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Software StarForce Wages War with Its Users
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - February 2, 2006 3:41 PM
Print 26 comment(s) - last by a1trips.. on Apr 1 at 12:32 PM
The company says users have no solid proof that StarForce software has issues - declares victory

StarForce, the company famous for developing problematic copy protection schemes for computer games issued a challenge recently to anyone who can drop by its office and demonstrate the problems. Unfortunately for those who were interested, StarForce's main office is located in Moscow.

StarForce's protection schemes have been around for a few years now but it hasn't been one of the more popular ones, at least compared to SafeDisc and SecureROM. Developers interested in StarForce need not just  integrate the DRM into the application, but the system only works if it installs itself onto a computer at the driver level as well. This in itself has brought along a great deal of controversy in the past as initial titles that used StarForce's protection never informed users that the code had to be installed.

There have been numerous reports around the Web and various user forums that talk about users having problems with StarForce's products. Even a quick search on the company's own support forums reveals that all is not well. Issues ranging from disc read errors to programs not being able to run to system hangs appear to be more than an isolated issue. Users are even more outraged at StarForce's PR challenge due to the fact that many issues take time to reproduce and are intermittent. In our own experience, we have had issues with StarForce in the past, such as the driver remaining resident in the OS long after the associated application had was removed.

StarForce has now declared victory over claims that its protection scheme produces system malfunctions. On StarForce's website:

No one showed up. Therefore, we now have proof that such issues with StarForce protected applications are pure fiction and all of these rumors are false and probably initiated by frustrated pirates. We certainly are not going to silence the voices of all the biased people on the internet, but we hope that a little bit of common sense goes a long way.

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Stupid
By stupid on 2/2/2006 4:29:52 PM , Rating: 2
I don't play that many games, but I have heard that StarForce's presence is primarily in the UK & Europe. The only game in the US that I heard of using StarForce is X3 - Reunion.

Since I've played X2 - The Threat, I've read many threads at Egosoft's forum about the problems this protection scheme can cause. A lot of posters were actually attacking the developers for choosing to integrate StarForce into their code, and thus Egosoft became the object of many people's hatred of StarForce.

Based on some research, the developer has no say as to what copy protection is to be used with their software. In fact it is the publisher who ultimately decides upon said copy protection. I think it's okay for the publisher to decide what copy protection should be used, but if it is something as invasive as StarForce there should be some type of warning on the box which states a software copy protection scheme will be installed on the PC.

Also, there should be some type of uninstall program to remove StarForce once the game has been uninstalled. However, this could also problems if there are other installed games that uses StarForce. In the end it is the user who loses because the protection cannot be removed short of a reformat, and can end up causing problems with the OS.

The solution, or at least one solution is to boycott those games with StarForce. That will hurt the publisher financially, hopefully to the point were they will no longer use such copy protection. However, the consumer will lose out on what could be a very enjoyable game. I am one of those people who are waiting for the release of TES: Oblivion. However, if StarForce is used as the copy protect I just might forgo Oblivion.

Publishers do have the right to protect their intellectual property, but not to the point where the general audience thinks they are being punished just to play a game. If the general public wants to pay money to be punished they can do so in a S&M club.

I think publishers should respect the rights of thier consumers and use a copy protection what is more acceptable. Such as asking for one's soul or first born.




X3/Egosoft
By MedicalEntropy on 2/2/2006 4:51:23 PM , Rating: 2
X3 is German.
And yes, Starforce is primarily on European games.
Here's a list. There are some that may be US.
http://forums.frugalsworld.com/vbb/showthread.php?...


RE: X3/Egosoft
By Tegeril on 2/2/2006 4:54:29 PM , Rating: 2
That list is incomplete, just one example: Heroes of Might and Magic V will be shipping with StarForce protection (and their beta has as well, and you should see the install troubles people have had because of it).


RE: X3/Egosoft
By stupid on 2/2/2006 5:01:27 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, I know Egosoft is a German company. But based on reading some of the threads on their forum the US version of X3 also uses StarForce.

I didn't really dive too deep into thier forum after reading that X3 still need to be patched up in order for it to play as advertised (or close enough to it). In it's current form it makes for a good "sandbox" game, but that's another story.


critical mass:DRM
By a1trips on 4/1/2006 12:22:55 PM , Rating: 2
DRM is such a good thing.. i want the air i breathe to be DRm'ed. yeah, man.. every molecule brings in ah.. 395 asshole dollars.
Inflection points.
word to the wise.




RE: critical mass:DRM: hacker principle
By a1trips on 4/1/2006 12:27:48 PM , Rating: 2
UH, people need air to survive. No matter how unpopular it is, freedom is a good thing.

Uh, i am far smarter than the dumb fucks that are actually trying to take away the comoon shared core of civilizations.
YOUR MONEY, IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MY CIVILIZATION< AND ALL I DID WAS BE BORN HUMAN> AHHH> love you, will kill you:)


By a1trips on 4/1/2006 12:30:44 PM , Rating: 2
Barbarians at the gates .

to the DRM people: your predecessors tried to burn libraries to contain knowledge. The internet is the new age.. and you will be hunted, and defeated in detail.

I promise You


By a1trips on 4/1/2006 12:32:09 PM , Rating: 2
YOU will be extinct


Dumba$$e$
By jskirwin on 2/3/2006 3:25:52 PM , Rating: 2
Issuing challenges to users isn't exactly out of Dale Carnegie's playbook - especially ones that people would have to spend a couple grand on and risk freezing to death during a nasty cold snap.

They may as well put up a banner on their website that says "Please hack our software. We're morons!"




RE: Dumba$$e$
By huges84 on 2/3/2006 6:20:07 PM , Rating: 2
I would love to see someone hack their website and put links testimonials of people having trouble with using SF protected games as well as cracks to get around it. That would indeed be hilarious.


RE: Dumba$$e$
By gersson on 2/3/2006 11:53:13 PM , Rating: 2
I'm up for it...

gets 'cracking'...


Has nothing to do with pirates
By Decaydence on 2/2/2006 6:19:12 PM , Rating: 3
For those of you that may feel the inclination to agree that the bad press on this protection scheme is being perpetuated by pirates, you really should realize that this has been circumvented for a while now. So the publisher has essentially forced purchasers of this game to install a problematic (extreme understatement) software package that serves absolutely no purpose; certainly not protecting from piracy anyway.

Why would any publisher go to some shady company in Russia for copy protection? They are obviously not a professional outfit; just look at the way they react to reports that their software is faulty. Imagine if Microsoft told customers with bad xbox power cords "bring the box to us and prove it, we don't believe you".

Why is it that finding someone to file a rediculous law suit about GTA is so very easy but finding someone to bring a suit on a legitimate matter like this is so difficult? They misrepresented their software by not divulging the fact that your computer will be screwed if you use their game. The only way companies will cut this garbage out is if consumers make them feel the pressure in some real way.




By DigitalFreak on 2/3/2006 8:12:29 AM , Rating: 2
Because GTA deals with two of the biggest buzz words in entertainment. Sex and Violence.


Pirates and Problems
By Tegeril on 2/2/2006 4:15:47 PM , Rating: 2
While it's quite clear that some of the uproar about StarForce is from people thwarted by the inability to pirate their software du jour, there are clear and legitimate issues:

-The software does not uninstall itself when all StarForce related games are uninstalled

-The software has caused read issues with optical drives (forums?)

-The software doesn't explain what it is in fact doing during the install process, and installs in such a way that is identically analagous to spyware - and would be given a rather high TAC rating from LavasoftUSA if it were not a "legitimate" program.

-The software has the potential to incredibly limit fair use, if the company were to ever perish, how would people play their games? If they want to play a game beyond a certain install limit, how do they register it on say, a 4th computer (after upgrading, having one HD fail, and reformatting, you'd be at your fourth install, which is not beyond the realm of reality with a great many users).

I am not a fan of StarForce.




RE: Pirates and Problems
By Tegeril on 2/2/2006 4:25:42 PM , Rating: 2
An example TAC rating from LavasoftUSA.

Behavior: Intentionally causes other software to malfunction or change designed behavior - (without StarForce, the software does not function)
Distribution: Application is installed automatically via dropper - (installs drivers without informing the user)
Removal: Uninstaller functions deceptively by ininstalling then reinstalling content in stealth - (Uninstaller does not remove the content at all)

All of these criteria, according to Lavasoft, has been determined to be of extreme risk to the user and if the content matches even one of them it is given an automatic TAC rating of 10.

Not to mention the other rating factors from their expanded list that go by this scale:


quote:
MINOR - 0.3
MODERATE - 0.8
SEVERE - 1.8

All calculations are rounded to the next nearest number.


Would further elevate the threat. While it would not be exactly easy to firmly pin these three issues on StarForce, they linger in the grey area of highly-unappealing to have.


DRM does not work
By huges84 on 2/2/2006 11:30:54 PM , Rating: 2
The simple fact of the matter is that DRM does not work. People in the know will always get around it, and those who don't know how to do it know someone who does. The way to win the war against piracy is to simply make buying the game near or more attractive than downloading it.

The only form of DRM that I find acceptable is Steam. It is unobtrusive. It keeps me from having to have any game disks in the drive. Heck, I can even throw them away or just purchase directly online because once I have my key I can download the game on as many computers as I want. Plus, I don't have to go to FilePLanet or the like to get game updates. I wouldn't try to break steam protection, but last time I looked there were ways. However, Steam is updated so often that I have to imagine that it is a lot of effort to keep it cracked.

So I think Valve got pretty much everything right with Steam. The only thing they are messing up is the fact that it costs too much money for developers to publish through Steam. Gas Powered Games, who is developing Supreme Commander (basically the secessor to Total Annihilation), said that they looked at publishing through steam, but it would cost just as much as a normal publisher. I think Valve would have a lot more customers if they lowered the price and that would make Steam catch on. They could make a killing, just like Apple is with iTunes. Apple understands not to be greedy and they will make profit by volume. Valve needs to learn this too.




RE: DRM does not work
By Thalyn on 2/3/2006 12:55:24 AM , Rating: 2
Steam was a good idea, in theory, but it suffers from one obvious limitation - it needs an active internet connection to work.

There was a lot of publicity shortly after the release of HL2 which touched on this, largely because someone could shell out AU$90 (or whatever the equivalent was in their respective currecny) for what is effectively a drink coaster. While HL2 would quite happily install without any problems, not having an internet connection when trying to load the game would mean Steam couldn't authenticate it, and thus the game wouldn't run. Not a problem? Consider, then, people on dialup who would have to pay for a phonecall each time, people who's account has been suspended or those who simply don't have an internet connection.

Personally, I'm opposed to pretty much all forms of copy protection. It's blatantly obvious they don't work as intended (stopping piracy), and the more complicated they get the worse it's going to be for the consumer - and, by extension, the developers and publishers. Ubisoft, for example, have lost my money becuase of the SF protection on SC:Chaos Theory.

-Jak


Starforcce on GTR
By thilanliyan on 2/3/2006 9:46:57 AM , Rating: 2
You know I play GTR right now and it's annoying as hell to put the CD in and have the computer go to 100% CPU usage for about a minute and then MAYBE run the game. Sometimes it won't read the CD properly and will say to insert the proper CD. I don't wanna have to keep putting in a CD every time I play a game that I bought. It's just annoying. I usually go get a cracked executable also but StarForce you need to do all this other crap like disable CD-Roms to circumvent it.




RE: Starforcce on GTR
By thilanliyan on 2/3/2006 9:47:58 AM , Rating: 2
Forgot to add, Splinter Cell: Chaos THeory is the same way.


News Flash
By sotti on 2/2/2006 5:24:20 PM , Rating: 3
step 1) Unplug any ATAPI drives, run SFnightmare, mount SF protected image.

step 2) ?

step 3) PROFIT.

You still have crappy starforce installed on your computer, but you can easily circumvent the copy protection if you know what you are doing.

Now I've only tried this with games I've purchased since I hate doing the CD shuffle when I want to fire up a game.

I'm pointing this out though to show that regardless of how complicated and integrated copy protection gets it the score will always be:
hackers - 1,000,000
DRM/copy protection - 0




By PrinceGaz on 2/2/2006 8:38:17 PM , Rating: 3
While I do not condone the use of unofficial cracks and the like, all of the so called release groups have been able to remove StarForce from their versions of games and other software for quite some time. Admitedly it is one of the hardest to remove, but they all have skilled guys who can remove malware like StarForce.

So when you buy a gmae "protected" with StarForce, visit a good website or other source that can provide you with a cracked executable, because the way StarForce works is by installing itself when you first try to play the game. Using a cleaned executable means the StarForce payload is removed/disabled and therefore will not infect your machine.

I know the use of cracked executables is technically illegal, but I would strongly recommend anyone who buys a game infected with StarForce to replace the main executable with a cracked version from a "reputable" (ahem) source.

Unfortunately the vast majority of people who know about this and how to circumvent StarForce are to some degree involved with piracy, which is ironic as it means StarForce is only hurting users who buy all their software and know nothing about cracks. All the people they should have been targetting have already downloaded the full game with a cracked executable, and will download the cracked patches as and when needed.

Serious Sam 2 was great fun to play, but do you know what the first thing I did after coming home and installing it? That's right, I got the cracked executable to avoid StarForce infecting my PC. UbiSoft are the worst culprits for supporting StarForce as almost all their releases are infected with it; I recommend either boycotting their games, or downloading a cleaned version of the executable if you buy any of their products.




Words of mouth
By armagedon on 2/2/2006 10:51:08 PM , Rating: 2
great ! after Sony, the spotlight is shining on this piece of s*it. The more people knows about it, the more they will say NO to this kind of sneeky useless piece of crap. Developpers will take notice.

So let people knows what SF is all about.




As bad as Sony
By BladeVenom on 2/3/2006 12:56:48 PM , Rating: 2
Hopefully Starforce will start getting the same attention that Sony's rootkit received. I would like to see more news stories, lawsuits, criminal charges, and a patch by Microsoft to keep trojans like that from installing.




Its not a case of works or not.
By Plasmoid on 2/4/2006 8:31:00 AM , Rating: 2
What really gets me is the way that some starforce games work fine, and have always worked fine for me, while others have simply never worked.

In particular I have horrible problems with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. It just freezes on startup every time. I also have X3 reunion installed, running fine every time. So, there isnt a problem with my DVD drive (though it wont work at all with my older dvd drive, just my DVD-RW) and there isnt a problem with windows. About 2 hours of seding emails back and forth starforce did eventually give me a temporary solution that basically by-passes the protection. Problem is it only works until i change something on my pc... even minor software changes and i need a new code.

I cant understand how a protection system can be so bad that it doesnt even behave the same from the game to game. Since the drivers are not in the game excutable but intalled on your pc, and upgradable from the internet, you would think that it would at least not run or run for every game.

StarForce is simple not the right way for developers to go as far as im concerned. Yet again it punishes a small ammount of buyers by not working at all, and all the other buyers by slowing down loading times, neccesitating the disc being in the drive and probably some other problems. Meanwhile the people who this was meant to stop use cracked executables or programs to fool StarForce and actually get the game to play better.

StarForce : 1
Consumers : 0




Website
By dysonlu on 2/5/2006 1:09:27 AM , Rating: 2
Here's an interesting site regarding Starforce. It's called "Boycott Starforce" but even if you're not anti-SF, it contains useful info such as a games list.

http://www.glop.org/starforce/




By Viditor on 2/3/2006 12:55:04 AM , Rating: 1
Let's see...based on my daily rate it would cost them
RT Business class to Moscow - $7500
4 days travel time - $8000
Lodging expenses and equipment - $2000
2 days of work - $5000
IP license for fix - $10,000

So, if they offered USD$32,500 it might be worth it...
Seriously, nobody would take them up on that kind of offer for so little money...which I guess was the whole point of the "challenge".




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