Petition: When an activation comes around...

[justmeatgcw]

Hello!

As far as I know, it is not allowed to ask for cracks in this forum which bypass the compulsory activation of games (cf. the Bioshock Sticky; Settlers 6 version 1.1). The basic justification for this rule, which is being brought forward by the moderators and senior members of GCW, is that an activation is a one-time process whilst a CD-check has to be passed (and endured by the user) each time the user seeks to play the game. The underlying thesis is that nobody who legitimately owns a game would even go through the trouble of accessing GCW with the purpose of downloading a NO-CD / No-Activation-Fix if he or she could get rid of the CD-check with a simple one-time activation. However, this sounds reasonable only at first glance.

I personally think that the existing rule and its underlying thesis is not convincing and should be done away with for the following reasons. To begin with, the moderators seem to forget that humans have their principles and are willing to go through great troubles in order to stick to them. This proves the underlying assumption of the moderators wrong for, I reckon, quite a few people; namely those who have principles and do not deserve to be marginalised. I own multiple legit versions of WinXP both Home and Pro edition and Windows Vista for instance. Still, I have not officially activated a single copy because I do not think a company has the right to make me submit to an activation process which is as transparent to me as the insides of a cow’s bum. Hence, I used workarounds to make the program ***believe*** it has been activated. Since I paid for the programs, this is not a theft, no harm is done and my conscience is clear. Furthermore, I think the moderators of GCW are not fully aware of the long-term impact of the rule I am discussing here. In the long run, there will be more and more “activation only” games and if no workarounds are to be posted on GCW and we are not even allowed to talk about it in the forums, GCW will – I fear – very gradually lose its very right to exist.

It is not my intention to belittle the possibility of abuse when we look at certain posts in the forums created by “Me would not cumm ‘ere in the first place, if me would not do warez”-thugs. All of us need, however, to use some common sense, which should tell us that anything can be abused in the most abhorrent way. Think, for example of a nice, fluffy and entirely harmless pillow which is being (ab)used to suffocate a helpless baby in its crib. Compared to this, the potential level of abuse arising from a workaround for an activation-only game is negligible. Apart from this drastic comparison, I daresay that the potential level of abuse of no-activation hacks is not greater than that of no-CD/DVD hacks anyway.

I would like to achieve two things with this post:

1. I would like to have this post as a kind of petition for the abolishment of the rule which prohibits the posting of activation workarounds. If you are for or against my petition, write a reply.
2. I would like to know about other PC game protection forums / sites, which share my view on the “activation issue”. Please note: I am not requesting links to warez sites and I am only requesting them (*) for a clearly informative purpose. If in doubt, PM me.

Thank you for reading my post. Looking forward to reading your replies some time soon.

Cheers,

Just

EDIT: (*) --> "them" = links to other PC game protection forums / sites