Starforce Petition!

[dajunka]

Just read this on Blues News. Anyone want to take them on?

StarForce Challenge [December 14, 2005, 11:04 pm ET] - 15 Comments
Destroy your PC and receive $1000 from StarForce (thanks Andrew) is an offer from the copy-protection maker in an effort to combat what they feel may be unfounded rumors about their software:
There have been a lot of rumors in the Internet concerning DVD/CD writers malfunction after installation and star-up of StarForce protected applications. Some have even mentioned that should such “malfunctioning” drive be placed in any other PC without StarForce protection installed it will fail to work as well.
...
After the installation and start-up of StarForce protected product the problem with (CD/DVD read-write malfunction) must exist and be reproduced in any other configuration.
If you can be the first to reproduce this situation in our office, we will be happy to award you with $1000.00 US, cover your trip to Moscow and pay 2 days’ lodging.

[Alucard]

Originally Posted by dajunka

Just read this on Blues News. Anyone want to take them on?

If everyone hates sf so much why would you help them? And for a measley $1k IF you reproduce the error. I can't see anyone in their right mind doing that.

[DABhand]

See now its swings and roundabouts, they issue a challenge, to prove the ideas wrong that people have been saying about SF.

Only $1000 not bad, since you could get a new machine for that easily. And its not your machine they want to destroy.

Plus even if you fail you still get a trip to moscow, to me this is a great deal.

[Grumpy]

Plus even if you fail you still get a trip to moscow, to me this is a great deal.

hehehe, I like your thinkin there Dab! So who wants to meet up with me in Moscow? We could all join up there and have a great party in Moscow at Starforce's expense! Now thats payback.

[Morglum007]

I am very tempted to send SF guys a mail to demostrate what they say r "not just rumors". I dont want their money, just to have satisfaction they r wrong and doesnt want to admit it.

Because it cant be reproduced in just a day with a completely new equipment, i will say them how to reproduce it. It is a six month-year test only in the case u hadnt a lab to test with.

Take a clean computer, install Windoze, and install the drive u would like.
Then, install a lot of SF games, from SF 3.3 to SF 3.6, and begin to test.
In the first month execute twice a day any 3.3 SF protected title, or even three times ( because in this stages prot not always verified disc).

Some drives will pass almost inmediatly, but others will need two or three passes. (Toshiba/Plextor drives didnt enjoy such games)

Go testing upper SF versions till final ones versions and finally try to burn/read with such drive.

Be sure to burn a test CD at the begining of everything. This will be a pattern CD if the selected drive is a recorder. Measure burning time, speed and then use any c0/c1 CD error tool.

Use this test every month and note results.

U can do a parallel test with a clean machine and "normal" use with other copyprots (Safedisc, SecuROM, RingProtect, Laserlock, Lockblocks....)
Do the same.

Finally, compare results from drive with a lot of SF titles "launched" with a normal one. Degeneration is much more on the SF one.

TIPs: LG drives launches SF titles so fast at the begining. Then becomes slower and finally goes unstable
TIP#2: Even Plextor drives goes mad after a time. My Plexie 2410a suffered in its fleed.
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I m learning russian, and enjoy such languaje, but i m so busy at home, so such trip is currently impossible to me. What a pity.

If someone can give SF guys such info, lets see what they say.

Morg @ CdSTeam
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Ups i forgot, u can also try SF 2, available on Siege of Avalon game. This one particulary damaged a lot drive.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Yeah, and I offer 1000 USD to people who can prove to me in a reproducable way, without the need for an expensive laboratory, that bio-engineered vegetables, when eaten, are bad for human health...

There are so many variables that need to be taken into account when reproducing such mystic bugs: ALL hardware parts in the PC, the operating system (and service pack), ALL installed software, ALL configuration settings, ALL currently running software etc. etc. The more sophisticated the system, the harder to find the bugs. And, in the case of low-level software like the Starforce copy protection, the whole system can affect it and can be affected by it! For this exact reason, if "normal" software needs to be written carefully and still some bugs may remain in it, such low-level software must be written EXTREMELY carefully and NO BUGS may remain in it. I have pretty much faith in Russians, probably the best programmers/hackers/coders in the world, though, but only when creating free software, not when creating software for companies, under the supervision of MANAGERS (ARGH, kill'em all, let god sort'em out!)...

Also, it may be possible that those errors with Starforce existed only in the past and have been fixed already in the latest versions, under the title of "more compatibility". (Along with making the copy protection even more secure...)

Most users, affected by Starforce, are everyday people, with (almost) absolutely no idea about computing. They will definitely not be able to find such bugs; all they will see that their PC doesn't work as well anymore as before and they won't even know the reason for it. (I would say, many PC repair shops wouldn't find it out either, knowing the average intelligence level of repairmen.) Those people who definitely could find bugs are professional hackers who, actually, know how Starforce works. But I don't think these people would go public: would you like the offer to change to 1000 USD fine and 2 years of lodging but in the jail rather than a hotel?

I've seen such an offer - crack the copy protection and wits lots of money - at a computing conference, about a decade ago. My schoolmate and I had a look at it and understood that it can't be cracked in a single day, as long as the conference existed. And we havne't had our hacking tools with us either... So, we told the company representatives to kindly f*ck off and left...

This whole offer is just boasting around, nothing more. Bugs in such a complicated software cannot be proven or reproduced as easily as the offer expects.