14 DAY TRIAL // "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light goes in" is an overused syntagm applied by hackers and crackers around the world to show that no software or protection is bulletproof (but wherever the light goes in the money pours out). We have found this to be true over the past years, especially after the games industry became a powerful force. No CD protection could resist the warez groups.
In the beginning, these groups tried to make a Robin Hood out of themselves, taking from the rich and giving to the poor; more precisely they believed in the free circulation of information, maybe even truly believing that everything should be free. This belief is a wonderful concept for a utopia, but this is (fortunately or unfortunately) a liberal market. The politics of warez groups even appealed to the sense of rebellion of the young, making any kind of move against the groups look like an immoral decision.
This wasn't really a problem ten years ago because there wasn't really a games industry and the games were seen primarily as a waste of time, not a form of entertainment like today, but with the exponential growth of sales in games, things started to take a more serious turn. Some legal measures have been adopted and countries all over the world started to adapt their legislation accordingly. The problem escalated to today's situation, when large group arrests are being made.
One of the industry's ways to cope (and the more efficient so far) with this ever increasing problem is the protection of property with the help of third-party software or alteration of disks (either CD or DVD). The proficiency of warez groups in cracking every single game out there pushed the companies in investing more in other aggressive methods for protecting their intellectual property. I would like to present the most important protections available today so we all know why we are guilty (I will explain later on).
SecuROM: This specific protection is on the market for many years now and is evolving constantly. It's not the best but it's still very widely spread. Here's how it works: During Sony DADC's mastering process, an electronic fingerprint is applied onto the glass master which assigns a unique number to each CD-ROM title. It's not the most aggressive and frankly is not so efficient, but a simple user won't be able to replicate a disk imprinted with this protection.
SafeDisc: This one is equally old on the market but it has posed some problems in the cracking process. Some games even lasted a little more, but still it wasn't enough. This is how it works: it uses a key to encrypt the main executable (EXE or DLL) and creates a corresponding digital signature which is added to the CD/DVD when they are replicated. Sounds dangerous but is not.
Starforce: Even if it has been on the game scene for some time now, it made a comeback last year after its integration in all Ubisoft published games. It's constantly updated so it can blacklist all other countermeasures that may appear. What is unique about this protection is not the 24 bit encryption used on numerous files, but the driver it installs. This sparked a lot of controversy because the users are not asked for their approval on this matter. The reply of game producers is that the protection is part of the game and it's not necessary to ask for two permissions, one for the game and one for the protection. It's like a game of soccer. If you shoot for the goal, but in the process the ball hits the referee and your team wins because of this ricochet, it's ok because the referee is part of the game, just like the ball.
This last protection is by far the most aggressive and the most efficient but who is to blame for this state of facts? We are of course. The people that used pirated versions don't realize that they actually hurt the companies. The piracy today, in games industry only (not to mention movies and music), produces a loss to the major companies of almost 3 billion dollars. If I were them I would seek the most powerful protection out there, so you can't really blame them for protecting their money. We are to blame because by promoting this practice we are in fact provoking the publishers to find better and better protections, so this is the obvious conclusion.
Do not blame Starforce or any other protection or the publishing companies, because in the end we are to blame for today's situation. We made it happen so we can make it go away by doing the right thing. Pay for the games!