Posted on 01/31/2006 10:09:57 AM PST by steve-b
A group of gamers has started a site to spread a pledge to boycott video-games that come with a dangerous anti-copying mechanism....
For example, here's one of the common problems brought by Starforce: under Windows XP, if packets are lost during the reading or writing of a disk, XP interprets this as an error and steps the IDE speed down. Eventually it will revert to 16bit compatibility mode rendering a CD/DVD writer virtually unusable. In some circumstances certain drives cannot cope with this mode and it results in physical hardware failure (Most commonly in multiformat CD/DVD writer drives). A sure sign of this step down occurring is that the burn speeds will get slower and slower (no matter what speed you select to burn at). Starforce, on a regular basis, triggers this silent step down. Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening.
Moreover, the Starforce drivers, installed on your system, grant ring 0 (system level) privileges to any code under the ring 3 (user level) privileges. Thus, any virus or trojan can get OS privileges and totally control your system. Since Windows 2000, the Windows line security and stability got enhanced by separating those privileges, but with the Starforce drivers, the old system holes and instabilities are back and any program (or virus) can reach the core of your system by using the Starforce drivers as a backdoor.
StarForce, the company criticized below, has threatened to sue me for describing the problems with its software.
(Excerpt) Read more at boingboing.net ...
I had some friends who installed a game with this Starforce copy-protection technology on it. All had serious problems with reading other CDs after the installation, and one did indeed have a hardware failure on his burner and have to replace it. And uninstalling the game did NOT get rid of the Starforce stuff; one ended up badgering the manufacturer until they told him how to clean it totally off his system.
}:-)4
Could this be why you have to keep getting new CD Rom drives? Does Warcraft have this stuff on it?
Let me guess...
| C:\>format C: /u |
Got a website that will list some ( all? ) of them?
Yeah, right, people should schlep to Moscow on these guys' assurance that 1)they'll run a fair test and 2)they'll pay back your expenses (sooner or later) if you prove your case.
Starforce. (spit)
I bought a game a few weeks ago, installed it, played for a little while, then got an urge to play an older game that I own. However, it'd crash on the opening screen. I spent several hours looking for a technical fix for the problem with no luck. Finally, I uninstalled the new game (and d/l a program to remove Starforce as well) and voila, problem disappeared. I was skeptical about the claims about Starforce causing problems before, but I'm not now.
Actually, you've only got an hour and a half - it's about 11:30pm in Russia... ;-)
Basically, this is like Bill Clinton offering $10000 to "prove" that he had sex with Monical Lewinsky, with Clinton's definition of "sex" written into the rules of the contest.
So is it a bad idea to play games off a CD while connected to the internet, or only games off a CD which involve an online opponent?
I ask because I had a couple of drives go bad recently.
Try http://www.glop.org/starforce/ and check the list there.
}:-)4
I have no idea. Better ask someone else.
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