DailyTech - StarForce Finds Another Way To Upset People: Pirating The Competition

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Software StarForce Finds Another Way To Upset People: Pirating The Competition
Sven Olsen (Blog) - March 11, 2006 9:04 PM

40 comment(s) - last by a1trips.. on Apr 1 at 12:15 PM

A Stardock employee captured the screenshot of a StarForce employee posting a Torrent link for Galactic Civilizations 2. The URL has been blurred out

The saga unfolds

As if enough people weren't already upset enough with StarForce, the company proved that they are no longer just dabbling in the rights of the users who use its software. No, it seems that the company has actually started to openly pirate video games that do not use it's copy protection scheme.

Earlier this week Stardock, the publisher for the wildly successful Galactic Civilizations 2 videogame, made the following statement with regard to copy protection:

And here’s another thing to consider — Galactic Civilizations II has no copy protection whatsoever. Not even a CD check. Heck, you can install the game and toss out the CD and use the included serial # (which you don’t even have to use to install) to redownload the entire game from us even years in the future.

This quote was unfortunately horribly taken out of context (view the whole text here), and the original source was removed. After several blogs began to pick up the story "Stardock Wants Piracy," a StarForce employee posted a working BitTorrent URL to the game in the corporate forums claiming:

Right now several thousands of people are downloading the pirated version only from that web-site. Is it good for the sales? Unlikely. Good game surely would have the high sales rate even if it doesn't have any copy protection, but not because of that. Good protection is the tool, which increases the rate.

Poor grammar aside, the StarForce employee thought it OK to post a working Torrent link to pirate Galactic Civilizations 2 in order to prove a point. In any case, Stardock (not StarForce), does not want people pirating its game. We've been beta testing Galactic Civilizations 2 for months now, it surely warrants a purchase.

There is a fairly large movement to boycott StarForce titles.

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Jesus...

By Pergolide on 3/11/06, Rating: 0

RE: Jesus...

By Viditor on 3/11/2006 11:31:39 PM , Rating: 2

So how ARE things over at StarForce these days Pergolide?

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RE: Jesus...

By hg321 on 3/11/2006 11:40:29 PM , Rating: 2

Sounds like they are getting nervous

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RE: Jesus...

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 3/12/2006 12:03:59 AM , Rating: 4

As Sven's editor, I was very happy with what he wrote. There is absolutely no justification for what StarForce did, and if they come off vilified, fine with me.

Kristopher

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RE: Jesus...

By smitty3268 on 3/12/2006 12:31:06 AM , Rating: 2

If anything, I think what he wrote was overly fair to StarForce. Like assuming a single employee posted the torrent on his own rather than assuming it was a company policy. Some people just love to be contrary - if everyone is complaining about something, you can be sure they'll be there defending it until the end of time.

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RE: Jesus...

By PLaYaHaTeD on 3/12/2006 12:05:39 AM , Rating: 4

Guess what, don't fvcking read this site if you don't like it. Sure, there are misspellings, grammar mistakes, and sensational titles that are completely misleading as to what the article is actually about. But at least they aren't pirating other companies' games just because they dont use your crappy copy protection.

Admit it, we all know you're the guy that everyone is laughing at...

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RE: Jesus...

By Pergolide on 3/12/2006 12:31:08 AM , Rating: 2

Yeah, cuz anyone defending a neutral point of view obviously has some sinister ulterior motive, right?

'tards.

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RE: Jesus...

By Zelvek on 3/12/2006 12:42:18 AM , Rating: 2

OMFG yes this is some what BIAS but so is all the crap media these days by now ppl should be smart enough to look at a story and judge it by the facts not the tone of the author.

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Class Action

By Viditor on 3/11/2006 10:02:09 PM , Rating: 2

If the claims end up being shown true, you have to figure that StarForce is just ripe for a future class action suit...not to mention the game developers that use it.

RE: Class Action

By hoppa on 3/11/2006 11:42:08 PM , Rating: 2

Their illegaly posting a game online makes for a class-action lawsuit? Do you even know what that is? How exactly does this affect Joe Blow that bought the game as in enjoying playing it?

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RE: Class Action

By Knish on 3/12/2006 2:31:23 AM , Rating: 2

A class action suit is usually when you have a civil trial with many plantiffs and usually just one defendant. While I wouldn't doubt that there will probably be some civil reprecussions against StarForce for this one, the whole linking-to-a-torrent thing is kind of borderline criminal. It still wouldn't be a class action thing though, there is only one defendant and one plantiff.

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How does this prove anything?

By OCedHrt on 3/13/2006 4:32:17 AM , Rating: 2

I don't see how this proves anything. Crappy logic by retarded people. No wonder their protection schemes suck as well. I bet 99% of those people downloading the torrent would not go out and buy the game if the torrent wasn't available.

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How about a buy link to the game?

By Fox5 on 3/12/2006 2:54:26 PM , Rating: 2

Woah, is GalCiv2 a game like Master of Orion 2? Anyone have a link to where I can buy (preferrably download buy, I hate hard copies)? I'm too lazy to google, but some kind of link to the publisher's website definetely should have been included in this article.

RE: How about a buy link to the game?

By Koch12 on 3/12/2006 3:32:17 PM , Rating: 3

Yes, it is like MOO2 only far better.
Go to www.galciv2.com, see it yourself and buy.
Have a nice day! :)

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RE: How about a buy link to the game?

By Fox5 on 3/13/2006 2:31:16 AM , Rating: 3

Thanks, I got it, can't wait to try it. A little disappointed that it doesn't have multiplayer, but it looks much more exciting than Empire at War, which was basically an ok RTS with the Star Wars license and unit building occuring on a galatic map. Or in other words, just a large scale RTS game with control points/expansions represented as planets.

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Copy protection is counter-productive

By PrinceGaz on 3/12/2006 6:41:58 PM , Rating: 2

Although not a Starforce protected title, I met up with a group of friends this evening for our regular IRC meeting and one of them mentioned he had tried, and failed to install Civilization 4.

He'd put the DVD he'd bought in GAME (a UK gamin outlet) in his drive and nothing happened except the drive spinning. Quite rightly thinking the disk was probably bad (as it could read any other DVD) he asked for a replacement which they were happy to do, but it was no better. He was ready to take the game back to the store tomorrow to get a full refund (they are one of the few stores which do that) but he really wanted to play it as he likes the Civ series so I did some remote tech-support for him.

To cut a long story short, the Safedisc 4 protection on the DVD was incompatible with the version of the firmware on his DVD-drive meaning the drive was unable to read the disc. Flashing to the latest firmware meant him making a bootable DOS floppy, copying the firmware over, renaming the firmware binary file to an 8.3 filename as LG are morons and gave it a long filename their batch file (or any other DOS program) did not recognise resulting in it failing, and finally managing to update the firmware. The Civ4 DVD was read fine after that update and as I write this he is now enjoying playing it.

But what if I hadn't been there to think a firmware update may help, locate it buried deep among badly referenced files on LG's support site, and sort out a problem that prevented it working as provided? The answer would be a game returned to the store for a refund because the copy-protection prevented it installing/running. In other words a lost sale *because* of the copy-protection.

That kind of thing happens more often than many visitors here may think. Most of us probably have a dozen or more ideas we would try if we came across a disc that should be readable but fails, but most PC gamers don't have our knowledge and would have given up in disgust after the second disc didn't work, possibly to the extent of abandoning PCs and only playing games on consoles. Or getting the game from a third-party source (pirated, of course) where the protection has been removed already so it works fine.

But UbiSoft foolishly think Starforce is a good idea despite most everyone else disagreeing. I'm sure they'll soon stop using it if the boycott continues to grow in strength to the point where their sales suffer. Then they'll either abandon it, or abandon publishing PC games altogether and let someone better do so instead.

RE: Copy protection is counter-productive

By masher2

(blog) on 3/13/2006 10:07:57 AM , Rating: 2

> "But UbiSoft foolishly think Starforce is a good idea despite most everyone else disagreeing."

"Everyone else" is usually people wanting a free copy of one of their games. And your example of a person who needed a flash update to run one game (oh, the horror!) hardly proves the point that Starforce is bad for a company's bottom line.

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RE: Copy protection is counter-productive

By QueBert on 3/13/2006 8:20:31 PM , Rating: 2

just because the typical joe schmoe doesn't know what SF is or does, doesn't make it any less bad. It installs drivers on your box without asking, that is what Spyware does. And while it might be a very small % there are people who can't play a game simply because of SF, and even some who have their HD corrupted and spratic DVD/CD drive issues as a result. I think it should be absolutly mandatory that any game using SF have a sticker on the box warning us. Just like copy protected audio cd's (that won't play in my cd rom) have a label stating this.

SF is dangerous, and most pirates don't bitch about it too much becase, well. To my knowledge every SF game has been sucessfully cracked.'

hummm... lesse? might fck up my PC, definitely not crack proof. Wow, some protection we got here!

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List of StarForce titles?

By Palek on 3/12/2006 8:28:11 PM , Rating: 2

How easy is it to check before purchase whether a certain game comes with StarForce or any other protection scheme? Is there a list of StarForce-protected games available somewhere? Also, could anyone point me to an objective description of StarForce, how it works, what side-effects it has, etc.? I realize that's a lot of questions, but I would really appreciate any help. Thanks a bunch!

RE: List of StarForce titles?

By Palek on 3/12/2006 8:29:41 PM , Rating: 2

Oops, nevermind, I just went to the Boycott StarForce page, they seem to have an updated list.

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RE: List of StarForce titles?

By thilanliyan on 3/13/2006 12:23:06 AM , Rating: 2

Yeah I wish it said on the game box that it has Starforce but I haven't come across a game that actually says Starforce on it. It just says "this game uses anti-piracy measures" or something to that effect.

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Meh to StarForce

By shaw on 3/13/2006 1:50:01 PM , Rating: 2

StarForce doesn't deter hacking anymore than what HalfLife2 uses to try and deter pirating. Can't say I hate the company, but I think one day developers will realize "StarFroce isn't protecting our games any better than other methods, time to move on."

RE: Meh to StarForce

By QueBert on 3/13/2006 8:22:06 PM , Rating: 2

not true, unless something has changed, HL2 hasn't been cracked. As much as I dislike Steam, it's far better then SF.

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RE: Meh to StarForce

By MMilitia on 3/14/2006 8:33:06 AM , Rating: 2

HL2 has been cracked many, many times over. The problem is it's so much hassle getting updates every who likes it buys the game.

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I think starforce is worried

By skyyspam on 3/11/2006 11:07:03 PM , Rating: 3

I think Starforce is scared. GC2, a game with no copy protection scheme, has become so successful and so welcomed by the gaming community, that perhaps other publishers will follow in its footsteps and neglect those expensive, annoying, and unnecessary copy protection schemes altogether.

RE: I think starforce is worried

By armagedon on 3/11/2006 11:34:29 PM , Rating: 2

I hope so. They can then past on to consumers the saving from those costly, useless protection. There will always be pirating but cheaper prices and bonuses can make it less attractive.

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Games

By drinkmorejava on 3/12/2006 12:44:22 AM , Rating: 2

I'm sorry, but my will power isn't quite strong enough to boycott splinter cell.

RE: Games

By thilanliyan on 3/12/2006 1:03:41 AM , Rating: 2

Same feeling here...GT Legends and GTR (2 of the best racing games out right now) both have it and I'm sorry but I love racing games so I buy them whether they have Starforce or not. Non-racing games however I'll only buy if they don't have Starforce.

I didn't know about the hardware problems it can cause though.

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piracy never met a copy protection scheme it didn't like.

By sotti on 3/12/2006 7:56:14 AM , Rating: 2

I'd really love to post links to all the starforce protected games getting pirated right now.

What a jack a$$.

Their copy protection stop no one.

RE: piracy never met a copy protection scheme it didn't like.

By QueBert on 3/13/2006 8:14:18 PM , Rating: 2

As much as I'd like to second that, Starforce works in that it prevents a good # of people from pirating the games using it. Do SF games still get pirated? sure, but it can be a royal bitch to bypass. I bought a legit copy of Stubbs The Zombie, and am 100% anti SF. The only way I could bypass it was to unplug my DVD drive completly and run some hack of a SF patcher. Forget about the average joe figuring out how to do that. And unplugging my drive every time I want to play it (minus their crappy protection) I won't be playing it much, if at all.

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Lets not get carried away.

By MMilitia on 3/12/2006 8:23:20 AM , Rating: 2

While i'm sure alot of people will be jumping on the "I hate Starforce" bandwagon because of this (which I believe to be a good thing). I think this story is getting blown out of all proporition. Alot of online media is really just using one person's forum faux pas as a reason to stir up more hated for the entire company.

I know when I first heard about the story I thought there was a news post or something on Starforce's main page with torrent links. The way people have been saying STARFORCE SUPPORT PIRACY, is really quite misleading.

It was an irresponsible thing to do, and the poster will surely be paying the price, but it doesn't seem fair to start screaming at Starforce because of one person (of unknown affiliation with the company's) mistake.

RE: Lets not get carried away.

By Pergolide on 3/12/2006 2:33:37 PM , Rating: 2

Finally, a voice of reason.

I like how the article fails to mention that the link was removed within 2 hours, too. Stardock even acknowledged this in their official blog.

This place sucks. Back to engadget.

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You Can't Pay for This Kind of Advertising

By DaveLessnau on 3/12/2006 10:29:39 AM , Rating: 4

Personally, I'd like to THANK Starforce for their behavior. If they weren't such lowlifes, DailyTech wouldn't have written this article and I wouldn't have found out that Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II was out. As soon as I read this article, I ran out and BOUGHT the game. So, thanks Starforce. Before, I was upset that I wouldn't be able to buy Heroes of Might & Magic 5 since it uses Starforce copy protection. Now, I'm the proud owner of GalCiv2.

Die Starforce

By Ganiki on 3/12/2006 3:52:30 PM , Rating: 2

Well this is my feeling about Starforce as of now. I bought SPlinter Cell: Chaos Theory and it wont run on my computer when 99% of others games will. Why wont it work b/c Ubi is too lazy to update the Starforce in it to 64-bit when I run x64 XP.
I write Ubi about my problem and its bascially sorry your screwed you just bought a coaster :P
Then to top that off after I install SC:CT, FarCry no longer runs on my computer. I had to go in and wipe out every piece of SF I could find to get it to run again. So Ubi, good games or not, and SF can go to...

RE: Die Starforce

By Plasmoid on 3/12/2006 5:37:24 PM , Rating: 2

Ubisoft made the wrong decision (imo) of going with the most expensive and most restricitve StarForce protection plan avaible (most expensive too i hear). Seems that isnt easily ported to windows 64 and seems ubisoft are lazy.

Im really starting to get a disslike for ubisoft as well. Not alone are they strapping starforce to all their games but they are not releasing patches to remove the protection later on like some developers have. Bearing in mind the shear ammount of over the top advertising they cramed chaos theory with you would have thought they would still make money if it did get pirated.

They also never released patchs to fix the bugs in the multiplayer mode that lots of people keep complaining about, and are even talking of releasing the new splinter cell with less modes on the pc... which i guess shows they really dont care about pc users.

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Malware

By Tegeril on 3/11/2006 9:59:59 PM , Rating: 2

I wish enough people would submit StarForce files to antispyware companies (recall the AntiSpyware Symantec Uninstallation thing?) and cause a problem.

Would be fun.

regulations

By Dfere on 3/13/2006 12:27:38 PM , Rating: 2

I am not a fan of government getting into or regulating markets, I am a fan of "sunshine" laws. Consumers , when they have acces to information, make better choices.
Perhaps we should push for a federal regulation for software labels which require publishers to disclose the company or program used for copy protection, then we as buyers can decide whether or not we want to purchase a product.

If Anandtech wants to support this movement somehow through co-ordinating emails and somehow perhaps gaining signatures, I would be glad to assist in any way I can.

Starforce

By haelduksf on 3/13/2006 4:49:52 PM , Rating: 2

Starforce is hardly perfect either. There are at least half a dozen simple tools out there that break starforce and make it just as useful as no protection at all...though it costs the content maker a few thousand bucks more to implement.

the SILENT majority: we exist

By a1trips on 4/1/2006 12:15:26 PM , Rating: 2

I have never posted before regarding DRM, but will, now. DRM has reached critical mass.

Most people equate DRM with end user rights.me, as my nonposting self, has spent thousands of manhours trying to monitor a phenomenon usually known by economists as " winner takes it alL" syndrome.

DRM is creating those same conditions for software. fair use and fair pay do not exist. winer take it all USED TO only affect MPAA..

Understand this.. this is an inflection point. DRM will either force users to pay up the nose for maybe a couple days of entertainment.. or hmm.

I belive in the Hmm.. for the simple reason that consumers drive the change.. nothing is ever forced on consumers..in the final analysis. short term gains are easy.. long term loyalty IS NOT FOR SALE. good businesses still know this

As i have saidelsewhere, i applaud DRM. I also applaud the neighbor who can't / won't share his leafblower.. and the neighbor who switches off the socket when i need to defrost my engine.. but my neighbors are a big corp now, lawyers and everything.. hmm

I will let the people decide