junk mail to deliver, then perhaps they wouldn't have to keep raising the price of stamps to pay for the infrastructure to keep increasing their capacity.
...is how connected people really want to be. It's one thing for Joe Suit to want access to his email anywhere he goes. It's another thing for Bluecollar Bob. All he may use email for is notes to mom, and may never have a demand for access elsewhere beyond home.
Also, there are internet terminals at our mall and if I'm there with my wife and make any indication that I want to check anything, I get "The Look."
Yeah it's been done years ago: right here.
I just got an email the other day from my good friend Mandy who I must know, because she says she remembers me. She says that she wants me to see her and all of her seven college coed roommates naked any time I want!
So I've got friends! See!
Sounds kind of like the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (formerly the WEDWay) at Disney World...
INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
The Content files are encrypted and the Player contains decryption technology. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and not to transfer any material subject to restrictions under such laws to a national destination or person prohibited under such laws.
So it's illegal to play this CD in any country on the "Bad" list...
What kind of future do you think there is for games development on such platforms like the Visor, the PalmPilot, and the next-generation-Gameboy that may come down the pipe in the next couple of years?
Head on over to PalmGearHQ and see how many games are available. Some good, some bad, many identical. Many are good enough that they have resided on my Palm, almost since day 1.
Palm has done a good job of avoiding creating a handheld PC and instead creating an advanced organizer. They've left it to other developers to do that work instead. Tools like this make that job just that much easier.
This was done in a fashion about a year ago.
This guy has a mount for a Powerbook in the back of his Pathfinder wired up to an LCD touchscreen he installed into his dashboard. It was done mostly to run SoundJam to play MP3's. He hacked his keyboard so that switches on the steering wheel issue commands for skipping, volume, etc. Finally, he has an AirPort card installed so when he is parked, he can upload songs from the Mac in his house.
A pretty cool hack, if you ask me.
This article wouldn't have been sent in by Bernard Shifman about this website, would it?
Adobe was able to make Killustrator change its name to Kontour. Unfortunately, if that went through, I don't see much hope for Lindows...
Perhaps it's able to tell whether you FUHFUHWD through the ads or not. Or if you go back and rewatch an ad you've already seen.
Well, on IE5 for OS X anyway...
If you control-click (or right click if you have a two-button mouse) the menu that pops up as a bunch of Flash options. Click on "Rewind" (there's no "Stop" option) and the ad goes away and doesn't come back.
I know the obvious solution would be to disable Flash, but my daughter likes playing online games that require it, so that's not an option...
With its well-preserved shops, houses, amphitheater and baths, Pompeii is one of Italy's top tourist sites.
Well, I guess that explains where everyone was...
Well, there's government wastefulness at its finest... How many man-hours did it take to sweep 90000+ "bars"? And how are they planning on enforcing this? It would seem that if these are small one-room shops, that if the government were to shut one down, it would just pop up again elsewhere.
Added a Firewire card to my work PC. One 6-pin to 6-pin cable and a copy of MacDrive 2000 later, and the drive mounts right up with no additional effort on my part. It even charges, too! Go into View options and show all hidden files and you can see where the MP3's are stored. The annoying thing is that your collection gets spread over dozens of folder with no rhyme or reason for the organization, but they're all there.
Come to think of it, it's too bad the phone company doesn't have the equivilent of a /dev/null phone number in each calling area.
Well, there is, kind of... When filling in forms and such that *require* a phone number, just use 555 as the exchange. No matter what the last four numbers are, all the caller will get is Directory Services.
I wonder if all the bricks for Jitter will need to be glued together to keep him from 'accidentally' coming apart?