StarForce, a widely known system of game copy protection, is under threat. Luckily.
I'll just quote a few news articles from GameSpot here. Quite interesting.
Copy protection company encourages piracy? - by Brendan Sinclair
"In an ironic twist last week, a moderator on the forums for copy protection software StarForce made it easier for people to pirate a game, posting a link directing users to a site from which they could download illegal "warez" copies of Stardock Systems' PC strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords.
In response to a user's remark that Dread Lords has been experiencing strong sales despite a lack of copy protection (other than a serial number used to download updates), StarForce forum moderator JM posted a link to a Web site and a message saying that several thousand people were downloading the game illegally. He suggested that the game's success was despite the lack of copy protection, and not because of it."
Publishers weigh in on Starforce - by Brendan Sinclair
"That was followed by news that Aspyr Media was going to pass on Starforce for its upcoming release of Spellforce 2, even though it had used the program in the demo version of the game.
"Aspyr Media is responsible for publishing the North American release of Spellforce 2," an Aspyr representative said. "We wanted everyone to know that Starforce will *not* [again, emphasis theirs] be included in the retail release of this game. Starforce is being used in the demo in cooperation with the European publishers of the title, JoWood Productions. This is to help prevent reverse engineering that could lead to our product being put up on illegal software networks. We apologize for any inconveniences Starforce may have caused and would again like to reassure everyone that we have chosen alternative copy protection software for our final release product."
Ok, seems that some people do understand that StarForce is evil. That means that less games will have their Windows installations and hardware drivers corrupt by StarForce. While causing lots of inconvenience and harm for end users, there are many ways to bypass this system - meaning that any experienced gamer, let alone crackers and pirates, will be able to do it. And who knows - maybe those guys at StarForce really support illegal distribution of games not protected by their own software?
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