Options

'Subversive' code could kill off software piracy

Unknown
edited October 2003 in Science & Tech
Software pirates who make illegal copies of a particular computer game are finding the games companies are coming up with a radical new anti-copying strategy.....

[blockquote]Illegally copied games protected by the system work properly at first, but start to fall apart after the player has had just enough time to get hooked. As a result, the pirated discs actually encourage people to buy the genuine software, the developers say.

The new protection system, called Fade, is being introduced by Macrovision, a company in Santa Clara, California, that specialises in digital rights management, and the British games developer Codemasters, based in Leamington Spa. It makes unauthorised copies of games slowly degrade, so that cars no long steer, guns cannot be aimed and footballs fly away into space. But by that time the player has become addicted to the game....[/blockquote]
<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248 target="_new">Read the whole story @ NewScientist</a>

<i>Submitted by Gobbles</i>

Comments

  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Sounds good to me. I'm still waiting for the copy protection that wipes your HD :)
  • CyrixInsteadCyrixInstead Stoke-on-Trent, England Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I thought that this technologoy had already been used by Codemasters in Operation Flashpoint? I remember when it came out everyone was talking just such a protection as described above, and that parts of the game over time would stop working correctly.

    ~Cyrix
  • MancabusMancabus Charlottesville, VA
    edited October 2003
    Pseudonym said
    Sounds good to me. I'm still waiting for the copy protection that wipes your HD :)

    Didn't the game Pool of Radiance do that to some people.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Wow! Radical concept! It's called.... SHAREWARE!

    been around since the 80s or so.....
  • Mr_BojinglesMr_Bojingles Northern Michigan New
    edited October 2003
    I wonder if you hold the "shift" key, you would be able to bypass the anti-piracy software then?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    This is what Operation Flashpoint has in it. If it is cracked badly or it finds you are using the same CD Key as someone else, the game will start doing stupid things more and more until it is no longer playable.

    It just got cracked like everything else.

    This isn't anything special.

    NS
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    SM-Bot said
    Illegally copied games protected by the system work properly at first, but start to fall apart after the player has had just enough time to get hooked.

    Good idea. The unpatchability of copied Dungeon Siege (one corrupted file) almost got me to buy the game, so I could use the level editor and therefore add to the replay value. Then I found out the editor is horribly complicated and well... yeah...

    It would be kinda like what I do with music: if I like the artist AFTER listening to the music, I buy the CD.
    Pseudonym said
    Sounds good to me. I'm still waiting for the copy protection that wipes your HD :)

    I got a virus once that was designed to see if someone had a specific copied version of Doom 2 (The Doom II Death Virus. Isn't that a cute name?). I did have a copied Doom 2, thanks to Haisting's ill-fated CD-ROM renting policy :). Had I had the version in question, the virus that came with a custom map would have formatted my HD :shakehead
  • LawnMMLawnMM Colorado
    edited October 2003
    primesuspect said
    Wow! Radical concept! It's called.... SHAREWARE!

    been around since the 80s or so.....

    :thumbsup:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    ;D

    They've had that functionality built into Windows since Win95!!!
  • SlickSlick Upstate New York
    edited October 2003
    NightShade737 said
    This is what Operation Flashpoint has in it. If it is cracked badly or it finds you are using the same CD Key as someone else, the game will start doing stupid things more and more until it is no longer playable.

    It just got cracked like everything else.

    This isn't anything special.

    NS

    I concur.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited October 2003
    GHoosdum said
    ;D

    They've had that functionality built into Windows since Win95!!!


    Actually Its in ALL versions of windows. Pirated or not in my experience ;D
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited October 2003
    Burn Multiply copies to start with.
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    primesuspect said
    Wow! Radical concept! It's called.... SHAREWARE!

    been around since the 80s or so.....
    lol...
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    mmonnin said
    Burn Multiply copies to start with.

    Firstly that doesn't always work, and secondly you will probably still need valid CD keys.

    NS
Sign In or Register to comment.