AfterDawn: News

StarForce DRM making a comeback?

In 2006, the controversial anti-piracy company StarForce went out of the public eye after it was found that the the company's DRM was actually harmful to any PC playing a game crippled by it.

StarForce dug its grave deeper when it threatened to sue a blogger who criticized the company's DRM in public. The final nail was the unceremonious drop of the DRM for "alternative copy-protection systems" by Ubisoft just months later.



Today, Gamasutra has a great interview with the company, which appears is trying to make a comeback in the international market, 3 years after its demise.

Rather than paraphrase or cite their article, I will just link over there: Interview: The Return Of... StarForce?

Let us hope, for the consumer's sake, that StarForce has changed, for the better.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Jun 2009 0:10

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• 6 comments

• DXR88

  all DRM is unauthorized, as they all install themselves without your consent.
  
  There is no good DRM.
  

  
  

  18.6.2009 01:49 #1

• windsong

  Saying there is "good DRM" is like saying there is "good child porn".

  18.6.2009 02:07 #2

• djgizmo

  Actually DXR88, I wouldn't be surprised the legal agreement we all agree to states something about technology based copyright/priacy protection.

  18.6.2009 17:19 #3

• 360lifer

  Sins of A Solar Empire showed that a game with no protection can be great and have great profits. No company would dare team up with StarForce. Look at the beating EA took over some nagging DRM they had.
  

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  Religion is fear
  Religion is war
  Religion is rape
  Religions obscure
  Religions a whore

  18.6.2009 20:34 #4

• DXR88

  Originally posted by djgizmo: Actually DXR88, I wouldn't be surprised the legal agreement we all agree to states something about technology based copyright/priacy protection.No just a clause stating the said company has the right to protect there work.
  
  the Type of DRM should be listed on the box. right next to the recommended specs.
  
  Starforce destroyed my HDD. A long while ago i was careless and thought nothing of it. at the time HDD's where expensive as hell. 5 years later its shown that starforce could cause Head Freeze and cause anomalies in the Drive RPM.
  
  when both of these monstrosities happen a loud Clunk, followed by a metallic scraping noise and a dead HDD.
  
  they never disappeared, they hid behind another company so they didn't have to pay $300-$400 dollars per HDD that there sorry ass excuse of protection screwed up.

  19.6.2009 00:53 #5

• vudoo

  Like I said before if every p2p program had JPL agreements with the labels and if there could be some sort of licensing for software to make all file sharing legal for say $13/month this shit would not happen. Just as an internet Radio station to be legal requires such a license, so can file sharing. Think of p2p as Internet broadcasting. Each person Downloading from you would be a listener slot. All p2p programs would be limited to 10 slots and you could run your software and share what you want but you pay $13/month. I've tried the AEM approach to make filesharing legal, now I'm gonna try this approach. The second part of this agreement would be that all copy protection would be now illegal since all royalties would be reported and paid via the p2p sortware's built in JPL reporting. Everyone gets paid and file sharing gets legal and no more BS.

  21.6.2009 12:26 #6