I would also like to add... PC Gamers would be able to rent games, and I can imagine this would be quite popular and create huge revenue for the games industry! Anyone know the stats for profitability of console games compared to PC games?


bangz.

Every time you pirate software, God kills a kitten. Please, think of the kittens.

not sure if it was mentioned, but in russia cracks are perfectly legal thus you cant legally do anything. in most countries reverse engineering is legal, the usa is one of the few places where its a gray area. it is impossible to prevent copyright infringment. ALL systems can be cracked even hardware systems. pcs do implement copy protection like consoles. its called safedisc and uses bad cd sectors to store encryption keys, but the cd can be copied (after the system has to read it) and the exe decrypted (after all the cpu has to play it).

consoles have an advantage that they dont need to go by standards like pcs do. i am sure you would dislike purchasing your next pc and not be able to use yoru old harddrive, connect it to any older pc, not play older software (since it may not be compatible with the newer security system), need special moniter that suports encryption, no modem (since it could allow communication to non secure devices), no network cards (again the whole security thing), all new software WONT work with old pcs, forced software updates, NO linux unless it goes closed source (it would be too easy to remove the copy protection code or "fix it"), all older pcs not allowed on the net (since they could concievable be storing unprotected content that should be protected, and the list goes on.

linux is the WORST canidate for copy protection since being open source means it would be trivial to disable it. hardware could be emulated and with linux, trivial to trick the app. copy protection is impossible to write since it needs to be hidden through obscurity and the data must be in unprotected for to be used. audio must be played through the speaker, video must be shown on a screen, apps must run their code on a cpu. even hardware encrypted systems like the cps2''s kabuki system have been cracked through some work.

face it, i dont know about you, but i dont want to give up using linux, my old hardware, nor feel its anybody''s business where i store MY data i OWN (ie bought or original works i create). plus you will have to pay for the extra security, and render the older systems illegal to use. becareful what you ask for, you may just get it. (btw i am not making up what was said, talks of secure harddrives/os have been discussed and bills drafted, fortunatly they have not passed yet. they would make linux ILLEGAL to use on the internet, because any pc connected to the net would have to have the secure device and contain the closed source software drivers and such for the devices. though it would reduce some ppl from making copies, then again, more ppl would be attempting to crack the system, so it will even out eventually and you paid more for a crap system).

yeah, ur rite... well... it was a long shot! thanks 4 ur insight!

What are your thoughts on the Microsoft''s Activation system? Has this been sucessful? Oh, I would also like 2 point out, microsoft didn''t include the activation system on the OEM version of WinXP, which is, of course, the one thats going around! Great protection system there then! :-S

bangz.

in reply to GumpusPMaximus:

So pirating Microsoft Catz is ok?

:-P
bangz.
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Every time god kills a kitten, bangz pirates some software!
god kills a kitten, bangz pirates software...
god kills a kitten, bangz pirates software...
god kills a kitten, bangz pirates software...
god kills a kitten, bangz pirates software...
Error: Stack Overflow!

[edited by - bangz on March 20, 2002 8:17:00 PM]

it''d be cool if you could make cracks for your own programs that would have super viruses or something and users'' processors overheat or monitors explode and stuff. die die die, pirates. ignorant thieves. that''d be illegal...but they dont seem to care about what''s legal, right? they''re pirates

Hey,

I hear a bunch of you saying that crackers are just lame coders and stuff, yet they can bust through your "security" without any problems... If don''t want people to crack your stuff, make it tougher.

''I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three ring circus sideshow of freaks...'' - TOOL
[TheBlackJester]

quote: Original post by bangz
What are your thoughts on the Microsoft''s Activation system?

I have a thought on Microsofts Activation procedures, although this has nothing to do with XP. I work at a university, and we sell student versions of Microsoft products at a discount ($45 each for Win XP/2000/ME, Office XP/2000, even less for older stuff). Our contract with Microsoft is as follows. When a student purchases a product, the products have an online activation system built in, and the student has the right to install the application 2 times. When the user needs to install it a 3rd or 4th time, they can do so but they need to call microsoft over the phone to complete the activation. The problem is, now we are having problems with MS where they dont seem to be honoring the contract. Some students install more than twice with no problem. Others install twice, call MS for the 3rd and get told they arent allowed to. Further more, some of the students are getting rejected even on their 2nd install (which they are supposed to be able to do without calling) and when they call, they get told "NO".

From this experience, I have to conclude that Microsoft does NOT have any reason to be trusted that they will honor their policies regarding activation.

quote: Original post by TheBlackJester
If don''t want people to crack your stuff, make it tougher.

Imposible. Any layer of protection implemented through software can be cracked through software. Any layer of protection implemented by hardware can be cracked through hardware. The tougher you make your app to crack, the more determined you make the cracker. On apps that are difficult to crack, it is common to have competetions going on throughout the cracking community. One group will release a crack. Two days later another group will release a new crack and call the first group lamers (except they will spell it with numbers) because they missed a whole bunch of cases that caused the game to crash or something else odd. Rinse and repeat until one group finally gets a flawless crack out there and achieves immortal fame for beeing the most elite (again, spelling it with numbers). All you do by making an app well protected is to give them an excuse to hold a big "my schlong is bigger than yours" pissing contest.

Who so ever among you thinks Warez sites are easy to use and download off of are dead wrong. Between the popups, porno adds and incessant demand to "vote for my site!" I found it was impossible to get any software I wanted (at one time I was trying to get Visual Basic 6.0 Pro for free...)(Yeah, well I find it really hard to NOT love the idea of stealing from M$). Factor in 28.8 download speed and I found I could live without it!