StarForce facilitates piracy by posting warez link
Posted on 13/03/06 17:03 by Dan Bell                             
StarForce facilitates piracy by posting warez link

Several people, including Savannah, Richteralan and BetrayerX all used our news submit to tell us about another recent development with StarForce. Apparently, Stardock games decided to release their product without any protection other than a serial number. In an apparent attempt to draw attention to the fact and also to show that the game was selling like hotcakes, someone posted a link at the StarForce forums stating this, despite the lack of protection from pirates. The poster was trying to show that not everyone is a pirate and that possibly these measures are not as necessary as some think.

It was obviously an attempt to stir up a reaction from StarForce and they took the bait hook, line and sinker! Shortly after, the folks at StarForce came back by posting a link to a BitTorrent site, showing where you could get a warez version of the game. Obviously, they were trying to show what happens when you don't use a DRM scheme, but it is not too swift linking to a warez site when you can just mention that it is being traded around. Neowin interviewed a representative of the game company that created the product being discussed, Galactic Civilization 2, from Brad Wardell, to get his thoughts on the action from StarForce:

We caught up with Brad Wardell of Stardock this weekend for some reaction to this rather humorous turn of events:

"I don't claim to be incredibly informed on warez. I don't pirate stuff so I am not familiar with sites that people go to in order to find, amongst other things, warez. I was not familiar with the site they linked to. I suspect I'm not alone. We cannot understand why they felt the need to provide an actual URL rather than state the obvious -- that like all software, ours is being pirated at some level.

We obviously don't want people to pirate our software. Every time someone pirates it who might have possibly bought it we feel the pinch. We're a small company so every sale counts. We simply think there are other ways to go about it than to inconvenience customers with CD-based copy protection."

Neowin raised a good question: If StarForce is so concerned with piracy, why in the world would they go so far as to provide a link to warez just to prove a point? Seems to be a bit over the top, even childish. Having said that, by visiting the Neowin site, you can also read the apology and explanation from StarForce regarding this incident. At least they admitted it was wrong.

Source: Neowin

Reactions
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By themushroom, Monday 13 March 2006 21:42
Golly, we thought you mean real w4r3z, not the product itself which doesn't have serious protection. Get us all excited. Enough hating on StarForce, tell us about CD/DVD stuff.
By shimman, Monday 13 March 2006 21:52
the arrogance of starforce will kill the company.
By Ordanos, Monday 13 March 2006 23:31
The best part was the fact that many games that use Starforce are also on the site and cracked. Supposedly Starforce just wants to prevent sales in the first few months where the big profit is to be made. I doubt that ever happens as there is always "0-day" warez and I would guess Starforce is broken within a week all the time.
By beaker75, Tuesday 14 March 2006 05:11
I actually bought the game (GalCiv2). I haven't had a chance to play it much. As to to copy protection, they use an activation type method like MS products do. That is what the CD key is for and you need the key to download any updates from their web site. Also, according to the compay FAQs they don't seem to mind if you install to more than one computer (i.e. a home desktop and your laptop) as long as you don't get carried away. I like the company for doing this. I hate having to pop in a Play Disc when I want to play. Having said that I also like what Valve has done with Steam.
By dmitrius, Tuesday 14 March 2006 12:04
I wonder why starforce didn't post links to the many starforce cracked/cloned games. Maybe because this will show that starforce is not so good in protecting games from being copied and its a worthless piece of software.
By Saruman, Tuesday 14 March 2006 13:15
What they were doing was simple, they were trying to punish a software publishing company for not buying their software to protect it. puke Like the good ol' mafia offering "protection for a "small monthly fee" so that "nothing happens" to them. puke I agree that StarForce's strong arm tactics will tick others off at them. And since this was a small software publisher, they knew that they would not take action against them, like if they did the same to a game protected with Securom, Securom's parent company would have taken them to court for damages immediately. puke
[edited by Saruman on 14.03.2006 13:17]
By BetrayerX, Wednesday 15 March 2006 15:54
BetrayerXThe fact that it is distributed ILLEGALLY makes it a de-facto WAREZ software. To The Mushroom
[edited by BetrayerX on 15.03.2006 15:56]
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