Starforce Petition!

[impic0]

Originally Posted by LoxHazard

Wrong

The petition is for starforce and his malicious drivers (work as a virus in your PC), not for protections in general.

If you read all post in the thread you get enough information about this.

So your opinion is, that copy protections are ok? I mean, not that they just make it hard for you to make a backup of your legally owned software. They also let your game become more expensive.

[TippeX]

twisted logic there, most of the times you dont legally own the software you own a license for it, and if the cd breaks you use the existance of that license to get a replacment from the publisher, as for protections costing more, they cost a fraction of the game price if you want to see where the real mark up is , its in the store, check retail price against the supplier price.. thats where the money is made, and with piracy simply exiting most publishers weight the cost of a few cents per cd for the protection and go with it, if you have a problem with the original cd then contact the publisher, thats how it works, the main 'issue' with starforce that most ppl have (apart from jumping on the 'waaah, no cracks exist for xxxx, i cant play it now' bandwagon) is the fact that the drivers make their system unstable and cause intermittent crashes, and that uninstalling the game does not uninstall the drivers etc.. thats the main argument of this thread

[impic0]

Originally Posted by TippeX

twisted logic there, most of the times you dont legally own the software you own a license for it, and if the cd breaks you use the existance of that license to get a replacment from the publisher, as for protections costing more, they cost a fraction of the game price if you want to see where the real mark up is , its in the store, check retail price against the supplier price.. thats where the money is made

You own the right to make a backup copy.

[TippeX]

having the right to make a backup copy and physically being able to do it are two totally different things all together, the industry protects the industry, no more, no less, as a consumer you really have zero rights

[LoxHazard]

Originally Posted by impic0

So your opinion is, that copy protections are ok? I mean, not that they just make it hard for you to make a backup of your legally owned software. They also let your game become more expensive.

No. I only say that this Thread is for starforce and his infernal drivers, I don´t say my opinion about others protections.

Protections aren´t good for legit customers, i agree with this, but Starforce not only protected backup posibilities, installed evil drivers in ours PC too. For this, is that this thread exists.

Anyway, I agree with Grumpy that this thread is for petition, not for discussion.

You can create a thread over other protections or other things.

[thebluegr]

There are some more games that are protected by StarForce, apart from the ones mentioned. There's also Beyond Divinity and some more games listed here:
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware...ar_force.shtml

I totally agree that it's 100% illegal not to inform the user about the existence of Starforce drivers on his system. Trojans get installed in exactly the same way

[Stevi]

Originally Posted by thebluegr

There are some more games that are protected by StarForce, apart from the ones mentioned.

Update -

Pro Rugby Manager 2
Psychotoxic
Sudeki
Creature Conflict - The Clan Wars
Cross Racing Championship
Restricted Area
Trackmania - Sunrise
Singles 2
Codename Panzers - Phase Two
1944 - Battle of the Bulge
Second Sight
Postal 2 - Apocalypse Weekend
Area 51
Psi Ops - The Mindgate Conspiracy
Domination
Still Life
SuperPower 2
Chaos League
Maximus XV: Abraham Strong Space Mercenary
Will of Steel
Garfield
The Moment of Silence
Medieval Lords
Gadget and the Gadgetinis
Gooka – The Mystery of Janatris
Xpand Rally
Asterix & Obelix XXL
Breed
Club Football 2005
Fire Department 2
I-Ninja
LMA Manager 2005

And maybe some more...

[Muji-FightR]

Addition:
Afrika Korps vs. Desert Rats (or Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps)
Was it mentioned yet? Couldn't see it

[Grumpy]

Thanks for the update on the starforce games guys. I will update the list (in post #1) sometime tommorrow. I would do it now but its 4.30am here and I will be punchin Z's soon!

[WarTech]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

There seems to be some strong (maybe even heated) discussions happening through these forums regarding the Starforce protection.
Which brings me to start this thread. I would hope that only a simple comment is needed here: "Yes, I am boycotting Starforce games". That is really all that needs to be said! There is no point in congesting this thread with arguments, its not what I would like to see happen here! There is no need to say anything else! If people are serious then leave a short message here.
I would also hope that if this thread gains enough support then it could maybe become a future 'Sticky'? After a few weeks or months we will know if this is worth persueing.
Its not that I am supporting Warez or Piracy, I just dont agree with Software being installed onto my system without my approval!

Come on all, place your support post here. If you dont agree with what I am saying then simply do not post here! A post here is a post counted.

Thankyou for your post/vote.

P.S: I truly hope Empire doesnt mind this sort of petition?

Ok, a big thankyou to Morglum from cdsteam who has been kind enough to let me use his Starforce Protected Games List. Now it was originally a Spanish only list! So some of these games will need to be checked. The Games with '???????' next to them are the ones I am not sure of the correct English title? So feel free to let me know of the correct title or any other Starforce games which are not on the list? I will edit the list to keep it up to date. (Some of the games may only be Spanish games as well, I havent checked them all yet.)

Starforce Protected Games

- 7 Sins [3.4.71.19]
- Afrika Korps VS Desert Rats [v3.3.31.21]
- Blitzkrieg - Rolling Thunder [v3.4.50.1]
- Codename: Panzers - Phase One (3 CDs) [v3.3.37.2]
- Colin McRae Rally 2005 (DVD) [v3.4.49.1]
- Cossacks II - Napoleonic Wars (2 CDs) [v3.4.65.11]
- Counter Terrorist SF - Fire for Effect (DVD) [v3.4.71.19]
- Cycling Manager 3
- Cycling Manager 4 [v3.3.36.1]
- D Day (2 CDs) [v3.4.41.1]
- Dead to Rights (3 CDs) [v3.3.37.26]
- Etherlords 2 (2 CDs) [v3.3.31.21]
- Fair Strike (2 CDs) [v3.3.33.3]
- Fire Department
- Gangland [v3.3.36.1]
- GTR FIA GT Racing game (2 CDs) [v3.4.70.2]
- Juana De Arco [v3.3.36.1] ???????????????
- Kill Switch (2 CDs) [v3.3.33.8]
- Korea - Forgotten Conflict [v3.3.27.36]
- League Manager 2005[v3.4.50.1] ???????????????????????
- Obscure (1 DVD) [v3.3.36.1]
- Pac Man World 2 [v3.3.30.11]
- Pax Romana [v3.3.30.11] ??????????????
- Real Madrid Club Soccer (DVD) [v3.4.50.1] ???????????????
- Scrapland (2 CDs) [v3.4.50.1]
- Shade - Wrath of Angels [v3.4.53.0]
- Silent Hunter III [v3.4.71.19]
- Singles [v3.3.33.6]
- Soldiers - Heroes of WWII [v3.3.36.1]
- Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory [v3.4.71.19]
- Street Racing Syndicate
- The Black Mirror (2 CDs) [v3.3.27.36]
- The Entente [v3.3.37.26] ???????????????????
- The Fall - Last days of Gaia (2 CDs) [v3.4.63.3]
- The Kreed [v3.3.27.36]
- The Suffering (2 CDs) [v3.3.37.2]
- Toca Race Driver 2 (1 DVD) [v3.3.35.2]
- Trackmania
- UFO Aftermath ( 2 CDs) [v3.3.27.31]
- Victoria – Empire Under the Sun [v3.3.30.5] ?????????????????
- Virtual Skipper 3
- WWII Frontline Command [v3.3.0.26]

Here you can read an article about Starforce. It is an interview with Abbie Sommer of StarForce.
She discusses many aspects of the Starforce Protection, what it is, what it does and why it is needed.
Here is just a small portion of that interview:

Question: 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?

Answer: 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.

Now here Abbie states "When you accept, you are saying I will load this game or application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms."

Tell me please people, how many of you, after reading the EULA, actually understood, from those terms, that an intrusive protection was going to be installed onto your system? Do you think her statement only implies to 'The Game' itself? I believe the EULA should tell us about the protection being installed!
If in fact there was nothing to worry about why is this statement included?
"Or there will be a disclaimer that protects the publisher from damages of any kind due to their products’ use"
The word 'Products' should really only say 'Game'! After all that is all we have been made aware of installing, as thats all it says earlier!
To be fair to the gamer this is how I believe that part or the EULA should be written:
"I will load this game and the Protection application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms."

I still believe it is only a matter of time before this issue finds its way into a court of Law! The wording of documents like the EULA must be written in a way so as not to decieve the consumer! We must be given the opportunity to be 'fully' aware as to what we are actually installing!

Grumpy

Ok, since they hide Starforce within the game EULA, them I beleave that they will be buying the games back? Since the rules are once you buy a game and you open it YOU KEEP IT. There is no returning open games. So if we dont want Starforce in our systems then due to the manner in they hide this piece of software, sounds like a type of computer highjack, within the content of the game maybe they can be held accountable and therefore refunding gamers for the damage software?

[acal3000]

You can add two more starforce protected games to the list:

Xpand Rally
Warlords Battle Cry 3 (European Version Starforce protected not the english one)

Thank god I found working no cd cracks for them

[nerva]

Originally Posted by LoxHazard

Wrong

The petition is for starforce and his malicious drivers (work as a virus in your PC), not for protections in general.

If you read all post in the thread you get enough information about this.

LOL
Dude you scare me... But i know the truth. So stop bagging others!
Where is the proof that SF drivers is a virus??
No one antivirus software company update thier antivir bases with StarForce! NO ONE!!! No articles where wrote on it in serious antivir resoures. You just use the hearings and conjecture from the web.

Think when you drink!

[bkcross]

Originally Posted by Pyr0

i refuse to buy any more starforce protected games

dito!

[impic0]

i refuse to buy any copy protected game, but starforce even more because it goes to mutch into my system. and i refuse to belive that starforce drivers are malicious, because that doesn't make any sense.

[LoxHazard]

Originally Posted by nerva

LOL
Dude you scare me... But i know the truth. So stop bagging others!
Where is the proof that SF drivers is a virus??
No one antivirus software company update thier antivir bases with StarForce! NO ONE!!! No articles where wrote on it in serious antivir resoures. You just use the hearings and conjecture from the web.

Think when you drink!

I don´t drink.

First, i don´t say that starforce is a virus, i said that works similar as a virus, because attack other software like alcohol 120%, and other bad things. There are a lot of writer drivers broken for starforce drivers, is true.

Anyway you are totaly partial, how you are starforce admin forum and works for starforce:
http://star-force.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38

Your opinion is not valid in this case.