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StarForce Interview and Piracy Discussion August 18, 2004 |
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Summary: Over the past few months there has been increasing debate and even furor over copy protection that is becoming increasingly invasive. It checks for CloneCD, Alcohol 120% and other utilities, and won't permit you to use them one way or another. One of the most notorious names is "StarForce" - supposedly difficult to crack, tough to remove, and all sorts of compatibility allegations fly around. So is it the "Great Satan", or simply another case of internet paranoia? To help answer this, we went straight to the horse's mouth and now we have an exclusive interview with a company representative who provides responses to the allegations and also explains why the software works like it does. On top of that, Jakub delivers some commentary on the general subject of piracy.
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 6 ) |
While the BSA ludicrously exaggerates the cost of piracy by assuming that every pirated copy is a lost sale, there's no denying it's taking a heavy toll on the gaming industry, PCs in particular. While we here at FiringSquad generally revile the MPAA and RIAA for being Trust-like associations that abuse their almost monopolistic powers to control their art forms and thus prices, there's clearly no such profiteering going on in the gaming industry. It's a running joke that no movie ever nets any money no matter how much it grosses, but unfortunately this is close to a fact of life with PC games.
Most pro-piracy arguments are the kind of fluff that 6th rate trolls throw around on usenet.
"I wouldn't buy it anyway" - doesn't matter, fact is you didn't pay for it but benefited from the labor of the publisher and developer - that's theft.
"Games are crap so often I don't want to get ripped off" - try reading reviews and playing demos. Besides, good luck getting a car dealership to refund you your money after you so much as signed the contract, never mind drove the car. Not all that many goods can be used and returned for your money back.
"It doesn't hurt anyone, I'm not actually stealing". Technically, no, you're not picking up an item and walking away with it. But if you're not stealing, why are publishers and developers willing to spend money on copy protection that they know increases the hassle? They're not stupid, they know they're losing money to pirates.
Of course, this does bring us to the other side of the equation. Copy protection is getting more invasive. While we're not quite yet seeing dongles, copy protection has become a bigger hassle in recent years. First it was simply a matter of keeping the CD in the drive. Then we had CD keys. Then those CD keys began being authenticated online. Windows XP uses a scary validation system that I'm not looking forward to messing with when I upgrade my hardware in a few weeks. Now copy protection is disabling games if you have utilities that simply might help pirate a game - like Alcohol 120%, Nero or CloneCD.
Furthermore, copy protection denies users the right to an archival copy. We've all damaged, destroyed or lost discs and CD keys. Getting a replacement from a publisher can be and often is another hassle. Of course, if we honestly ask ourselves how many purely legitimate users of those utilities there are, odds are probably that deep down inside we have to admit "not many".
In recent months there's been an increasing awareness and alarm over StarForce copy protection. It's actually a driver that installs itself with the games that come shipped with it, and originally it didn't uninstall when the game was uninstalled. There are many panicked reports about "StarForce disabled/fried my USB flash scanner/ATA drive/CD drive". Having lived through several internet panics like this - from the V-chip through CD keys to Senator Joe Lieberman's bills on game sales to minors - and generally having participated on the wrong side of them - I was skeptical. I've learned that if there's one thing that the internet is good at, it's spreading rumors and unnecessary hyperbolic panic. Like I said, I was part of that myself in earlier times.
So, rather than simply jump aboard the panic wagon, we decided to get the word straight from the horse's mouth. Here then is our interview with Abbie Sommer of StarForce.
| Introduction | Page:: ( 2 / 6 ) |
Abbie Sommer: StarForce was founded in 1998. Complete story about the company can be found here: http://www.star-force.com/index.phtml?category=8&type=5. The development team and parent company is based in Moscow. We have offices in Beijing China and in San Francisco California, as well as representatives stationed all over the world. If you have specific questions, please ask.
About drivers, the technology built into StarForce to prevent reverse engineering and anti-emulation has been around since the beginning, installing drivers is part of the technology. StarForce has many different products that can be configured in different ways. It is up to the publisher to choose a configuration with or without drivers depending on the level of protection he prefers.
FiringSquad: What advantages does a driver-level copy protection utility offer over other methods of copy protection?
Abbie Sommer: The drivers are what prevents the use of kernel debugger utilities such as SoftICE, Cool Debugger, Soft Snoop etc. Also the drivers prevent emulators from spoofing a drive, and thwart burning tools such as Alcohol 120%. StarForce implementation requires no physical modification of the disc, or the equipment that molds the discs, so this method is a clear advantage to publishers because it gives them the flexibility to use just about any plant they wish. This is a limitation of some of our competitors’ products, which require not only special hardware, but also expensive software add-ons for test and diagnostic equipment.
FiringSquad: How is StarForce more effective than some of your competitors, and what does it do to remain effective?
Abbie Sommer: We are more effective because it is harder for crackers to reverse engineer StarForce protected games. We have a proven track record of games that have been on the market and still not cracked. If the most advanced features of our system have been used it takes a lot of a cracker’s time to churn out that crack. Plus some of the cracks are so big, very few will bother to go through the pain to get them to work, e.g. would you want to sit through a 500 mb download and have to sort out thousands of files? To remain effective, we constantly monitor the crack sites and when a game is cracked we study it and modify our code if needed, small fixes are often done weekly and major fixes perhaps monthly. It depends on the circumstances.
| How it works | Page:: ( 3 / 6 ) |
Abbie Sommer: For a very simple reason; if a demo goes out with unprotected code, when the time comes for a pirate to try to crack a released game, he or she can refer to that demo to find clues which can be used to crack the game, if the demo .exe closely resembles the final product.
FiringSquad: Uninstalling games that use StarForce, such as TOCA Race Driver 2, Broken Sword 3 and Silent Storm apparently doesn't remove StarForce. Was this simply an oversight by game publishers/developers, or a necessary part of the copy protection process?
Abbie Sommer: The fact that they remain was something that no one predicted would be such a contentious issue. Going forward, we are encouraging all publishers to include the SFdriver cleaner utility into their un-install scripts. There are a tremendous amount of residual files that get loaded onto on a system without our knowledge when we load a program, be it a game, a movie or music player, video or sound card drivers etc. Far more than the average person realizes. Now that we hear the dissatisfaction about it, we have taken steps to fix it, the publishers are too. We also have the tools posted on our website for anyone to download. http://www.star-force.com/index.phtml?category=200&type=5 BTW, we are not the only CP provider who loads drivers; it is a common part of several protections.
FiringSquad: Has the StarForce removal utility posted by Codemasters complicated matters, from your perspective? Perhaps by giving pirates another weapon?
Abbie Sommer: The tool has not complicated things at all, in fact it has helped! I don’t think the pirates can use it to their advantage, because without those drivers, the protected application will not run. Removing the drivers does no harm except the copy protected game will not run until the drivers are re-installed.
FiringSquad: There's an uproar among segments of the game community that StarForce is installed without user approval. Is this a potential legal concern for your company?
Abbie Sommer: There is no legal concern because before a user loads a game, he or she has agreed to accept the conditions of the end-user licensing agreement, typically known as a EULA. These are also known as click and go, or click and accept agreements. When you accept, you are saying I will load this game or application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms. Or there will be a disclaimer that protects the publisher from damages of any kind due to their products’ use. Our product is licensed to our customers, and becomes part of their product, so the user by accepting the terms, is giving approval.
| StarForce problems? | Page:: ( 4 / 6 ) |
Abbie Sommer: Glad to hear you haven’t had any problems, truthfully very few people do. Our code has never been more stable or compatible. We get a minuscule amount of emails reporting trouble in proportion to the quantity of protected game discs that have shipped. In the past we did have a few problems with USB driver conflicts, it was fixed and publishers were advised to make patches to update the protected games. I think you are correct about the outcry; some of the forum posters are using the driver controversy as a means to vent their frustration at not being able to make a 1:1 copy of the game. This is not the first time, and it won’t be the last. I know that gamers often reply on help from forums to get a problem solved, but when it comes to copy protection issues they really should contact the publisher or us to get accurate information.
FiringSquad: In an industry when copy protection is often effective for only hours after first being released and usually games are available to pirates from distribution channels or shady press members a week before they appear on store shelves, how does your company plan to remain ahead of the game?
Abbie Sommer: Good question. The demo issue is a perfect example of how we are trying to help prevent the games from getting put onto P2P networks before or on the day of release. We also have a product that can protect a CDR, which is a great way for a publisher to protect press review copies. Lastly, we’ve even entered the download market with a new product activation system called ProActive. So, if a publisher wishes to provide his or her customers with an alternative purchase method, they can use it to protect their downloadable titles. Our sales guys are stressing the need to protect all versions of the game prior to release in order to protect publishers’ revenue. Implementation of a good protection for a game (demo, review copies, etc) needs to be thought of months before release, not weeks, to be truly effective.
| Gamer rights | Page:: ( 5 / 6 ) |
Abbie Sommer: We haven’t done any official studies, other than know for a fact we have protected many titles this year alone that are still not cracked. It is up to the developer to put forth as much effort as it takes to install a great protection and the payoff is obvious. I don’t have any specific numbers to share, but economic advantages can be significant. Let me give an example: if a publisher decides to protect a much anticipated title and uses our protection, and a user gets frustrated by not being able to make a 1:1 copy of a friend’s copy of the game, and winds up buying that ‘must have’ game, vs. waiting for a no-CD crack, the publisher will recoup his investment in the protection technology after only about 300 or 400 of those users go out and buy that game.
FiringSquad: There's a growing feeling among the hardcore community, or rather the legitimate owners of games in the hardcore community, that they're being punished for being legitimate owners of games. Not only do they have to go through the hassle of swapping CDs now that CloneCD et al. are being detected by various copy protection mechanisms, but they're paying for the copy protection that prevents them from having those freedoms by paying for the game. Do you think this is a fine line that game publishers are walking, or simply another case of oversensitivity about rights, like the V-chip affair in TVs was?
Abbie Sommer: If a gamer buys a game and has difficulty getting it to run, they should contact the publisher and provide as many details as possible up front in the initial email. If the problem has anything to do with our copy protection and a publisher's support team can’t solve it, we freely give advice and try to work out their problem, often working directly with the end-user to speed up the process. Regarding not being able to use CloneCD, our protection won't work because it must see the disc before it will allow the game to run. This is common for disc based protections. About the fine line, when you buy a game and install it, typically you are licensed to use it on a single PC at a time. Taking a disc out, or putting a disc in a drive takes less than a minute. When the game is not being played, a user can use CloneCD again.
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 6 / 6 ) |
Abbie Sommer: I have an Xbox and recently added a PS2 to my collection of gizmos. I like that the game play is cut and dry on consoles- you don't have to shut down a bunch of programs to play a game, as on a PC. Also a game won't suddenly shutting down if you run out of system resources, or not be able to play at all because of a video driver conflict. But PC games are more portable, it is easier to take a laptop with you on a trip, than an Xbox. Regarding how the ripped console games can be played, as I understand it, if you mod one of those units, you nullify the warranty, and in some cases can’t play online, or will get blacklisted if you attempt to play with a copied game. Is there hope for the PC as an open platform? I think we have to wait and see and watch the numbers – e.g. sales of PC games vs. sales of console games. I confess I’ve been playing my consoles more and more lately, however I love RTS games, and the ones I love – Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer Generals, Age of Mythology, are not getting ported over to consoles anytime soon, so I will switch back and forth as long as I want to play them.
I would like to close with this comment - I love to play games, and so do most of my colleagues. We listen to the frustration of the community and so do the publishers and together we are working hard everyday to make improvements. Unfortunately due to the prolific amount of piracy all over the world; copy protection is a necessary part of the publishing process, we have to live with it, and I don’t think it is going away. We encourage and welcome constructive feedback. I’ll be reading your forum; if anyone wants to contribute I look forward to it.
FiringSquad: Thank you for your time, Abbie!
Now for some personal opinion:
Maybe it's time we re-evaluate the sub-culture we live in. Yes, gamers are young, rebellious and generally have libertarian anti-establishment characteristics. However, when our very hobby is being threatened through the actions of not just a few, but many of our fellows, perhaps we should take a long hard look at what is and is not acceptable. We can see the over-developed sense of entitlement every day. Flaming publishers, developers and their spokespeople simply because their vision for their game is different from what we want is just one symptom of this entitlement. I believe piracy is another. Just what entitles anyone to copying a game for free?
Yes, invasive copy protection sucks and probably contributes somewhat to the popularity of CD cracks and even outright piracy - but let's face it, publishers aren't stupid. They likely think long and hard before deciding whether it's worth paying for copy protection and irritating the very customers they're trying to court. The irresponsible behavior of gamers is forcing publishers to take more drastic measures to protect their investment. Yes, they're trying to make money off us, but that money is used to make more games. The very games we enjoy. We have to take responsibility for our actions. Does anyone actually believe if there were no copy protection, game sales would increase?
PC games will never go away, but if the market keeps shrinking due to the increasing ease of piracy - through the proliferation of CD burners, DVD burners and broadband internet connections - then the number and quality of games will almost certainly decrease. Without a big market there can be no big budgets. No Doom 4, no Far Cry 2 and no Half-Life 3. Without a big market, the size of niche markets will also shrink, so we'd be even less likely to see FreeSpace 3 or another Fallout game. The fact is, though the number of computers is vastly greater than ever before, and their longevity - their ability to play modern games long after the PC was sold - is increased, PC game sales have been dropping at an alarming rate.
Now I'm not saying you should go stooge and turn your dorm fellows or roommates in for stealing games, but peer pressure is a wonderful thing. You wouldn't think it's cool, rebellious or even acceptable to beat up an old lady on the street, even if she was once rich and glamorous. And given the declining health of PC publishers, they are the old ladies of the business world right now. Think about it.
We hope you've enjoyed this FiringSquad exclusive.