Many thanks for the tips as to how to remove Starforce from my system.
Living in Ukraine, I am a GREAT believer in "people-power"! If enough of the sotware-buying public refuse to buy any product that has this protection system, then publishers
may sit up and take notice.
However, for that to happen, you will need to make sure the "software-buying public" is educated (made aware of what is going on).
For
that to happen you will need to get magazine publishers on-side (because that is where the next "must-have, must-buy" game will be written about), for them to publish the information.
That leads me to two points:
1) Has there been any proper, controlled, documented investigations done into the effects of Starforce on a computer system?
By that, I mean: Has anyone, for example, taken a brand new, clean machine into a Lab and, under supervised laboratory conditions installed the OS (and whatever other software is needed for the purposes of the test only), to prove the machine functions perfectly? After which, installed any Starforce protected product and run the tests again to show what effect it has on the system.
I know this sounds like a lot of hassle but it leads me to point 2:
The only way you will ever get
any magazine publisher to print an article that could potentially put them out of business (remember who also pays
their bills!) is to give them hard, documented, real, forensic evidence. No magazine Editor will risk the wrath of big software publishers, because a group of users (no matter
how passionate they are) tell them a bit of software is damaging their machines.
However, if you can prove it to them,
then (if nothing else) they have a moral obligation to report it. I do not know the legal apsect but I am guessing they may also have some sort of legal obligation... If you can prove Starforce is damaging people's machines, then surely it could leave them open to claims for damages if they knowingly advertise products that contain this protection system.....?
That's it! That's my sixpennyworth!
I wish you the very best in your endeavour, I hope it succeeds.
I'm off to grab a copy of StarforceClean.
Bye for now...
BTW: These are links to pics of Ukrainian software showing Starforce logo (sorry about the black smudge on the CD, it covers the serial number!)
http://www.blackrose.com.ua/starforce_cd.jpg
http://www.blackrose.com.ua/starforce_label.jpg